Knight News has learned from an email released by the University of Central Florida that the Student Government Election Commission will be holding a secret hearing Wednesday that could decide if a candidate will be thrown off the ballot.
Closing these hearings is unprecedented — these election hearings have always been open in the past.
The hearing comes as a result of candidate Jacob Milich saying he would run before SGA allowed him to say so. This comes after Milich told SGA he would sue it for violating his first amendment rights.
Knight News emailed David Oglethorpe, UCF’s record custodian and communication coordinator and asked for any emails that may have been sent regarding the closure of the violation hearing.
Oglethorpe sent an email chain to Knight News that was exchanged by the candidate and Katie Marshall, SGA’s Election Commission Advisor. In that email, Marshall told the candidate that the meeting would be closed to the public, which according to Knight News’ attorney, would violate the Sunshine Law.
After sending the email, Oglethorpe was quick to realize he had made a mistake and sent another email to Knight News stating, “This previous email was inadvertently sent and its attachment is unreleasable as per FERPA restrictions. Please delete the message dated Fri 3/11/2016 10:58 AM.”
Knight News and its attorney Justin Hemlepp will sue to enforce the public’s right to oversee its government if the hearing is closed.
Check back to Knight News for continued updates on this story.
