LAKE DALLAS — The City Council set the stage to remove a fellow member Thursday night after he missed his fourth consecutive meeting.

Alan Fletcher

Council member Alan Fletcher has not attended a council meeting since March 12, according to city records. The city charter provides that a council member forfeit his or her seat after unexcused absences from three consecutive, regularly scheduled meetings.

Mayor Tony Marino said enforcing this charter provision was new territory for him and the city.

Fletcher’s absences became an issue with residents after a Denton Record-Chronicle analysis made public the 2008 attendance records of area officials earlier this year, Marino said. Fletcher missed half of the regularly scheduled and special-called meetings in 2008.

“Citizens have been coming up to me and asking what is going on,” Marino said. “I thought it was time to bring it up.”

Fletcher did not return a call for comment Friday.

At issue for the council was determining what might be an excused absence. Earlier in the meeting, City Attorney David Berman said that Texas law allowed for a $3 fine for each missed meeting. But through the charter, the council also had the authority to remove Fletcher.

“As a general rule, three unexcused absences is an automatic forfeiture,” Berman said. “The balance of the City Council has to determine whether that absence is is excused.”

The council had previously excused another member, Richard Martin, after he had a heart attack and needed time to recover.

But then Martin suffered a setback, and his recovery took longer than expected. During the spring election campaign, Karl Hammond challenged Martin, questioning at one point whether his absences, which continued beyond the original council action, had been excused.

Although Martin got a special release from a rehabilitation hospital to attend council meetings this spring, and only missed one meeting in 2009, voters chose Hammond over Martin.

Council member B.W. Brooks said he found the situation “embarrassing.” He and fellow council member James Harper asked about Fletcher’s excuse for missing so many meetings.

Marino said Fletcher’s job takes him out of town regularly, often for a week or more each month.

Fletcher tried to resolve the emerging problem early in 2008, asking the council to change its regular meeting date, but the council did not agree.

After that vote, Fletcher told fellow members in mid-May 2008 that he planned to resign, but he later withdrew his request. Fletcher had just won another term on the council because no incumbent drew a challenger, and the election was canceled.

Marino said that he didn’t want to be sitting in his mayor’s chair, acting like a school principal, deciding what would be considered an excused absence.

“We’re adults here. We know our responsibilities,” Marino said.

Berman advised the council to follow the proper protocol — to post the forfeiture properly on the agenda and deliberate in open session.

He said he couldn’t think of any reason why deliberations over a possible forfeiture should happen in closed session, unless council members were to receive legal advice on what is an appropriate excuse.

“You should be liberal on what is a good excuse,” Berman said, cautioning the council that it is not divesting a fellow member of his seat, but those residents who voted for that representation.

The council agreed the forfeiture needed to be posted on the next agenda, but Hammond said he hoped that the situation would “resolve itself before then.”

“We’re supposed to be self-policing,” Hammond said.

According to City Manager Earl Berner, if Fletcher’s seat becomes vacant before Aug. 7, the council could call a special election in November to fill the vacancy.

But the charter doesn’t require it, Berner said.

“Council is under no obligation to fill a vacancy either by appointment or special election as long as the number of council members doesn’t drop to three,” Berner said in an e-mail. “So at four they could stand pat regardless of the timing.”

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com .