The Associate Students Legislative Council struggled to overcome party divisions as they passed a total of two bills and approved four action items in last night’s meeting.

The council amended the Resolution to Condemn the Passing of the County-Wide Social Host Ordinance to clarify vague wording and communicate their disagreement with the bill. The council said this amendment was meant to communicate to the Board of Supervisors that A.S. Legislative Council does not support the Social Host Ordinance — a law that holds the hosts of parties in Isla Vista responsible for any underage drinking that takes place — while still expressing their desire to reach a collaborative decision.

“Basically, we’re asking the board not to pass this.” External Vice President of Local Affairs Corilyn Lantz said. “However, if we take this approach they will not listen to us. We need to find a balance to say we don’t support this draft but we’re willing to work with them to attempt to draft something.”

The council also elected Joel Mandujano as the Committee on Committees chair for the 2010-11 school year.

A large portion of the meeting was devoted to the decision to approve the new legislative council A.S. Boards Committee and Commissions appointments. The 40 Boards Committee and Commissions members are divided up into project specific committees. Some members of the legislative council felt that these groups should be more carefully crafted to avoid the possibility of any party-biased decisions.

“I understand that parties have individuals, but I think the groups should be changed up,” Mandujano said. “In terms of party lines, things should be changed up.”

Although sentiment was divided over the need to diversify the groups, Josue Aparicio said the council was doing itself a disservice by perpetuating party divisions.

“[The A.S. Legislative Council] is going to have a really tough year if you keep bringing up these party lines.” Aparicio said.

Lantz presented her plans for the upcoming year to the council during the Executive Officer Reports. In addition to planning the annual Pardall carnival, Lantz discussed plans for alternatives Halloween festivities next year and plans to improve relations between students and the low income families living in Isla Vista.

Additionally, $4,750 was allocated to support previous legislative council members who had not received all of their honoraria wages yet, and $3,700 of that number will be distributed among the executive board members over the summer. This amount was redistributed from funds which had not yet been allocated.

Additionally, council members approved Community Affairs Board’s request for a total of $3,610.93 from their budget to both reimburse the organization’s banquet award costs from last week, as well as cover the cost of their travel fees to the upcoming conference in New York City.

The council reinstated their support to condemn hate crimes in I.V. and at UCSB. Although the bill is not new, the council amended the bill to say, “[UCSB] will not tolerate these hate crimes, hate incidents, and hate speech” instead of, “[UCSB] condemns these hate crimes, hate incidents, and hate speeches”. Joe Lee, an on-campus representative on legislative council, said the amendment of this resolution continues to be important.

“It’s a really serious issue not just here but at other places too,” Lee said. “I think as far as leadership, it needs to be known that we support this, and also to support the people who are survivors or have experienced these hate crimes.”

Last night’s meeting was comprised of a number of newly elected committee members. Representatives shared their visions for the upcoming year and told the council what they hoped to bring to the table.

“I’d like to look into organizing some sort of tail gate in the parking lot for soccer games, and what that would entail,” Off-campus Representative Joe Lewis said. “If we could have some sort of staple items, matching T-shirts or some sort of staple item to make our soccer games nationally recognized, that would be great.”