As members of the student government convened Wednesday night, a gridlocked council spent the evening debating one appointment and took up no new legislation.

Tensions arose before the Associated Students of Madison Student Council meeting began as accusations of open meetings bylaws and claims of members feeling personally attacked for their role in the nominations process circulated.

While the meeting was scheduled to begin later than usual at 9:30 p.m. in the wake of Chair Allie Gardner not posting an agenda outside the ASM office on time, representatives ended up with a slim one hour and 45 minutes to only approve the Nomination Board’s Student Services Finance Committee appointments and take up no new legislation.

Cale Plamann, a member of SSFC, said the agenda item to reconsider appointments to SSFC by the Student Council, made on Sunday, was not only illegal, but would also defy the removal process for committee members laid out in the ASM bylaws.

Representative Sarah Neibart added these new appointees have not served their terms and there is no just cause to remove them. She said these individuals also have the right to a trial in front of Student Judiciary.

As debate over the possibility of removing the item escalated, Student Council member Clay Thomas said he raised the original idea to reconsider because he was uncomfortable with the way representatives rushed through the appointment process.

“People didn’t know what was going on, this is not the way we’re supposed to do it,” he said.

Thomas also said it was inappropriate to close open forum and he had received personal threats relating to removing the item from the agenda.

The item was removed by a vote of over two-thirds of the council.

Controversy also flared when the council attempted to begin the process of approving the appointments for SSFC, Finance Committee and Student Activity Center Governing Board made by the Nomination’s Board three-day interview process.

Representatives questioned the board’s interview process when it was revealed several of the total nine members were not present for all interviews or votes, which members contended came as a result of stricter time restraints for the internal process.

During an interview with The Badger Herald, board member Johnny Koremenos said the group held meetings in the SAC on Monday from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., which violates ASM open meetings laws dictating that a meeting is considered closed after midnight.

Nominations Board member Tom Templeton said the group’s process did not follow the normally followed procedures and characterized deliberations as “frustrating.”

During the meeting, he said representatives raised multiple concerns about the appointment of Tony Falk as Chair of the SAC Governing Board.

Templeton said four members of the board sat in on interviews for both of the two candidates, with an additional two members each present for a different applicant for the position. While the vote originally stood tied, a final vote of 3-2 lead to Falk’s appointment.

He also said the body typically only has the responsibility to select SSFC and Finance Committee members by the second council meeting and usually has around five days to make appointments.