Would Carl DeMaio please show up?

Carl DeMaio has quickly become notorious for living in the loopholes of ethics and campaign finance rules; Indeed, he's been there from the beginning. And once we hit campaign season (if you define campaign season as two years away from the election), it seems that he found another way to blow taxpayer resources for himself -- by deciding that his day job is more and more optional.

DeMaio has put a lot of time and effort into crafting a public image touting his commitment to accountability at City Hall, but he stepped in it recently when he called for a hearing that had already happened -- and he skipped. It's hardly the first time he's been too busy to show up for his day job. He hasn't found the time to show up... often:

On March 14th, he missed votes on funding lifeguards and fire-rescue.. On March 29th he was too busy for votes on a wide range of spending and service issues. He skipped a series of land use votes on April 11th.. The next day he skipped votes on medical marijuana. On May 17th he left before a vote on coastal policy. He only made it to one vote all day on June 14th, missing votes on city contracts and lawsuit settlements. He was otherwise engaged June 21st during votes authorizing the Housing Authority to issue bonds and approving an agreement with the Redevelopment Agency for the COMM22 project -- the same time that DeMaio was being interviewed by Voice of San Diego about how well informed he was about housing issues. DeMaio tried to turn it around six days later (after Voice had tipped him to the issue), grilling Housing Commission CEO Rick Gentry -- then immediately skipped the vote on an agreement between the City and the Housing Commission on homeless shelter services. Oops.

If only it stopped there. On October 4th he missed votes on contracts and changes to city fees. He was absent on October 10th for contract and financial report votes. Continuing a theme, he was gone for a vote the next day on the affordable housing crisis and a series of votes on the Tijuana River Valley Wetlands. DeMaio took October 17th off entirely, including votes on agreements with city firefighters, teamsters, and deputy city attorneys -- just a few days before his ballot initiative targeting their pensions officially qualified for the ballot. He took another day off on October 25th, and in between skipped a vote on setting the schedule for next year's budget.

If you're scoring at home, that's 88 missed votes just last year with a quick count. And that's without delving into all the public comment and committee sessions he skipped -- like the water hearing that provided so much embarrassment. It's hard to find a policy area that DeMaio wasn't too busy for at some point -- contracting, budget, enivronment, land use, housing, city employees, public safety -- but he found time to lead two full-bore campaigns. When does actually doing the job happen exactly?

He's done an impressive job maintaining a full campaign calendar both for his mayoral run and his ballot initiative. But apparently if you'd expect that the self-appointed taxpayer watchdog would actually show up to watch out for taxpayers, well... you must be thinking of someone else, because Carl DeMaio can't be bothered.

Good luck to taxpayers getting their money's worth now that it's actually an election year.