May 23, 2007
Blair SMOB candidate files election grievance
Junior Will Bucher, a former candidate for 2007-2008 Student Member of The Board (SMOB), filed a grievance on May 16 against current SMOB-elect Ben Moskowitz, according to Bucher.
In an interview with Silver Chips, Bucher cited Moskowitz's improper handling of a Richard Montgomery (RM) student government endorsement as part of the reason for filing the grievance.
According to Moskowitz, the RM endorsement was initially approved by the RM General Assembly. Moskowitz said that he was officially informed by the RM SGA that he had been endorsed by the government. He then instructed his webmaster Eric Hysen to put the endorsement on his website using the RM logo.
But the endorsement was struck down by the RM Parliamentarian the morning of April 25, the SMOB election, because it was not filed properly, according to Aaron Gross, the RM SGA president. However, Bucher said that Ben Moskowitz did not remove the endorsement from the web site even though it was not official and should have responded earlier to the fact that the endorsement was not valid.
Moskowitz said that he was never informed by the SGA that the endorsement had been rescinded. On the morning of April 25, the SMOB election, Moskowitz received an e-mail from an anonymous e-mail account stating that a grievance would be filed if he did not immediately remove the RM endorsement.
Moskowitz responded by asking Hysen to remove the endorsement that evening, even though the election was already over. Moskowitz said that evidence in the grievance document filed by Bucher noted that this e-mail was sent by a member of Bucher's campaign.
The consequences of Bucher's grievance against Moskowitz will be decided by a grievance committee based on severity of the infraction. The SMOB election grievance committee will hold a hearing to decide Bucher's case by June 13.
The committee will be chaired by Seneca Valley senior Caroline Rodriguez and advised by Stephen Zagami, director of the Department of Student Services. If an appeal to the decision of the grievance committee is filed, a hearing examiner will be selected by election administrator Aaron Gross, and Board President Nancy Navarro.
Editor's Note: Hysen is currently a technical consultant on the Silver Chips Online staff.
For the complete story, be sure to check out the next print edition of Silver Chips in late May.
In an interview with Silver Chips, Bucher cited Moskowitz's improper handling of a Richard Montgomery (RM) student government endorsement as part of the reason for filing the grievance.
According to Moskowitz, the RM endorsement was initially approved by the RM General Assembly. Moskowitz said that he was officially informed by the RM SGA that he had been endorsed by the government. He then instructed his webmaster Eric Hysen to put the endorsement on his website using the RM logo.
But the endorsement was struck down by the RM Parliamentarian the morning of April 25, the SMOB election, because it was not filed properly, according to Aaron Gross, the RM SGA president. However, Bucher said that Ben Moskowitz did not remove the endorsement from the web site even though it was not official and should have responded earlier to the fact that the endorsement was not valid.
Moskowitz said that he was never informed by the SGA that the endorsement had been rescinded. On the morning of April 25, the SMOB election, Moskowitz received an e-mail from an anonymous e-mail account stating that a grievance would be filed if he did not immediately remove the RM endorsement.
Moskowitz responded by asking Hysen to remove the endorsement that evening, even though the election was already over. Moskowitz said that evidence in the grievance document filed by Bucher noted that this e-mail was sent by a member of Bucher's campaign.
The consequences of Bucher's grievance against Moskowitz will be decided by a grievance committee based on severity of the infraction. The SMOB election grievance committee will hold a hearing to decide Bucher's case by June 13.
The committee will be chaired by Seneca Valley senior Caroline Rodriguez and advised by Stephen Zagami, director of the Department of Student Services. If an appeal to the decision of the grievance committee is filed, a hearing examiner will be selected by election administrator Aaron Gross, and Board President Nancy Navarro.
Editor's Note: Hysen is currently a technical consultant on the Silver Chips Online staff.
For the complete story, be sure to check out the next print edition of Silver Chips in late May.
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Whatever happened to that potential lawsuit, by the way?
He lost in a landslide. All these post-election struggles are just making him look even worse than he did during his shifty campaign.
second of all, will, can you just drop it? why are you always threatening a lawsuit or challenging some procedure or refusing to sign your legal name on a fieldtrip permission form? all you're doing is losing the little blair support you have. what do you have to gain by filing a grievance against RM and ben moskowitz? The SMOB election is over.
SMOB Ben Moskowitz cannot be blamed for showing an endorsement on his webpage. RM's SGA DID in fact endorse Ben Moskowitz, and it was their principal who vetoed the official endorsement. This does not change the fact that he is endorsed by the members of RM's SGA. But I think the fact that the president of Bucher's school is webmaster of Ben Moskowitz's campaign page speaks for itself.
Just give up, Bucher. It'll save your parents a lot of money, and it will save you from being embarrassed and disgraced any more than you already have been.
You know Will still angsts to me about losing to Hysen?
basic conversation:
Will: so Hysen wrote the voting program. and then Hysen won the election. You do the math.
me: ...what are you implying?
Will: I'm not implying anything.
.... right.
Yes, okay, Hysen wrote the program. but at least two people checked over his code, and he lost his sysop powers for a long while before and during the election. There is no way that he could have influenced the vote.
And yet Will still badmouths + implicates him.
Why?!
Like I said, Will is a sore loser and a bad sport.
this is pretty stupid.
Even if there was a recount, would this make that much difference in how people would vote?
First, he threatens to sue for facebook groups, and now this! He is really NOT making any friends here...
Don't give up
"I also want to say thank you to Will Bucher for a terrific campaign. Will worked extremely hard and I know how passionate he is about helping the students of Montgomery County. He congratulated me on my victory today and I want to thank him for that."
will (from the above article):
"...Will Bucher...filed a grievance on May 16 against current SMOB-elect Ben Moskowitz, according to Bucher...Bucher said that Ben Moskowitz did not remove the endorsement from the web site even though it was not official and should have responded earlier to the fact that the endorsement was not valid."
i am so proud ben won. he deserves it. even if he didnt, given his competition, he'd better win. congrats again ben! we all cheered for you.
So if two people just happen to be friends, long before they started working for opposing candidates, are we supposed to kick out both of them from their positions?
Even if Will won this, he would still not be SMOB. What's the point? I agree with what someone said down there: if he really wants to help the county, he'll suck it up and try to find a different position and help the county anyway.
in the end, he did not sue anyone and the case was not brought past mere speculation
what was not mentioned unfortunately in this article is that filing grievences is customary after smob elecions so that in the future, new regulations can be put into place (such as maybe restricting web-based hate groups).
And speaking of due process, seniors have 2 days of school left. How about that class of '07?
Zach
So I win. QED, pwned =D
That said, Zach Hall for President 20__ whatever that date was!! w00t
It makes student government look, as someone else commented already, like bad personal politics.
Speaking of connections, SCO should also make it clear how some of these people are related to the newspaper. Eric Hysen is listed as a technical advisor to SCO, while Will Bucher was a former (?) writer, last posting a story in February but not listed as current staff.
And to I Win, I never denied it, I believe I said "I don't know" to everyone who asked. Who are you? And I'm running in 2028.
Zach Hall
Montgomery Blair High School - '07
Case Western Reserve University - '11
US Presidential Candidate - '28
and not like the RM endorsement probably made a big difference anyway...
he still would have lost!
looooooooooooooooooserrrrrrr
Eric can support anyone he wants.
so what if Will goes to Blair and Ben doesn't?