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The University of Maine’s General Student Senate voted unanimously to try Student Body President Nelson Carson for impeachment at its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday.
The trial will be held March 29 to decide whether removal from office is necessary.
Sen. Sam Helmke, who sponsored the resolution, said it was time to “hash out” problems that have arisen during Carson’s short tenure as president, which only dates back to January.
According to the written articles of impeachment, Carson “failed to set a proper direction and professional tone of UMSG”; did not attend meetings with UMSG employees, staff and cabinet members; failed to abide by a directive from UMSG to oversee the completion of a website by Jan. 19 and violated the terms of that same contract with the website developer; and failed to provide “coherent direction through poor leadership.”
After Carson responds to testimony offered at the trial, the meeting will move into executive session and will be closed to the public. Senators will debate, come to a consensus and determine if removing Carson from office is the appropriate action.
Sen. Alex Ortiz, a co-sponsor of the bill, said the impeachment trial is the necessary forum to sift through the facts and decide whether the president has fulfilled his job duties.
“There’s been talk about impeachment for a very long time,” Ortiz said. “This is the sixth president I’ve seen and I would not have agreed to put my name as a co-sponsor if I didn’t agree that this needed to be looked at.”
Sen. Mark Brunton, another of the bill’s co-sponsors, said that senators’ concerns with Carson had been growing for a while.
“We all like Nelson,” Brunton said. “We’ve been concerned for some time. We wanted to give him a chance to save himself before we got to this point, but it’s strictly a matter of ineffective leadership”.
Carson said that he would have answered legitimate concerns with his presidency individually with senators, but none approached him. Instead, he said that the impeachment would be viewed as a “weakening” of UMSG.
“If you guys don’t think I deserve to be president, I will step down 100 percent. I have not had this expressed to me yet until this moment,” Carson said. “I can fully defend all of these and give the opportunity now. From my perspective this is not the right way to defend allegations a few senators might have.”
Carson’s comments come amidst senators’ second public discussion of impeachment in as many weeks. At the March 15 meeting of UMSG, several senators voiced their dissatisfaction with Carson’s tenure as president and had considered impeaching him. Former senator Chris Knoblock said 35 drafts of an impeachment resolution were written, but senators decided at the last moment to scrap the plan.
On Tuesday, senate voted 33-0 to impeach Carson, with two senators absent.
After the meeting, Helmke declined to comment on specifics of the charges prior to the trial.
“I plan to bring into evidence specific examples through witness testimony that will provide the jury and the public with clear knowledge of the infractions and misconduct,” he said.
Helmke added that lines of communication between Carson and senators were “murky at best,” adding a trial was the most professional option available to hear answers to direct questions.
“He hasn’t met a job description. It should not be up to me to go down to the Wade Center and tell president Carson to do his job,” Helmke said. “Why is it I can walk into the office, ask for a job description of the UMSG president and find serious issues, and he can’t see them?”
Helmke said an e-mail containing the articles of impeachment was sent to members of the senate before the meeting to clear up any questions senators, many of whom have recently joined UMSG, may have with the impeachment procedure. The e-mail also asked whether senators would be voting in favor of impeachment.
Carson was not sent a copy of the legislation before senate convened, but according to several senators he was warned beforehand that he would be facing a resolution calling for his ouster. Carson has denied these claims, saying he was caught “out of the blue.”
Carson, in an interview after the meeting, said he was not worried about the trial and was eager to defend himself against the charges. Carson was dubious about the level of professionalism in GSS, calling the accusations a “witch hunt” and saying senators should have voiced their concerns about his performance in private.
“I don’t understand it outside of being personal,” Carson said. “It wouldn’t have been brought up otherwise. If there were true reasons, I would have resigned.”
GSS also tabled a resolution that would have allocated $584.92 to Ryan Gavin for the construction of a UMSG website. The contract constituted the third UMSG had drawn-up with Gavin, who was originally contracted to have the site completed by Jan. 19 but agreed to extend the deadline to March 15 after the date passed without a finished product.
After the March 15 deadline passed with the website uncompleted, senate again extended Gavin’s contract, scheduling a completed website to be presented between April 18-26. Gavin has received $926.98 for his previous work. All proposed meetings with Gavin will be suspended until the contract dispute is settled.
Earlier in the meeting, Sen. Kyle Franklin presented an alternative website created by Lydia Chang “in three days,” that he said should be used in place of Gavin’s ongoing project. The website contained a homepage with a message from incoming UMaine President Paul Ferguson, senators’ biographical information and pictures, committee information, and links to Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Ortiz, who sponsored the legislation, originally moved to void the contract. Vice President for Financial Affairs Giang Vo explained she had not signed the contract as she was awaiting senate approval, and the document therefore had not come into effect. Director of External Affairs Jose Roman said Gavin already “scored an easy $1,000 from us” and doubted Gavin would seek to enforce the contract.
“Is he really going to come after us for $600 and force us to give him that money for work he hasn’t done? It’s not going to make him look good,” Roman said.
However, senators raised concerns they would violate Maine state law and that Gavin would chose to pursue legal action against the organization. Helmke and Sen. Casey Lancaster urged caution, arguing that it was easier to table the resolution for a week and research the legal implications that voiding the contract would cause. The senate approved this motion.
In an interview after the meeting, Gavin said he would have to consider his legal options if the senate chose to void his contract.
“I have a signed contract from them and, if they are not going to honor it, I am forced to pursue legal action,” Gavin said, adding, “I find this to be very slimy. People in the organization who don’t like Ryan Gavin say, ‘Hey, let’s undercut him and bring someone else in who can make something flashy.’”
GSS also allocated $6,135 to two groups.
$4,950 was granted to Wilde Stein for its annual Pride Week, a celebration of sexual diversity, from April 11-16. The money will be used for flag work ($500), a disc jockey ($50), HIV testing ($500) and guests Jenny Boylan ($500) and Julie Goldman ($3,400).
$1,185 was allocated to the American Institute of Chemical Engineers for the AMIChE Northeast Regional conference held at the University of Rhode Island April 1-3. The funds will be used for hotel lodging for 30 people. The group will be testing their “Chem-E-Car,” a vehicle powered entirely by chemical reactions, at the conference.
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