Maxey prohibited from direct contact with CSUN personnel

July 12, 2010 by Haley Etchison 

Winner of popular vote raises questions about legality of student government meetings

The former undergraduate student body president-elect is expressing concern about the way CSUN is being run, but his approach has caused some legal tension.

Robert Maxey, who was disqualified from the presidential elections in April but is now suing UNLV, CSUN and acting Student Body President David Rapoport, claims the undergraduate student government is operating outside Nevada Open Meeting Law.

Communicating by text message, e-mail and Facebook, Maxey has addressed Rapoport, Senate President LeShelle Perez and CSUN Business Manager Savannah Baltera about his concerns. But the way he conducted these interactions has led to a case with the UNLV Office of Student Conduct.

Maxey has also filed a case with the CSUN Judicial Council calling for the invalidation of Senate proceedings at the June 21 meeting, where now-vice president Krista Mullen was appointed vice president pro tempore, on the grounds that the meeting was not conducted according to Open Meeting Law, the CSUN Constitution and Robert’s Rules of Order.

Maxey was not in attendance at the June 21 meeting.

Rapoport said he supports Maxey’s right to check if CSUN is following the law.

“Every student at UNLV that pays into the CSUN fee [has] the right and the responsibility, if they choose to, to keep us accountable,” Rapoport said.

But the manner in which Maxey has approached CSUN officials about what he believes to be violations of Open Meeting Law have led to complications.

Partial records of Maxey’s correspondence are published here, courtesy of Rapoport, who has been advised by his counsel to exclude some of the communication for legal reasons.

Rapoport explained that before the incidents, UNLV Legal advised him to continue treating Maxey as he would any other student.

“He is still technically a constituent, so he shouldn’t receive any special or different treatment,” Rapoport said.

But as the nature of Maxey’s communication with CSUN officials has changed, Rapoport said his relationship with Maxey has changed as a result.

In response to this new wave of communication, legal counsel advised Rapoport to contact the Office of Student Conduct.

On June 25, Maxey posted a comment on Rapoport’s personal Facebook page that said, “Hey I appreciate you keeping my seat warm while I was on vacation. I feel kinda bad that I was gone for so long, I hope it wasn’t to much work for you. I’ll find some way to make it up to you I promise. Israel must have been amazing maybe I’ll be able to check it out next summer. Anyways stop by and say hi if your in on Monday.”

Rapoport, Perez and Baltera now all have TPOs with respect to Maxey — a designation that prohibits contact between two parties except by a “third party only.”

As a requirement of the TPOs, Maxey is not allowed in the CSUN offices, except to attend public meetings held there.

At the July 6 Senate meeting, both Rapoport and Elections and Creative Technology Director Vincent Lipari addressed the Senate, telling them to contact Rapoport if they were “harassed” by Maxey.

Maxey asserted in his correspondence that CSUN is operating outside Open Meeting Law, citing rules that state that a body that maintains a website must post its agendas for public meetings online, and that public meetings must be audio recorded and transcribed.

Maxey sent a text message announcing these concerns to Rapoport and Perez’s personal cell phones on June 25.

It read, “Your Executive, Senate and committee meetings are in violation of OML. I will be sending you an email this evening when I return home with the changes you need to make before you continue meetings. If you continue meetings before these changes have been made, criminal action can be taken against you. I apologize for this inconvience but it is the format for proper democratic functioning of our government, which is as we know something you swore to uphold and protect.”

Maxey sent an e-mail to Rapoport and Perez’s personal e-mail addresses later on June 25, further explaining the concern.

“I have reached this conclusion through consultation with legal professionals as well as my own investigation into Open Meeting Law, which I have become quite knowledgable,” Maxey said in the e-mail.

“I will be keeping track of your progress and help out wherever I can,” the e-mail continued. “You have a little more than a week until the next [Senate] meeting but I believe in your ability to accomplish this simple task.”

Maxey signed the e-mail “Student Body President, Robert Maxey.”

Maxey asserts that CSUN must post agendas online in order to serve their constituency ethically.

“The reason for it being posted online is so that students can come to meetings,” Maxey said. “[If] they are not being posted online then senate is operating in secret.”

