Fire Power

The ASUO Executive has started a fire that may end up burning down their administration. That’s because they recently chose to fire an ASUO controller essentially for legally confirming information to the Oregon Commentator regarding illegal spending activities by student groups. Now the ASUO faces more than its average turmoil as the egregious firing has set off a powder keg that includes a planned grievance from the dismissed employee and the Student Senate president willing to testify on his behalf in the impending Constitution Court case.

By most accounts, Justin Sibley handled all of his official duties as well, if not better, than his coworkers and apparently had the best interpersonal skills. But on October 19, ASUO President Nilda Brooklyn and Joy Nair abruptly fired him. Sibley was told that it was because he didn’t work well with the other controllers, that there had been complaints against him from student groups, and that he wasn’t protecting the student fee. After the two twice asked him to resign and he declined, they fired him.

Sibley claims that the executive’s stated reason for his dismissal is anything but true, however. Though the discussion had begun with the executive citing Sibley’s work quality and relationships with coworkers as their reasons for wanting his departure, and after the meeting had failed to produce the result Brooklyn and Nair wanted, a resignation from Sibley, Sibley said the two came out with their real concern as they fired him. “They asked me to resign at two different times during that meeting, and at both times I responded by informing them that I felt there was no reason for my resignation. And then at the very end when Nilda finally spoke she said ‘You’re not protecting the fee like we want, you need to leave.’”

Despite the fact that Sibley’s job doesn’t require protecting the student fee through covering up illegal student fee usage, Sibley’s decision to provide public, legal records of student group spending, which is under the authority and oversight of the state of Oregon, was the real factor that angered Brooklyn and Nair and led them to fire Sibley, according to several sources.

“I’ll testify that Joy told me after they fired him that they just couldn’t have anyone slipping backdoor information to the Commentator,” Watts recently told a magazine staffer. That certainly seems like a more likely scenario than any that the executive has put forth to Sibley or those who questioned them with respect to this incident.

On October 19 Sibley arrived at the ASUO office for another regular day of work. “I went to work just like any other day. I was going about my business finishing up my benchmark research. I walked out of the office to grab a piece of licorice when Joy and Nilda asked me to go into the conference room with them. When we entered, the first thing Joy said was ‘You’re not holding up to your end of protecting the fee. From what we see this job does not seem to be working out for you, we would like you to resign.’”

But Sibley said there are different ways to view the issue of disseminating public information. “I feel that as elected officials Joy and Nilda should be representing the good of the students, and not the good of the students money. And I think that if the students had more knowledge of what there money is used for the students would be able to make more informed voting decisions. But Joy and Nilda feel that as long as the student fee stays 100 percent student handled it doesn’t matter who gets screwed over.”

That belief by Brooklyn, Nair and long-time ASUO financial guru Jennifer Creighton (who said “I would hope that protecting the fee would be high on any exec’s priority list,”) that student group foul-ups should be handled as covertly as possible led to attempts this year to keep several fiscal abuses under wraps.

Two student groups were widely rumored to have grossly abused the public fees for personal — very personal — items. One of the Vietnamese Student Association directors was supposed to have purchased Nair hair removal cream. However, it was impossible to prove the incident because those in the ASUO with knowledge of the money paths hid as much detail as possible, while forwarding all other relevant materials to the Office of Student Conduct, which is then legally bound from disclosing that information when it’s in an offending student’s file.

But then another student group was found to have mishandled money in an egregious fashion, causing a shakeup with that organization. When the Oregon Commentator went looking for answers, and Sibley attempted to provide any help he could, that’s when he said Brooklyn, Nair and Creighton became upset with him.

“My take on the reason that they fired me," he said, "was because of a situation that was occurring with MECHA. I had confirmed to (Commentator Publisher) Bret Jacobson that there had been problems, but I didn’t really have any details to give to him anyway. My suggestion to Bret was that he go and interview David (Jaimes), who was the director of MECHA at the time.

"The material I gave out is not sensitive material," he says, "it is supposed to be in the public records, but it never quite made it there. It is not a confidentiality issue — things that I am involved in that are confidential are things like payroll, or any person receiving money. And I have never discussed those items to anyone outside of the controllers’ office. And I knew they were not happy that I admitted there being a problem involved with MECHA, and it's probably going to be swept away pretty quickly, which I am allowed to say. But it goes against their plans of keeping the money in their control. And that is why they fired me."

Nair said it was her understanding that there had already been conversations between Creighton, Sibley’s de facto direct supervisor, and the employee about problems that weren’t being resolved in a fashion the executive approved of. Sibley has denied the truth of that statement and Creighton refused comment on all subjects relating to the firing of Sibley.

Claims that Sibley’s work was inadequate seem unfounded. Sibley says the exec originally told him that his work quality was inadequate. “They told me I was slacking off and not doing my job,” he said in a recent interview. He contends, however, that this was not in fact true at all. Rather, he said, “I was the only controller done with period numbers two and three reconciling,” and that, “each controller was getting some benchmark research not due until November, but I finished mine [October 16] and I also helped finished another controller’s research. And I feel that shows me pulling my weight.”

Another factor Brooklyn and Nair claimed necessitated Sibley’s premature departure, complaints from varying student groups about his interpersonal skills, is vehemently rebuffed by those contacted about his work performance and manner.

“We’ve probably had better contact and a more positive experience with him than with any other controller,” said KWVA General Manager Charlotte Nisser.

Black Student Union Director Kawezya Hutchinson went even further in her praise. “Justin was one of our favorite controllers. He ‘s always helped out the BSU, even though he wasn’t assigned to us.”

It would not seem altogether unreasonable to believe that there would be questionable hiring and firing practices in the current ASUO office this year. Already Creighton has hired as her personal assistant David Jaimes of MECHA money mishandling fame. There were questions raised at the time of that hiring, since he came from a scandal-racked student group and he is engaged to the head ASUO controller.

Regardless of all the claims and counterclaims, the fact still remains that one good man was fired. “I’m really going to miss having Justin around here,” said Watts.

Once the ConCourt rules on Sibley’s grievance, it will be seen if there’s anyone to say they’ll miss Brooklyn and Nair.