It’s positively shameful that the meat of Student Union’s decision to elect Pam Bookbinder vice president was done in absolute secrecy. While the candidate statements and interviews were done in public, the legislature held its discussion of the candidates in a closed executive meeting.
Closed meetings are anathema to a democratic government, which is based on openness and accountability. It’s no accident that Missouri’s Sunshine Laws are purposely expansive and inclusive-it allows the public to check up on their elected (and unelected) representatives. While the Sunshine Laws do not bind SU, we expected that they’d agree with the spirit of the laws.
There are some legislators that met our expectations, like Jeffrey Waldman, Tony Zand, Diana Westerberg and Abram Rose (apologies to others we omitted). But the majority of the Legislature thought that their responsibility to some of the VP candidates superceded their responsibility to their constituents. Their argument to close the meeting was based in part on a need to be “nice” and considerate to the nominees to ensure that the discussion didn’t damage relationships between SU officials.
Being “nice” isn’t part of an official’s job responsibilities, unlike being accountable to a constituency. If the nominees couldn’t separate their personal feelings from their professional role, and would take offense at the legislature’s criticism of how they handled their offices, tough.
Moreover, Bookbinder was not properly elected. The Legislature allowed several members of each house to vote by proxy, expressly against SU’s statutes. Parliamentary procedure is based on Robert’s Rules of Order, which state, “It is a fundamental principle of parliamentary law that the right to vote is limited to the members of an organization who are actually present at the time the vote is taken in a legal meeting.” Departures from the rules must be expressly authorized in bylaws, but no such exception exists.
Splitting hairs? Not at all: Bookbinder was elected by a bare majority in the Treasury and Senate. It is more than conceivable, it is possible, that had the Speakers of the Senate and Treasury followed proper procedure, then Bookbinder wouldn’t have won.
Of course, Marc Bridge and Ed Banti, the respective speakers, say that the spirit of the law was followed, though Banti agreed that the letter of the law seemed to have been broken. But the spirit of the law was broken. Again, Robert’s Rules say that prohibition on proxy voting constitutes “a fundamental principle of parliamentary law.”
In light of this breach, Senate and Treasury need to reconvene and get the process right. Sure this will inconvenience the bodies, but democracy isn’t founded on convenience or expediency. If legislators have complaints, that’s understandable; the negligence of Banti, Bridge, and Parliamentarian Jessica Jones is inexcusable.
As Senator Aaron Keyak put it, “When we took our oath as elected officials, we took our oath to follow the constitution and the statutes.” The student body deserves no less.