Ninth Senate
Call to order
The meeting was called to
order at
Roll Call
Present: Senators Bybee,
Hanson, Johnson, Mewes, Ojeda, Ramirez, Rawson, Riggers, Sherpa, Smith. President
Racich, Vice-President Ambriz, Chief Justice Allen, Media Relations Director
Rohde, Committees Director Bloomsburg.
Audience: Ron Smith, Brandon
Lytle, Jimmie O’Harra, Pam Laird, Senate Secretary Myndie VanHorn.
Absent: Ernie Williams.
Approval of Minutes:
Motion to approve minutes of
Student Government Advisor
■ Ernie
Williams- Absent.
Student Activities Coordinator
■ Brandon Lytle- The Intramural calendar
for next semester should be ready next week sometime. The Intramurals calendar
will include some things that this semester did not offer such as dodge ball,
badminton and ski trips. Tonight is the last intramural event of the semester,
basketball league championship at
LCSC Administration Communications
■ Ron Smith- Sodexho has passed on some
changes to the meal plan charges. Fall 2006 Platinum:
110 board meals per semester plus option A 500 flex dollars, plus option B 400
flex dollars, option C 300 flex
dollars. Diamond: 95 board meals per semester with the same flex options the change there is that the
meals are per semester rather than per week. Gold: 75 board meals per semester, with same flex options.
Commuter-Bronze plan 32 board meals plus
385 flex dollars this is the minimum plan offered for commuters and
non-resident students. These are the
suggestions and he advised that they will be gone over in more detail in the spring with a group of students, Sodexho
and administration to go over this in more detail.
President Racich advised that Senators Ojeda, AJ Schuster would like to sit in
on the meetings. Senator Smith
asked if the Senate could get a better explanation of what the board meals are. Advised that the board meals are
dinner and weekend meals. VP Ambriz advised he
would be interested in sitting in on the meetings as well. Smith advised that
they may want to look at the
changes in the commuter plan as they upped the board meals and reduced the flex, and commuters would be less
likely to be on campus for dinner and weekends to use those board meals.
Executive Communications
■ President
Racich- Thank you to VP Ambriz, Committees Director Bloomsburg and Media
Relations Director Rohde on a job well done for the Christmas party. Would also
like to thank Senator Johnson for bringing it to her attention how important it
was to have the funds for Johnny Wright taken out of Leadership Development.
Would have preferred Senator Johnson to address her personally versus filing a
complaint of impeachment against her. The funds are now officially coming out
of Leadership Development and this should rectify the situation. “It is my duty
to inform the Senate, according to Bylaws page 13 Article III, Section 1,
subsection 1.160 that $300 in funds has been transferred from the Student
Senate account to the Leadership Development account.”
■ Vice-President
Ambriz- Nothing
■ Media
Relations- Nothing
■ Director
of Committees- Nothing
Judicial Communications
■ Chief Justice Allen- Judicial has
found that President Racich has “operated within the confines of her position
per Section IV, Subsection 1, as Chief Financial Officer and also in the
Executive Branch Section I, subsection 1.160.” Judicial will draft a letter in
that regard. Senator Hanson has five days to remark on the complaint against
him, or if he wishes he may extend out for a continuance for next semester.
There was another complaint regarding the stipends, “I will be issuing a letter
to address that issue, it is not within this judicial branches jurisdiction to
issue anything except a letter stating that you (Senator Johnson) need to
contact the controllers office (Mary Browne) or contact the Financial Aid
office.”
Committee Reports
Book Exchange: Senator
Bybee reported that the committee went over training after the Roundtable last
week. Met with Media Relations Director Rohde today to discuss advertising and
everything seems to be going pretty well. Bloomsburg asked that those who had
not signed up to help yet do so as soon as possible, there is a sign-up sheet
in his office.
Curriculum: Senator
Johnson reported that there are four proposals on the table for the committee.
Three of these proposals are changes of numbering from English 201 to English
102, very minor changes. He believes it was a mistype in the original process.
Did not have his notes with him and could not remember what the fourth proposal
was, stated that it was expected to pass quickly and easily.
Diversity: Senator
Sherpa reported that there is a meeting tomorrow at
Santa’s Helpers: Senator Mewes reported as Senator Johnson was not at the meeting. Mewes
reported that the committee discussed the amount of money that has been raised
and how it was going to be distributed to the families that have been decided
on. Working on finding out what kind of “in-kind” donations Santa’s Helpers can
get for the shopping. Shopping on Saturday, everyone is welcome to come and
help.
