At tonight's Student Senate meeting, members will vote on legislation that would limit the power of the minority party in addition to voting on a controversial nomination for Image chairman.
The legislation would affect the Orange and Blue Party, which is the minority party in the Senate and controls about 19 percent of the available votes.
If the legislation is approved, suggestions for Senate and committee seats would require 40 percent approval from senators at the meeting, doubling it from the 20 percent currently required.
In addition, special meetings, such as the one called to pass a resolution in opposition to Amendment 2 on Oct. 30, could no longer be formed through a petition of 20 senators.
That power would lie only in the hands of the Senate president and Student Body president.
Senate President Jordan Johnson, a Gator Party member sponsoring the legislation, said the percentage increase would put SG in line with U.S. Senate requirements.
Johnson said changes are needed to run a productive and orderly Senate, and the minority currently uses their power to slow progress.
"These dilatory tactics just aren't going to work anymore because they're not fair," he said.
On Oct. 14, Johnson voted on revisions to Senate procedure, which included an increase in protection of the minority party. The move was triumphed as a bipartisan effort during the Senate meeting.
However, the legislation Johnson has sponsored for tonight's meeting will undo those changes if passed.
Johnson said he was not aware that he was increasing protection of the minority party when he voted on the rules the first time.
"One-fifth was fine until those evil minority party senators actually had one-fifth," said Orange and Blue Party Sen. Sam Miorelli in a Judiciary Committee meeting on Sunday.
In an e-mail sent to senators Monday night, Orange and Blue Party Sen. Benjamin Dictor wrote that the work on Amendment 2 was a great example of bipartisan cooperation. Senators from both parties signed the petition to hold the special meeting.
Dictor wrote that regardless of party affiliation, the majority can make mistakes, and the minority power must be present to counter the interests of the majority.
"What is the point of a minority protection if such a large number is required to use it?" he wrote.
For the measures to pass, a two-thirds vote is required by the Senate, and they must pass a second time.
Meanwhile, a tardy nomination to the SG agency Image has been a subject of dispute.
According to Student Body Statutes, the Image chairman position should have been filled by Student President Kevin Reilly 14 days after he assumed presidency in May.
While Reilly said the delay was caused by an unsatisfactory applicant pool, some SG leaders felt the executive committee nominated the wrong candidate out of the two students considered.
Ankur Lakhani, a UF senior who has been involved with the Gator Party and said members of his fraternity are involved in SG, was chosen over Frank Bracco, a UF senior and former senator who led another SG agency, Chomp the Vote, from 2007 to 2008.
Image is responsible for video recording and providing a weekly broadcast of SG activities, such as Senate meetings.
For the past four months, Bracco has filmed Senate meetings on his own because no chairperson was appointed.
Student Body President Kevin Reilly, who voted for Lakhani, said some executive committee members felt Bracco was too partisan and unprofessional for the job.
"Some people didn't feel that was the kind of person that we wanted working in our administration," he said.
Lakhani wrote on his application that his goals included improving SG's public relations through measures such as putting Senate meetings on CDs or "getting a person from the Alligator to write a GOOD article about Student Government."
When asked to expound upon these ideas, he said they are just broad examples.
Student Body Treasurer Paul Drayton voted for Bracco because he fulfilled the tasks of the position over the past few months.
