ON FEB. 5, the Students’ Association of the Faculty of Arts (SAFA) Board of Directors withdrew the motion to impeach Jozef Spiteri, SAFA vp social affairs and candidate for vp social in the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) elections.
“At our exec meeting, which we hold every Sunday prior to our board meeting, our vp social came with quite an adjusted attitude from what he had had previously,” said Sean Green, SAFA president. “He had taken some time away, evaluated personally the grounds of impeachment which we were presenting, saying our grounds were valid grounds for impeachment and he did understand where we were coming from.
“But he felt it was in the best interest of the organization for us to give him a period of time in which he can address those issues himself as opposed to us just forcing him to leave. “
According to Green, Spiteri was facing impeachment due to his negative attitude and mismanagement of funds—all problems Spiteri agreed to correct.
“The question of funds was in the period between October and December,” said Spiteri in response to allegations of mismanagement of funds. “I was going though some personal issues at the time, so I wasn’t able to be careful with getting receipts in on time.”
Green said the SAFA executive no longer wants to go through the impeachment process, as Spiteri is willing to correct his attitude.
“I think everybody is very happy to not have to go through the impeachment process,” said Green of the SAFA executive. “Everybody’s excited that Jozef is willing to try and make changes so that we can provide the best product.
“Jozef has two sides: He’s a very talented individual, very imaginative and creative,” Green added. “On the other hand, he’s been difficult to work with. For [SAFA], if we can retain that first quality—that’s awesome—as long as it’s not associated with the second one—and he seems to think he can provide that for us.”
Spiteri said the issue was resolved in a timely fashion and he’s pleased the SAFA executive decided against impeachment, though he’s unsure of how it will affect his current campaign as SFUO vp social.
“I think it will be brought up at the debate,” he said. “We’ll deal with things one day at a time—that’s the best way to go about it.”
—Jane Lytvynenko
View SAFA’s Statement to the Board here.
