DASB Senate meeting: low sales in flea market, transparency in senators

DASB speak of flea market, San Jose City Council Member, transparency in senators

Andrew Shinjo, Staff Reporter

The De Anza College flea market is facing a decrease in vendorship, which contributes to a decrease to the DASB Senate budget, said the DASB Senate adviser, Hyon Chu Yi-Baker, on Wednesday, May 2.

Yi-Baker said a portion of the senate’s budget comes from vendor permit fees from the flea market, which was increased to $35 from $30.

Currently, if vendors want to get a spot in the flea market, they have to send a check by mail to pay, but Yi-Baker said there are plans to create an online system to handle payments more efficiently.

The flea market is also planning to work with a company called Off the Grill to bring in food trucks to the flea market, Yi-Baker said.

“All the food that is currently being sold is through our food services. We receive no money from their food concessions,” she said.

Working with third-party food companies would provide additional revenue to the flea market.

There are also considerations to bring in bands to bring a festival-like atmosphere to the flea market, Yi-Baker said.

The DASB Senate approved a motion to require senate members to publicly disclose on-campus club and organization affiliation.

Senator Lawrence Su, 18, business major, brought this idea up because he wants the senate to be more transparent to the student body.

Making this information transparent would reveal conflict of interests on certain votes, said Su.

People will also be able to see how senators voted without having to look through the agenda minutes of each meeting.

The motion was passed 18-0, with two abstentions.

Su said he hopes to expand upon this motion in the future by posting office hours of each senator online as well.

The senate endorsed San Jose City Council Member Don Rocha for the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.

Peter Hamilton, a staff member for Rocha, represented Rocha in presenting to the senate.

Senator Brandi Sue Madison raised concerns about endorsing Rocha without knowing his position on the City of Santa Clara’s ballot Measure A, which the senate voted to oppose in the April 25 meeting.

“I’m actually going to abstain from voting yes or no on my endorsement” said Madison. “I don’t have enough information to vote.”

Su added that he thought if a candidate wanted an endorsement from the senate, the candidate should show up themselves.

Madison raised a motion to table the endorsement vote for next week, but it failed to pass.

The senate voted 12-3 in favor of the endorsement with seven abstentions.