ASUO Senator Neil Brown has filed a grievance against 2007 Senate President Jonathan Rosenberg, who is no longer in office, so Brown says he views “the entire Senate as a proxy for this grievance.” Brown is asking the Constitutional Court whether all business matters from a Senate meeting held on June 13, which the Daily Emerald discovered violated Oregon Public Meeting Laws, and which the Commentator staff celebrated as a great day, to be voided. There were no minutes taken until after the fact.

“The ASUO Executive crafted minutes over the phone with former Senator Rosenberg. These minutes were submitted the evening of Friday, June 15 with the intention of Senate filling in the remaining details as they can remember them. The Senate would essentially not pass the record until a consensus had been reached. The minutes are missing a substantial amount of information, including dollar amounts, vote records, and adjournment time, and motion-makers. Not only do these missing pieces of information violate the prescribed requirements for minutes in the statutes of Oregon Public Meetings Laws, but they also fail to record the “substance” of the meeting, as stated in the Senate Rules of the Green Tape Notebook.”

Brown’s grievance comes on the heels of Senator Athan Papailiou’s Motion of Clarification, which reads similar to the grievance, presented to the Con Court on June 18. The Court responded to this motion earlier this week.

“The Clark Document, the ASUO Constitution and the Rules of the Student Senate all clearly state that meetings of the Student Senate shall be conducted in accordance with Oregon Public Meeting Law. As part of complying with Oregon Public Meeting Law the Student Senate must provide for the either the recording or the taking of written minutes of all of its meetings…The Court would like to clarify that the Student Senate must be the ones to provide for the taking of written minutes of its meetings. Furthermore said meeting minutes must be taken during the actual meeting. Finally the minutes must contain the information required by both Oregon Revised Statute (ORS) 192.650(1) et seq. And Article 3 [squigly symbol] 2(i)(B) et seq. Of the Rules of the Student Senate, including the accurate results of all votes and which individual senators voted which way.”

Brown attached the made up minutes to the grievance, and they are hilarious. Here are a few highlights:

“Hernandez: I would support ethics, like respecting one another. Goals are _____
Papailiou: What is the main allocation of PFC?
Hernandez: Programs.”

“Brown : While I don’t approve of process, I want to see Wilsey on senate.
Jones: _______
Papailiou: ________
Other senators asked questions”

“Motion to reconsider adding Hernandez to agenda
Motion: Brown.
Brown: I don’t think we should look at this appointment again until we know rules for certain.
Rosenberg: Senate has spoken, and wants to add it due to new information.
Ossey [it’s Ossie damnit]: What is the new information?
There was further discussion on this motion”

Brown also attached minutes from an Oct. 18, 2006 meeting, as Papailiou did, to show what actual meeting minutes look like. Open and shut case? You never know, here on, as the ASUO turns.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 15:01 by Ossie and is filed under ASUO, Campus, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.