Former Indianapolis City-County Council President Stephen Clay has been missing, so to speak.
Since resigning his position as Council President back in February, a check of attendance records shows Clay has missed nearly half the Council meetings.
He has missed 43 percent of the meetings since the end of February.
To put that in perspective, he’s missed just about every other meeting since February 28; and that doesn’t count meetings where he has left early.
This comes at a time when Clay was removed permanently from the caucus earlier this month. WTHR reports the Democratic caucus voted unanimously recently to expel him from the caucus.
Clay launched a successful coup against then-President Maggie Lewis earlier this year with the help of several Democrats and a majority of Council Republicans, despite the fact it was revealed that the Department of Child Services had substantiated claims of inappropriate conduct with a minor years earlier, however, critics say the claim was never properly investigated by local law enforcement.
Clay was President of the Council for six weeks but abdicated his position when Councilors objected to his appointment of Republicans to committee chair assignments and he tried to fire the Council Clerk and Attorney, even though there were serious questions as to whether he had the legal authority to do so.
Under state law, the City-County Council can remove a member by declaring the seat vacant if the Council is unable to perform the duties of their office. However, such a vote would require a two-thirds majority.
