Madmallard
.223 Rem
Monday, we're looking into why our New York State Senators miss so many of their committee meetings that we pay them to go to. Their attendance is so bad all of them would be called to the principal's office.
Last year the average committee attendance for the State Senate was 35 percent.
In our New York State Exposed report, I track down the most truant State Senator in our area.
His name is Senator Robert Ortt. If you live in Spencerport, Brockport or Orleans County, he is your state Senator and from January to early April, he was a committee no-show 88 percent of the time.
We knew he would be at the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities committee meeting on Tuesday, May 16. That is the committee he chairs, he never misses it and he gets an extra $12,500 dollars to be there. But after the meeting I wanted to talk about all the committee meetings he did miss.
Brean: I'm Berkeley Brean from News10NBC in Rochester.
Sen. Robert Ortt, (R) Niagara, Orleans County: Yeah.
From January until the budget vote in April, the 10 committees Senator Ortt sits on met 25 times. He went to three of them.
Sen. Robert Ortt, (R) Niagara, Orleans County: Yep.
Brean: How do you explain that?
Ortt: Well there's no explanation necessary. I'm voting on the bills. I'm doing the absolute job for my constituents in my district.
Here's how the system works.
State Senators are allowed to fill out a voting sheet for every bill in the committee they sit on and submit their votes to the committee before the meeting. Their vote is registered but they don't have to show up. And it happens a lot.
We watched the meeting of every State Senate committee leading up to the budget vote. When we watched Senator Ortt's committees we noticed he attended only 12 percent of the time.
NYS Exposed: Bad Attendance
Last year the average committee attendance for the State Senate was 35 percent.
In our New York State Exposed report, I track down the most truant State Senator in our area.
His name is Senator Robert Ortt. If you live in Spencerport, Brockport or Orleans County, he is your state Senator and from January to early April, he was a committee no-show 88 percent of the time.
We knew he would be at the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities committee meeting on Tuesday, May 16. That is the committee he chairs, he never misses it and he gets an extra $12,500 dollars to be there. But after the meeting I wanted to talk about all the committee meetings he did miss.
Brean: I'm Berkeley Brean from News10NBC in Rochester.
Sen. Robert Ortt, (R) Niagara, Orleans County: Yeah.
From January until the budget vote in April, the 10 committees Senator Ortt sits on met 25 times. He went to three of them.
Sen. Robert Ortt, (R) Niagara, Orleans County: Yep.
Brean: How do you explain that?
Ortt: Well there's no explanation necessary. I'm voting on the bills. I'm doing the absolute job for my constituents in my district.
Here's how the system works.
State Senators are allowed to fill out a voting sheet for every bill in the committee they sit on and submit their votes to the committee before the meeting. Their vote is registered but they don't have to show up. And it happens a lot.
We watched the meeting of every State Senate committee leading up to the budget vote. When we watched Senator Ortt's committees we noticed he attended only 12 percent of the time.
NYS Exposed: Bad Attendance
