Note that the rules for covenant creation assume an uncounted and uncountable horde of folks working in the background to generate the base income. Specialists, Companions, military grogs, etc all represent expenses for the covenant.
So, if he's a background character that we're fleshing out, then he spends 3 seasons generating income and has 1 season of personal time.
Unless you want to get funky and start using the rules on City & Guild pg 38. In which case, our scrutiny on him turns him into a PC, and he's no longer one of the faceless hordes generating our Legendary income.
If we've spent build points on a character, or written him up as PC, then he is an expense. His time is not spent generating our income, it is spent doing in-saga activities. Build points, in particular, are clearly available all four seasons to anyone who has a purpose for them. That is why we pay points for them.
Digressing from that point, and moving back to fun facts about the ME economy, don't forget that Theraphosa has a horde of spider babies out in the regio spinning webs, which are now being collected by The Welsh Clan and a Specialist Spidersilk Weaver, and spun into experimental goods. This is strictly a cottage industry at this point. If we're going to start running mundane stories, and keeping track of mundane wealth, then I'll happily start tracking all that spidersilk experimentation -- using City & Guild lingo, they're a "Trivial" workshop that dumps all of its labor points into innovation and experimentation.
Or, I could play Chastity, Patience or our new Greek/Welsh Linguist in any mundane story.
Frankly, I like the way the mundane stuff has been happening. Many players have a small cadre of grogs with some sort of active back story going on in the background, which we brush against but rarely touch upon.