Editor’s note: This article has been amended from its original version. Correction appended.
The Programs Finance Committee held its last scheduled budget hearings Tuesday night with only four members present. Committee Chairman Jacob Brennan and Sen. Nick Meyers were absent, and after Monday night’s meeting Steven Wilsey resigned.
Wilsey, one of the committee’s most influential members, said he quit because he disagreed with the nearly $7,000 budget given to the Veterans and Family Student Association Monday. He said he could not accept the budget and what he interpreted as the ASUO president’s advocacy of spending as much money as possible.
ASUO President Emily McLain said she spoke with Wilsey on Tuesday and told him she did not advocate giving the group the entire amount requested or dipping into funds that could reduce the incidental fee next year.
McLain said she was trying to broker a compromise between the $3,300 Wilsey had proposed for the VFSA and the $6,960 the group was asking for.
“The meeting seemed to be at a standstill,” she said. During the meeting she and Meyers tried to come up with a compromise, but she had not offered a dollar amount, she said.
“There was a communication breakdown somewhere along the way,” Wilsey said, “but it doesn’t change the way things went down at the meeting.”
He went into the meeting knowing an increase of $3,000 on top of the group’s $300 starting budget was his maximum, he said, and would have voted down any higher amount.
McLain said she was sad to see Wilsey leave and said he had a great understanding of the budgeting process.
Wilsey was usually the first to speak during each budget hearing and hardly ever voted in the minority. He displayed his knowledge of the committee’s numbers often and discouraged other members from straying from the model he helped to create.
With the chairman and the most outspoken members missing Tuesday night, committee members seemed confused and did not know basic parliamentary procedure.
During a discussion about MEChA, Sen. Diego Hernandez advocated giving the group more money for a part of its budget that was not being recalled. The group had been recalled to fund a youth conference designed to recruit minority students to higher education.
Committee members voted to give an extra $555 for the conference. Oscar Guerra, representing the group, said that funding anything else was not part of his request.
Senate Vice President Patrick Boye told committee members they should wait until there were more members present to vote to give MEChA any more funds, especially since there was a possible conflict of interest.
Hernandez is affiliated with MEChA and the Multicultural Center, and voted on funds for both. Since only four members were present at the meeting, every decision required the support of all members to pass.
The Multicultural Center received an additional $2,000 to help fund a speaker’s series, despite skepticism from ASUO Accountant Lynn Giordano. The MCC did not spend all of its budget two years ago because a speaker canceled after being diagnosed with brain cancer. As a result of the unspent funds, the MCC’s budget was cut.
Guerra, who was also representing the center, said he was there to “restore money we felt was wrongly taken away.”
Giordano said many groups had been cut last year. “That’s life,” she said.
The Black Student Union decided to not take any more funding. Ty Schwoeffermann, representing the group, said they could just move funds from one line item to another.
The Service Learning Program was given an additional $1,000 to help fund an alternative spring break program where students will volunteer during their vacations.
Other groups were given increases in order to maintain current services. The groups had been recalled only because ASUO Controllers did not have accurate figures for how much maintaining those services would cost during initial budget hearings.
The Japanese Student Organization was given $114 for this reason, the Student Bar Association $104, and Forensics debate and speech team $163.
The committee also gave a starting budget to the Department Finance Committee, which would start next year if students support a referendum to reform the budgeting process.
The new committee would have a budget of $2,710 to pay stipends to five members. Four members would receive $125 per month, while the chairman would receive $175.
McLain tied the need for budget reform to her miscommunication with Wilsey on Monday.
“We’re two people working in a system that creates problems,” she said. “That’s why it needs to be changed.”
Wilsey said the Assault Prevention Shuttle should have been recalled. He said he had budgeted $4,300 to $4,500 for the shuttle to hire another dispatcher.
The ASUO Constitution Court was also scheduled to be recalled, but was postponed at last night’s meeting. It is unclear when another hearing will take place.
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Emily McLain did not advocate for spending the entire amount requested nor did she advocate for spending funds that could be used to lower the incidental fee.