Brown Act Regulations state that the meeting’s agenda has to be posted where the public can view it 72 hours before the meeting.
The Wednesday, Nov. 18 agenda was never made available for public viewing and therefore the official meeting had to be canceled.
ASCC Vice President Ivan Oyarzabal who is responsible for posting the agenda said, “I sent out the agenda to the senators and to the office Thursday at noon, however there was no tangible copy posted on the board accessible to the public 24/7 […] We would be in violation of Brown Act so to not violate that law, I cancelled the meeting and just had an unofficial training.”
For Sophomore ASCC Senator Luis Guzman, the meeting was a review of what he already knew.
He said, “I think it [the meeting] was good just to know things that have been questions for new senators just to know what our power is when it comes to writing legislations.
“[To know] what kinds of things we can do to outreach our constituents. For me it was a good refresher and I think it was really good for the new senators because a lot of them didn’t get that in the beginning.”
During the meeting senators were able to suggest areas in which they would like to receive training in.
Some of the suggestions were training in the Brown Act rules, parliamentary procedure, writing legislation, student outreach, board of trustees outreach, sexual harassment, budget and financial structure and a constitutional and by law study session.
As the meeting continued, a debate began between Oyarzabal and Student Trustee Victor Villalobos.
Oyarzabal commented on the senators “over-scrutinizing of legislation,” which has led to clubs not approaching senate asking for funding.
In response to the comments, Villalobos during the meeting said, “over-scrutinizing is a good thing” and should not be put in a negative manner.
The discussion continued back and forth between Oyarzabal and Villalobos, but not wanting to create partitions in senate both men cleared the air by saying that the discussion was just an exchange of points of view and had no negative feelings for one another.
After the meeting, Oyarzabal said, “We don’t hate each other, like, me and Vic [Student Trustee Victor Villalobos] we’re friends, he’s my [office] neighbor, but the rhetoric that we utilize, the words that we choose are specific to the ideas.”
For Oyarzabal, this unofficial meeting setting was a way to have an open discussion without hierarchy, he said, “I want to get more trust from [senate] […]
“It’s apparent that I hold this credibility, that I hold this position of power and that it’s viewed as an abuse, like a positon of abuse […] My intention is not to abuse this office or the role of this office. I would rather much operate in a horizontal structure in which everyone has an equal say and an equal vote.
“Majority rules, but why let them; that’s the con and the pro of this order Robert’s rules [of order for parliamentary procedure.] I’d much rather have it like we had today informal anybody can talk whenever they want, but we’re just so used to that structure, that procedure.”
For future meetings, Oyarzabal wants to “identify those problem areas that make us [senate] inefficient […] The thing that I want everyone to take from is that there needs to be intrinsic motivation there needs to be something that’s coming from within that’s telling us ‘I need to do my job’ […]
“As an actor I was taught to read the entire book before you open your mouth and that entire book is the [ASCC Government] constitution and the Roberts’s Rules and I haven’t been doing a good job at that.”
“I need to go back into my constitution and Roberts’s Rules and utilize all the things that I can to ensure that these initiatives are moving forward like Falcon Kids and student mentors,” he concluded.
