Former CEO confronts ASFA on administrative errors with by-election

After a by-election that named two much-needed executives and one new independent councillor for ASFA, it is possible that students will return to the polls.

Last year’s Chief Electoral Officer Nick Cuillerier filed a complaint to ASFA’s Judicial Committee this week that blames current CEO Marvin Cidamon for “gross negligence” with the by-laws that outline how ASFA elections are to be carried out.

According to Cuillerier, the current CEO made at least 15 administrative errors that violate clauses in Annex A. He has asked the Judicial Committee to review if the elections remain valid considering these violations and to consider if Cidamon is still eligible to hold the position.

One of the violations he highlights is the hiring of former ASFA VP Internal Nicole Devlin as a polling clerk. This is in breach of section 20 of Annex A that lists that polling clerks cannot be a current/former executive, CEO, Vice Electoral Officer or anyone involved in administration of the elections.

“Annex A is a 10 page document,” said Cuillerier. “If you're going to be paid hundreds of dollars you should read the document you’re supposed to be enforcing.”

“As far as I know, I did not do anything wrong,” said Cidamon. He added that at least one Judicial Committee member knew of Devlin’s hiring and it was not kept a secret. In fact, Devlin was seen at a polling station in the Hall building sporting her red ASFA executive hoodie.

VP Internal Schubert Laforest who helped hire and train the new CEO said that he presented Annex A to Cidamon with the impression that it was completely understood. However, Laforest admitted that hiring Devlin was illegal and has filed his own complaint.

Cidamon said Cuillerier’s allegations are “baseless” and will be thrown out by council.

“I feel like he feels a little insulted that I didn’t do the election his way,” he continued. The CEO is confident that the “minor” violations will not be grounds to redo an election. “There won’t be another election,” he said boldly.

Laforest said firing Cidamon is not only unnecessary, but a violation of labour laws. “I don’t believe its legal to not pay someone once you’ve agreed to a contract,” he said.

Cuillerier also blames Cidamon for not giving candidates a document called Sanctions and Violations. “[Candidates] need to know what kinds of rules they can break and the penalties associated with them,” he said. The CEO denies any malpractice by not distributing the rules to candidates and said that he “intentionally gave them free range.”

Candidate Katie Brioux said that she left the first candidates meeting with Cidamon confused and unclear of what constituted a violation. “He was very blazé about the whole thing,” she said. Brioux ran for VP Communications and Promotions and lost to Alexis Suzuki by just 12 votes.

No one has suggested any violations with the elections that also saw Paul Jerajian win VP External Affairs and Sustainability and Yasmeen Zahar win the vacant Independent Councillor seat.

Cuillerier suggested that Cidamon and the current ASFA executive may not have been aware of the most recent by-laws due to an older version being posted on the website. He said no less than five clauses were left out of this document including some of the violations overlooked in the by-election. Even without a VP Communications, Cuillerier said there were many reasonable avenues and tools that ASFA could have used to update the site.

Cuillerier plans to be at the Special Council Meeting on Thursday to steer Council in the right direction. “They might want to go to the guy who did it well last year,” he said.

The Judicial Committee will discuss and make its recommendations on Wednesday before the Special Council Meeting at 7pm on the 7^th floor of the Hall building.