SGA article

SGA Records Policy Disservice to Students, Conflicts with Laws

By Jason McGill

As the Student Government Association transitions into the 09/10 session, the new administration would do well to look into record keeping practices at SGA that are at best suspicious and at worst illegal.

On February 23, The Underground requested SGA budget and attendance records going back to 2005, the year that SGA became wholly funded by student fees.  It took 18 days for SGA to produce this year’s budget. The attendance information provided for the current year was incomplete, as it didn’t list the names or total number in attendance for many of the meetings. 

For budget and attendance information from years past, we were referred by Courtney Wendell, junior and SGA’s Director of Public Relations, to the SGA archive in Meyer Library.  However, there were no recent attendance records, and the most recent complete budget in the archive dates from 1993, twenty-six years ago.

Missouri’s Sunshine Law states that all records of public governmental bodies, with certain explicit exceptions, shall be open to public inspection.  The Law also mandates that such bodies appoint a custodian of records, who will respond within three business days in writing to any records request.  The Law states that in the minutes of public meetings, a record of members both absent and present will be included.

Currently, SGA minutes do not include information on attendance.  Jon Stubblefield, sophomore and SGA’s Sergeant-at-Arms, said his sign-in sheets, the method of taking attendance at Senate meetings, are used primarily to track absences and determine if a quorum is present.  “When I first took on the position, I don't know if I counted everyone in attendance, but since January I've had a numerical count,” he said.  Overall attendance numbers and trends are not collected or reported to anyone.

Additionally, in the Bylaws of the Senate, Article I, Section 2, Paragraph A states that minutes will be available in the Senate office and, “on the SGA website no later than 5:00 p.m. one day prior to the next meeting.”  The minutes from February 17, 24 and from March 3 weren’t on the website until March 13.  As of this printing, minutes from SGA meetings since March 3 are not on the website.  Far from a small matter, Article IV, Section 9, Paragraph D of the SGA Constitution states that SGA officers are subject to impeachment by the Senate for, “failure to uphold this constitution and it’s bylaws.”

Nick Maddux, leader of the College Republicans and a former SGA Senator, said accountability is the number one issue that needs to be addressed in the Senate, and that a better system of accountability would help attract and retain quality Senators.  “You have thirty or so Senators that are good Senators, that do their office hours.  I'll bet half the Senate doesn't sit their office hours,” he said.

SGA does not have a custodian of records position, but Ashley Hoyer, junior and SGA’s Chief of Staff, said that she is in charge of keeping records and uploading minutes to the website.  When asked if SGA had something equivalent to an Inspector General or Government Accountability Office, Hoyer said, “Our Senate is our accountability office.”  However, in the SGA Constitution, the Senate is not given the power to conduct investigations, compel witnesses, or audit records.

Maddux said that some Senators use their position to pad their resumes.  “Not all, but some Senators speak out and raise motions just to make it look like they’re doing something,” he said.

Without complete records or a clear charge of responsibility for checking and auditing those records, accountability becomes impossible.  For example, Wendell said there were significant decreases in the amount of payroll taken by the cabinet in the past couple of years.  “I’ve only taken six hours this semester.  Whitney [Paul] works entirely for free,” Wendell said.  As of December 2008, salaries accounted for forty cents of the one dollar charge each student pays to support SGA.  This is roughly in line with the amount spent in 1993 (thirty-nine percent).  But, without recent budgets to compare, it is impossible to gauge how much progress is being made in saving money, or even whether Wendell’s statement is accurate.

The SGA Senate Archival Act of 2009, passed on February 3 of this year, begins to address the problem of record keeping.  It mandates that all resolutions, memoranda, executive papers, and Campus Judicial Board decisions be delivered to the library archive, and all those documents from the current session and the past two sessions be made available in SGA’s online Document Management System. 

However, attendance and voting records are not addressed in the Act, and neither are budgets.  There is also no mention of a system for organizing the records or summarizing their content, making it onerous for students or SGA members to sift meaningful information from the data.  The Act does not create a system for handling record requests, nor does it charge any officer or committee with investigating and auditing records.  The new administration needs to look into these areas for SGA to become more accountable to the student body and in compliance with state laws and it’s own bylaws.