For those who may not be able to follow along the meeting minutes, I will do a quick summary of the night. Many subjects were brought forward at this week’s senate meeting! Nick Walls was officially voted into Legislative Affairs. It was brought up that Election packets will be available on the 18th, which will need to be turned in to Student Activities by the 4th of March. Information about the budget cut proposed by Scott Walker was given, the results of which will come at the end of this month. The meeting was certainly abuzz with the question of whether or not impeachment proceedings concerning Senator Jeffrey House should begin. The issue will be watched and addressed if any changes occur!

called to order at: 5:00

Absent: Mary Kotleski (excused)
Anton House
PAW

21 on floor

Motion to seat PAW: Garfield Davis
Second: Ben Holmes
PAW seated

22 on floor

Absences report: No office hours from Cory Bullocks, 1 absence
No office hours from Anton House, 2 absences (no voting rights)

Proxies for this meeting:
Jason Wolfe -> Mike Pincikowski (voting and speaking)
Adam Spivey -> Matt Axelson (voting only)

Motion to approve agenda: Ben Holmes
Second: Amanda Barber
Motion passes

Motion to approve minutes: Kevin Croswhite
Second: Garfield Davis
Objection re: absences, Speaker points out that absences are in fact seated later on and are reflected in the minutes
Minutes are approved

Appointments:
Legislative Affairs -> Nick Walls
Appointed by Dana Calamia
Has attended meetings, but has no “real” PSG experience
Involvement at UWP? Volunteer at HALO (homeless assistance center)
12 credits this semester

Motion to approve: Bradford Ermel
Second: Ben Holmes
Approved

Reports:
Dana Calamia is in class, no report
Ron Beesley is sick, no report
Nick Walls: currently in contact with UWSP, waiting on governor’s move on budget, 4 consecutive appearances at Madison in case of dramatic budget cuts to share students’ opinion

Chancellor’s office: Feb 22nd — Budget message
Budget repair bill coming forward
Deficit of 3.6 billion dollars by middle of 2013
higher education will not be spared
what this means for UWS and UW-Parkside: manage our own building projects, work out personnel issues, etc.

Board of Regents meeting this week, streaming online

Elections:
Election packets are currently available in the PSG office and Student Activities
They are due NO LATER than March 4 at 4pm to Student Activities
Questions? Contact Jo Kirst or Matty Bieser
If you are not running for any office, please consider volunteering some time to help with election tables, promotional materials, etc.
Contact Jo for details.

SUFAC:
All budget hearings and appeals are finally completed
Deadline to present final budget to Senate was this week, but due to weather appeals were delayed
Requesting an extension of next Wed to present budget to Senate

Motion to table president’s report: Ben Holmes
Second: Catherine Lambrechts
Approved

Vote to extend Segregated Fee report deadline to next Wednesday (2/16)
passed at 90%

Impeachment proceedings:
Motion to table until next week: Garfield Davis
Second: Catherine Lambrechts

Discussion: Amanda Barber is prepared to proceed with impeachment
Motion withdrawn
Point of Information: Do we have to motion to work on agenda?
Need a motion to vote on commencement of proceedings

Motion to commence: Ben Holmes
Second: PAW

Discussion:
Allegations of House’s inability to perform Parliamentary Procedure
Inhibits Senate from working in an efficient and productive manner
Investigative process begins

Jeff House is willing to resign if this vote passes

If his peers feel like there’s a reason for an impeachment hearing, he’ll save the time/frustration by resigning. It’s a waste of time to have the hearing in the first place

Call to question: Byron Dowse
Second: Amanda Barber

Vote to end discussion and move forward: motion fails
back to discussion: rather than wasting time on a hearing, if the senate feels there is a reason to have him impeached based on performance/disservice to PSG, JH will resign

Amanda Barber has written a formal resolution regarding this issue, please see her if you would like a copy.

Dave Wilson: now is not the time to argue for/against charges, all we have to do now is apply charges, Senate decides AT THIS TIME whether or not to carry on with this proceeding.

Does Jeff House have confidence that there ARE reasons to impeach him?

Call to question: Bradford Ermel
Second: Garfield Davis
vote to end discussion: passes

Vote to proceed with Impeachment Investigation

Record reflects that speaking rights were given out of turn
Was point of information, not out of turn

Byron votes NO (issue with clickers, his vote would not record)
11 out of 19 said yes, motion fails

Motion to un-table reports: Ben Holmes
Second: Kevin Croswhite
Un-tabled

Dana’s report:
Elections — help Jo with elections via promoting or running tables
Cannot help if you are running for position next year
Trying to make FB more active–Join the group!
Show on WIPZ each week, Tuesdays @ 11am

Announcements:
Amanda Barber– misuse of abstention votes — abstentions don’t count as “abstentions,” they count as a REFRAIN of voting
Point of Order resets order on the floor

Can be added to mailing list : Ask Jisha

Dave – BACON act passed and is now law, please read revised bylaws

Becky Chance asked for help with Final Stretch
Meet your Student Government activity?

Building Unity conference for UC
1st weekend in April
diversity, inclusivity, etc. workshops
different delegation than normal
Kasey Pasqualini is contact person for registration for conference

adjourned: 5:44pm