ASBSU recommends cut in chief of staff pay

The ASBSU Senate declined the FY06 budget Tuesday and gave four recommended budgetary changes to President Joe Holladay.

One of the recommendations is to cut the service award for the executive chief of staff. According to the Senate recommendation, the chief of staff’s pay was raised 175 percent from $106.60 every other week to $188.96. The change occurred sometime between 2003 and 2005, when either Jerilyn Grow or Pam MaGee held the position. Jared Martin is the current chief of staff. The Senate recommended that the service award be reduced to $105.02 every other week, which is the same as the ASBSU executive staff, Judiciary, and Senate.

The recommendations were made by the Senate Budget and Finance Committee, which is chaired by Brandon Stoker.

Stoker said the amount of work done by the chief of staff did not warrant a 175 percent increase. Other senators mentioned the service awards of the Judicial chief justice and Senate pro tempore. Stoker countered that the pro tempore was elected by voters, and the Senate and was not simply appointed to the position. Senate Pro Tempore Wyatt Parke motioned to change the service award to match the chief justice and pro tempore. The motion failed 5-9-0. Stoker then motioned to keep the recommendation as is. It passed 11-2-0. After two senators left for personal privilege, the Senate voted 9-2-0 to send all four of the recommendations to President Joe Holladay. The Senate then voted unanimously to decline the budget.

Some procedural confusion occurred when Parke motioned to table the budget because new senators are still learning Robert’s Rules. Parke had to explain to the senators what he was doing.

“I just made a motion. I know what I’m doing, but you guys can do whatever you want,” Parke said.

Some of the other recommendations were to keep the discretionary fund at $7,500, instead of the proposed 40 percent reduction to $4,500. The Senate recommended lobbyist funds go to the Lobby Committee instead of the lobbyists themselves and that $5,000 instead of $6,500 go to the Lobby Committee. The Senate recommended that one lobbyist be appointed from the executive cabinet and one from the Senate. The last recommendation made by the Senate was to increase a discretionary fund by 143 percent instead of 215 percent because it was “more reasonable.”

Randall Post
News Editor

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