CEO blames lack of training on by-law violation
The Arts and Science Federations of Association voted on Thursday to invalidate their March election results after the election’s bylaws were broken. At the special council meeting, councilors discussed how the election’s by-laws were broken by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Samuel Miriello, which led council to invalidate the elections. Due to this decision, the organization voted to hold a new election in November and, until then, appoint the winners of the election to interim positions corresponding to the positions they won.
Miriello told The Concordian that he organized the election to the best of his abilities. “I would’ve loved to receive feedback from the ASFA executive, but instead, many of them spoke behind my back and never brought up their concerns,” he said.
He also believes that the ASFA executive should be sharing the blame for the elections being invalid, stating the fact that they underpaid him—he claims to have made $400 for over 100 hours of work—rushed him to start the elections only two weeks after being appointed and not training him properly.
Julia Sutera Sardo, current VP internal and soon-to-be interim president believes that “if an election fails, everyone needs to take responsibility for it.” When asked about the payment, she answered that the ASFA executive council did not decide anything about the salary.
If an election fails, everyone needs to take responsibility for it – Julia Sutera Sardo.
Miriello also brought up the fact that Chris Stephens, the elections coordinator whose task is to ensure that the elections proceed correctly, should’ve spoken to Miriello before contesting. “His job is literally to make sure elections happen correctly, and yet he never once tried to speak to me,” he said.
Sutera Sardo told The Concordian that Chris Stephens is there to help the CEO with Althea Thompson who are Members Association’s CEO. “I told Samuel that if he had any questions, he can direct them to Althea and Chris because I didn’t want any conflict of interests. I only did logistics and minor details of the elections,” she said. She mentioned that she gave Miriello all the information he needed such as the CEO report from last year, the by-laws to follow and a list of phone numbers.
