Senator for Off Campus Residents Bryan Lober '06 was unanimously impeached yesterday morning by the Union Senate for allegedly failing to fulfill his duties as a representative. Lober said the accusations made against him are baseless and that he has been a staunch advocate for his constituents.A Union Judiciary (UJ) case for the impeachment has been set for Mar. 15 at 7:30 p.m.

Eleven senators were not present for the executive session, a closed meeting during which the articles of impeachment were drafted against Lober. A two-thirds vote of present senators is needed to impeach.

The articles drafted by the Senate state that Lober failed to either attend or participate in a majority of the Senate meetings this semester. He is also cited as a "destabilizing force," thereby violating his duties as a Union officer.

Lober said the allegations against him are "patently false." He said he has only missed one meeting and some of his assigned office hours, and this was because he had to tend to a severe flood in his house.

"It was further clarified [to Senate] that I cannot control the schedule of various contractors required to mitigate and fix the damage in my home," Lober said. "However, this fact, along with my efforts and accomplishments seem to have eluded those who voted for my impeachment."

According to Lober, he is an active participant in Senate. He said he fought to secure more lockers for commuter students and successfully pushed for the lounge on the third floor of the Shaprio Campus Center to be open later for students. Among other initiatives, Lober said he has also been working to secure exterior dorm keys for commuter students. [See story, this page].

But Executive Senator Erica Lemansky '05, also an off-campus resident, said she does not believe that Lober adequately served his constituents and took his job as Senator seriously.

"He attendance record is bad," Lemansky said. "He is very inconsistent with his attendance at meetings and he does not stay for the duration of all the meetings. I don't think he's done anything that particularly benefits the off campus students."

Union Vice President Kenneth Gantz '04 said he noticed that Lober left several times during last Sunday's Senate meeting.

He sent a note to Lober advising him to stay in the meeting or else some sort of action would be taken against him. Gantz said Lober left the room again after the note reached him.

"While you were gone, I had a conversation with the Senate about attendance and the lack thereof," Gantz's note said. "I suggested that motions to censure might be a good middle ground before impeachment. The Constitution is clear about missing more than a total of two meetings all year. So please be here on time and don't leave early anymore."

Lober said he left the meeting because he needed to discuss something with another person for a moment. He said Gantz then approached him sternly, saying that he should go back to the meeting.

Lober said he did not want to be coerced into doing something when he had already told Gantz he would be back soon.

He also said that Gantz himself had missed four meetings. Gantz responded by saying Lober's claim is "ridiculous" and that he only missed the entirety of one meeting and a portion of another.

Lober did not return to the Senate meeting after speaking with Gantz, thereby missing the executive that voted to impeach him.

Senator for Ridgewood Quad Meghan Carter '04, who was not present at the executive session, said she would not have voted to impeach Lober.

"He's a great person and he helped me put on an event during disabilities month," Carter said. "He definitely cares about his constituents. I don't feel we should be impeaching. We should be helping with causes."

Gantz said he has no personal issues with Lober and that it was not his intention beforehand for the Senate to impeach Lober in the executive session.

"I told Senate before we moved into executive session that we were going to discuss overall Senate attendance," Gantz said.

Gantz said he was unable to divulge details about the executive session because it was a closed session, but he noted that the Senate began to discuss Lober's attendance record and together evaluated his performance and decided to impeach him.

"The articles of impeachment were not made by me," Gantz said. "They were drafted by the Senate."

Lober said he was notified of his impeachment at 3 a.m. and was not given a chance to defend himself. He said he could not go to the executive session because of a prior obligation.

Gantz said that Lober was not turned away from the executive session.

"He is a Senator and he chose not to be there, knowing quite possibly that some sort of action could be taken against him by his colleagues," Gantz said. "This was not an action taken behind his back."

Gantz said he has had repeated conversations warning Lober about his track record.

But Lober said he could not recall being spoken with seriously about his performance until Gantz approached him last Sunday.

In addition to Lober's impeachment, Class of 2007 Senator Christopher Allison was censured after the executive session for missing three Senate meetings. Censures, unlike impeachments, do not necessitate UJ hearings. There is no mention of censure in the Union Constitution or in Union by-laws.

Allison also said he was not approached by anybody in the Senate beforehand to say they were displeased with his performance.

"This is the first time that the senate has taken any action, official or otherwise, concerning either me or my performance as senator," Allison said in a statement to the Justice. "At no time have I been approached by any member of the student union government acting either in their official capacity as an elected official, or on behalf of a part or the whole of the Union.