Kodiak moves to boot Assembly members who don't show up

Kodiak Island Borough Assembly members would lose their seats for missing a quarter of a year's meetings, down from half, under an ordinance up for introduction Thursday. The point is plain enough: show up, or lose the seat.

Assembly member Bo Whiteside sponsored the change, which drops the automatic-vacancy threshold from 50 percent of meetings to 25. Excused absences, for health, a death in the family, or borough business, wouldn't count against a member. The borough would keep its existing rule vacating a seat after three straight unexcused absences.

The rule would also stop penalizing members for a busy meeting day. Multiple meetings on the same day would count as a single absence. "Any number of meetings, no matter the different types, held in one day count as one meeting as far as attendance is concerned," Whiteside told a July 30 work session, saying the tweak came from other members.

Not everyone wants a stricter hand. Assembly member Jeremiah Gardner pushed instead for more virtual attendance, describing a friend who fishes six months a year. "I'd like to see an expansion of allowable virtual attendance," he said.

If a seat is vacated over absences, that district can go without full representation until it's refilled, something the Assembly just went through: it spent three weeks this summer filling the seat Dave Johnson resigned in June, appointing Mark Anthony Vizcocho for a three-month term. If adopted, the new rule takes effect Nov. 1.