THURMONT, Md. – At the Dec. 18 Thurmont town meeting, the town commissioners made the unanimous decision to move their weekly meetings to Monday nights for different reasons, one of which was to curb commissioner absences.

A recent review by The Dispatch of the attendance of the Thurmont town commissioners at town meetings for the past three fiscal years has revealed that the average attendance of the board of commissioners has been 88 percent.

Obtained through reviewing three years of commissioner meeting minutes at the Thurmont town office, the information gathered looked at the attendance of Mayor Martin Burns, former Commissioner Bill Blakeslee, Commissioner Wayne Hooper, Commissioner Glenn Muth and Commissioner Ronald Terpko.

Blakeslee had a three-year average attendance rate of 96 percent, followed by Burns and Hooper, who both had a 91 percent average; Terpko had an 81 percent average Muth had a 79 percent average.

The town of Thurmont does not have an attendance policy for its town commissioners, although 29 of the 157 municipalities in Maryland do, according to Tom Reynolds of the Maryland Municipal League. The requirement set forth in those 29 municipal attendance policies varies from town to town, but a common provision is removal from the commission related to consecutive absences rather than removal due to a percentage of absences.

“Usually after missing three consecutive meetings they’re removed,” Reynolds said.

If Thurmont had such an attendance provision, both Muth and Terpko would have been removed from office, as both have missed at least three consecutive meetings. Muth missed three consecutive meetings beginning Jan. 17, 2006 and Terpko missed four consecutive meetings beginning in March 20, 2007.

Despite that, the commissioners do not see an issue with the attendance and do no favor imposing an attendance policy for various reasons.

“We don’t think we have an issue with it,” Terpko said. He said that often he misses meetings because of work conflicts, and would favor a change in meeting dates to Monday because it would enable him to attend more often. The commissioners agreed that most common cause for absence was work conflicts.

Burns shared similar sentiments with Terpko and explained that Thurmont meets at least once a week, whereas many other municipalities meet once or twice a month, so even with absences the commissioners are meeting more often than many others; Brunswick and Walkersville, which are roughly the size of Thurmont, meet only twice a month.

“In this municipality I have 74 percent (attendance for FY 2007), but in any other municipality it would be 150 percent,” Terpko said at the Dec. 18 meeting.

Among the town commissions that have attendance policies, the police commission and the planning and zoning commission, expect their members to attend the equivalent of 75 percent or more of the commission meetings. Under this guideline that the town commissioners feel suitable for the town commissions, Terpko and Muth would have also fallen below the minimum attendance for FY 2007.

Hooper said although other commissions in Thurmont have attendance policies, he did not think having one for the town commissioners would be a good idea, nor is necessary.

“It would lessen the number of people who would run for office,” Hooper said.

Burns said that if an attendance policy was imposed, the commissioners should be employed full-time, although it isn’t necessary now that they have Blakeslee to help with things as the chief administrative officer.

Although the commissioners do not favor imposing an attendance policy, many said that attendance is important.

“It’s always important [to go], when you have public comment you get feedback. But also we’re not just meeting once a week,” Burns said, explaining that the commissioners also attend other meetings spend time in the town office as commissioners.

Muth did not return phone calls requesting his comments on the issue.

---