AUSTIN (KXAN) -- When Austin City Council met Thursday to work through a more than 200 item agenda, District 1's Natasha Harper-Madison didn't attend. Her office told KXAN it was for "health reasons."
"CM Harper-Madison was off the dais today, like many of her colleagues have been before and will be at some point in the future. It happens," Sharon Mays, the council member's chief of staff, wrote.
But KXAN found it's not happening at the same rate. We went through every Austin City Council meeting since the start of 2023, there are about 40 of them, and took attendance. We included some special called meetings where the council members could be seen on camera. Despite a request from Harper-Madison's office, we did not include committee meetings in that tally, as council members do not vote during those meetings and they are not attended by the full body.
Two city council members, Paige Ellis and Zohaib Qadri, didn't miss a meeting in that time and never attended virtually. Below is a look at attendance from all of 2023.
We found Council Member Harper-Madison has been absent from council meetings more than every other city council member, and the mayor, combined. And by double.
Since January 2023, the start of her second term, she has attended eight meetings virtually and altogether missed 10 of them, according to our count. Those absences include several last year where the council member took medical leave. She told us previously that the leave was for mental health treatment.
Below is a look at attendance for 2024 so far:
As for the virtual showings, Harper-Madison often turns her camera off. It's something Harper-Madison herself has told others is disrespectful -- including in a heated conversation with former Police Chief Brian Manley during a special called meeting about Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.
"I feel like we would be remiss to take one more minute of this meeting and not have our police chief show his face. Chief Manley. I implore you...when these people come before you to share their words with you, I want them to look at you when they do it and I want you to look at them. I implore you to please turn your camera on," she said.
That same frustration was shared by a resident from Harper-Madison's district in a recent council meeting about significant land development code changes.
"I haven't seen Natasha once except for 10 a.m. when she came on camera. We don't have representation, she's obviously not here, I don't think her vote should count today," that resident said.
"Ultimately, council members are policy makers. The policy that they champion and create are the indicators of their impact on the community," Mays responded after KXAN sent her our findings on attendance. She included a list of "policy that CM Harper-Madison has championed and created from 2023 to present date."
She also included a section of "highlights" of those policies:
We found the city of Austin does not appear to have attendance requirements for its council members, but other cities in Texas do.
For example, Hutto city council members are forced to forfeit office if they miss five or more regular city council meetings in the span of 12 months, according to their city charter.
In Dallas, the city has an attendance tracker which says "to remain in good standing, the official must be present for at least a total of 90% of all assigned meetings."
