Additional information appended.
ASUO President Amelie Rousseau spent her first day in office hiring a staff that included one controversial appointment — her boyfriend, Robert D’Andrea.
Rousseau chose D’Andrea, a former Emerald reporter and editor, for the position of political director, a job that did not exist until Rousseau and Vice President Maneesh Arora created it following her election in April.
Rousseau’s opponents criticized the position even before she hired D’Andrea, saying she had created it specifically for him to fill. In a May 18 blog post for the Oregon Commentator, ex-ASUO Sen. Lyzi Diamond predicted D’Andrea would get the job.
“Rousseau and Arora have been coached by D’Andrea all throughout the process so far,” Diamond wrote. “And, if everything happens as it has been appearing to, will continue to be coached throughout the year, creating an imbalance of power simply by pure experience.”
D’Andrea said he’d played no part in the creation of the position. He said he never discussed it with Rousseau before he was hired. He declined to say whether the position had been created for him.
“You should probably go to the people who created the position for that,” D’Andrea said.
D’Andrea’s duties will be formulating policy with Rousseau and Arora and advising their staff on how to deal with the media.
Rousseau said she had created the position to ease the pressure on her chief-of-staff before she hired one. The political director’s role in creating policy was once held by the chief-of-staff, but when Rousseau and Arora wrote the descriptions of the positions on their staff, they eliminated that role for the position.
“It’s very challenging for the chief-of-staff to manage 15-plus people, plus be an adviser to the executive (branch of the ASUO),” Rousseau said Sunday, before hiring D’Andrea.
She said she hadn’t created the position specifically for D’Andrea, laughing at the suggestion she had.
Her most vocal political opponents are a trio of ex-senators who supported her presidential rival Alex McCafferty — Diamond, Demic Tipitino and Nick Gower — and they have long criticized D’Andrea’s influence on her policies. They objected specifically to D’Andrea’s hire because he is her boyfriend.
“The opposition to this isn’t because he’s her boyfriend,” Tipitino said. “It’s because the position is not transparent … but it’s (about) the success of the ASUO. What if they break up?”
Rousseau’s chief-of-staff, Conrad Hulen, said Rousseau did not make the decision to hire D’Andrea or participate in the interviews for the position.
Rousseau did not return phone calls from the Emerald on Tuesday afternoon to address those criticisms.
D’Andrea, however, dismissed those concerns.
“I don’t think that’s what they’re really worried about,” he said.
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Rousseau returned the Emerald’s call minutes before its press deadline, but the call was too late for the print edition.
She reiterated Hulen’s point that she did not participate in the hiring process and said she had not spoken with D’Andrea about the position before he applied.
“I was not part of the internal hiring process for that position because I recognized that conflict of interest,” she said.