Truth Test: Castro’s Absences & Hardberger’s Sailing
LAST UPDATE: 6/2/2005 4:43:25 PM
Posted By: CyberBob
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A recent television ad by the Phil Hardberger for Mayor campaign attacks Julian Castro for being a no-show at important city council votes.
The ad asks, "Did you know that he's missed almost 900 votes in two terms on city council?"
That's true. The exact number is 824 votes missed, according to the city clerk, or 20% of the 4,212 votes during Castro's two terms in office. (Research by the Hardberger campaign revealed a different number—883 votes missed.)
The Trouble Shooters put that in perspective by comparing Castro to the rest of the council. We went through the past two years worth of city council minutes, tallying up every time a council person was not in his or her seat for a vote.
At the top of the list is district one councilman Roger Flores, who missed 28% of the votes. Mayor Ed Garza was second and Julian Castro third.
Here are the full results:
Member
Absence Rate
Roger Flores
28%
Ed Garza
23%
Julian Castro
22%
Chip Haass
19%
Enrique Barrera
18%
Joel Williams
16%
Carroll Schubert
12%
Richard Perez
10%
Art Hall
8%
Ron Segovia
8%
Patti Radle
8%
Trouble Shooter Jeff Coyle asked Flores, "Don't the people in your district deserve to have you there more than that?"
"Well, I think that things happen in people's lives that I’m sure everyone is aware of," replied Flores.
Flores' father, a former city councilman, passed away in November. Flores says the unexpected death combined with pressures from his family-owned restaurant caused him to miss the most votes.
But the Trouble Shooters found that 65% of Flores’ absences came before his father’s passing.
When told of that fact, Flores replied, "Percentages are relative. I think that if you offer great representation and you can feel comfortable with that, that's probably the most important."
On the other end of the spectrum are Art Hall, Patti Radle, and Ron Segovia, who each were present for more than 92% of the issues before the council.
"Being at that meeting on Thursday is an important part of what we do," Radle said. “You never know when all of a sudden something's going to come up and you've got to express yourself on behalf of your cons uents. If people are missing a third of their votes, I think the cons uents would be concerned about that."
In response to Hardberger’s ad criticizing his council absences, Julian Castro released a spot called “Aimless.”
"With no experience in city government, (Hardberger) has the nerve to attack Julian Castro's perfectly good voting record," the ad says. "He retired, left San Antonio, and took his boat, ‘Aimless,’ sailing far away."
It's true that the retired judge set sail in 2003, and yes, his boat is named "Aimless." But this line is false:
"Phil's been absent for 3, long years."
Hardberger stepped down from the bench January 1st, 2003. So he couldn't have been gone for three years. Hardberger's campaign says the sailing trip was more like 11 months.