The Student Government Association Senate unanimously passed a bill Wednesday that clarifies the process for enacting legislation.
The bill, SGAB46010, written by At-Large Sen. Daniel Cato, CLASS Sen. Taylor Kilroy, Speaker Kyrie Ruiz and SGA President Kenneth Fomunung, was created in response to issues that arose during an Oct. 28 meeting.
‘This is a reaction to what went on last meeting and is a nice collaboration between everyone,’ Ruiz said.
The issue was that Fomunung vetoed bill SGAB46005 because he said it was never presented to him. The bill called for a more fiscally responsible SGA.
Kilroy and Ruiz wanted to overturn the veto because they said the bill was introduced to Fomunung during a summer meeting.
SGAB46010 explains how a bill should be presented to the SGA president, so there will be no confusion in the future. The bill states that any legislation passed by the senate will be printed on SGA letterhead as an official copy and signed by the speaker, and a digital copy of the legislation will also be sent to the president.
Fomunung said what went on at the Oct. 28 meeting and the subsequent arguments brought the SGA together and helped address communication issues that were a growing problem.
‘I’ve talked about how that was our relapsed moment, and I feel it was our epiphany at the same time,’ Fomunung said. ‘What I have noticed ever since is that we have actually been more proactive in our approach, and people come together. I have since had meetings with Speaker Pro Tem Kilroy among others, and we have had conversations and realized the hard way that communication is essential.
‘You can see that we have been working proactively. I’ feel good where we are going.’
Kilroy added to Fomunung’s statement that the arguments during the last SGA meeting helped the senate come together and work out some of their problems.
‘Even though last week might have been a fleeting thing, we have worked to change the way SGA works,’ Kilroy said. ‘Because of that, we had a very long meeting with different senators, internal affairs, most of the executive board and worked out a lot of problems that we have been facing.’
Kilroy also said that most of the financial code, which caused the controversy at the last SGA meeting, was also worked out, but they have decided to wait to introduce it.
Kilroy said regarding SGAB46005 that the senate is moving on to other issues.
‘The bill is vetoed and we are’ OK with it,’ Kilroy said. ‘We feel that taking it to a hearing board would be disingenuous and bad for SGA for having to take some internal issues outside. Despite that minor blowup, we have moved past it; we are working better and we have better legislation.’
Senators also voted to move Cato to the Internal Affairs committee from Academic Affairs. Kilroy said this was done because of the work Cato had put forth with the clarifying bill and other projects Internal Affairs was working on.
