Denver City Council : Easy Paycheck?

An editorial at the Denver Post points out that despite the pay and benefits technically the city council memebers aren't considered full time employees. They also have several suggestions for getting council members to show up to all the meetings. I wish I could say who wrote it but the online version doesn't seem to indicate the author.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/editorials/article/0,2777,DRMN_23964_4973394,00.html

Since Denver City Council members are paid $73,512 a year, you might think they'd consider it a full-time job and show up for all meetings.

But legally it isn't, even though most members claim that in fact they work full time for the city.

As News reporter Daniel J. Chacón reported Tuesday, the 13 members serving since 2003 have missed between 18 and 81 meetings of regular, joint and special committees. That performance isn't good enough.