01.APR.10

Those budget meetings of the Plovdiv City Council in Bulgaria must be a major bore.

So much so that council members have been caught playing the Facebook game FarmVille instead of paying attention.{{more}} The problem hit such a sour note last week that virtual farmer Dimitar Kerin was voted off a council committee assignment for his FarmVille fetish, reports Novinite.com , a news agency based in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia.

Kerin could not stop tending his virtual crops on the Facebook game during council meetings. He and other members of the 51-person council in Bulgaria’s second-largest city had been warned about misusing the new wireless network and laptops provided to each of them. Council chairman Ilko Iliev had warned several council members that the technology was not to be used for playing games on social media sites during budget meetings, according to the report.

For Kerin, managing his virtual farm and milking its cows during meetings proved too hard to resist – despite Iliev’s warnings.

Council member Todor Hristov was fed up with the virtual feeding and made the proposal to oust Kerin, saying that Kerin “needs more time for his virtual farm,” Novinite.com reports.

The council did just that by a vote of 20-19, according to AOL Games .

Kerin defended his actions by saying he wasn’t the only one watering virtual eggplants in City Hall. Besides, he said, he had only reached level 40 in FarmVille. Kerin said fellow councilman Daniela Zhelyazkova was already at level 46, according to Novinite.com.

FarmVille can be addictive because of its real-time game mechanics, AOL News reports. Time management is a crucial part of playing FarmVille and players need to bring in their crops the second they’re ready or risk a failed harvest. (CANVAS STAFF REPORTS)