Macca's Girlfriend Skips MTA Board Meetings

Associated Press via Yahoo:

Since January 2008, [Nancy] Shevell has missed four full board meetings, more than any voting member, according to MTA meeting minutes reviewed by The Associated Press. She attended one Finance Committee meeting in the past year, and has 26 absences total, according to the agency's records.

Shevell skipped an MTA committee meeting approving a controversial fare hike the day she walked the red carpet in London. Since early 2008, the unpaid appointee has the worst attendance of any voting board member, sometimes missing meetings to travel around the world with [Paul] McCartney.

"It is significant. The whole point of the board is to be a check and balance on the MTA's staff work. You've got to be physically present to do that," said Gene Russianoff, a New York City transit advocate. If members can't show up for meetings, he said, "they should resign."

But celebrity observers aren't surprised that Shevell's former private life is taking a back seat to the 66-year-old McCartney.

"Who can blame her?" said Peter Castro, deputy managing editor of People magazine. "How many of us would be happy at an MTA meeting versus stepping out onto the red carpet at a Grammy event with a living Beatle?"

And then people wonder why NYC's Metropolitan Transit Association is a fucking cesspool...