Editorial: Why an excellent council member can’t be halfway there
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Editorials generally applaud what’s right and denounce what’s wrong. It’s a rare that they cite people trying to do right but have to point out what they’re getting wrong.
Yet here we are.
Last week, Lower Burrell Councilman Robert Hamilton offered to resign from his position because of some career changes.
Hamilton is the new CEO of Veterans Place in East Liberty. He also is starting graduate classes in pursuit of a doctorate at Robert Morris University. Both of those are going to be very time consuming, and he has racked up a number of absences from meetings.
Knowing that, he already has announced he would not be seeking reelection, leaving the seat open for someone who could be more present to step in.
The mayor and other councilmen did not take him up on his offer. They did it with the kind of understanding and appreciation that everyone would want from the people with whom they work.
Councilman Chris Fabry later called the offer “noble” but unnecessary. If he wants to vote, the mayor said, he can attend a meeting via Zoom, calling Hamilton “top notch” and a “go-getter.”
“Rob does a lot of stuff behind the scenes; he’s not doing a disservice by not attending the meetings,” Fabry said.
The quality of Hamilton’s character or work ethic are not at issue here. There is nothing to suggest he is anything other than well-meaning and being pulled in different directions by multiple commitments.
But a public position like a council member is different from being an accountant or a sales manager or a computer programmer, where the work is done in an office with collaborators or — during a pandemic — home alone.
While it is admirable that Hamilton is the kind of elected official who doesn’t just show up for an hour a month, the work that happens behind the scenes is only half the job. The other half is the transparency of what is done in the public eye.
The point of the Sunshine Act is that Pennsylvanians have the right to not just know their elected officials made a decision, but to see the debate. If Hamilton is not present for a meeting, his voice is missing from the discussion — and if he is the thoughtful, motivated, educated councilman that his actions and the rest of the council’s support would indicate, that is a real loss.
There is also the issue of quorum. Any council member’s presence or absence could be the difference between having enough people to meet and vote on important issues or not.
There are only eight months left in Hamilton’s term and it is, indeed, likely that Lower Burrell will run just fine with things continuing on as they are. Everyone does seem to have the best of intentions.
But this is just one of those cases where no one does anything wrong — and it still isn’t quite right.