A heated debate unfolded at last night’s Undergraduate Council meeting over whether a monetary allocation by council President Sujean S. Lee ’03 and Vice President Anne M. Fernandez ’03 for bettering council technology—including the council’s website and Web-based voting system—required the consent of the full council.

The question arose two months after elections for the council’s representatives were delayed because of problems with the council’s new online voting system.

Jared S. Morgenstern ’03, who was the council’s technology coordinator during the elections, designed the new system last summer with Edward D. Lim ’02.

Last night, council Treasurer Eric J. Powell ’03 updated the council’s budget to include a $5,000 allocation for “UC Technology,” paid out in three installments.

Joshua A. Barro ’05 and Vedran Lekic ’04 took issue with the final installment, a $750 payment to Morgenstern.

According to Barro and Lekic, the bill that initially approved the funding for technological upgrades allowed for expenditures only during last summer. The final $750 allocation was made during the year, though, without approval by the council.

Fernandez initially defended the allocation by saying that the council had approved all $5,000. After the text of the bill was read aloud, though, Fernandez changed her defense and said that delaying the $750 payment to Morgenstern could have disastrous consequences on the upcoming council presidential and vice presidential elections, scheduled to begin on Dec. 9.

“If we cancel the check, elections next week will not happen,” Fernandez said. “If we delay payment, [Morgenstern] can delay.”

After the meeting, Fernandez said that she did not mean to characterize Morgenstern’s arrangement as “a hostage situation,” but meant instead that reneging on a pledge to pay the $750 “would be incredibly unprofessional.”

According to Fernandez, the online voting system for the presidential and vice presidential elections has been completed and simply needs to be “uploaded to the council’s computers.”

The council’s old voting system, called “ucvote,” was dismantled after a flood of the Holworthy Hall basement destroyed the computer, Fernandez said.

Barro and Lekic called for the council to disallow the $750 payment, which had initially been approved only by Lee, former Council President Paul A. Gusmorino ’02 and Fernandez.

“I think the executive board exercises too much power,” Barro said. “So long as we allow ourselves not to follow procedures, we’ll continue to fall into a lax mindset that creates impending disasters.”

While the council decided by a 22-11 count not to disallow the payment, presidential running-mates Rohit Chopra ’04 and Jessica R. Stannard-Friel ’04 drew attention from some council members by abstaining from the vote.

“That wasn’t too gutsy,” said representative Michael R. Blickstead ’05, who during the election wore a piece of paper supporting Stannard-Friel’s campaign.