Councillors Michelle Holland and Giorgio Mammoliti missed half of all the recorded council votes taken in 2017.

The suburban representatives from Scarborough and North York topped the list as most-truant out of 45 members of council.

It is a familiar ranking for Mammoliti this term. He was behind only former mayor Rob Ford in 2015, who was at the time receiving cancer treatments. Mammoliti was again the second most absent councillor in 2016 behind former councillor Ron Moeser, who had also been diagnosed with cancer.

Mammoliti was more frequently absent in 2017, missing 49.2 per cent of votes in 2017 compared to 38.8 per cent in 2016.

In a statement to the Star on Tuesday, Mammoliti suggested it didn’t matter whether he was absent.

“Vote or no vote, it makes no difference under this administration,” he said in an email that stated the current administration is “plagued by mismanagement and abysmal communication” and that his efforts are “better placed working directly with residents.”

The email referred to the King St. transit pilot, which was voted on in July.

Mammoliti missed all of the related votes.

Earlier in the term, Holland missed about a third of council votes. In 2017, she missed 50.8 per cent.

She was named by Mayor John Tory as the city’s advocate for the innovation economy at the end of 2016.

“There have been absences as a result of the significant number of meetings, events and conferences that I have been attending on behalf of the city,” Holland said in an email. “These events have taken place in many parts of the city and also outside of Toronto. This is also important work as the innovation and technology sector is creating jobs within our city at a significant rate and we are competing with many other jurisdictions around the world for this investment.”

Holland, a second-term councillor, said she was present for all votes and debates related to her Ward 35 (Scarborough-Southwest) community and with respect to “major issues’ before council.

A review of her absences shows she did miss the votes approving the city’s capital and operating budget of almost $11 billion; the King St. pilot; making the Bloor St. bike lanes permanent; advancing the mayor’s “SmartTrack” stations plan, and moving ahead with Rail Deck Park.

The Star calculated councillors’ absences by using vote records kept by the city for all council meetings. Council is the only mandatory meeting for all 45 members of council, including Tory.

Not every council vote is recorded, with some votes taken just by a show of hands. A councillor must be at their seat in the council chamber to push a button and be recorded.

Tory’s attendance came in around the council average, with him missing 11.5 per cent of all recorded votes. His absences have steadily decreased from 22.5 per cent in 2015 and 17.6 per cent in 2016 — making him more present in the council chamber than his predecessors Ford, at the same point in his term, and former mayor David Miller, in his last two years in office.

The median was Councillor Christin Carmichael Greb with 10.8 per cent.

For the second year in a row, Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 14 Parkdale-High Park) did not miss a single vote.

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Perks said being the councillor for Ward 14 is a privilege.

“I can’t understand why anyone would want to miss single day of it.”

Councillor Stephen Holyday (Ward 3 Etobicoke Centre), who is completing his first term in office and was recently named by Tory as a symbolic deputy mayor for Etobicoke, was also present for every vote.

The same is also true for Councillor Frances Nunziata, council’s speaker, whose job it is to run the meetings.

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