SGA senator impeached after 16-5 vote

The Student Government Association met Monday, Nov. 7, for the second time this year to discuss articles of impeachment. In this instance they were filed against freshman Senator Matthew Wirth. 

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Matthew Wirth

Unlike the outcome of the previous impeachment hearing of SGA Vice President Ross Sheppard, the motion to impeach Senator Wirth carried with a 16-5 vote. His case will now be forwarded to the Student Judicial Board, where it will be determined by a majority vote whether he should be removed or allowed to stay in his position on SGA.

Senator John Fajuke, who voted in favor of impeachment in the previous session held for Sheppard, decided to vote against impeachment this time around. He said he felt that since Wirth is such a young senator he had time to grow and learn from his mistakes.

“I feel like impeaching him and taking him off of senate without the chance of being able to come back until his junior year really stunts his growth in becoming a leader,” Fajuke said. “I feel like SGA is a really great place for people to become leaders and I myself went through a rough patch in my freshman year of SGA and was able to learn from my mistakes and also continue to move on and become, I feel, a better person and a better leader than I am today.”

Senator Patrick Hall voted in favor of Wirth’s impeachment and says that although he believes Wirth is a great guy, he felt like having him impeached is in the SGA’s and the student body’s best interest.

“I don’t think that there is room for second chances for someone in our position to make mistakes that big and to continue with their job,” Hall said. “I feel like it’s hard to have any credibility as a senator making such big mistakes and then trying to continue with the job after that. And I feel like its just best for SGA and for the student body to get rid of problems like that.”

The session moved very quickly, both SGA Attorney General Andrew Whittaker and Wirth waiving their rights to an opening statement, straight into Wirth’s cross examination carried out by Whittaker.

While cross examining Wirth, Whittaker asked him a series of questions pertaining to the night of the in

cident. Wirth cooperatively answered all questions and once the cross examination finished, the session moved into closing statements.

Whittaker made the first closing statement making clear to the senators that they recently unanimously passed a resolution to send any member of SGA straight to the judicial board if he or she should fall into poor judicial standing. He urged senators to ponder and look within to see that Wirth’s behavior is “not an exception” to the resolution that was passed after his arrest and that “his behavior is not exemplary” to the values that SGA senators want to hold themselves to.

“Let’s hold ourselves to the standard that we claim we want to hold ourselves to,” Whittaker said. “Send him to the judicial board and let them decide if he is worthy of the title of SGA senator. That position should mean something and it should mean something beyond ‘I get drunk, I hotbox cars and I don’t care.’ So hold him accountable.“

SGA President Pro Tempore Maxwell Pichan says that he voted in favor of impeachment because of both Whittaker’s closing statement and because SGA voted to pass the new resolution.

“Because the senate has already voted with the passed resolution to send our members in poor judicial standing to the judicial board for consideration on removal from office that, coupled with the facts presented by Attorney General Whitaker, led me to this decision,” Pichan said. “I don’t understand how members of the Senate could unanimously pass Senator Stephen Hundley’s resolution twice and then not vote in favor of this because it really is just a more drawn out process of the same thing.”

Wirth began his closing statements with a formal apology to everyone in the room for his actions that resulted in an arrest on Oct. 7.

“I am completely ashamed of the poor decision making, (and) irrational thought that I exhibited the morning of Oct. 7,” Wirth said. “My actions have not only misrepresented my character but have also misrepresented the overall character of Georgia College and of SGA.”

He went on to say that although he made a mistake, he is learning a great deal from that mistake and he urges his fellow senators to give him a second chance to be the leader he knows he can be.

“Since this incident I have still been a productive member of SGA, I’ve still been a productive senator who takes his job seriously and puts his students first,” Wirth said. “I regret every day that I have not been the student that SGA and Georgia College has expected of me but I am here today to assure you that I now fully understand what is expected of me as a senator and to assure you that my actions in the future will mirror those expectations.”

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See previous article on SGA Impeachment

Posted by Lauren Davidson on Nov 10 2011. Filed under Lead stories, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.