ASUO President Emma Kallaway spent her first week in office scrambling to cover deficits of more than $13,000 she said were left by her predecessor’s administration.
Outgoing President Sam Dotters-Katz incurred the debts by paying for a concert by hip-hop group Blue Scholars, a speech by author Greg Mortenson and expenses related to a conference in Portland, Kallaway said.
On Wednesday, the ASUO Senate granted Kallaway permission to scrape together $10,388.85 budgeted for other purposes to cover deficits incurred by the Mortenson and Blue Scholars events. Kallaway also transferred funds to cover a negative $372.17 balance left in the ASUO Executive’s photocopying account when Dotters-Katz left office.
Kallaway said she discovered the deficit on Tuesday, her first day in office. She said the debts had been incurred by the EMU Cultural Forum until Friday, Dotters-Katz’s last working day in office, when he wrote checks from the ASUO Executive to cover the forum’s expenses.
Dotters-Katz was heavily involved in organizing the two events, which were supposed to be financed by monies he redistributed in the fall after he and the University administration blocked funding for a $64,000 hair show. Dotters-Katz heavily criticized his predecessor, former ASUO President Emily McLain, for leaving office without scrutinizing the funding for the controversial event.
Dotters-Katz said the debts were a result of his concert and speaker’s popularity with students. He said he had expected 3,000 students to attend the Mortenson speech, but 6,000 got tickets, forcing him to increase the seating allotted in McArthur Court. The event ended up costing $6,982.98 more than expected, according to figures Kallaway presented to the Senate.
However, Dotters-Katz said he and his vice president, Johnny Delashaw, had been otherwise responsible with money, which would help Kallaway.
“Because Johnny and I ran a very fiscally conservative administration, there was a lot in other line items in our budget to cover the costs,” Dotters-Katz said.
However, senators at the meeting still expressed concern with Dotters-Katz’s management of the budget and that of his finance coordinator, Mei Li Yu.
“I cannot reiterate how important it is to have a competent finance coordinator,” Sen. Nick Schultz said, while he called Yu’s work “poor.” Yu did not return phone calls from the Emerald about the deficits.
The meeting at which Kallaway and Vice President Getachew Kassa asked for the funding transfer was the first for the newly elected Senate, and some senators expressed suspicion at the request.
“I hope the next new Senate does not have to do this on their first day,” said Sen. Ben Dodds, who was elected in April. “I just hope you don’t take the money and run.”
Senators said the request came as a surprise, and Kallaway apologized. “This was not going to be Getachew’s and I first attempt to interact with the Senate,” Kallaway said. “We apologize for the lack of communication and we will not be doing this in the future.”
However, after the request was granted, Kallaway told the Senate, “We are still finding issues within the executive budget and this may not be the last one we have to fill.”
Then, Thursday morning, she said she discovered a negative balance of roughly $3,000 in the funding set aside for the Northwest Student Leadership Conference, held in Portland in November. Dotters-Katz received $3,625 from the Senate to pay for transportation and registration at the event.
Kallaway said she would likely use money raised during the ASUO Street Faire to cover the costs of the conference.
Campus and Federal Politics
[email protected]
ASUO Exec starts off year with deficit
Daily Emerald
May 30, 2009
0
More to Discover