by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
The president of GPSA is expecting Saturday's meeting to be heated as members of the organization plan to present a petition for his recall.
"It's going to be a contentious situation," Joseph Garcia said. "The allegations are unfounded. I think it's a personal vendetta."
Members of the graduate and professional student association started the recall petition Nov. 9. About 275 students signed the petition, more than double the amount required to have a recall election, Rep. Jason Thomas said.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
"I don't think it's a personal attack," he said. "What we're trying to do is hold him accountable for his job."
The meeting will be in the SUB Lobo Rooms A and B at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
A recall election must be held 20 business days after the signatures are presented, according to the GPSA constitution.
Because of winter break, the election would likely not be held until the spring semester, Thomas said.
The election would decide whether Garcia should be removed. If he is, there will be another election for the remainder of his term, which ends in June.
Thomas said the constitution does not specify when a new president would be elected if Garcia is removed.
The petition states that Garcia failed to hire a three-quarter-time employee to work in the GPSA office as directed by the council. The council passed a resolution to hire the employee in March 2006 before Garcia became president.
The petition also states Garcia did not get authorization from the council to hire two part-time employees to help run the office.
Garcia said the GPSA constitution requires him to manage operations of the GPSA office, and he has been doing that.
"The office is staffed. The office is open," he said. "People are getting the support they need, if not more."
Thomas said the problem is that the three-quarter-time employee has not been hired, which is what the council decided should be done more than a year and a half ago.
Garcia said he is working with the Student Activities Center and Human Resources department to get a job description approved for the position.
Thomas said Garcia has had enough time to get the job description approved.
"I know the bureaucracy of UNM can be quite overwhelming at times," he said. "This process should've been started. Last May was the first time it was asked of him to do this. It's been seven months now."
Garcia said the president and council that passed the bill didn't set up a budget or finances for the position. It took the council a year after the bill was passed to approve a budget for it in April, he said.
He said there are different council members each year, and the representatives might not still want the three-quarter-time employee.
"Who's to say almost a year and half ago or more that times haven't changed? Or the needs of graduate students haven't changed in that time?" he said.
The petition also states Garcia should be recalled because he did not manage the GPSA grant process and oversee the timely dispersal of grant funds.
Thomas said that for the past five years, GPSA sent grant confirmation letters six weeks after the application deadline in mid-September.
He said the process took about three weeks longer than usual for Student Research Allocations Committee funds. Confirmation letters for Special Travel Committee funds still haven't gone out, he said.
"It's not been policy, but it's been expected. There's a reasonable expectation because that's how it's happened in the past," he said. "It's never been an issue."
Garcia said there was an increase in grant applications, and it takes time to review them all.
"Saying that every year is going to be same - we're going to get the same amount of applications, and it's going to take the same amount of time - is inaccurate," he said.
Garcia said he appoints people to handle the grant process.
"Sometimes, I make mistakes, or people make mistakes in terms of the appointments," he said.
Garcia said no one has tried to address the issues on the recall petition with him.
"This is really harsh. The people who have brought up the allegations haven't come and talked to me," he said. "I'm not perfect, but I'm not doing this to be negligent or malicious. I'm trying to do the best I can."
