There are an estimated 2,500 public officials in Pennsylvania, and the vast majority are faithful to their sworn duties.

What motivates a person to run for office, especially when the salary is low (or nonexistent in the case of school boards), compared to the hours required on the job and the abuse officials take from disgruntled constituents and gadflies?

The two main reasons I have gotten from officeholders are: to help their community and to advocate for causes.

What I can’t understand is why persons who are elected do not fulfill their duties by failing to attend meetings or perform other functions of office.

It would seem like a no-brainer that if officials who do not attend or explain their absences they should be dismissed from office. In other words, if you don’t show, you must go.

The Borough Code, by which mostly all boroughs in the state operate, does not contain an attendance policy, and individual boroughs cannot mandate one. According to Edward J. Knittel, senior director, education and sustainability for the state Association of Boroughs, the Borough Code had contained an attendance policy, but it was invalidated by the state Supreme Court ruling brought in a 1998 case in Cumberland County.

Before the ruling, the Borough Code contained a provision that prohibited a council member from missing three meetings in a row. Without any stick to enforce attendance, the only recourse now is to persuade absent members to fulfill their duties more conscientiously, ask them to resign if they are unable or unwilling, persuade the electorate to vote them out of office if they seek re-election in the next municipal election or go to court to get a quo warranto writ and try to prove that their actions warrant forfeiture of office.

A few years ago, Frank Hutta, one of the Coaldale council members, had missed about half of the meetings in a year and prevented council from having a quorum at times to conduct official meetings. Saying his job frequently took him out of town, Hutta didn’t seek re-election.

Nesquehoning is the latest community to face the issue. David DeMelfi’s colleagues on borough council are taking issue with his absenteeism because he has not attended council and workshop meetings for nearly 16 months.

DeMelfi, a 40-year resident of the borough who’s in the construction business, has not explained his absences. Council did vote recently to stop paying his $100-a-month council stipend. It will be interesting to see whether this action sticks or whether it violates the state Supreme Court ruling.

DeMelfi was elected to a four-year term in 2015 and took office in January 2016. He has not filed for re-election, so his term will be over at the end of December, unless he resigns sooner.

Because of the growing number of no-show officials, Rep. Justin Walsh, R-Westmoreland, recently introduced legislation that would amend the state Constitution to allow municipal officials to be removed from office for lack of attendance at public meetings.

“Local government cannot operate efficiently and properly if those entrusted with representing the people are no-shows,” he said.

The bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Justin Simmons, R-Lehigh, would allow for the removal of a member of a municipal governing body for failure to attend more than 50 percent of the scheduled meetings in a calendar year. The remaining members of the board would then request the municipal solicitor to begin proceedings to vacate the office.

For Walsh’s bill to become law would require a Constitutional amendment, which involves passage by two consecutive sessions of the General Assembly and approval by the voters.

Walsh’s bill was inspired by the nonattendance of Mayor Matt Shorraw, 26, of Monessan, who has not attended meetings since May 2018. Shorraw said he has not shown up, because he feels threatened by his colleagues on the borough council.

Other communities in the Times News area in which absenteeism has been a problem are in Washington Township, Northampton County, where Supervisor Stacy Diehl has not attended meetings in more than a year yet refuses to give up her seat and continues to receive her $208-a-month salary. The township is going to court to try to remove her.

Lower Nazareth Township officials filed an action to remove township Auditor Jake Towne who moved to Easton but refused at first to give up his position. He finally did resign from the office early this month.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com