An attempt by Worcester’s city council to create new rules regarding member attendance at meetings failed Tuesday night as several councilors alleged the true intent of the effort was retribution.
The vote occurred as Councilor Thu Nguyen, who’s openly nonbinary, continues to skip meetings after accusing colleagues of making transphobic comments and creating a toxic workplace.
One of the proposed rules would have permitted the city clerk to track councilors’ attendance. Another would have allowed the council to vote to withhold pay from any members who miss three meetings in a year “without notification and good cause.”
Although a majority of city councilors supported the proposed measures, neither received enough votes to meet the two-thirds threshold required for passage. Councilors who voted against the rules as well as several public commenters said it was clear some council members sought the new rules as a form of punishment.
“While on the surface it appears to be holding councilors accountable, in actuality it’s retaliation for a councilor who dared to call out the harassment and discrimination they faced from other councilors,” Worcester resident Janet Davis said.
Worcester councilors receive a monthly stipend of $2,641 during their two-year terms.
Councilors Morris Bergman and George Russell were among the members who supported the new rules. They argued that it’s wrong to give a councilor taxpayer money if they’re not showing up to meetings. People with any other job would be held accountable for absences, Bergman added.
“The public is counting on all of us to show up,” Bergman said. “I speak to hundreds of people on a weekly basis, and the feedback I get from them is that they don’t understand how somebody can get paid without making the effort to go to work.”
Nguyen has only attended one council meeting since Jan. 15 but has continued to fulfill their other duties, including attending budget meetings, according to City Manager Eric Batista. In an Instagram post before the meeting, Nguyen threatened to sue the city if the council approved the rules and tried to dock their pay.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Councilor Jenny Pacillo said the measures could violate state law, which doesn’t allow municipal councils to change their members’ pay within the same term. Councilor Khrystian King added that he wasn’t elected to police his colleagues. And Councilor Etel Haxhiaj contrasted the council’s efforts to penalize Nguyen with its response to former Councilor Michael Gaffney’s frequent absences in 2017.
“There’s been a lot of talk about accountability, right? Accountability is accountability if it’s applied equally and fairly across the board,” Haxhiaj said.
In a post on Wednesday, Nguyen said they will not be returning to the council floor. They said they will serve residents by “holding the city manager accountable, and organizing with our communities.”
