Blair SMOB candidate files election grievance

Junior Will Bucher, a former candidate for 2007-2008 Student Member of The Board (SMOB), filed a grievance on May 16 against current SMOB-elect Ben Moskowitz, according to Bucher.

In an interview with Silver Chips, Bucher cited Moskowitz's improper handling of a Richard Montgomery (RM) student government endorsement as part of the reason for filing the grievance.

According to Moskowitz, the RM endorsement was initially approved by the RM General Assembly. Moskowitz said that he was officially informed by the RM SGA that he had been endorsed by the government. He then instructed his webmaster Eric Hysen to put the endorsement on his website using the RM logo.

But the endorsement was struck down by the RM Parliamentarian the morning of April 25, the SMOB election, because it was not filed properly, according to Aaron Gross, the RM SGA president. However, Bucher said that Ben Moskowitz did not remove the endorsement from the web site even though it was not official and should have responded earlier to the fact that the endorsement was not valid.

Moskowitz said that he was never informed by the SGA that the endorsement had been rescinded. On the morning of April 25, the SMOB election, Moskowitz received an e-mail from an anonymous e-mail account stating that a grievance would be filed if he did not immediately remove the RM endorsement.

Moskowitz responded by asking Hysen to remove the endorsement that evening, even though the election was already over. Moskowitz said that evidence in the grievance document filed by Bucher noted that this e-mail was sent by a member of Bucher's campaign.

The consequences of Bucher's grievance against Moskowitz will be decided by a grievance committee based on severity of the infraction. The SMOB election grievance committee will hold a hearing to decide Bucher's case by June 13.

The committee will be chaired by Seneca Valley senior Caroline Rodriguez and advised by Stephen Zagami, director of the Department of Student Services. If an appeal to the decision of the grievance committee is filed, a hearing examiner will be selected by election administrator Aaron Gross, and Board President Nancy Navarro.

Editor's Note: Hysen is currently a technical consultant on the Silver Chips Online staff.

For the complete story, be sure to check out the next print edition of Silver Chips in late May.