Note: Edited to add a comment from Ward 1 candidate Rebecca Arends, LMSW.

by P.D. Lesko

Ann Arbor City Council members Cynthia Harrison (D-Ward 1) and Jennifer Cornell (D-Ward 5) are both running for re-election to office. City records show that during her first term in office, Council member Harrison failed to attend 16 City Council meetings between Nov. 2022 and June 2026; Council member Cornell failed to attend 17 meetings between Nov. 2022 and June 2026. The two women sport the worst attendance records of all eleven current City Council members. Council member Jen Eyer (D-Ward 4), has missed the fewest City Council meetings during her term in office (five), along with Mayor Taylor (five).

A FOIA submitted to obtain her travel records as Director of Innovative Reentry at the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office showed that several of Harrison’s absences from City Council meetings were the result of her decisions to attend out-of-state conferences that conflicted with scheduled Council meetings.

In a given year, public records show that City Council members have approximately 23-28 scheduled public meetings. Council meeting minutes show that multiple times between Nov. 2022 and June 2026, Ward 1 and Ward 5 residents had no representatives show up to City Council meetings; both Council representatives were absent at the same time.

Both Council members Harrison and Cornell were asked to comment on their respective attendance records and neither has yet responded.

Ann Arbor City Council members earn $29,868 per year. This means that both Harrison and Cornell were paid over $14,500 for Council meetings to which they didn’t show up.

In Berkeley, CA that City’s Charter requires that Councilmembers “forfeit a portion of their monthly salary for unexcused absences.” To remain fully paid, an absence must be approved by the council as relating to official city business, the member’s own illness, or the illness/death of a close family member (subject to yearly limits).

Neither the Ann Arbor Charter nor the Rules of City Council address the attendance of individual members. Under Section 4.4(h) of the Charter Council may compel attendance of members and City staff at meetings, but there is no mechanism to sanction or remove a Council member who does not attend a significant number of meetings: “The Council may compel the attendance of its members and other officers of the City at its meetings, may take disciplinary action for non-attendance as prescribed by ordinance or by Council rules.”

Council rules may be amended at any time by the City Council members.

The primary mechanism for constituents to remove an underperforming elected official in Ann Arbor is to launch a local recall petition drive.

Former Ward 4 City Council member Democrat Jack Eaton said in response to a June 2026 post in the Facebook group Ann Arbor Politics about the two Council members’ attendance, “I served on Council for seven years. I missed only one regular meeting. That absence was at the request of the City Administrator because of Covid concerns. I had been out of the country and he was concerned about possible infection.”

Eaton pointed out that in 2013, former Ward 4 City Council member Marcia Higgins’s attendance became an issue in her re-election campaign. AnnArbor.com published, “Marcia Higgins facing criticism for missing Ann Arbor City Council meetings.” Higgins, it was reported, missed six meetings in a two-year period. Critics dubbed Higgins “the Invisible Woman.”

Public records reviewed showed that Council member Cornell missed six meetings in 2024 and five meetings in 2025. Council member Harrison missed six meetings in 2024 and five meetings in 2025.

Former Ward 2 Independent Council member Jane Lumm told AnnArbor.com in 2013, “I don’t consider that acceptable. Council members should attend the full meeting, and I think that’s a reasonable expectation. That’s part of our jobs.” Lumm had a perfect attendance record between November 2011 and July 2013. No member of the present group of City Council members can boast a perfect attendance record going back two years.

Former Ward 5 City Council member Ali Ramlawi said of Council members Harrison’s and Cornell’s attendance, “How sad and disrespectful of the position.”

Council member Harrison is opposed in the Aug. 4 Democratic primary election by Rebecca Arends, LMSW, and Council member Cornell is opposed by Greg Monroe.

Arends, in response to an email seeking a comment said, “Showing up is the most basic obligation of public service. Ward 1 residents deserve representation at the table whenever Council is making decisions about taxes, housing, infrastructure, public safety, city services, and the future of our neighborhoods. Missing 16 or 17 Council meetings is not a minor issue. It represents a significant absence from the public’s business.”