Before Friday, Executive candidates Nilda Brooklyn and Joy Nair were about the only two people involved in the ASUO Election who had steered clear of the grievances and injunctions that have brought voting to a standstill.
That honeymoon ended when freshman business major Jarrett White, armed with a signed affidavit from ASUO Constitution Court Clerk Scott Austin, accused Brooklyn and Nair of using phones in the Executive office to make campaign calls.
Austin’s affidavit said that although the two weren’t specifically soliciting votes, they were introducing themselves on the phone as candidates and then reminding students to vote.
Brooklyn and Nair both work in the current Executive office as staff members for ASUO President Jay Breslow. Brooklyn said Austin probably saw her and Nair making work calls, not campaign calls, and denied ever using the phones for election purposes.
She said they have been making calls relating to their jobs because they were busy campaigning during the day. But she added she doesn’t remember the specific incident alleged in White’s grievance.
“We still have to do our jobs,” Brooklyn said.
But White said that, after hearing about Austin’s affidavit, he thought it was important enough to file the grievance in an attempt to disqualify them from the race.
“Obviously they should be disqualified,” White said. “It’s pretty heavy to go into the ASUO office and be making calls.”
Election rules prohibit campaigning inside the ASUO office.
Earlier this year, White ran a petition campaign to impeach Breslow for nonfulfillment of duties. Although Breslow violated ASUO rules by not filling office positions or publishing an updated version of the Green Tape Notebook, White could not get enough student signatures to force a recall vote.
White said that, like the Breslow case, he wants to make sure that everyone involved in the election is held accountable.
“I didn’t see anybody else take the initiative on the issue,” he said. “I didn’t want to see it go.”
The ASUO Elections Board decided late Friday to ask the court for an advisory opinion on White’s grievance. Justice Alan Tauber said the court might make give the board advice and send it back, or just make a final ruling on its own.
If the court has a hearing on the grievance, it probably won’t happen on the already full March 16 hearing date, when the court will hear the grievances against Jacobson and Cook and the Multicultural Center’s ballot measure that originally delayed the election.
But whenever the court begins deciding grievances, it will do so without one of its justices. Justice Richard Jameson also resigned from the court late Friday, calling the court “a kangaroo court” and “a disservice to the University,” although he would not elaborate on his reasons for leaving.
The court has come under scrutiny for the two injunctions it filed in the past weeks halting the elections. The most recent one, filed by Tauber after five student senators filed a grievance against the MCC measure, drew heavy criticism from Chief Justice Rob Raschio, who said Tauber should have waited longer and communicated with the court more before making his decision.
But Tauber said he didn’t need Raschio’s permission to enjoin the election, and he believes he made the right decision.
Raschio said he was disappointed and saddened to hear of Jameson’s resignation, but he also would not comment on the specific reasons why he resigned.