Old Business
Senator Johnson called for a
motion to recall Tabled Bill 05-F033. Motion Senator Hanson, second Senator
Smith. Senator Rawson asked if the bill was referred to committee. Senator
Johnson answered that it was referred to Santa’s Helpers. Senator Mewes advised
that the committee did not have an official recommendation on the bill. The
committee did however come to the conclusion that it would not be in Santa’s
Helpers best interest to sacrifice quality of the help that they can provide
for the families they have adopted to provide for a larger number of families.
Santa’s Helpers decided not to adopt this family. Myndie advised that she had received
an email from the writer of the article, Andrea Heisinger; Heisinger reported
that she did not believe the family to be in financial need, they do have large
debts due to the medical expenses, but other than the medical expenses they are
doing alright at this point. Heisinger had some interest in helping the family
and she passed that information on to the family. Motion to pull amended Bill
05-F033 out of committee, Senator Bybee, second Senator Sherpa, roll call vote
9 Yes, 0 No, 1 Abstention Senator Ramirez. No further discussion. Motion to
vote on Bill 05-F033 Senator Hanson second Senator Riggers. 0 Yes, 8 No, 2
Abstentions Ramirez, Smith. Bill failed.
New Business
■ Senate Bill 05-F035: Diversity Committees
Martin Luther King Day Awards. Motion to vote Senator Bybee, second Senator
Ramirez. Roll call vote: 10 Yes, 0 No, 0 Abstentions. Resolution passed.
■ Senate
Bill 05-F036: Funding for YWCA planning committee for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Senator Sherpa advised this is for
the event planned for January 16, gathering at
■ Motion to amend agenda to include
Senate Bill 05-F037. Senator Smith, second Senator Ojeda. Unanimous consent.
■ Senate
Bill 05-F037: To approve the election code as proposed by the ASLCSC Judicial Branch. Motion to vote Senator
Smith, second Senator Sherpa. Senator Mewes proposed friendly amendment line 19 to read “the current academic
year” second, Senator Rawson. Unanimous.
Friendly amendment passed. Roll call vote: 10 Yes, 0 NO, 0 Abstentions. Bill passed unanimously.
■ Resolution
05-F006: Outdoor Recreation, Boathouse Resolution. Motion for unanimous consent Senator Bybee, second
Senator (unsure, Senator Johnson did not say). Unanimous consent. Resolution
passed.
Senate Information Reports
■
Brandon Lytle reported that Jayson Ulrich and he had picked up all but
two items for the Outdoor Rec program, there are kayaks still on backorder.
Informed the Senate that Jayson is working to get the rafts stored up off of
the ground and will be ready to rent by early spring. Advised that Jayson is
only a 10 month employee and
■ Senator
Ramirez reminded the Senate to write down their hours. The hour sheet has been
relocated to the front of the Administrative Assistants desk.
■ Myndie reminded everyone to fill out
their schedules and return them to her ASAP and remember to put all the information she requested on them.
Audience Time
■ Senator
Ramirez wanted to comment regarding the impeachment complaint. Ramirez wanted
to thank President Racich for all of the hard work she has done. “If you do not
or cannot support our President then we are all in trouble…we said at the
beginning of the year we wanted this body to remain united.” Last year was not
a great year in the Senate; it was really unpleasant to be involved in the
Senate last year. Try to keep this body united.
■ Senator
Rawson added that he felt it was unfortunate that a complaint for impeachment
was called for on a matter that could have been taken care of with proper
communication between the involved parties. “If we, as a body, can’t get over some personal agendas or
playing politics in here, I think the welfare of the students and…it’s starting
to get petty and Machiavellian, this does not set well…we’re not federal
government people we’re trying to help the students out.”
■ Senator
Sherpa wanted to know what the impeachment was about. She stated she did not
know anything about the situation. Would like to know what the impeachment
complaint was about.
■ Chief
Justice Allen replied that the impeachment complaint was concerning “conduct
unbecoming and (unable to hear) in regards to moving funding issues from one
budget cost center to another budget cost center.” Unable to understand the
rest.
■ Vice
President Ambriz asked if the complaints were available to look at. Unable to
understand CJ Allen’s answer.
■ Pam
Laird: Advised the Senate that she knows she has been a little hard in her
writing during her time as a writer and as an editor of the paper to this body.
