With two Constitution Court seats open, the Student Senate voted Wednesday to approve a fellow senator joining the court, while rejecting another appointee after he demonstrated a shaky grasp of student government procedures.
Sophomore Zach Basaraba faced tough scrutiny by Sen. Erica Reiko Anderson who asked him about his knowledge of the Clark Document – the guidelines for allocating incidental fee funds.
Basaraba was unfamiliar with specifics.
“I don’t know detail for detail how to operate, but I know what’s acceptable and what’s not,” he said.
Basaraba had further trouble responding to the questions concerning the role of a non-political judiciary and his views on coming to judicial decisions.
After delivering a series of questions, Sen. Athan Papailiou expressed doubt in Basaraba’s ability to serve. Put to a vote, eight senators declined to approve his appointment.
The other executive appointee for the student court, Sen. Karl Mourfy, was unanimously approved by his fellow senators to join the court. A current senator and law student, Mourfy agreed to resign immediately as senator to avoid a conflict with his new role as a court justice.
In their questioning of Mourfy, many senators drew from the issues raised by the Constitution Court’s recent decision to remove then Senate President Sara Hamilton. That decision – the result of a grievance filed by Anderson accusing Hamilton of not distributing the agenda on time on numerous occasions – ultimately forced Hamilton out of her Senate seat and led to a tense April 18 Senate meeting.
During that meeting Mourfy questioned why Anderson had not brought up this issue to Hamilton before taking it to the court. After the meeting, Mourfy resigned his Senate seat in protest of Hamilton’s removal but then rescinded his resignation later, saying there was “a need to think of the collective interests of students.”
Asked on Wednesday by Sen. Jeremy Ebner about his steps as a judge to reach a decision, Mourfy made indirect reference to Hamilton’s ouster.
“I want to hear from both parties. Is it politically charged? I would like to have people settle matters outside the court,” he said. “Don’t just go to the court.”
Prompted by Papailiou, Mourfy also discussed his belief about the role of the judiciary.
“I believe the court should deal only when there is a conflict,” said Mourfy. “The court should not play politics.”
Many Senators praised Mourfy prior to unanimously approving him for the court.
“You’ve always taken the high road. You will bring the balance the court needs,” Papailiou said.
The Senate also refused Wednesday night to allow the United States Student Association to transfer leftover funds to pay for three members to go to a board meeting in Santa Cruz, Calif.
The leftover funds were originally part of $2,000 given to the USSA from the Senate surplus fund to send a delegation to a Washington, D.C. conference in March. The original allocation of those surplus funds was approved by the Senate by just one vote.
According to ASUO Federal Affairs Coordinator Lisa Harris, approximately $1,100 of that money remains unused. She requested the Senate allow that money to be used for the Santa Cruz delegation, a three-person group including Sen. Chii-San SunOwen and ASUO Vice President Juliana Guzman.
Sen. Natalie Kinsey rejected the fund transfer, suggesting the USSA delayed going to the Senate for the request so that they wouldn’t have to return the funds. “It should come back to the surplus earlier, rather than right before another conference,” Kinsey said.
SunOwen defended the USSA’s excess money, pointing out it was unintentionally caused when one member of the D.C. delegation had to suddenly drop out.
“It wasn’t misspending, irresponsibility. It was something out of our control,” she said.
Student groups are particularly wary of being left with excess funds – especially funds received by special request from the Senate surplus fund – because they are viewed as a legitimate reason to reduce the group’s funding in the budgetary process.
Sen. Nate Gully suggested many Senators were over-scrutinizing the USSA request because they were seeking revenge.
“I can think of at least five occasions when we’ve created a item budget for groups to move money,” he said. “Just because you have a grudge, doesn’t mean it has to come out now.”
In March, Gully voted in favor of the surplus funding for the USSA Washington, D.C. delegation, which he attended. All other Senators who were also members of the delegation abstained from the vote, citing a conflict of interest.
In Wednesday’s meeting, SunOwen again abstained from voting. With a 6-5 vote, the Senate refused to allow the USSA to transfer the funds.