Home
| Eleventh hour for meeting law? |
|
|
| Written by By Sam Taylor -Argonaut | ||||||
| Tuesday, 11 October 2005 | ||||||
|
Student leaders are one step closer to removing Idaho Open Meeting law from their senate bylaws. The ASUI Rules and Regulations committee sent proposed legislation to remove Idaho code from the senate’s bylaws to the governing body with a recommendation to pass the proposal 4-1. It will be voted on Wednesday night. The legislation would allow student leaders to call an executive session for any reason, but specifically lists “sensitive matters” as a reason for a closed meeting. No definition was given as to what a sensitive matter is. ASUI sen. Eric Everett, chair of R&R and the only senator to vote against the proposal in committee, said he believed the bylaws were fine the way they were and it was unnecessary to remove Idaho Open Meeting law from the bylaws. “I felt that change wasn’t necessary,” Everett said. “We already have the sort of rules for our open meetings.” Senate Bill F05-30 strikes out any reference to Idaho Open Meeting procedures and states that meetings “shall be conducted in the spirit of openness with regard to public interest and input.” The proposal also states “ASUI shall reserve the right to hold private meetings or call executive sessions regarding any sensitive matters.” The proposal was authored by ASUI leaders after The Argonaut reported Sept. 30 that the student senate had violated Idaho Open Meeting law by going into an executive session — citing personnel matters at first but then discussing a bill to kill the Vandal Taxi program during that same session. ASUI leaders would technically not have to follow open meeting laws, but chose to add the language into their senate bylaws. During the Oct. 5 senate meeting, the bill to remove the section reading “all ASUI senate meetings shall be publicly noticed and in accordance with Idaho Code, which deals with the open meeting laws and notice of meetings” was proposed. ASUI sen. Jimmy Fox, who is also a member of the R&R Committee, voted to pass the legislation on to the senate for a full vote. “I think this is something that is important for the whole senate to consider,” Fox said. He said he is “still evolving” his position on whether the legislation should be passed, but he also said that by removing the language it would change the rules to “reflect the real world.” “All ASUI meetings are open except executive sessions,” Fox said. “Ultimately the decision (on bills or matters of ASUI) will happen in the (open) senate.” Fox said sensitive matters should be discussed behind closed doors, depending on how a person defined such situations, and listed personnel matters as an example. “I think it’s insulting to a person to talk about them in public,” Fox said. When asked if he thought Vandal Taxi was a sensitive issue that should be discussed in an executive session, he declined comment. “Vandal Taxi has been a very sensitive issue for awhile but I can’t really comment on much about it because I’m relatively new in ASUI.” Fox added that he sees little reason for students to believe they will not be involved in ASUI. “Students always have a role in ASUI and passing this bill won’t change that.” ASUI presidential policy adviser Chris Dockrey and ASUI sen. Travis Galloway have said the proposed legislation will clarify the obligations of ASUI when it comes to closed meetings. Dockrey previously told The Argonaut “this won’t affect ASUI’s openness to student input and involvement.” ASUI leaders have been adamant that no violation of meeting law occurred during the Sept. 28 senate meeting. Everett said while he did vote against the proposed legislation in committee, he did not believe senators had committed any inappropriate act, and ASUI leaders had confirmed that with Josh Decker, ASUI attorney general and a third-year law student in the University of Idaho’s College of Law. “Passing this, in some way, is admitting some sort of guilt,” Everett said.  Add as favorites (49) | Views: 1281
Write Comment
|
||||||
