A motion to impeach De Anza College Associated Student Body Senate President Anna Callahan and Executive Vice President Bernardo DeSeabra failed Wednesday, after enough senators removed their signatures during the meeting.

The senate instead voted to cancel the next meeting after the budget is finalized to resolve the issues.

John Cognetta, the DASB adviser, said this was the first time he’d seen a bill of particulars brought forth to the senate floor. He has been senate advisor for 16 years.

A bill of particulars is a formal statement of grievances that begins an impeachment process. It requires five signatures from senators. In the end, only senators Israr Qumer, Sanjeet Heyer, and Zahra Noor kept their signatures on the bill.

Senators Donald Murphy and Navdip Hothi removed their signatures during the Senate meeting. They said they signed the bill as a survey, and did not expect it to be turned in. "The documents were turned in without anyone being told beforehand," said Murphy in an e-mail.

"While I did type the bill of particulars, I did not turn the bill of particulars in."

The remaining senators did not address the senate during the meeting, except Israr Qumer, who only said there were many issues that needed to be addressed immediately.

DeSeabra said that the issues cited were "mostly personal issues," and thus not an appropriate reason for impeachment.

"I’m here to serve the people, not the Senate," he said.

Callahan agreed, "The DASB President and Vice President have almost entirely followed and fulfilled their bylaw-described job requirements, and none of the complaints brought against them contained any specific examples of violations of such."

Heyer insisted that the issues were not personal, but instead related to communication and how the senate was run.

The senate will continue to meet and conduct business, and will deal with these issues during conflict resolution workshops.

This article appears in the Feb. 21, 2006 print edition of La Voz.