Illegitimate impeachment

After the Student Senate spent two meetings on the impeachment proceedings of a Student Fee Committee member, the ASPSU Judicial Board decided the final decision to impeach was not legitimate.

On Thursday, March 4, the J-Board began a review of the ASPSU Senate’s decision to impeach SFC Member Ron Lee. According to Brad Vehafric, chair of the J-Board, it was ruled that the Student Senate must provide Lee an opportunity to offer rebuttal at its meeting tonight.

The ASPSU Constitution requires that the J-Board review all impeachments that result in the removal of an ASPSU officer, Vehafric said.

Lee faces impeachment charges after he accused the Pre-Law Society’s President Ashley McClain of financial mismanagement.

On Feb. 23, the Student Senate passed a motion to postpone the impeachment hearing until the following meeting, which took place on March 2, because McClain was not in attendance at the meeting. The Student Senate also agreed to send McClain and Lee a letter or e-mail requesting their presence or a written affidavit at the next meeting. According to Vehafric, a letter or e-mail was never sent. At the March 2 meeting, the Student Senate voted to impeach Lee, though he was not present and no affidavit was given.

Lee will be given an opportunity to provide testimony at tonight’s meeting, and the submitted evidence and testimony already given are still valid, Vehafric said.

Since the impeachment hearing, Lee provided new evidence revealing other instances of PLS membership dues having not been deposited. Lee filed the complaint of financial mismanagement against McClain after he failed to receive $5 in change from his payment of dues. In a memo to the Student Senate and J-Board, Student Activities and Leadership Programs Advisor Suzanne Flores said that then-incoming President McClain found dues that had not been properly deposited, nor had change been given to those who paid their dues in cash.

In an e-mail to the Student Senate, Christian Aniciete, former communications director for ASPSU and current co-chair of the Programming Board, wrote that during the time he “spent in ASPSU as [an] elected senator and communications director over the course of five years, I have spent countless time and energy as many of you have, helping build ASPSU as an organization that truly matters and actually impacts every student at Portland State…with three months remaining this year, how do you want your ASPSU administration to be remembered?”

According to Vehafric, until the impeachment process concludes, Lee is still an active member of the SFC.

The next Student Senate meeting will take place tonight in Smith Memorial Student Union, room 296, at 5 p.m. The meeting is open to the public.