President Brooks’s enforcement of Senate Rules being disputed
Posted on April 7, 2008
Investigations are underway for sophomore senator Adam Hall who is up for possible impeachment by the SGA Committee of Internal Affairs (CIA). Hall is defending his actions, which stem from violation of the absence rule in SGA.
“I vote on finance and I am not going to change to a representative because they can’t vote,” Hall said. “I am required to be a representative constituent for the student body and for those that have a problem. My vote can make a lot of difference.”
After years of letting absences slide, the SGA decided this year to enforce the rule that calls for senators to be investigated for possible impeachment if they miss more than three meetings throughout the year. If impeached senators can resign or take a demotion to representative.
James Reddish and Brandon Eickel have also been feeling the effects of the newly enforced laws. Reddish and Eickel resigned from their positions after being threatened with an impeachment trial. Eickel took a demotion to representative and Reddish is no longer with SGA.
Lee Brooks, the current SGA president, said at the beginning of the year about 100 people were on the roster and the actual number of senators that consistently attended meetings was around 60 to 70 people. Having since enforced the rule, those that attended meetings are the only ones now on the roster.
Based on house rules, the senate can make a motion to investigate a senator for impeachment once they have three unexcused absences. A vote is taken and the majority decides whether or not an investigation will begin.
Brooks said that they take things case by case, and there are a lot of things that they take into account.
If the majority decides to begin the investigation, there is a two-week waiting period before CIA proceeds with a trial.
Hall, who CIA said missed four and a half absences, is awaiting his trial that is set to begin April 15. The investigation began towards the end of March.
“That number is inconsistent from what was discussed earlier,” Hall said. “I thought it was for personal reasons, but I can tolerate it.”
Hall said that around fifteen people will be at his trial to defend him and that he will not resign. He is very confident about his role in the SGA and has no concern about not being a part of the association.
“They are not going to get rid of me, and if so I’ll be back next year,” he said.
However, Hall did add that he felt blame should not be placed on those that are enforcing the rules.
“It needs to be done,” he said. “They are doing what they have to do. CIA is doing its job; I’m not offended by it. I think they just needed something to do.”
Brooks feels that the CIA has a difficult job reinforcing the rules.
“They are not popular right now and they are taking some heat from senators because of it,” Brooks said.
Senators are allowed to proxy absences, meaning that they submit a proxy stating why they are not attending a meeting and they are either granted an excused or unexcused absence.
Hall believes that some of the other senators that are not being investigated are there for the wrong reasons.
“I question the integrity of the other senators,” he said. “Their motives are different than mine. The political science majors treat it like it’s real government and it’s not.”
Brooks, who is a political science major, took offense to that comment.
“Some people take things too seriously,” Brooks said. “I believe the head of CIA is a math major, not a political science major, and that comment was way out of context. It makes me want to impeach him if he’s more concerned with that.”
Reddish, who is a senior, resigned during last Tuesday’s meeting after having missed four times due to classes and managing JMU’s varsity women’s lacrosse team.
“It was the most difficult decision I had to make,” Reddish said. “I always tried to give my best and I took it seriously.”
Reddish felt that he had done nothing wrong, because he had proxyed for the meetings he was going to miss.
“They [CIA] said I was in violation of the proxy rule, because I was only allowed to proxy three times,” Reddish said. “But I could never be in violation of that, because I was granted three proxies and requested more, so based on that I wasn’t in violation.”
Brooks said Reddish was trying to proxy the whole semester because of his night class and that was a “clear violation of the rules.” The reason for implementing the stricter absence rule was to benefit SGA, so only the senators who truly wanted to be there would be.
“We made it one of our priorities,” Brooks said. “This can’t happen; if you can’t make the commitment, don’t do it.”
Reddish disagrees with the sudden change in the absence rule and the repercussions he is feeling because of it.
“No senator is kicked out when they didn’t want to be,” Reddish said. “That signaled to me where the Senate and its priorities are going.”
Brooks reaffirmed that he felt that if a senator breaks the rules, they have to have consequences.
“When anyone breaks the rules and they are confronted about it, they try and get out of it in some way,” he said. “They need to respect the constitution and the house rules, just admit their mistake and move on.”
Hall had no problem admitting that he is looking forward to next year with a new staff and a fresh start.
“I’m excited about the new executive board and the new Senate so we can move on from the ‘B.S.’ that happened this year,” he said. “I have every intention of coming back and sitting on the same committee and be more active next year than I have been this year.”
Brooks feels that Larson Thune is ready for the new challenges, but no drastic changes are going to take place.
“I think he is going to carry on the good things that have happened this year,” he said.
Through all the mudslinging, Brooks thinks the absence policy is helping to weed out those that don’t want to be there.
“The rules are written out, the senators approved them,” he said. “If they resigned then it’s good for the organization. People will be there for the right reasons.”
Photos accompanying this article by Caroline Davis and Adrienne Goldberg.
