BREAKING: Brown/Barreto impeached
September 20, 2022
The SGA Senate impeached and removed Student Body President Quson Brown and Vice President Alejandro Barreto from office Tuesday evening.
The vote to impeach and remove Brown and Barreto from their roles comes following an investigation into their conduct. With two abstentions, the vote ended 22 in favor of impeachment and removal from office, and two not in favor.
“Quson Brown and Alejandro Barreto were removed from office and permanently disqualified from future office,” said Hunter Clark, chair of the Student Senate Committee on Rules.
The majority vote removes the two from office, and makes Gabe Montalbano, the Senate president, the acting SGA president. If Montalbano decides to go under oath, he will become SGA president. However, if Montalbano decides otherwise, a special election will occur for the student body to elect a new president and vice president.
“Gabe Montalbano certainly does not intend to become student body president … He has told he does not want to take the oath,” Clark said.
As former president of the 2022-23 academic year, Brown served on the board of trustees for the university. What occurs for the BOT vacancy is undetermined.
UPDATE on Sept. 21:
“The Committee found a failure to perform the functions and duties of the office and multiple occurrences of malfeasance in office,” according to the Senate Rules Committee report.
The violations against Brown are as follows:
– The failure to perform functions and duties links to a bill passed in Senate during the Gardin-Evans administration in April where every residence hall would be equipped with Naloxone. The bill was due for implementation during Brown’s presidency, where he informed a senator he would not enact the bill to “the fullest extent possible,” according to the report, thereby failing to perform his functions and duties in the eyes of the Senate.
– Malfeasance in office due to the submission of an “illegitimate petition” on behalf of a senator who did not have proper solicitation to consent and sign the document, according to the report.
– Malfeasance in office due to the reappointment of two Cabinet members, who had not received the 2/3 Senate vote for their position confirmation, is included in the malfeasance case. The two were appointed to interim office despite “once an individual has been considered by the Senate they may no longer hold interim office,” according to Article VI, Section 3. C of the SGA Constitution.
– Malfeasance in office due to the expenditure of SGA student funds totaling at least $6,000 without the signature of President Pro-Tempore of the Senate, therefore creating “an imbalance of branches due to a lack of Senate approval and ultimately leading to the unconstitutional discharge … at the direction of the Student Body President,” the report states.
– Malfeasance in office due to the use of “intimidation tactics” during the campaigning period and during the office term, “in attempts to control individuals to ensure that their will is done in the ASU-SGA” with quotes from former presidential candidates Evan Martino and Connor Ranes and the former Brown/Barreto campaign manager Collin Reinisch.
The violations against Brown and Barreto are as follows:
-Malfeasance in office due to violation of the terms of Election Bylaws through the continued use the Instagram account @brownbarreto2022 following the end of the campaign period and before the next campaign period opens. The Rules Committee considers this “campaigning despite this being disallowed,” according to the report.
-The failure to perform the functions and duties in regard to an email detailing an internal change after citing SGA operating under an “unethical and illegal version of the Constitution,” which the Committee found to be an “attack” and the presidential duties and oaths “directly violates multiple provisions found within the ASU-SGA Constitution,” according to the report.
This article was updated Sept. 21 with additional information regarding the specific violations leading to the impeachment.
Editor’s note: After receiving a content removal request, an editorial decision in compliance with SPJ Code of Ethics was made to remove the names of the two cabinet members who did not receive the 2/3 Senate vote for their position confirmation and were appointed to interim office.
Editor’s note: The two Cabinet members who did not receive the 2/3 Senate vote for their position confirmation resigned from SGA the morning of Sept. 6, before the impeachment investigation began.
