Excessive Absenteeism Costs Oregon Mayor His Job

Brady Harrington, who last November was elected to his second term as mayor of Sodaville, Oregon, isn't mayor anymore, because his city council peers were tired of him never showing up for meetings and replaced him. Available job alert!

Apparently Harrington, 34, was too busy fighting fires and hitting the books to deal with official council and committee business; in June, he began missing meetings, and continued skipping them through July. As you probably know, Sodaville bylaws allow the city council to replace a council member after they miss 64 days of work—so council members fired Harrington and gave his special mayoral chair and bejeweled scepter to council president Nick Heineck, who's now the top executive of their 300-person town.

Nobody in Sodaville should be surprised by this outcome, really. Last June, their local paper reported the following:


A wildland firefighter who has trained to serve on a natural disaster response team, Harrington said there may be times when he's called away and not able to make a city function. But he said he has enjoyed serving this term and wants to do it again - if voters are willing.

For whatever reason (principle?), Harrington—who, by the way, has an exciting criminal record (he seems to have stopped being convicted of felonies around 2006)—wouldn't resign. He also wouldn't answer his phone when council members tried to call him and ask "where you at, bro?" Sounds like he needed to work out some things.

Heineck's promotion means there's now a vacancy on the Sodaville city council. If you'd like to apply for this (rare) available American job, there's a number you can call. Just tell them that you'll show up to meetings, that you love zoning law, that you know how to make Excel spreadsheets, and that you can type pretty fast as well. We've used this line in every job interview we've ever had, and it's always worked.

[Democrat Herald. Image via Democrat Herald]