A vote of no confidence was attempted on student trustee Lance Makinano, per two members of the senate who feel that they were misrepresented on the recent initiative of the 100 new sections implemented for summer school.
“There’s certain members of the senate who feel the current student trustee is not fulfilling his obligations, ” Associated Students of Cerritos College senator Miles Aiello said.
The senate meeting on Wednesday, April 16 had the motion taken into consideration by Jennifer Ovalle and Earvin Chavez to grant the vote upon Makinano.
Ultimately it was denied through democratic vote, but the matter still lingers.
“We don’t have confidence in you to fulfill your responsibilities as student trustee,” said Chavez, the treasurer of The Social Equality Club.
This matter all stems from a board of trustee meeting from Wednesday, April 2, where Ovalle, the president of the Social Equality Club, claims that Makinano gave his word that he would provide his public support on the initiative for more sections during the upcoming summer semester.
“There was a 40-minute discussion period for our item, and he said nothing,” according to Ovalle.
A vote of no confidence, if it were to pass, would have to go past cabinet and senate. So it would have to pass both houses. From there the board can take action or request in consideration of removing Makinano.
“Everybody was shocked when they said that they wanted to do a vote of no confidence,” Aldemar Sanchez, vice-president of ASCC, said.
As far as not speaking up, Makinano has his reasons.
“I give them their word, but they didn’t say what I required from them to back this initiative, which are statistics. Should a student trustee back up an initiative without proper information?”
He continued, “I personally talked to board members. They were on board with adding class sections already. There was no reason for us to go grand standing, which is how I viewed it, and try to add more to it because the point was made … There was no need for me to voice my opinion, or the student’s opinion, because we had already reached consensus.
“So everybody that knows politics, when we play this political game, there’s a time to shout, there’s a time to say yes, there’s a time to agree. That was a time to agree. We all agreed that they would be added. And we knew that. We came away from the board meeting with the statement that we’re committed to add.”
Sanchez has worked with Makinano during his tenure, and notes the involvement he has on campus.
“For them to say ‘oh, Lance doesn’t take stuff out of his day or doesn’t help voice the student’s opinion,’ it’s kind of dumb because that’s what he does all the time.”
The Social Equality Club does hold a certain position, which is “no confidence” in Makinano, but Jimmy Valdez touts that it’s nothing personal.
“It is just to let people know that we as students don’t feel represented by the student trustee,” said the co-founder of the club. “His position is to voice the opinion of the whole student body … Would you guys want someone who’s not doing their job? We’re not telling anybody what to do. We’re not saying he’s a bad person. For all I know he’s an amazing person. It’s nothing personal … We as students, we feel like we can’t trust him anymore.”
Chavez added, “In logic you never attack anybody. It’s called appeal to the person. You never argue by attacking the individual. What you do is attack actions and arguments. It’s not personal. It’s just something that he didn’t do.”
On top of that, accusations of Makinano not consistently attending the senate meetings and breaking a bylaw was also addressed.
“Another thing he hasn’t been doing is that he’s supposed to show at least two times a month to give reports to the senate,” Chavez said. “And he never shows up. He’s only showed up, I believe, twice at the beginning of the semester.”
Ovalle said, “That’s in our student government bylaws. So technically he is breaking a bylaw.”
Makinano admitted that he was indeed upset at the entire situation. He believes that he’s been doing his job.
“They want to claim I broke a bylaw, that’s OK. They’ll claim whatever they want to claim; I guarantee you that next week, they’ll be back with something else.”
He went on, “The Senate has spoken. They know that I’m doing my job. Yes, I’m a little upset, because you know what, I fought for us. I’ve been fighting for us. I fought for Iraq, I fought here as the ASCC president, as a current student trustee; I even fight up and down the state with other student trustees to band together … Those are the things that I do. There’s things that people don’t know what I do. You know why? Because you don’t know what the job of the student trustee is. The student trustee position is a 24/7 district job.
“Your concerns came up, miraculously, when you’re running a candidate against me. Where were these concerns before this started happening? To me, unprofessional. To do this, unprofessional. I’m not going to be unprofessional, because I’m not like that. That’s not what my parents taught me. That’s not what the United States Army taught me. And that’s definitely what I’m not going to do to these students.”
Makinano added, “Remember this, fight the good fight, don’t let people keep you down; the Senate already spoke, this matter’s crushed. And if they want to continue it, it’s going to be personal. Not on my part, but on theirs. I’ll continue doing my job, and let’s leave it at that.”
The next senate meeting is Wednesday, April 23 at 2 p.m. in room BK 111 and BK 112, where this matter can possibly be addressed once more.
