Show THE ELECTION CON CONTINUES TIN U E S. S INTO SUMMER Election Committee leaders supplying new information in in st student dent body ody scandal By Brian J. J Shaw in Editor-in-Chief SALT LAKE CITY CITY Campaign Campaign finance has become a rather hot topic of conversation at Salt Lake Community College but the way in which the election was handled by the Election Committee headed by former fonner Executive Vice President a and d chairperson Mike ik Dawes and Student nt A Association u adv advisors sors has come corne under under closer closer scrutiny as of of late On two separate occasions occasions occasions occa occa- and from two members of the election committee Tyree Geertsen and Erin Brown the rules roles to have been allegedly broken broken broken bro bro- ken were as follows 1 Improperly granting an extension allowing the Party to turn in their campaign finance forms after the deadline mandated in rule of the Standing Rules 2 Changing the Standing rules after active campaigning began a violation of rule 3 Showing bias and favoritism towards the n u. u h 1 d uc t 11 of the t err con Parry forty in cn J election a violation of rule 4 4 Failing to conduct a thorough audit of the Party Party's s s Campaign Finance Form including ignoring errors and omissions a violation of rule and 24 J from Standing Rules of 02 2001 02 Student Body Elections In all five rules roles of the student body elections pertaining to the Election Committee were broken by Dawes fe Diversity Council representative Tyree i Geertsen who served with the Elections Dawes on V Committee spoke to the Gin Globe be beabout in the prel preliminary pre- pre about discrepancies J. J track on meeting on f l jJ March 15 where each political party was to have turned in their Form Campaign Finance i According to Geertsen Dawes and her agreed to split up two parties Synergy and to get it done in half the time Independent candidate Bentley Mitchell was finished with his at 1 pm p.m. and Synergy was just finishing up theirs as the members of the party walked in after the allotted I 1 pm p.m. start time At I 30 the party was known to be present atthe at atthe atthe the meeting and according to Geertsen and student senator Erin Brown another elections committee member they did not have their At that point in time Dawes took them outside for a private meeting said Geertsen It is not is-not not kl was as said between between Dawes and the members of of but a short while after they met Dawes came back into the meeting room and said Were done everybody go home echoed in a consensus by Geertsen and Brown So was favoritism shown towards towards' Absolutely not Dawes said On another occasion and the day before the actual election the Elections Committee granted another extension to the party During an 11 1130 30 pm p.m. meeting which was originally scheduled for an earlier time in the day and extended to allow the TT members to turn in their metr lr r. r the elections chairperson told Brown the forms were fine In Inthe Inthe Inthe the opinions of Geertsen and Brown they believe it was their job to see them the forms Dawes said it was his committee who voted and made the deci deci- sion He didn't comment on their allegations instead saying the were on a table in plain view Former Fonner Student Body President Gaby Bradford was also to have been pr present sent with the committee in Dawes' Dawes words violating Rule of the Standing Rules and the Constitution but he later recanted recanted recanted recant recant- ed his statement to that person being Shea Bullock However according to meeting minutes obtained by the t Globe Bradford Bradfor was present at the meeting in question They voted and they Geertsen and Brown didn't bring it to my attention said Dawes He wasn't sure why Geertsen and Brown came on record as saying they hadn't seen them On the other side of the coin Former Fonner Executive Vice President and last years year's Election Committee chairperson Tim Dennis feels many election rules were broken and the integrity of the Student Association tarnished because Dawes failed to include his committee committee committee com com- in the decisions that were made I did not make any d decisions decisions deci- deci without the say so of my committee cor insisted C Ren Dennis s F Farther he ethe he had hady to disqualify one ca candidate based on lack of accountability lity on and suspended another in last years year's election If you want to fix the problem in the election process you n need ed to add accountability said Dennis Dawes countered Dennis' Dennis state state- ment The process is there to be accountable for what you do Every time a rule was broken it wasn't because after the fact the rule was broken Dawes continued contin contin- Every time a rule was broken broken broken bro bro- ken we the elections committee commit commit- tee decided whether it was okay to bend a