“I wouldn’t have been if I didn’t care.” Feels that she has seen more out of
this body than she has seen in the last four years that she has been on campus.
As in any family, “you all aren’t gonna get along all the time, or with each
other.” She also said that she was sure there are still some sore spots from her
article the other day. “But I am sure it will go away, because that was
business.” She stated that it doesn’t mean that she doesn’t think, or the paper
doesn’t think that the Senate is doing a good job. “Have a great vacation!”
■ Senator
Smith: asked if the Senate came to a decision about minutes being taken during
Roundtable meetings. Myndie responded that we are going to work over Christmas
break to see if we can get some kind of program on the laptop to transcribe
minutes for the meetings. That will be worked on over the break. She will be
checking on the cost.
■ Senator Johnson passed the gavel to
Senator Ramirez.
■ Senator Johnson: Stated that he
thought he was fully justified in his complaint against President Racich. He does not believe he had a personal
issue involved in that. If anyone would
like to see a copy of the complaint he will make it available and will show
justification in the Constitution and
Bylaws for why he did what he did. “The Judicial Branch does not agree that complaint is valid and I honor
that. But there was no personal ness behind anything done.”
■ Senator Smith: made sure that the
Senate knew he was not referring to the complaint when he referred to “personal ness” earlier.
He was referring to some of the remarks that have been made in the meetings; he has not even read the complaint.
Things that were said that were more
aimed at attacking “the person rather than the position. I was not referring to
your complaint when I was speaking to
that.”
■ President Racich stated that her
biggest concern about the whole issue is the “lack of communication. Had there been a course of communication
between the Senate Majority Leader
and myself, it shouldn’t have to get to this point. Senator Johnson and I used
to have regular meetings.” She
stated that she had emailed Senator Johnson to remind him to get the election code on the table today,
and it would have been common courtesy for him to contact her personally about this situation.
“It would have been common courtesy for your Senate Majority Leader to have contacted me, either personally or
through email. Not only was it warranted,
not only was it a matter of courtesy, it’s a matter of keeping student
government running smoothly. I would
appreciate those efforts in the future.”
■ Senator Sherpa asked why Senator
Johnson was not attending meetings with President Racich. Senator Johnson advised Senator Sherpa that these
meetings were not mandated by the Bylaws
or Constitution. Discussion ensued regarding the meetings. President Racich asked if Senator Johnson agreed to the
meetings. His response was that “I said that I would try, in fact we rescheduled many times because our individual
schedules clashed.” President Racich
stated that it would have been good practice for him to call her if he was not able
to make it to a meeting with her. (Senator Bybee left at this point.)
Adjournment
Motion to adjourn Senator
Hanson, second Senator Johnson. Motion failed.
Senator Mewes moved for Roll
Call vote for adjournment, second Senator Sherpa. Unanimous. Roll vote: 2 Yes
(Hanson, Sherpa), 5 No (Mewes, Ojeda, Ramirez, Rawson, Smith), 2 Abstentions
(Johnson, Riggers).
Moved back to Audience Time
■ President
Racich asked if this was something that the Senate would want to move back into
executive session for. Senator Hanson
stated that the reason he moved for Adjournment was that he felt there was a two-way conversation going on that
really did not pertain to this body. “It
seems there is a personal disagreement that is going on between Senator Johnson
and President Racich.
President Racich advised that she believes this matter does concern the Senate. Senator Ojeda agreed with President
Racich and stated that she did not know anything about the issue and thought that it did concern the Senate.
■ Senator
Rawson stated that “communications between all branches is paramount, if you
want the student government to run smoothly and like it should be. If people can’t
take the responsibility of their position that they have been voted for and
given and the respect they think they deserve…maybe we ought to have some
reconsideration…Without communications all we get is a bunch of personal
pettiness.”
■ Senator
Smith stated that he was confused as it has been stated that “there is no
communication between the Executive Branch and the Senate, and every Tuesday
there is Executive Communications and every Thursday the Senate is ran by the
Executive Branch, so I guess I’m not catching where the lack of communications
is since there is opportunity twice a week.”
