The Daily Delegate

Written by Jarvis Wood

During program session 4 on Sunday, Governor Violet Chin’s Media and Communications Director Ciaran Duff and Media Correspondent Clara Carter held MLC’s first ever intergovernmental affairs press conference. The press conference was held as a debrief on the Governor’s Cabinet’s activity both in and out of conference, and to further extend the connection between delegates and the administration.

The briefing was highlighted by an introduction to the findings of Governor Chin’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, a team dedicated to surveying and data collection, as well as an overview of the workings of the governor’s legislative team, who for the first time since the pandemic had authored bills of their own.

While the DIA and Governor Chin made time to attend the conference, the legislative team was hard as work. For the first time since the pandemic, the governor’s legislative team had authored three new bills and a constitutional amendment to be sent to Governor Chin’s desk for signing.

“The team is essentially working together to review all the bills submitted by delegations… they move their way all through the legislative houses until they hopefully get to Governor Chin’s desk for signing”, said Carter.

The team is also tasked with fine-tuning other delegates’ bill proposals to fit the governor’s platform: lowering the cost of living, preventing federal overreach, investing in LGBTQ+ rights and orginizations, protecting labour and immigration rights, supporting the houseless, environmental protection, and AI regulation.

The legislative team consists of Legislative Director Evan Daurio, Legislative Analyst Eldana Arega, and Legislative Advocates Royce Willis, Kiana Saraf, Hana Shukairy and Shay Marin Nussbaum. Since the start of the 78th MLC administration, Governor Chin and Chief of Staff Renu Dommeti have sponsored an amendment which changes the constitutional protections of non-human entities as different than natural entities, redefining corporate campaign funding, something quite unconventional as opposed to making it a bill.

Additionally, a bill providing tenants legal protection in eviction proceedings, a bill preventing the distribution of fund money to the UC system if it refuses to divest from assets associated with war crimes and the contribution to a genocide and human rights violations, and a bill regulating the use of AI by policymakers and the legislative counsel, also making the Joint Ethics Committee responsible for the regulation of AI in any form ensuring integrity in the regulations of artificial intelligence.

The Department of Intergovernmental Affairs (DIA) consists of Deputy Director Ashton Adibi, Deputy Director Julia Chase, and Director Sajan Singh, and are tasked with collecting data from delegates regarding the efficacy of MLC’s structure, ease of use, and delegate’s experience at conference.

Through a series of surveys conducted, the Department of Intergovernmental affairs gathered key info: 1 in 5 of the delegates surveyed don’t know how to access basic info regarding conferences, 60% stated schedule changes are too frequent and difficult to manage, 50% stated that it’s difficult to navigate the conference environment, 40% said shifting caucus locations and overlap didn’t allow for the intersectionality of delegates’ identities, 35% said info regarding program area information is hard to access, 30% said FLC information is hard to access, and 25% said leadership opportunities and application links are difficult to access.

The DIA came to the conclusion that “the majority of delegates actually do know that opportunities exist, but they don’t feel comfortable and confident enough to ask about them”, and aims to further improve the face-to-face interaction between administrators and delegates as a solution.

“Our Key Takeaways were placing an emphasis on communication from Gov Cab… and trying to provide alternatives to social media, whether that be live updates via email, text, or other platforms to get updates about location and times direct to delegates, which is something I think we’re currently lacking”, said Carter.

Governor Chin’s media team provided several initiatives currently in place regarding their takeaways, and hopes to leave their information and activity as an influence to future Youth and Government administrations. Through the work of both the legislative team and the DIA, it’s clear that Governor Chin’s administration is focused on leaving an impact above anything else, and taking full advantage of the limited time and immense opportunity given to them.