The Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) Council tabled a number of motions at their meeting on Feb. 11.
The meeting began 45 minutes late with council scrambling to meet quorum. As the fourth official meeting this year, it is the second consecutive meeting in which the council has failed to meet its necessary quorum—27 representatives—by the scheduled time.
RRRA president Hyder Naqvi presented a motion to amend the “proper public notice” clause in the association’s constitution. The constitution stipulates that council members must present their motions one meeting prior to having them officially discussed. Naqvi proposed amending this notice to 10 days prior to a meeting.
This caused a stir among council members, especially from Nicholas Drain, the representative from fourth-floor Renfrew House, and the member behind the motion.
“We have not been following this protocol during the rest of the year . . . Why are we sticking to the constitution now?” Drain asked.
Naqvi argued that there is never a bad time to start enforcing policy.
Sidney Kamerbeek, the representative from fourth-floor Grenville House, questioned Naqvi’s understanding of the constitution.
“You said that you were unaware of the constitution. That must mean that you haven’t read your own constitution, which is kind of an issue for me,” she said, but the chair of council ruled this a separate issue.
As a result, one of the motions that was set to be presented at the meeting—a motion to eliminate textbook compensation for executives—had to be pushed to the council’s next meeting, as it was not presented in accordance with the constitution.
The next motion on the table was to recall the current chief electoral officer (CEO) of the upcoming election, Kieran Moloney, on the grounds of ‘no confidence’ because RRRA’s vice-president (programming) Brittany Galler said she was not consulted as a member of the RRRA hiring board.
Naqvi requested that this motion be removed, on the grounds that Moloney is already an official employee, having been hired as CEO. According to RRRA’s constitution, the dismissal of an employee requires a series of warnings followed by official dismissal, and can only take place when an employee has exemplified wrongdoing or violated laws.
The motion was successfully revoked with 12 in favour, six opposed, and nine abstentions.
The third motion presented was to recall the constitutional board on the grounds that members of the board have shown bias towards Jacob Howell, RRRA’s vice-president (administration) who plans to seek re-election.
Howell, who was present at the meeting, requested that the motion be retracted because the two members of the board that were causing concern had stepped down. Kamerbeek, who put forward the motion, then retracted it.
The retracted motion was followed by an impromptu election for the two open positions on the board.
The candidates were Abdelrahman Abdelaziz, Julia Silverthorn, and Thomas Shaw.
Both Silverthorn and Shaw entered the meeting minutes before the election was announced. They are both residents of Kamerbeek’s floor in residence, and Silverthorn confirmed that Kamerbeek had contacted both of them to come to attend the meeting.Abdelaziz and Silverthorn were anonymously voted onto the board.
On Feb. 13, the RRRA Elections Office officially dropped the writ of election. Nominations will take place Feb. 27 through March 2 with successfully nominated candidates campaigning from March 4-8. Voting will occur through online balloting on March 9.
Photo by Drew May
