IR Committee table Senate Bill 81
At last night’s Student Government Association (SGA) meeting, Senate Bill 82 was introduced. Senate Bills 78, 79, and 80 were passed. Senate Bill 81 was tabled during the Internal Review’s (IR) meeting on Sunday.
Senate Bill 78, is a bill to add a resignation procedure to the bylaws. This procedure only applies to leadership roles. The bill explains what steps the person should take when resigning. Miranda Schulte, IR chair, said the committee voted on it and thought it was a great idea.
This was the third and final reading of the bill. The Senate motioned it to a vote. The vote received unanimous approval.
Senate Bill 79 also had its third and final reading. This bill is to alter the Election Steering Committee (ESC) procedure. The bill clarifies the already standing bylaws, adds three new duties and changes the due date for executive campaign petitions.
The current bylaws stated the petitions would be due the fourth Tuesday following the campaign declarations. Due to confusion, the date was changed to say Feb. 15. During the Feb. 8 meeting, Sen. Caleb Weiland said he was in favor of the current system.
“I like the fourth Tuesday, just because it’s a Tuesday, where the 15th could be a Sunday or a Saturday. I like having the fourth Tuesday because it adds clarity to it. Whereas a specific date like the 15th, there could be different circumstances,” Weiland said.
Director of Operations, Paige Schroeder, sponsored the bill and felt the unspecified date was confusing.
“I’m a fan of the specific date because having the fourth Tuesday of the month, to be quite honest, is mentally draining,” Schroeder said.
IR said they agreed with the bill after the changes they discussed with Schroeder were made. The bill was motioned to vote, and SGA passed the bill with unanimous approval.
The last bill to be voted on at last night’s meeting was Senate Bill 80, which is a bill to add a reporting mechanism to ESC. The bill outlines how to report to ESC about a candidate or team if the candidate or team is violating election campaign regulations. It also outlines how the accused can respond to the complaint.
A pledging ignorance was added to the reporting mechanism as well. This allows the candidate or team to submit their plans to ESC if they’re confused or worried their plan will violate regulations. ESC can respond, which gives the candidate or team time to make an informed decision. SGA unanimously passed this bill.
Director Schroeder introduced Senate Bill 82, which amends the special election procedure. The only change made was who presides over Senate until a special election can be held. The bill was sent to IR and will be back next week for the second reading.
During committee reports, Schulte reported that the committee decided to table Senate Bill 81 in committee. This bill is to eliminate spending in SGA campaigns.
“We think it’s a great start, but I think there are a lot of things that need to be flushed out and so we were kind of just seeing, waiting till hopefully, the next exec team can make it the best it can be so that there’s not a lot of confusion with that,” Schulte said.
Logan Johnson, director of finance, reported they have a few end-of-the-year funding requests. He mentioned to the senate there is an 11 thousand dollar ask for a scoreboard in one of the intramural fields. The scoreboard would house club and intramural sports that use the field. If this is granted, intramural sports will no longer need someone on the sideline holding a flip sign scoreboard.
The SGA meeting adjourned at 6:48 pm. To watch the livestream of the last two weeks of SGA meetings go to their Facebook page.
