Confusion over impeachment statutes, student privacy laws and an open admission by an SGA senator that people skipped out on the meeting because they didn’t want to take a vote on whether to investigate accusations against Student Body President Michael Kilbride clouded Thursday’s SGA Senate meeting which resulted in Kilbride’s impeachment charges being dismissed.
In a stunning move, members of the Legislative Judicial and Rules committee, who previously voted in favor of investigating the charges through the impeachment process, changed their votes when it came time to make the same decision on the Senate floor. Senators told KnightNews.com the pressure felt before the vote was intense, as attendance at the meeting was much lower than usual and Sen. Clarice Warrick even admitted on the open floor that people skipped out on the meeting because they didn’t want to vote.
Warrick tried to abstain from the vote, citing her friendship with Kilbride as a conflict. Ultimately, it was decided that she had to vote yesterday. She was one of the 23 people who voted not to investigate the charges against Kilbride. Seven senators voted that the impeachment affidavit should be fully investigated.
During the meeting, some senators debated that the impeachment shouldn’t go through because Kilbride’s term expires next month and it would do more harm than good for SGA’s reputation to go through the impeachment process.
KnightNews.com talked with former senators who believe openly debating and considering the impact on SGA’s reputation instead of focusing strictly on whether the accusations fall within the realm of an impeachable offense broke SGA statutes.
Here are relevant SGA Statutes relating to how impeachment hearings should be held:
C. The Senate will then deliberate on the merits of the Affidavit(s) as being within the jurisdiction of an impeachable offense.
1. Senators may not debate on the validity or plausibility of the Affidavit(s), nor may any additional evidence be presented or discussed.
2. The debate that is permitted during this Impeachment Hearing is whether or not the Affidavit(s) has any basis of the accused having committed an impeachable offense.
a) If there is a question as to additional evidence needed or some level of concern that there may be more to the Affidavit(s), the Senate should move to impeach the individual and allow for complete investigation during the Discovery Process.
b) If the Senate does not see substantial evidence or concern with regard to the alleged violations, or if the Senate does not find that the allegations warrant an impeachable offense, the Senate should move to dismiss the charges.
Based on these statutes, it’s not clear why some members of the LJR committee changed their votes to “no” after already voting “yes” in committee that the accusations in the affidavit “fell within the jurisdiction of an impeachable offense.” The individual who filed the affidavit could appeal the the Judicial Council to have the affidavit reheard without the non-germane debate being brought up. However, it’s not clear if the individual would do so without much time to have an impeachment removal trial before Kilbride’s term expires.
Kilbride has not apologized over the allegations raised in the impeachment affidavit or offered further comment to KnightNews.com after the award-winning news organization first exposed how his SGA gave more than $50,000 in business to a T-Shirt and marketing company which Kilbride admitted gave him a $2 per shirt deal for his campaign. Kilbride never once got a $2 deal from the company when SGA was spending student money on shirts instead of Kilbride’s private money.
During a meeting of the LJR committee, which voted to send the affidavit onto senate for further consideration, Deputy Pro Tempore Samantha Friefeld said Kilbride broke rules governing purchasing with student Activity & Service Fee dollars.
The policy she was referring to states that the A&SF Business Office “requires quotes from two different vendors when requesting $3000 – $6000, for requests greater than $6000, quotes from three different vendors are required.”
Friefeld explained how that policy, which is taught during A&SF financial training and all SGA officials must complete, applies to the current situation.
“That (policy) also applies to Student Government as well as all of our agencies, and the fact that Kilbride lacked providing a quote for Conference USA does break that rule,” Friefeld said during the meeting.
While Kilbride made it clear he issued his “final statement” on the matter to KnightNews.com, he has continued giving interviews to another student newspaper covering UCF, where he denied any wrongdoing. He also wrote an editorial piece dismissing the concerns students, local, state and national media have raised or covered during his presidency. “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is who you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are,” Kilbride wrote, quoting a legendary UCLA basketball coach.
Throughout the process, Kilbride had the support of Vice President-Elect Adam Brock, even when the general students were against him.
In a Facebook poll on KnightNews.com, more than 120 students voted that the Senate should impeach Kilbride after this question was asked: “Should SGA President Mike Kilbride be impeached over how he gave $50K worth of SGA contracts to a T-Shirt company that gave him a sweetheart $2 campaign shirt deal?”
Brock was one of about 20 people who answered the question this way: “No, I see nothing wrong with what he did.”
The president-elect, Matthew McCann, has stayed out of the controversy.
The McCann-Brock administration is currently accepting applications for paid cabinet positions in SGA.
In another unprecedented move by UCF, for the first time KnightNews.com is aware of in UCF history, the UCF state agency has refused to release a copy of the impeachment affidavit against Kilbride, citing FERPA privacy law. UCF just released a redacted copy of an affidavit filed against a student senator last summer. KnightNews.com has formally requested a mediation with the Office of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to see if UCF can be persuaded to release the same document it used to release in the past. UF recently lost a lawsuit over keeping student government records secret on the basis of FERPA.
