Who has missed Council votes this year: the roll-call record

City & State's weekly Winners & Losers named Council Member Chi Ossé this week's "loser" on attendance. The outlet reported a 77.8 percent rate at the Council's required legislative meetings, with four unexcused absences out of 18.

Attendance matters for a simple reason. A member who isn't there when the roll is called casts no vote for their district. Big items, like an override or a nomination, can depend on a handful of votes. Overriding a veto takes 34.

What the Clerk's roll calls show

We checked City & State's figure against the Clerk's roll calls in our data. Those cover the 18 stated meetings with recorded votes from January 7 through October 8. Thursday's meeting has not reached our data yet. The Clerk marks each member on each item as yes, no, abstaining, absent or excused. We counted a member as missing a meeting when they were marked absent or excused on every item that day.

Ossé missed four full stated meetings, each marked absent rather than excused: April 16, May 20, August 13 and September 24. That leaves 14 of 18, or 77.8 percent, the same as City & State's figure. His member page shows a roll-call attendance of 79.4 percent. That rate counts every item voted on, not meetings, and leaves excused absences out.

Other members who missed two or more full meetings:

• Darlene Mealy, District 41: 3 meetings marked absent (May 14, July 16, August 13) and 2 marked excused (September 24, October 8). Because the July and October meetings had long agendas, her item-level attendance is the lowest on the Council, at 71.7 percent.
• Rita Joseph, District 40: 3 meetings marked absent (May 14, August 13, September 24).
• Alexa Avilés, District 38: 2 meetings marked absent.

Nine more members each missed one full meeting without an excuse, sometimes alongside an excused one. Among the 51 members, 38 have a perfect roll-call record on our pages: no vote missed without an excuse.

Some members miss part of a meeting. Vickie Paladino, for example, has a roll-call rate of 85.3 percent but missed only one full meeting unexcused. Missing part of a meeting can mean arriving late or leaving early. The record doesn't say which.

What these numbers don't show

• Excused absences. The Clerk records some absences as excused, and our attendance rate leaves those out. City & State's count of unexcused absences matches the Clerk's "absent" marks.
• Committee work. City & State reported that Ossé's committee attendance is also low. Our roll-call counts here cover stated meetings only, not committee hearings.
• Reasons. The record does not say why a member was absent. City & State connected Ossé's absences to time spent upstate amid talk of a 2028 U.S. Senate run. That is the outlet's reporting, not something the Clerk records. Ossé has introduced bills this term, including Int. 1149 on Thursday, which would require LGBTQ shelters for single adults in every borough.

What's next

The October 22 roll calls will update every member's numbers once the Clerk publishes them. The Council's next stated meetings are November 12 and November 19 on our meetings calendar. Each member's attendance, number of no votes, and how often they vote with the majority are on their district page under Districts.