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Here’s one way to earn easy money — be elected to the City Council and don’t show up for work.
Helen Foster (D-Bronx) takes the title as the council’s biggest no-show — with a dismal attendance record of just 60.6 percent last year, according to data obtained by The Post.
Foster was AWOL for 56 council meetings out of 142 she was scheduled to attend in Fiscal Year 2013 — primarily committee meetings, according to council attendance records.
She was “excused” from three full meetings, during which legislation is voted on — meaning Speaker Christine Quinn’s office granted her permission to miss the sessions without being marked absent. Those were not counted toward her absentee rate.
Foster’s legislative record isn’t much better: She has not been the primary sponsor of a single bill passed into law since March 2010, when she crafted a measure requiring New Yorkers to replace trees they removed or pay the city a fee to cover the cost of replanting.
Foster was not in her district office Thursday afternoon when The Post tried to reach her. An intern said she had been there earlier but would not be back for the rest of the day.
The councilwoman, who is leaving office this year because of term limits, did not return calls requesting comment.
Following her on the “truancy” list was Brooklyn Democrat Erik Dilan, who showed up 73 percent of the time, records show. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Ruben Wills (D-Queens) and Joel Rivera (D-Bronx) had attendance records of 73.3 and 73.7 percent, respectively.
Lupe Todd, a spokeswoman for Wills, said he was erroneously marked absent from a committee on which he no longer sits.
She also said he spent more time in his district in southeast Queens because of “an uptick in gun violence and violent crime in the past year.”
“While there is no excuse for missing committee meetings, his attention in the district has been warranted,” she said.
Rivera, who presides over full council meetings as majority leader, said, “Scheduling conflicts with meetings and events locally are the primary reason” for his absentee rate.
Eric Ulrich — a Queens Republican who said he spent much of the year in his Hurricane Sandy-battered district — had the fifth-worst tally, attending 77 percent of his required meetings.
“It is impossible for anyone to be in two places at once. There are times that my attendance at community meetings or events prevented me from being at City Hall and vice-versa, especially since Hurricane Sandy,” he said.
Mark Weprin (D-Queens), who hopes to become the council’s next speaker, and Quinn, who is running for mayor, both had 100-percent attendance rates.
Rounding out the top five best attendance rates are Margaret Chin (D-Manhattan), who showed up 98.1 percent of the time; Dan Garodnick (D-Manhattan), another candidate for speaker, who attended 98.6 percent of his meetings; and Daniel Dromm (D-Queens), who showed up 97.6 percent of the time.
The five worst attendance rates, according to City Council data for FY 2013:
Helen Foster (D-Bronx, right) 60.6%
Erik Dilan (D-Brooklyn) 73%
Ruben Wills (D-Queens) 73.3%
Joel Rivera (D-Bronx) 73.7%
*Eric Ulrich (R-Queens) 77%
*Represents areas impacted by Hurricane Sandy, like the Rockaways, and spent much of the missed time in his district