CASG’s motion to temporarily suspend the hiring process for the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) sparked backlash from councillors who raised concerns over transparency and consultation.
At its meeting on Feb. 24, council brought forth a motion to amend the constitution and appoint Tyler Boswell, current vice-president (internal) as the CEO for the upcoming CASG elections in March. Boswell said the amendment will save the council money, time and resources.
“I won’t be running again, and we can save money and won’t have to train someone to go through the bylaws that I have spent much of the year getting acquainted with,” Boswell said, adding he currently does much of the job which would make the transition “seamless.”
Jonah Gaudet said he had concerns about the transparency of the proposed motion.
“The way this reads to me is that the hiring process is being ignored because it takes too much effort and money,” he said.
Gaudet added making the CEO’s role a volunteer position could be a solution.
“In the interest of saving time and money it could be made a volunteer position, that way there would be less applicants and it would save necessary money,” Gaudet added.
Despite some of the concerns brought up, the motion was passed with 19 in favour and seven in opposition.
Bylaw amendments
Council’s attempt to pass bylaw amendments which would remove the role of faculty coordinator was also met with disapproval from councillors, who called for more consultations beforehand.
“The coordinators were not consulted, the councillors were not consulted,” said Ahmed Abdalla, a fourth-year engineering and physics student, who acted as a proxy for Faculty of Engineering and Design coordinator Kristin Johnson.
“With a big decision like this there should have had a longer consultation period and I believe this is a valuable position and the problem is how [the position] is being used, not that it exists,” he added, calling the motion a “rash decision.”
Boswell said CASG’s committees, which have “plenty of vacancies”, give councillors a chance to voice their thoughts and concerns.
“We have committees, but everyone who spoke at the meeting, none of them are on those committees,” he said in an interview.
“I’d like to think on the councillors’ end, there could be more that could be done in terms of not just showing up to the one monthly meeting, but also sending me their thoughts,” Boswell added.
The decision to remove the coordinator position was pushed back until next month’s council meeting. All other bylaw amendments, including expanding the academic initiative fund bylaws to provide funding for fourth-year and capstone projects were successfully passed.
Transparency
Boswell said he’s not concerned over CASG’s transparency moving forward.
“According to our bylaws, if there’s any amendments to the constitution, they have to be sent seven days prior to the meeting, so there’s ample time for councillors to review them and voice concerns and whatnot,” he said in an interview.
“I sent them out following those rules and didn’t hear anything back from anyone so, you know, there’s only so much that I can interpret that councillors want or don’t want to do,” Boswell added.
Featured image from file.
