Monday, March 22, 2010
ASUN officers admit liability in cases challenging laws
ASUN President Eli Reilly and Speaker of the Senate Gracie Geremia admitted liability in three cases alleging violations of the Open Meeting Law (OML) and ASUN laws governing enactment of legislation.
In separate statements filed yesterday, respondents Reilly and Geremia admitted that laws, processes, and safeguards were not followed in the Senate consideration and enactment of several bills. Shortly after the filings, the petitioner in the cases, Corinna Cohn, requested the Council issue summary judgment in her favor since nothing at issue was in dispute. (Disclosure: Cohn is a contributor to this blog.)
In his statement in the case to invalidate the fiscal year 2009 budget, Reilly said, "I will admit that process was not entirely followed surrounding the signing into law of the Association budget for fiscal year 2009." Reilly further pleads that none of the omissions were done "in a malicious or intentional manner."
Regarding the case challenging the Senate's failure to timely produce written minutes of its meetings, Geremia blames noncompliance on poor advisement, the fact that student government officials and employees receive no formal training on the law's requirements, and have a high turnover rate from session to session. Geremia also claims that the 75th Session committed similar violations, but that is not before the Council. Geremia concludes that the problems will cease with proper training and advisement.
In the case challenging the proper preparation of legislative measures after Senate passage, Geremia writes, "I recognize that the process was not carried out in the correct manner.... There are many reasons to (sic) why this process wasn’t followed, ranging from a transition in Senate advisement to the resignation of the Secretary of the Senate." Geremia similarly concludes that improved communication will ensure mistakes like this do not occur in the future.
Geremia's statements tended to point the blame at others, particularly ASUN administrative faculty, while Reilly's statements accepted responsibility but claimed the liability was of no consequence since it wasn't done with malicious intent.
None of the statements explicitly indicates the Senate or executive branch should escape the consequences of liability, but all intimate that the Council should overlook the violations of the law.
The statements are in response to three cases still pending from more than a year ago. In February, the Council ruled against ASUN in three other cases alleging various violations of the OML, but refused to invalidate the underlying Senate actions (VLEG coverage here).
To date, the Senate has taken no action in response to these cases. No item has listed these cases on a Senate agenda, and presumably no formal discussion has taken place at Senate meetings regarding these cases. It does not appear Geremia issued her statements admitting liability with the consent of the Senate, possibly exceeding her authority as speaker. The Senate is named as a respondent in the cases and the Senate never delegated authority to the speaker to answer the cases.
Geremia's admissions of OML liability also open her to university disciplinary sanctions under the NSHE Code. The punishment for being found liable for OML violations is removal from office and other possible sanctions under the code of conduct, including disciplinary notation on the violator's transcript.
All six cases, if ruled in Cohn's favor, will create binding precedents that will invalidate much of the 76th Senate Session's actions, and could have application to the acts of the current Senate session as well.
The three cases pending are scheduled for argument on March 26. With the admissions of liability, it is possible the Council will cancel argument and issue summary judgment.
The cases pending are numbered AN-003, AN-005, and AN-006 (available here).
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