Conspicuous Absence on Congestion Pricing Vote (Bloomberg?s vanity)

NY Times ^ | April 2, 2008 | RAY RIVERA

[neverdem]

It was perhaps the most important vote of the year for the City Council.

For hours at City Hall on Monday, council members — who have provided little resistance to the mayor’s initiatives in recent years — debated whether to back Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plan to charge fees to drive in Manhattan below 60th Street.

The measure could not advance to Albany without the Council’s approval, and the behind-the-scenes lobbying was furious.

In the chamber, one council member quoted Franklin Delano Roosevelt; another quoted the Who guitarist Pete Townshend. Several council members from other boroughs rose to oppose the plan, saying the measure would unfairly burden residents from poorer areas beyond Manhattan. But one council member could not be found.

Councilwoman Helen Diane Foster, a Bronx Democrat who has one of the worst attendance records on the council, was not at City Hall. She was not in her district. And her staff could provide no explanation for her whereabouts when voting began.

Reached by cellphone on Tuesday, Ms. Foster said that she had intended to be there, but was unavoidably delayed “on the West Coast.”

After some prodding, she hesitantly acknowledged that she had been in Las Vegas, where, she said, a family member received a community service award on Saturday night.

“Nobody’s more disappointed than me, because I am so against congestion pricing,” Ms. Foster said on Tuesday.

Ms. Foster said that weather had delayed her flight, but when asked for her itinerary, she declined to provide details, including the name of the airline, the flight number or the scheduled time of arrival. The name of the family member who received the award was also off limits, she said.

“I’ve answered the questions you need to know,” she said...