USG impeachment dismissed

Josh Lipka will remain treasurer of United Students Government, after an impeachment hearing was dismissed Tuesday night by the USG Judicial Council.

The impeachment case was brought by USG senator Julius Martinez. Martinez felt that a previous case against Lipka involving the Public Relations Student Society of America had left questions unanswered, he said.

"To be honest with you, in my experience, I never saw examples of Treasurer Lipka doing anything wrong," Martinez said. "All I looked at was the case verdict of PRSSA. In the case verdict, he did something wrong."

The PRSSA case involved the use of 35 percent of the organization's budget being used to send two members to a conference in Florida. Lipka denied the request, and the case was brought before the Judicial Council.

Lipka acknowledged the previous case, but said that it "had already been adjudicated."

During the hearing, Martinez brought up witnesses from Adelante Estudiantes Latinos, who testified that Lipka was hard to get in touch with when they had budget issues. They eventually lost their budget. A representative from PRSSA was also called to testify. After several minutes of testimony, Chief Justice Nathan Rey dismissed the witness, as all of her testimony was based on the previous case and could not be brought up.

Lipka also produced three witnesses, including USG President Sara Garfinkle and Catherine Ansuini, a professor and adviser to USG.

When asked by Rey if Lipka could be doing anything better in terms of being USG treasurer, Ansuini replied, "I suspect not."

Lipka was also asked by Rey why he thought a lot of the testimony against him was adversarial in nature.

"Can you address the animosity?" Rey asked.

Lipka replied that a lot of his job has to do with financial matters.

"The treasurer always takes the blame," he said. "I'm the one who has to say no. As nice as I am, as sincere as I am, some people seem to take that the wrong way."

After both sides presented their case, Rey asked Martinez why he was bringing the impeachment process against Lipka.

"What was the last injustice, if you will, that you witnessed, that brought forth this impeachment?" he asked.

Martinez referred back to the PRSSA case.

"Really, it was the case that was adjudicated," he said.

Based on that answer, Lipka asked the court if the case could be dismissed, as it was based on a case that had already been decided. After a five-minute recess, the Judicial Council decided to dismiss the case.

Michael Canfield can be reached at canfield.record@live.com.