Local council meetings may sound dull, but they can involve crucial votes on multi-million dollar deals that greatly impact neighbourhoods, suburbs or whole regions - so why aren't some of our elected representatives bothering to show up?
1 NEWS looked at attendance records for seven councils. In some areas - such as Wellington and Dunedin - 1 NEWS had to battle to get the information from council staff.
In Christchurch, the council referred 1 NEWS to an article from another media outlet instead of providing its own figures.
"It should be publicly available information," said Andrew Cardow, a senior lecturer in Massey University's School of Management. "We should be able to say, 'I want to know how many times John turned up to committee meetings.'"
In Wellington, councillor Brian Dawson showed up to 100 per cent of meetings this year, while David Lee managed just 86 per cent.
"A good rate of attendance for somebody involved in representative democracy would be 100 per cent," Mr Cardow said.
In Auckland, deputy mayor contender Christine Fletcher and retiring councillor Sir John Walker, who is battling Parkinson's disease, had the lowest attendance rate this year at 70 per cent.
"You're paid to attend the meetings and you should when you can," Auckland Mayor Phil Gofff said.
However, Auckland mayoral candidate John Tamihere disagreed, calling attendance "one measure of productivity".
"The real measure of productivity is in the satisfaction of your citizens," Mr Tamihere said.
In Hawke's Bay, Tauranga and Nelson, meanwhile, attendance rates this year have been very high. Nelson residents say information should be easily accessible.
"Unless they know what the details are and the ins and outs of it, they shouldn't be there. Front up, man up, do it, find out what the guts is," one local said.
"If you don't turn up, then you're just handing your vote to the opposition - who may or may not be what the community wants," Mr Cardow added.
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