A Bay of Plenty Regional councillor says numerous council meetings which chew up large parts of the day and achieve little are the cause of his low attendance rate.
Figures released to the Bay of Plenty Times show some councillors missed more than a fifth of the meetings they were expected to attend during the past three years.
Bay of Plenty Regional councillor Jim Mansell was one of those. He and fellow councillor Neil Oppatt had the lowest attendance rate of the regional councillors on 77 per cent.
The Opotiki-based councillor, who attended 71 of the 92 meetings he was required to attend, said he had to drive the farthest of the 13 councillors to make it to meetings.
"Some of the agendas are so shallow on their content. You might have a two-hour agenda in Rotorua with nothing of substance and then you might have a two-hour agenda the next day with nothing of substance," he said. "I'm not driving all the way to Rotorua for a two hour meeting with nothing of substance and then driving there the next day. They need to back-to-back them." Western Bay of Plenty District councillor Anne Gilmer, who has been diagnosed with a kidney disease, missed the most meetings across all three councils, with an attendance rate of 66 per cent. Fellow councillors Don Thwaites sat on 77 per cent and Mike Williams on 78 per cent.