By Melissa Prentice
Arizona Daily Wildcat
The Central Coordinating Council sent ASUA President T.J. Trujillo back to the drawing board in his pursuit to fill two appointed positions.
At Wednesday's CCC meeting, the council decided to disregard Trujillo's previous appointments for the Associated Students Media Relations Director and Elections Commissioner and redo the entire process, beginning with another opportunity for students to submit applications.
Last week, CCC members voted to table approval of Trujillo's appointments of Mike Harter for Elections Commissioner and Jason Riggs for ASPIRE Director because of questions regarding what notification should be given to the legislative bodies about an appointment and what is necessary in terms of publicizing the appointment.
The positions were previously only advertised by word of mouth and many ASUA members were not even aware that the positions were being filled until they were asked to vote on Trujillo's appointments, council members said.
Rebecca Butler was approved as Media Relations Director at that time, but the CCC decided Wednesday that the process leading to her appointment, as well as Harter's, must be redone.
The decision to redo the appointments was not made because of these issues, but because the ASUA Constitution requires the creation of a minor appointments committee to interview applicants for appointed positions, said Brad Milligan, Undergraduate Senate chairman.
"The minor appointments committee was never formed in CCC," he said. "Members of the interviewing board were not even members of CCC. One was not even an elected official but a staff member.
"These two questions (regarding notification and publicizing) will not delay the process any further since we have sufficient grounds to dismiss the process (and start over)," Milligan said.
"I think redoing the process is a waste of time, but I agreed to it in order to stop wasting more time. I'll just redo the process as quickly as possible and get on to more important issues," Trujillo said.
A committee, comprised of Trujillo, Milligan and Matthew Troff, Graduate and Professional Student Council vice president, will now advertise the two positions and hold interviews next week, Milligan said. The committee was created Wednesday.
Riggs was approved as ASPIRE Director since the position was advertised in the Arizona Daily Wildcat and Trujillo, Milligan and Troff participated in his interview, Trujillo said.
The ASUA Supreme Court will still be asked to clarify the issues regarding proper notification and publicizing, Milligan said.
The committee will also develop a manual of instructions regarding the appointment process so future presidents will have a guide to follow, he said.