The undergraduate student government appointed a student to run its spring elections Tuesday despite concerns about the candidate’s qualifications for the job.
Following an 8-4-0 vote, third-year biochemistry student Anthony Padilla is now responsible for setting a timeline for the Undergraduate Students Association Council elections, screening candidates and sanctioning students if they break the elections code rules while campaigning.
Councilmembers are supposed to appoint an Election Board chair before the first week of fall quarter, according to USAC bylaws. Previous councils, like the current one, have missed the deadline.
At Tuesday’s meeting, some councilmembers said they were concerned about waiting any longer to make the appointment, even though several councilmembers did not support Padilla.
Padilla is taking on the job with no experience in USAC or running student government elections.
During his interview in front of USAC, Padilla could not list the names and positions of all 13 councilmembers at the table or the names of the few slates expected to run candidates in this spring’s elections.
Having worked as a resident assistant on the Hill the past two years, Padilla said he feels he has learned how to remain neutral when evaluating situations – a quality that is important to the Election Board chair position. Padilla is also a member of UCLA Badminton Club, and Together Educating and Advocating Community Health.
One of the main reasons USAC President John Joanino pushed for Padilla to become Election Board chair is because he does not have ties to councilmembers on USAC, and said he is impartial to USAC slates.
Though some councilmembers continually expressed concern about Padilla at the meeting, Joanino said he still supported the candidate.
“I think you’re all assessing his personality based on his timidity,” Joanino said during a discussion about the appointment.
Padilla has also said he does not know how USAC works internally, and that he gets most of his USAC news by reading the Daily Bruin.
When the council asked how he planned to manage his time and the job, Padilla said he has to make sure he takes care of himself and that he plans to put his academics first.
The council also asked what he would change about the elections process.
“I see a lot of paper waste around campus,” Padilla responded. “I do think that as a university we need to have great strides toward a sustainable future and one way to do that is pushing for less paper waste.”
Padilla added that one of his priorities as Election Board chair will be trying to make the elections “more sustainable.”
USAC Internal Vice President Avi Oved, Financial Support Commissioner Lauren Rogers, Campus Events Commissioner Jessica Kim and General Representative Sunny Singh voted against Padilla’s appointment.
Rogers said she voted against Padilla’s appointment partially because the Election Board chair is supposed to protect candidates from unfair treatment or elections code violations during the elections. She said she thinks Padilla’s inexperience might hinder him from carrying out that job.
Padilla could not be reached for comment after the meeting.
Compiled by Amanda Schallert, Bruin senior staff. Contributing reports by Hee Jae Choi, Bruin contributor.
The lack of qualifications, especially the way he expressed them, e.g. could not list the councilmembers on USAC, plans to take care of himself and academics first, and having nothing substantial to refine in the election process, obviously shows how unfit Anthony Padilla is for the Election Board Chair. The rush and desperation of the appointment reveals the lack of leadership from John Joanino. This will likely be the beginning of USAC’s second mistake (the first being the doubled increase in councilmember funds). We can only wait for this Shakespearean play to come to a close. Hopefully, it would not cause a horrible chain reaction in the next USAC government.