Students file appeal to impeach Soto

Two Portland State students filed an appeal on July 25 for the impeachment of the newly elected student body president, Rudy Soto, on the grounds of misuse of student fee dollars.

The appeal to the Judicial Board, the highest legislative body in student government, was filed due to a reserve request Soto made for $10,000 from the Student Fee Committee (SFC) on June 15 to cover overages from outgoing Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU) president Courtney Morse’s administration.

Aside from paying for the overages left over from Morse’s administration, Soto said the fund request would pay for staff salaries and “crucial services” to student government. The two PSU students, Alex D’Aurora and Jesse Anderson, filed the appeal to the Judicial Board for the impeachment of Soto after the Vanguard reported on July 3 that Soto had spent the SFC funds on an $8,000 office remodel.

The appeal alleges that the Article VIII Reserve Funds Policy of the ASPSU Constitution states that student fee reserve fund dollars are designed to be used for “one-time unexpected purposes,” and are designed for itemized expenses. The appeal states that “crucial services” are not itemized expenses.

In their appeal, D’Aurora and Anderson argue that by spending student fee dollars on an office remodel, Soto violated Article V, Section 10 of the SFC guidelines, as well as Article VI, Section 1.1, both of which say funds must be used for the spending purposes prescribed to reserve fund requests.

Soto requested at the June 15 meeting that the SFC grant $5,600 of the $10,000 reserve request for staff salaries for the month of June. He later told the Vanguard that he decided not to pay certain staff that had not worked the whole month.

$1,500 was later used to pay the stipends of the executive staff for that month. The July 3 Vanguard article reported that $8,000 was spent on the remodel, on things such as a new paint job and new couches.

Soto said that he believes that D’Aurora and Anderson are well within their rights to file the appeal. Soto also said that one of those two students worked on his campaign for ASPSU president and applied for an ASPSU executive staff job, but was not hired for the position.

D’Aurora worked on Soto’s campaign during the tumultuous election cycle this past spring. D’Aurora and Anderson are align themselves with a group called Confederate Students of Portland State University.

Anderson said the appeal is about making sure that elected officials keep the student government system transparent.

“You can’t just let this sneak by and say no big deal,” Anderson said. “There is serious rule breaking going on. Our politicians need to be transparent.”

Soto said the office remodel ended up costing less than $8,000 but said he did not know a specific number.

The appeal will go to the Judicial Board, which should meet sometime next week. At press time, Judicial Board Chair Keith Creech said the meeting might be at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, August 7, the board’s usual meeting time. The board had been in limbo since the end of the 2006-07 school year, with two vacant seats. Mika’il Abdullah Ali and Sarah Doran were appointed to the two remaining Judicial Board seats were appointed at the July 30 meeting. Two SFC seats that had been vacant, one because of ineligibility, were also appointed at the meeting.