Rapoport believes the segment of the law that addresses posting agendas on a website does not refer to organizations with online operations of the kind CSUN has.

“I think it can be said that our website is owned by CSUN,” he said. “I don’t think ‘maintained’ is the correct word.”

Rapoport explained that though the CSUN website, unlvcsun.com, is populated by content produced by the organization itself, the CSUN director who oversees the site does not have the facility to post agendas whenever and however he wants.

Lipari explained further. “We host our website through an outside hosting company,” Lipari said, “and for some reason… we can’t upload the files to the server to have them host it on our website.”

Therefore, Rapoport asserts, inability to post agendas online is the result of the technical failings of a third party, not of CSUN.

According to Nevada Open meeting Law, however, even if an organization maintains its own website, “Inability to post notice of a meeting on its website as a result of a technical problem is not a violation of the law.”

But Maxey questions Rapoport and Perez’s responsibility on the issue. “It is poor leadership [for Rapoport and Perez] to delegate ones own responsibilities to someone beneath them and when they do not do perform the task refuse to take blame,” he said.
The last agenda posted online was for a Senate meeting on August 24, 2009.

Rapoport says he is working to fix the problems that prevent the posting of agendas and minutes online.

He also explained that CSUN complies with the law by recording its meetings.
“We do tape all of our meetings in a variety of different formats,” Rapoport said. “They are made available to the public on request.”

Senate Secretary Danielle Sandoval records every Senate meeting on her computer and keeps the sounds files along with physical minutes. Executive Board meetings are recorded on video.

“Just because it’s not published on our website doesn’t mean they’re not accessible to students,” Rapoport said. “They just have to contact us.”

Maxey said he has requested CSUN records and has been denied.

“I asked for financial action information which is guaranteed to me under the CSUN Constitution’s Bill of Rights,” he said.

The CSUN Bill of Rights ensures that CSUN members have the right to “obtain information concerning all public and financial actions, proposed or enacted, of CSUN”
Maxey also says he asked Perez for CSUN meeting records but never saw them.

“I was sent a corrupt document I could not open on my computer,” he said. “I have also asked for the contact information of the CSUN senate secretary so I could receive informative minutes.”

But, he said, Perez said she would have to check if that procedure was allowed — and he never received an answer.

Rapoport said the task of compiling CSUN meeting records for easy public access is already underway.

Part of this progress will include the hiring of a new director of creative technology — a position created from the former joint elections and creative technology directorship that Lipari currently holds.

“Since I came on board as an Executive Board member the first week in April, I have been working on [the problem] by sorting out the application process to hire somebody to be in charge of this,” he said.

Lipari’s term of office was extended this April to accommodate actions set to take place in response to Maxey’s lawsuit. The Elections Board will meet July 19 to hear again the charges on which Maxey was disqualified in April.

The meeting is being held again because Maxey claims the original one violated Open Meeting Law, since he and the other candidates with charges against them were not served official notice of the meeting.

Maxey claims he is the rightful student body presdient and that he is taking legal action against UNLV, CSUN and Rapoport because he is obliged to honor the votes of the undergraduate electorate.

On June 25, he met with Baltera in person and asked to see the contract between CSUN and UNLV Legal, which she told him she did not have.

He also requested receipts showing CSUN’s expenditures in legal fees for his case, but again Baltera did not possess the documents.

Baltera did make a copy of the Senate report that showed an expenditure of $419.50 for fees encumbered in the process of serving Maxey official notice of planned Elections Board meetings at which charges against him are scheduled to be heard.

Later that day, Maxey sent a text message to Baltera’s personal cell phone, a number she had not given him or athorized him to use, asking about compensation for the office of president, which he is suing CSUN for.

“What is the reason I am not recognized financially as the Student Body president?” he asked in the message. “Who said to not write me out a paycheck?”

Maxey maintains that he is not motivated by financial gain.

“I was never in it for the money,” he said. “…I do this to help the students. I am currently not getting paid to attend the Board of Regents meetings, to keep track of the senate proposals, to watch the action of CSUN and make sure they are in accordance with the law or to work with senator’s to help polish their initiatives but I do it anyways. I do it because I care.”