Oregon Daily Emerald

Tuesday night, ASUO President Amelie Rousseau’s veto was not overturned by the Senate, meaning the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee now has to go back and negotiate again with athletics and Lane Transit District to find some money, any money, for the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group.

The votes happened. Check them out for yourself. Those who changed their votes from opposing the group to opposing the override did so because they saw options to be explored in LTD renegotiation that they didn’t see before.

Moving forward, it’s all about a meeting with Andy Vobora of LTD to try to work out a lower per-student rate than the one most groups pay. Sen. Ian Fielding has had a problem with this idea from the beginning of the process based on the context of this contract; what happened last year* has caused many in the ASUO to favor giving them the full group rate.

*During last year’s negotiations, which stretched into the summer, former ASUO President Emma Kallaway and the previous ACFC worked out a situation with the bus service where the student government could give it a discounted rate for the 2010-11 school year on the agreement that the ASUO would pay it the normal rate thereafter.

Fielding talked about the limited time before a budget has to be decided on.

“At this point, given that it’s Dead Week — finals week and spring break are coming up — now it’s in Amelie’s hands, so we just have to put a lot of trust into what she’s going to do for students,” Fielding said after the meeting Tuesday night.

Though Sen. Kaitlyn Lange suggested ACFC members resign if an override didn’t pass, Fielding said Tuesday night he would continue to work with Rousseau and others on the committee to try to figure out a possible lower rate. Being the tag* for LTD, Fielding has spent more time than anyone this term looking at the contract and talking to its representatives to work out their allocation.

*Each committee has each of its members be a “tag” for a contract or program, which just means they spend more time talking to the group and help the rest of the committee work through the hearing process with the individual groups they focus on.

Rousseau, Fielding and the ACFC will work these next three weeks to get a lower rate with LTD and give those funds to OSPIRG. They have until March 31 to cut a deal.

The promised has become reality; ASUO President Amelie Rousseau officially sent out a veto of the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee as of 11:34 a.m. Thursday morning because it did not feature a contract or funding for the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group.

“This budget does not represent the many students who want to fund advocacy on public interest issues, and give back to the community around them.  Although the budget adequately represents many other types of students – students who go to football games, students who ride the bus, students who require legal advice – there is not even a small fraction that represents students as citizens of the world who care about having more affordable healthcare, a functional public transit system, a more transparent government, or a clean environment in which to live,” Rousseau wrote in the e-mail.

Rousseau wants the Senate to come back with an ACFC budget that does include OSPIRG, “so that we can adequately represent all students and fulfill the service mission of our University.”

Now ASUO Senate has the right to either do the aforementioned and work out a revised ACFC budget or override her veto and keep the current budget.

It is unknown where the funding for an OSPIRG contract would come from because both the ACFC and the Over-realized Fund, a proposed alternative, are at capacity. So, it’s up to Senate.

Despite some concern about how the process was conducted, the Senate eventually approved all six proposal recommendations of its internal “Over-realized Fund committee”,  handing out $197,238 from the fund.

Proposals receiving funding:

- Orgsync: $45,000 – unanimous vote

- Riverfront: $56,238 – 17-1-1

- Subsidized Student Theater Tickets: $50,000 – 18-0-1

- Pedal Power: $8,000 – 17-1-0

- Bike Network: $17,000 – 15-3-0

- Zimride: $21,000 – 12-5-1

On Tuesday evening, the ASUO Programs Finance Committee held its last program recall before finalizing its budget to present to the ASUO Senate on Wednesday night.

The PFC budget is the last major program budget in the ASUO budget to be approved, with the EMU Board, the Departments Finance Committee and the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee budgets already granted Senate approval.

Tonight, PFC Chair Noah Wolf-Prusan will finalize the PFC budget for submission to the ASUO Senate on Wednesday day.

PFC recalled the ASUO Executive’s budget with the intention of taking a closer look at the funding that would make the sustainability coordinator a full-time position. Because fully funding the position would set the PFC budget about $9,000 over the Senate’s recommended growth, the committee wanted to make sure its decision to fund was not made in error because of Exec’s budget coming up early in the process.

Following ASUO Exec staffers promoting the coordinator’s funding and more questions from those absent at the first hearing, ASUO Sen. Laura Hinman made a motion to end discussion, which means the PFC’s original decision stands. Hinman made sure to point out before her motion that Senate may vote to hold another hearing and take some funding away from the position to come closer to the recommendation.

But that’s up to the Senate now. At Wednesday’s “major programs budget” hearing held during ASUO Senate, senators will decide whether to approve or deny PFC’s final budget. According to the Green Tape Notebook, Senate can deny any part of the PFC budget, but it takes a four-fifths vote of filled seats.

Long after most other students had cleared out of the EMU, the ASUO Senate voted down funding the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group at $45,000 with a vote of five affirming and 14 opposing on Wednesday night.

After a discussion that lasted more than two hours, in which presenters again spoke in support of the group receiving funding and senators debated back and forth on the merits and issues with funding, the Senate voted down including OSPIRG in the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee’s budget.

This is OSPIRG’s third time being voted down by ASUO members. The first was at OSPIRG’s formal budget hearing asking for $117,000, and the second was at an appeal hearing with the ACFC asking for $45,000.

Following the final appeal, the Senate heard from the other contracts on the ACFC docket.

Update: $4,007,655 was the amount that set the ACFC at a 7-percent increase; following OSPIRG’s being voted down, the Senate voted on this larger ACFC budget and approved it with 14 senators affirming, three opposing and one abstaining. If ASUO President Amelie Rousseau vetoes this budget, it will require a 2/3 vote of filled seats (currently 20) to override the veto. It would seem the Senate currently has this.

Voting on OSPIRG’s appeal:

Dos Santos – Nay; Hinman – Nay; Snodgrass – Aye; Brooks – Nay; Lange – Nay; Newman – Aye; Woodside-Gomez – Nay; Fielding – Nay; Sedgley – Nay; Wise – Aye; Barkley – Nay; Bidwell – Nay; Bacon – Aye; Thomas – Nay; Powell – Nay; Stark-MacMillan – Aye; Garcia – Absent; Schally – Nay; Hochstatter – Nay; Harding – Nay

Voting on ACFC’s final budget:

Dos Santos – Aye; Hinman – Aye; Snodgrass – Aye; Brooks – Aye; Lange – Aye; Newman – Nay; Woodside-Gomez – Aye; Fielding – Aye; Sedgley – Aye; Wise – Nay; Barkley – Aye; Bidwell – Aye; Bacon – Abstain; Thomas – Aye; Powell – Aye; Stark-MacMillan – Nay; Garcia – Absent; Schally – Aye; Hochstatter – Aye; Harding – Aye