■ President
Racich responded that in the past there has been very little communication
between the Executive Branch and the Senate Majority Leader. “There are a great
many things that have been under the surface on the campus, things that are
coming up, things that need to be considered, things that should be on the
agenda at certain points and times, things that I’ve been made privy to either
by the Administration or through the several committees that I’m involved in. I
took the initiative of doing something that had not been done in the past and I
made your Senate Majority Leader privy to much confidential information…to
better inform him so that he could have a better handle on the Senate. That way
he could better make recommendations, put things on the agenda, answer
questions when they came forward. This was by no means anything that was
required, this was something that I offered that apparently no other Executive
officer that I’m aware of has done and this was something that I wanted to do
to extend the communication between the three branches. I don’t care what day
or time it is just so we have it available and just so we can do it on a
regular basis…I am not trying to be personal towards Senator Johnson I just
want the communication to continue and that’s why I asked Senate Pro Tem,
Gloria Ramirez, to take over for him, because I feel that this is something
that is privileged information that can definitely help the Senate.”
■ Senator
Johnson responded that he seconded Senator Smith’s questions. “What information
needs to be passed that can’t be passed in Executive Communications?” Racich’s
response was “You should know
■ Senator
Riggers stated that he is not taking sides in this issue. “There has been a lot
of talk about questioning the integrity in the positions, maybe the necessary
steps need to be taken on each side and that cant be done right now. Maybe by
next year when we go into the next session, this a dead subject.”
■ President
Racich stated for the record that Senator Johnson has missed the last three
meetings that he had scheduled with her.
■ Senator
Smith asked if the meetings are covered by the attendance policy. President
Racich’s response was that they were not, they are informal meetings.
■ Senator
Mewes stated that he agreed with Senator Rawson’s earlier comments. “On a
second note, I would like to ask everyone in this body if they have received
any information or leadership from Senator Johnson in this regard. I have not
received any information from those meetings he has attended.”
■ Senator
Johnson replied that “most of the information that was passed to me, it was
specifically said that I am not supposed to be hearing, I am not supposed to
know it and I should not pass it on.”
■ Senator
Smith asked where the information is confidential. “Is it (this information)
confidentiality that he can’t divulge or is it that you’re not supposed to be
divulging?” President Racich responded that much of the information is things
that cant be divulged at this time that were coming up, things that she had
asked Senator Johnson to look out for as they were coming up, “such as
meetings, such as a lot of the budgetary meetings that take place on campus.”
Things that the Senate would be involved in at a later date.
■ Senator
Smith stated that it looked like part of the problem is that both parties are
busy and there are scheduling problems. Suggested that maybe some of this can
be handled by email. Senator Racich reported that even email has been a
problem.
■ Senator
Ojeda stated that she would like to know what is going on but that she agrees
with Senator Riggers that this is a dead subject and that it should be dealt
with during the next session.
■ Senator
Ramirez: “Senator Johnson once came to me and we discussed my lack of
communication and that I wasn’t really performing my duties as I should be. Now
I come to you, the same way you came to me, I understand that everybody has
personal problems and sometimes you can’t attend meetings, but at least try to
communicate. You told me…that communication was vital especially when it has to
do with the students which is important. We are here for the students, keep
that in mind. Just try to do your job the best that you can so we aren’t in
these situations again…We are your followers, you are supposed to be our
leader.”
Adjournment
Motion to adjourn Senator Ramirez,
second Senator Riggers. Motion Passed. Meeting adjourned at 6:07 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted by:
Myndie VanHorn
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Bill 05-F0033 (out of committee) Roll Call Vote |
Bill 05-F033 Roll Call Vote |
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Y |
N |
A |
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Y |
N |
A |
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Bybee |
X |
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Bybee |
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X |
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Hanson |
X |
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Hanson |
|
X |
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Johnson |
X |
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Johnson |
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X |
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Mewes |
X |
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Mewes |
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X |
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Ojeda |
X |
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Ojeda |
|
X |
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Ramirez |
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X |
Ramirez |
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X |
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Rawson |
X |
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Rawson |
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X |
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Riggers |
X |
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Riggers |
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X |
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Sherpa |
X |
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Sherpa |
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X |
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Smith |
X |
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Smith |
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X |
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Bill 05- F035 Roll Call Vote |
Bill 05-F036 Roll Call Vote |
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Y |
N |
A |
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Y |
N |
A |
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Bybee |
X |
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Bybee |
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Hanson |
X |
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Hanson |
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Johnson |
X |
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Johnson |
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Mewes |
X |
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Mewes |
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Ojeda |
X |
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Ojeda |
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Ramirez |
X |
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Ramirez |
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Rawson |
X |
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Rawson |
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Riggers | |||||||||