The president of Off Campus College Council (OCCC) handed in his resignation Tuesday after fellow representatives questioned his reputation at Monday’s Student Assembly meeting, he said.

Aaron Butler, a senior management major, will also be resigning from his position as Assembly representative for OCCC at next Monday’s meeting. He said his character was questioned after the Financial Council presented the approved budget changes for his organization.

At the end of last semester, the then-OCCC executive board made referendums to the constitution, which included providing stipends to all four E-Board members, instead of the previous practice of being provided to the president and treasurer only. The board also wanted to increase the stipends from a maximum of $500 per member per semester to a maximum of $750.

These changes were voted on and passed within the organization at the end of last semester, according to Nico Meyer, treasurer and acting president of the organization.

According to Meyer, when information regarding the budget is changed in a constitution, the organization’s budget should be changed and approved through the FinCo to reflect the constitution. But since the changes were made late in the semester, there was no time to have the budget amended as well.

The board decided to match the budget to the updated constitution, instead of reverting to the old constitution, since that was the “most moral” thing to do, Meyer said.

In order to update its budget, the executive board presented a budget plan, which included the new stipend amounts, at an OCCC council meeting in October, where, according to Butler, no one said anything for or against this stipend increase.

According to Vice President for Finance for the Student Association Matthew Allwood, the executive board of OCCC did not have to verify its budget with the Council since it was passed last year in a referendum.

The next step was to take the budget plan to FinCo, which approved these stipend changes with no objections, and then for FinCo to have its decision approved by the SA Assembly.

“At [Monday’s] Assembly meeting, several representatives who were not paying attention at that [OCCC] meeting or have not been to an OCCC meeting in a while … claimed they didn’t hear anything [about the stipend increase] and said that I was lying, calling me a thief in front of 40 people,” Butler said.

The updated OCCC budget was not approved by the Assembly and was returned to FinCo for reconsideration. The stipend section of the budget became a heated topic at the meeting, Meyer said, where Allwood explained OCCC’s situation.

“I think that it is ridiculous to attack characters of the executive board [of OCCC], considering they went through proper channels more so than required,” Allwood said.

Butler said he is unhappy with the Assembly this year.

“There are a lot of people who have done things that are unethical and gotten away with it,” he said. “I try my hardest to do things that are ethical, and to be called out on something I didn’t do … My mother didn’t raise a liar.”

According to Assembly chair Elahd Bar-Shai, unless student organizations are violating a law or wasting money, the Assembly should not do anything to stop an organization’s budget from passing.

Upon Butler’s resignation, which he said was fully his decision, Meyer became acting president.

“He [Butler] is taking this very personally, he did a good job as president and Assembly rep,” said Adam Shamah, an Assembly representative for OCCC. “I was in favor of sending it [the proposal for a stipend increase] back to the Financial Council for more discussion, but I don’t think he tried to pull a fast one on anybody.”

The executive board is planning to make further changes to its constitution and will have a referendum at the end of next semester.