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John Fetterman has few official duties as Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor. Still, the Senate candidate failed to show up for nearly every meeting of two economic development committees on which he serves, skipping sessions to give media interviews, go on vacation or do nothing.
Since 2019, Fetterman has missed 11 of 13 meetings of the Pennsylvania Military Community Strengthening Commission and Local Government Advisory Committee, according to meeting records and calendars obtained by Washington Free Lighthouse. He missed several meetings in October 2020 on days he gave interviews to MSNBC, Australia’s Sky News and the progressive podcast “Pod Save America,” records show. He skipped a military commission meeting in October 2019 to travel to his hometown for “family business” the next day. He missed a local government advisory committee meeting in June while on vacation at the Jersey Shore. Some days he misses committee meetings, Fetterman’s calendars are empty.
This is the latest example of Fetterman’s escape from public office. As mayor of Braddock, a town of fewer than 2,000, Fetterman missed more than a third of City Council meetings, Free beacon reported. As lieutenant governor, Fetterman failed to appear for one-third of Senate sessions. His absence drew attention from both Republicans and Democrats. State Sen. Tony Williams, the leader of the Democratic Party, said A politician that Fetterman often failed to show up to preside over the Senate, hindering his ability to develop relationships with state legislators. Jesse Brown, former Braddock Borough Council president, said in 2015 that Fetterman “was supposed to attend all council meetings” but stopped showing up after several confrontations about his duties as mayor.
Fetterman has only four official duties as lieutenant governor, a job with “limited responsibilities” for which he is paid about $180,000 a year. In addition to the War Committee and the Local Government Committee, which he chairs, he is chairman of the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons and oversees the Senate when it is in session. Fetterman attended all meetings of the Board of Pardons, where he voted repeatedly to free first-degree murderers.
Fetterman has missed five of six meetings of the Commission on Strengthening the Military Community, which is seeking increased federal support for military installations to protect jobs in Pennsylvania. Fetterman has missed six of seven meetings of the Local Government Advisory Committee, which coordinates with local leaders, businesses and other stakeholders to assess “needs and challenges facing local governments.”
Meetings are typically attended by about a dozen commissioners and other state officials, according to meeting summaries obtained through public records requests. Fetterman attended the first meeting of both committees after taking office in 2019, but has not attended any since. It is marked “excuse” for missed meetings for the Military Commission. Meeting notes of the Local Government Advisory Committee show that Fetterman was unable to attend most of the sessions. He had employees attend several of the meetings or make phone calls on his behalf.
A review of Fetterman’s work calendars sheds light on what else he did while away from his duties. In several cases, Fetterman was associated with other government business. A March 25, 2020, meeting of the Military Commission coincided with a meeting of the COVID-19 task force, which Fetterman attended. Fetterman was unable to attend the Local Government Advisory Committee meeting on June 17, 2020, as he was in a cabinet meeting with Gov. Tom Wolf (D.).
But more often than not, Fetterman misses meetings for other events that don’t involve his official duties as lieutenant governor. He skipped the Oct. 24, 2019 meeting of the Committee on Military Strengthening to travel to his hometown of Braddock for “family business,” his calendars show. Fetterman avoided a military commission meeting on October 15, 2020, but gave interviews both before and after the event to Australia’s Sky News and the progressive podcast Pod Save America to discuss the 2020 presidential election. Nothing else was on the calendar for Fetterman when he skipped the Commission session on April 22, 2021. He missed a meeting on October 28, 2021, but attended a parole commission hearing held hours later.
Fetterman missed the Local Government Advisory Committee meeting on October 20, 2020, but gave an interview to MSNBC. He missed the meetings on March 31, 2021 and November 16, 2021, although his calendar does not show any personal or business engagement for those days. He was vacationing in the Jersey Shore at the time of the commission’s last meeting on June 21, 2022. Fetterman was accompanied on that trip by the Pennsylvania State Guard, who billed taxpayers $1,200 for hotels, meals and rental cars , according to government records.
Both the Pennsylvania Military Community Strengthening Commission and the Local Government Advisory Committee oversee local economic development issues that Fetterman touted as Braddock mayor and on the campaign trail. It launched an ad campaign titled “Forgotten Places” as a tribute to “Pennsylvania towns that feel like their communities’ best days were a generation ago.”
In the meetings that Fetterman missed, the Military Commission discussed grants for military facilities in Pennsylvania, the potential closing of military medical clinics and infrastructure investments to support the state’s military posts. At the Local Government Advisory Committee meetings, attendees discussed the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, police reform and federal funding through the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan, two bills supported by Democrats. At the June 21, 2022 meeting, which Fetterman missed in lieu of vacation, the committee discussed housing assistance, another issue Fetterman claims to support as a public servant.
Fetterman campaign spokesman Joe Calvello called the allegations that Fetterman shirked his committee duties “a ridiculous lie by Dr. Oz and his allies.” He said Fetterman was “represented by senior staff at meetings he was unable to attend” for the Local Government Advisory Committee. While Fetterman remains on the Military Strengthening Committee, Calvello said he turned over his chairmanship to a former state senator in 2019 to allow veterans’ affairs experts to have “more direct oversight” of the committee. Calvello also noted that Fetterman transferred $145,000 from the lieutenant governor’s office budget to the organization’s mission.
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