Impeachment filed against USG comptroller Ortiz

A USG senator has filed for impeachment against USG comptroller Jason Ortiz. The impeachment was filed on the grounds that his recent attempt to veto about $12,000 of funding for the paintball team was biased.

The veto was overturned at a USG meeting Feb. 18, that same night, Multicultural and Diversity senator Mary Lorenz sent an e-mail to Chief Justice John Ernst petitioning for an impeachment hearing.

USG procedure says that once impeachment has been filed, the judiciary committee has to vote on whether or not to pass it along to the senate, which then votes on the matter. It takes a two-thirds majority of present senators to approve an impeachment.

Ernst did not respond to several attempts to contact him regarding when the judiciary would convene for a vote.

In accordance with USG policy concerning open matters, Lorenz declined to comment on her position. But according to a copy of her impeachment request, obtained by The Daily Campus from Ortiz, Lorenz says that, in separating and vetoing one group over all the others, Ortiz was making an unfair judgment about the value of that club.

"By comparing the value of the applications of the groups, there is no longer a sense of fairness," Lorenz's e-mail reads. "He is no longer following our policies in applying funding and applications for all groups."

Article nine, section three of the USG Constitution gives the comptroller the ability to veto a funding request, but outside of requiring notification to the rejected party, places no limits on when the officer can exercise that right.

Ortiz defended his veto, saying that the action was an attempt to reduce what he described as non-restricted USG spending.

"I have to make a comparison somewhere, otherwise I'm just a rubber stamp," he said. "If there is no need for discretion, then there's no need for a comptroller."

In her e-mail, Lorenz makes specific mention of a Feb. 4 incident where Ortiz opposed denying funding for alternative break volunteer trips. She writes that he said denying volunteer trips financing was wrong while groups "with not as good of a cause in comparison," like paintball, still received large amounts of funding.

Ortiz disagreed with her assessment of the incident, saying that he was not trying to say one group was more worthy than another. Ortiz said he was trying to point out that the amount of financial scrutiny placed on alternative breaks was significantly heavier than that placed on clubs like paintball.

Ortiz went on to say that his decisions are based solely on providing the most benefit for the most students possible. He said that a class D request - an off-campus activity, restricted to a limited number of students - like paintball did not deserve over $10,000 in funding. When Ortiz's veto was overturned, though, there was some contention that paintball did not deserve their level D classification, as all students are allowed to join the group.

According to Ortiz and USG senator and Idealists United member Amanda Stauble, there is a history of tension between Lorenz and Ortiz. While Ortiz was president of activist group Idealists United, and Lorenz, his vice president, the two reportedly had arguments over Lorenz's poor attendance.