Commissioner casts votes while not being in attendance

A Macon-Bibb County Commissioner was able to make his votes count despite not being in attendance at a meeting this week.

Commissioner Larry Schlesinger participated in the Tuesday meeting by phone and cast his votes over a speaker. Although Schlesinger was not present inside the Commission Chambers during Tuesday’s meeting, Georgia’s Open Meetings Act allows officials to still vote by phone.

“You can do it up to two times a year unless you have health reasons then you can do it an unlimited amount of times,” County Attorney Judd Drake said.

When Macon-Bibb commissioners vote, they’re asked to call out whether they support a measure. At one point during the Tuesday meeting, Schlesinger’s response came in a couple seconds after his other colleagues and elicited some chuckles from the audience as it resounded loudly inside the chambers.

This story was originally published November 18, 2016 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Commissioner casts votes while not being in attendance."