Allegations fly at chaotic Student Senate meeting

Brad Conley, interim student senate president, watches as Tau Kotoni raises his hand during a senate meeting on Sept. 22, 2010 in L.3000. The meeting was contentious for both as the senate debated Kotoni's actions as vice president over the summer.

In a contentious and often heated debate, interim student senate President Brad Conley alleged that Vice President Tau Kotoni exhibited dishonesty in the aftermath of then President-Elect Kerrick Sarbacker’s abrupt departure from MCTC at a student senate meeting on Sept. 22, 2010.

Kotoni had fulfilled the president’s duties since July 1, until Aug. 27, when the senate’s executive board held a “vote of no-confidence,” as Conley called it, and appointed Conley as interim president.

During that time period, Conley alleged that Kotoni misrepresented himself as the president. After the executive board brought up the issue at its meeting on Sept. 16, Kotoni said that he had not inappropriately used the title and that he had never considered himself president.

“I never had the title of interim president,” Kotoni said. Later, as confusion and tension rose in the debate, he said, “Is everybody clear? We’re going in circles.”

Contrary to Conley’s story, Ryan Schwingler, who serves as the faculty adviser to the student senate, explained in an e-mail after the Sept. 22 that there “was never a vote of no-confidence taken.”

“The senate executive board,” Schwingler wrote, “does not hold the authority to remove an executive officer from their position.”

He continued, writing that, throughout what he called a “transitional period,” Kotoni had remained the senate vice president, but after Conley’s appointment as interim president, Kotoni would no longer need to “[conduct] the affairs of the [Student] Senate,” referencing the senate’s by-laws.

A collection of e-mails and Facebook screenshots that City College News obtained reveal that, from at least late July through mid-August, Kotoni did refer to himself as the student senate’s leader. In e-mails about an upcoming executive board meeting and the senate’s tabling efforts, “MCTC Student Senate President” followed “Taulant ‘Tau’ Kotoni” in Kotoni’s signature line.

“My first business trip to LA as Senate President,” the caption to Kotoni’s Facebook photo album — titled “California-Love at First Flight!” — read, “to represent MCTC, in USSA’s 63rd Annual National Student Congress.”

At the Sept. 22 meeting, Kotoni further argued that he could not have been removed from a position he never held. He then went on to explain to the senate whether students can hold two positions at once.

However, according to Conley, the issue at hand was being skirted.

“It’s about honesty,” Conley countered, as he entertained a motion for discussing the removal of Kotoni from his role in student senate. Conley said he was concerned about the “character” of Kotoni.

During the back and forth between the senate’s two leaders, students in the room began to line up next to signs marked “pro” and “con,” meant as a means to discuss the positives and negatives of a particular motion.

Senator Ugaso Sheik-Abdi encouraged the body to move past the drama.

But after the crosstalk grew more heated and even more exclusive to just Kotoni and Conley, Kotoni suggested that Conley should go “through the by-laws better.”

“This is not an aggressive place,” Senator Dan Featherstone interjected.

To keep order, senators introduced and passed a motion to impose a 30-second limit on discussion for each student. Abby Rouster, director of legislative affairs, also assumed Conley’s role as the meeting’s chairperson due to Conley’s direct involvement in the discussion at hand.

Director of Health and Wellness Justine Murphy moved to establish a standing committee to investigate the allegations and provide a recommendation for action to the whole senate body.

With side conversations increasing in volume in the meeting room and the number of senators needed for a quorum dwindling, Kotoni moved to amend the committee’s membership to include 10 student senators instead of five. His amendment failed in a divided vote.

Another senator put forth an amendment to require the five committee members each to be from different clubs and organizations. As the senate considered this amendment, dismissive comments and pessimism came from students attending the meeting.

One unidentified student said that he was new to the senate and that he found an air of dishonesty in the senate present.

Confused on his status as a senator, another student asked, “Was I ratified?” He added, “Can I quit now?”

After the room had lost a significant part of the students who attended, senators demanded that it be determined whether the senate still had quorum, or the number of members needed to continue business.

Amy Daher, who was filling in for the duties of the director of communications, took roll call again, and quorum still existed.

Finally, the senate held a divided vote which created the investigation committee. Some of the “no” votes appeared to be solely for the purpose of registering disdain for the meeting’s proceedings, which had become long and strayed from the original published agenda.

Among the agenda items which did not receive attention were preparations for the Sept. 29 visit of college President Phil Davis and Dean of Students Laura Fedock and a “student life guide with [Director of Health and Wellness] Justine Murphy.”

At about 4:45 p.m. the meeting adjourned after losing quorum.

At this time, minutes of the Sept. 22 meeting, which were online at the student senate’s website, showed no details about the discussion that had occurred. Archived video footage of the Sept. 22 student senate meeting is available at http://citycollegenews.com/live/.

Editor’s note: On Sept. 23, the student senate executive board removed Kotoni as vice president, using a procedure in Robert’s Rules of Order, which govern how the senate operates in addition to its constitution and by-laws, to rescind his election. For that story, see “Kotoni removed as vice president” on page 1.