rule or stretch a rule and the rule d' d tn to the situation tion He accor 1 n g v admitted that he didn't agree to every such appeal by a candidate candidate candidate candi candi- date which he argued must have havea a due cause Verbal warnings were given to rules being broken broken broken bro bro- ken but nothing more than that Dawes said Dawes also added that thata a fair market value of each donation was added last year to restrict each party and their spending habits but the new rule wasn't followed by either party in the 2000 2001 2000 election in their fornis forms and Dennis had to adhere to the vague terms in the current We changed that rule fair market value last year to list it donated items even if you get them as a discount discount discount dis dis- dis- dis count and that the new rule See ELECTION Page 2 Election Committee Faces Inquiry didn't happen either Dawes C c j- j also said something on the sub- sub xi if I I will say was a 5 0 k vote that it would pass and all candidates would be able to run We doctored them up we wrote our own things we added things we saw sawall all the possibilities Dawes continued We weren't going to disclose any information about how Bentley Mitchell spent this and that After our doctoring up and our investigation and all the stuff h- h that we went through we found that it was still under the the the o minimum balance and that's why we passed it So what is next on the horizon for the Election Committee as the investigation is turned over to the Standards I Review Board made up of Executive Council members and student senators Dennis who has been on both sides of the issue feels a criminal investigation tion from a third party law enforcement agency may be ne to bring justice to the students and integrity back to the Student Association in his opinion i Dawes disagrees I 1 dont don't think it will work Were We're 0 not criminals this is a life and leadership opportunity and we need to be given the opportunity to excel as students he said Should advisors within b the Student Association shoulder the blame for letting the problem get out of hand Dennis is truly torn tom both ways and is unsure almost skeptical if anything can be done The advisors advise and whether or not their advice is taken it the manner in which the elections are run is out of their control control said the former Elections Committee chair As Asit it stands now having a bad ethics day means theres there's nothing that can be done if you make a abig abig abig big mistake under the current system and if the election rules are changed it need needs to go for forthe forthe forthe the elected student body officers who run the student body election election election elec elec- tion not just the candidates In short I will say this If I was a student body officer who people rais raised d questions questions questions ques ques- about and wanted to investigate investigate investigate Id I'd say lets let's schedule a meeting and sit down I l dont don't feel like Ive I've ever done anything I need to hide and I would rather answer the questions anyway said Dennis Salt Lake Community College should be scrutinized closer to prevent this type of thing from happening again in Maybe we should have the accounting club on campus take charge of campaign finances inquired the former Elections Committee chair You can bring in the theCIA theCIA theCIA CIA Central Intelligence Agency if you want Dawes Dawes' retorted in response to Dennis' Dennis idea y H I But it all comes back to accountability there wasn't any and there needs to be some said Dennis in order for things to change The party refused to comment on any allegations allegations allegations alle alle- despite attempts by the Globe during the investigation However a statement was submitted submitted submitted sub sub- by their party see adjoining adjoining adjoining adjoin adjoin- ing article in lieu of th the allega allega- A petition created by independent candidate Bentley Mitchell calling for a Standards Review Board is being passed around the campus ampus by student clubs and their representatives who support the removal of the party and current Election Committee members These include American African-American Club and SOS among others and will continue to circulate the campuses until it has I 1100 I 00 sig sig- sig- sig natures A decision on the petition petition petition peti peti- tion is expected in the late summer summer summer sum sum- mer or early fall with the possibility possibility possibility of another election in the wings Dennis made one final point The candidates shouldn't be hiding anything in the num num- bers hers They should just run an honest campaign its it's not that difficult He said he has nothing personal against Dawes he feels there should be campus wide election reform in all areas in order for the students to feel they have a voice in their gov gov- i A |