SG clarifies impeachment process
The Student Government Senate passed a bill 29 to 1 Tuesday night to clarify the SG Statutes on impeachment proceedings.
After the investigation of student body president Omar Khan, vice president Ryan Morris and budget committee chairwoman Sandy Legoute, Senate president and author of the bill Ryan Caruso said revisions needed to be made to Section 200, which regards impeachment hearing procedures, of the SG Statutes.
“After the train wreck that we had with three impeachment hearings, I felt we needed a better Section 200,” Caruso said.
The purpose of Bill 39 was to describe a clear and concise way of handling impeachment inquiries.
Caruso added that the main change to SG Statute 200 was that a senator would have to investigate the student’s inquiry by questioning the accusing party and the person or persons being accused, instead of writing a letter to the Senate pro-tempore to begin the process.
“After making these clarifications, I feel we have a very sound way of handling impeachment,” Caruso said.
Greg Hyden, SG senator and former chairman of an impeachment committee, said if the corrections and clarifications would have been made earlier, the committees would have known how to go about the impeachment process.
“This bill would have made my job a lot easier because there would have been pre-investigating already done,” Hyden said.
Other amendments to the statute include stating a 24-hour time period for when the committees must notify the senate president and the accused ,and adding that any member of the SG Supreme Court who is impeached or removed can never hold a position in the Supreme Court again.
“With passing this bill it strengthens one’s right to a fair and fast trail,” Caruso said. “Before it was hard to give a fair hearing because the statutes were in favor of the accuser.”