The Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) continues to break organizational bylaws as its budget, already more than two months late, failed to pass at two separate meetings this week.
With a minimum requirement of 20 council members in attendance, only seven councillors were at a meeting on Feb. 9, while 16 attended an emergency meeting held on Feb. 11.
“If we don’t have the numbers, we can’t vote on [the budget],” said RRRA president Douglas Cochrane at the meeting on Feb. 9, contributing low councillor turnout to decreased student involvement this year.
Concerns around low councillor turnout come after a meeting to amend parts of the constitution on Dec. 1, which passed, lowering the quorum from 25 council members to 20.
The budget was scheduled to be presented at RRRA’s second council meeting on Dec. 8 as RRRA bylaws stipulate, but was postponed because of an ongoing financial audit and the Student Choice Initiative, according to Cochrane.
The audit, completed by an external chartered financial accountant, reviewed RRRA’s records, books and bank accounts, among other documents.
“It’s a very rigorous process,” said Ian Lee, an associate professor of management at the Sprott School of Business, who said the delay could be due to the accounting firm or RRRA not providing documentation on time.
While RRRA is without a budget, only surplus money from last year and revenue from Abstentions, the convenience store in Residence Commons, can be used.
The budget delay follows a number of violations that have taken place this year, including the delayed presentation of the mid-term financial review, the late formation of RRRA committees and the financial review committee failing to meet monthly.
Cobin Welch, a councillor who sits on the financial review committee, said he was largely out of the loop on the budget, aside from a copy Cochrane emailed to all councillors.
Staisya Murphy, who also sits on the financial review committee, said the committee has only met once, on Feb. 5. Bylaws state the financial review committee must meet at least once a month from October to March, excluding December.
Bylaws also state the first meeting of all six bylaw-mandated committees must be called before Nov 1. According to six councillors, no committee positions were finalized until mid-January—more than two months after the mandated deadline.
When asked about the matter, Cochrane initially contended that committees were formed in October. However, after being pressed on the issue, Cochrane said that committees were introduced in mid-November or December and finalized on Jan. 13.
“We had to push for more students to come out and be floor representatives. We couldn’t fill the committees until we had that number,” he said. “We could only make the committees once the councillors responded and filled in all their information.”
The RRRA constitution states that any undergraduate residence student who pays RRRA fees can challenge any act of council that violates organization bylaws by “submitting a written challenge to the Chair of Students’ Council.”
Such challenges are dealt with by the constitutional board, and according to Cochrane, can lead to a referendum.
Next year, Cochrane said RRRA is looking at using a different chartered accountant following budget delays both this year and the last.
Sami Islam, a second-year journalism and law student who was a RRRA councillor last year, said he never saw the budget after missing the meeting where it was passed.
“If you’re able to get [the budget] promptly to people, people know what’s going on faster. In an age of social media, that stuff could be made a lot more accessible,” he said.
“I think at the end of the day we do owe it to our councillors to provide information at the soonest possible time,” said Cochrane, adding RRRA tries to have “as many lines of communication open as possible.”
“You can always do more when you’re in a position in student politics, but I think we have been pretty active in trying to be as open as possible,” he said.
Despite the delays, Cochrane said the transparency of RRRA has not been hurt.
“I totally understand why that would be a perspective,” said Cochrane. “At the end of the day, I don’t think that [the delay] really affected us in terms of transparency.”
Cochrane said executives will hold another meeting after reading week to pass the budget.
Featured image from file.
