In a surprising move the Student Government Association (SGA) held two impeachment hearings during the last two meetings holding two students accountable for allegations of poor attendance and lack of representative involvement.
A Graphic investigation found that the impeachment process violated certain bylaws of the SGA constitution. President Daelan Blankfein later explained the executive board’s reasoning saying he believes the group took the appropriate actions.
Senior Class President and Graphic Perspectives Editor Brendan Fereday was exonerated by a senate vote yesterday. Junior Class Senator Nicolai Savaro was in fact impeached by a three-fourths vote of the senate and has been stripped of his voting privileges and stipend by decision of the executive board.
Blankfein expressed that the excessive number of meeting absences was justification for the hearings to take place seeing that the constitution states that “no member of the Senate shall be allowed to miss more than three meetings per semester regardless of reason.”
“It is policy to hear out the reasons why they missed the meetings or showed up tardy Blankfein said. They’re the ones that are doing the disservice to all of their classmates constituents and to the Pepperdine campus on a whole by not showing up to the meetings.”
Executive interpretation took a swing at constitutional adherence following Savaro’s impeachment.
According to the SGA constitution a “special election” should have been held following Savaro’s impeachment to allow his constituents — the junior class — to vote on his stay as junior class senator. Blankfein said that the technological delays of sending out a ballot to the student body in the dwindling time remaining in the semester left the executive board questioning the value of holding the election.
[Update: See update below for constitution text governing special elections and SGA’s interpretation thereof.]
Deeming the election a hassle and unnecessary the executive board stripped Savaro of his voting power and stipend as a devised punishment. Savaro technically still holds the title of junior class senator having not been voted out by his class.
Blankfein stands by the choices made by the executive board to interpret the constitution privately and confer a penalty they deemed worthy of the impeachment.
“I speak for the rest of the exec board because this has never been a single decision of a single one of us. It’s always been a group Blankfein said. I’m very positive when I say that we may have done it
slightly differently but it wouldn’t have changed the result. … We gave everyone a chance to discuss things.”
An SGA committee called the General Judicial Council (GJC) is the body that receives impeachment petitions reviews them and then decides whether or not to send the petitions to the senate for a full vote.
Last year’s chair of the GJC senior Chris Tolan identifies the significance of council to strictly defend the constitution and hold the executive board accountable just as the judicial branch checks and balances the other branches of the U.S. government.
“There’s a process in place to take care of things like this Tolan said, and that process is not meant to be ignored.”
After a couple of fellow SGA senate members grew disgruntled with Fereday’s and Savaro’s performance two submitted written petitions to Blankfein who then redirected the discrediting reports to the GJC of which Fereday was the current chair.
The E-board reassembled the GJC to remove Fereday as chairperson a conflict of interest as his performance was being questioned.
According to the constitution he should only have been removed from that position as a result of a 75 percent vote in the senate. According to Blankfein removing Fereday as chairperson to avoid conflicting interests was a warranted interpretation of the constitution by the executive board.
Savaro said he feels as though he is taking the brunt of these executive interpretations as the first impeached member of the senate and that many other SGA members share his poor attendance and lackluster involvement. He called for more authentic activity within SGA.
“There is a façade of prestige but there needs to be more substance Savaro said.
While Blankfein could not comment on the individual justifications for Savaro’s impeachment and Fereday’s exoneration, he expects all members of SGA to hold themselves accountable to the student body they represent.
I try to do things that will make Pepperdine a better place not things that will necessarily earn me credit but will create opportunities for people to leave Pepperdine loving it just as much as I do.”
CLARIFICATION: This article has been updated to clarify that it was a three-fourths vote of the senate that impeached Savaro.
UPDATE ON INTERPRETATION: This is the section of the SGA constitution that governs when special elections should be held. Members of SGA and their General Judicial Council said they interpret this section to mean that the constitution wouldn’t allow for a special election to take place.
From Article IIIX: C. Special elections shall be held for the purpose of removing voting members from office to fill any vacancies in any elected office and to approve amendments to the Constitution.
1. Special elections for the purpose of removing voting members from office shall be held within one week of impeachment proceedings in the Senate.
2. Special elections for the purpose of filling vacancies in elected office or approving constitutional amendments shall occur if necessary at four times throughout the year:
i. Coinciding with regular elections for Class Senators.
ii. On the first Wednesday in November.
iii. On the third Wednesday in January after the beginning of the spring semester.
iv. Coinciding with Major Elections for the student body.
