The General Assembly, the Student Confederation's legislative branch, could appropriate a maximum of $600 to pay a professional parliamentarian who attended a hearing on the bylaws Jan. 31. After the hearing, the Government Operations Committee decided not to have the parliamentarian write the bylaws, which could have cost $4,000.
"Clearly, the situation with [Collette Trohan, the parliamentarian] has delayed our ability to create bylaws for the new organization," speaker Richard Bradbury wrote in an e-mail to the GA and SC executives.
The GA's Finance Committee must approve a bill that would appropriate up to $600 to Trohan, a professional from the American Institute of Parliamentarians, for attending the hearing. The GA must then pass the bill by a simple majority in order to appropriate funds from the SC Restricted Account, which contains about $47,000, controlled by the Finance Committee. The account has a $25,000 cushion, meaning $22,000 can be accessed. The Finance Committee controls this account.
If new bylaws are not rewritten before the new constitution takes effect at transition in April, the Kennedy Political Union, Student Union Board and other major departments would no longer exist.
"The only thing that would exist would be the four executives ... and the GA," Bradbury said in an interview.
The Government Operations Committee discussed having a professional parliamentarian write the bylaws because it would take too much time for full-time students, many of whom have internships, jobs and other time commitments, to write them, The Eagle previously reported.
However, the GA decided against hiring Trohan because it might take too long for her to become familiar with the needs of the SC, and the cost was more than it had expected. Comptroller Moamar Tidjani-Dourodjaye said Murray told him the parliamentarian's services could cost about $4,000.
"We could justify a certain amount of money to a certain extent," Murray said. "But once you cross that line ... you call into question: Is it really worth it?"
Murray said that members of the SC might have to spend a lot of time working on the bylaws, but it would not cost the student body anything.
Instead, a group led by Constitutional Procedural Review Board chair Marlon Brown will draft the bylaws and present it to the Government Operations Committee.
The group will include the two members of the board, Brown and Carlos Ramirez, and GA member Joseph Vidulich, along with an undetermined executive and the parliamentarian-appointee, Alex Cosmo. Another member of the board, Anthony Valdez, is expected to be confirmed soon.
"The purpose of this team is to provide [the Government Operations Committee] with a platform by which they can get further input from the general student body, and modify as they see fit," Bradbury wrote in the email.
Vidulich said the group will build bylaws that work with the new constitution passed last semester that renamed the GA the Undergraduate Senate and made it a smaller body, among other changes.
"We are going to start from scratch and give the US a rough draft to work with," he said. "We cannot work with the current bylaws. It would be like working on a house with a shaky foundation. It is just not proper. We will make the bylaws work with the new system."
Confusion arose over how the SC would pay for the professional parliamentarian's attendance at the Jan. 31 hearing.
Murray said he was under the impression that it could be paid for with the SC General Account, which contains about $12,000 for supplies, the transition ceremony, and the president's policies, according to Tidjani-Dourodjaye.
Tidjani-Dourodjaye and President Polson Kanneth would have to sign a contract before the parliamentarian attended the meeting in order to appropriate money from the General Account.
Tidjani-Dourodjaye said Murray did not show him a contract.
"I didn't even know that we were paying for something," Tidjani-Dourodjaye said. "We can't bring people in without a contract ... [Murray] broke a rule."
Joe Gallina, Finance Committee chair who is seeking the SC presidency, said he's disappointed that no one sought the committee's approval before inviting the parliamentarian.
"I am using the Finance Committee to investigate in this matter to make sure it doesn't happen again," Gallina said. "It's about accountability. How can we make sure the SC spends our money wisely if issues like these don't go through committee first?"
Candidate drops out of VP race
Student Government vice presidential candidate Jordan Landry withdrew from the race last night citing "extraneous circumstances and personal reasons." He endorsed Leah Kreimer from the remaining vice presidential candidates in a statement submitted to Hye-Jin Lee, chair of the Board of Elections. Landry said he believes he could have won had he stayed in the race. "I assure all of you, though, that this is not me copping out of a campaign I didn't think I could win," he said. "I had all intentions of winning and was prepared to fight with every ounce of my being"
