States slackers named and shamed!

Wednesday 30 July 2014

John Le Fondré, Philip Ozouf and James Baker have been “named and shamed” for having the worst attendance records in the States for the last three years after each of them missed more than a quarter of all the votes since December 2011.

The trio have topped Deputy Jeremy Maçon’s regular list of the States Members who miss the most votes in the Chamber – all falling some way short of the Deputy’s own squeaky clean 100% attendance record.

Deputy Maçon says that when it comes to election time on 15 October, Islanders should look at their electoral representatives voting records to test their commitment to the job.

His figures show the top five worst offenders in the States were:

Assistant Transport Minister John Le Fondré – missed 173 votes (26.5%)

Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf – missed 167 (25.6%)

Assistant Economic Development Minister James Baker – missed 164 (25.2%)

St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft – missed 154 (23.6%)

Assistant Health Minister Judy Martin – missed 148 (22.7%)

And just to balance the books, the top five were:

Deputy Jeremy Maçon – missed zero votes

Deputy Gerard Baudains – missed five votes (0.8%)

Social Security Minister Francis Le Gresley – missed 15 votes (2.3%)

St Martin Constable Michel Le Troquer – missed 16 votes (2.5%)

Deputy John Young – missed 16 votes (2.5%)

Deputy Maçon said that voting records were an important part of how members of the public held their elected representatives to account.

He said: “Some will argue that they have very senior responsibilities and that calls them away from the Chamber, but if you look at other senior positions such as the Chief Minister, the Social Security Minister and even the Planning Minister – all three very busy ministers – all have comparatively good records, so I don’t think that argument can be made.

“If a Constable says that parish work takes up too much time, perhaps that poses the question if they should be in the Chamber.”