Calas Under Fire for Worst Attendance on City Council : Carson: Two citizens groups say she missed meetings to dodge tough issues. She says she was formally excused in almost every case.

Longtime Carson City Councilwoman Kay Calas, facing reelection next month, is being criticized by two citizens groups for her attendance record, the worst on the council for two straight years.

According to city records, Calas was absent for 12 of the council’s 48 meetings during 1990 and 1991. This year she and Mayor Michael I. Mitoma are the only council members without a perfect attendance record, with each missing one of the five council sessions to date.

The two groups, a lobbying organization for mobile home residents and a coalition of citizens seeking to rename a city park, assert that Calas has missed meetings to dodge controversial issues that they want addressed. The organization representing mobile home residents, Homeowners Against Rent Decontrol, vows it will make the 15-year incumbent’s attendance record an issue in her reelection campaign.

“We’re very angry about it,” said Connie Hathaway, the group’s chairwoman. “It just delays everything. She was elected to do a job, and with the absenteeism the way it is, it is not fair to the city and the residents.”

The 67-year-old councilwoman says most of her absences in 1990 and 1991 occurred when she was sick or when she attended five funerals, all of them for family members. In virtually every case, she pointed out, she was formally excused by the council.

“Family comes first,” Calas said. “When there’s a death in the family, I’m going to be there for them. If I’m guilty there, I’m guilty there.”

According to city records, Calas missed five of the council’s 24 meetings in 1990 and seven of its 24 sessions last year--the worst attendance record by a council member in both years. She missed more than twice as many meetings in the two-year period as Councilwoman Vera Robles DeWitt, who had the second-highest number of absences with five.

By contrast, Mayor Michael I. Mitoma and Councilwoman Sylvia Muise missed only two meetings each in the two-year period, sharing the best attendance record. Councilwoman Juanita McDonald was absent for only one meeting after her election to the council in April, 1990.

Despite her absences, Calas did take part in three of the council’s most significant decisions in the last year--to grant an exclusive trash-hauling contract, to cut the city’s budget and to approve a redevelopment loan for the renovation of Carson Mall.

But leaders of Homeowners Against Rent Decontrol charge that she was absent on several occasions when the council considered controversial mobile home park issues.

One such absence, Hathaway points out, occurred during a Nov. 6, 1990, meeting in which the council decided how much residents of El Rancho Mobilehome Park should be paid in relocation benefits.

The decision, a prelude to closing the park so its owners can build condominiums on the site, followed lengthy debate by representatives of mobile home residents and the owner of the park, Future Estates Inc.

Hathaway contends that Calas’ absence from such a crucial meeting proved that the councilwoman is not sincere when she says she is a strong advocate of mobile home park residents.

“To me, if she would have been a supporter of the residents, she would have been at that meeting,” Hathaway said. “That’s her obligation.”

Calas strongly denies that her absence had anything to do with ducking the controversial relocation benefits issue, which has since sparked a legal battle between the mobile home park owners and the city. Instead, she says, she missed the meeting because she had pneumonia.

“I damn sure didn’t stay away because I didn’t want to vote on things,” Calas said.

Calas is also drawing fire from leaders of the Committee to Rename Scott Park, a group seeking to rename Gen. Winfield Scott Park in honor of the late Harry T. Foisia.

A city worker of Samoan descent, Foisia volunteered numerous hours to help troubled youths until his death in December, 1990, of natural causes at the age of 39. He was also instrumental in starting Samoan Athletes in Action, which brought professional athletes of Samoan heritage to Scott Park to run football clinics for area youths.

The renaming drive got under way last June, when the council chose instead to honor Foisia by placing his name above the emergency operations center in the City Hall basement, where he used to work.

Calas voted to approve that measure. But she was not present last Oct. 1, when the council, after numerous delays, considered renaming the park. After the measure went down to defeat in a 2-2 vote, leaders of the park-renaming committee sharply criticized her for failing to attend the meeting.

“Our committee has been very, very upset that (Calas) has not made herself available at the council meetings, especially the October meeting,” said Liz Foisia, a committee leader and sister-in-law of Harry Foisia.

Calas, however, says she missed the October meeting because she was on a long-planned vacation cruise to Canada with her son and daughter-in-law.

“I paid a year in advance for this cruise,” Calas said. “I didn’t know (the park issue) was going to come up on the agenda; I don’t have a crystal ball.”

Calas dismisses all the criticism of her attendance record as nit-picking. Speculating about what she should do if she has to miss another meeting, she added glumly: “I guess I’m going to have to bring a doctor’s note from now on.”