Thurgood Marshall College junior Eddie Herrera resigned from his position as A.S. vice president external last month, leaving his post just before an investigation of financial misconduct and ending a short council career many A.S. councilmembers called tumultuous.

Herrera, the sole member of the Tritons United! political party to win an executive seat on the 2006-07 A.S. Council, submitted a letter of resignation on Aug. 11, citing personal issues as the reason for his departure, according to A.S. President Harry Khanna.

“[Herrera] was interested in the affairs of [the] A.S. [Council], but it’s just not his thing,” Khanna said.

Leaving behind job duties including a project to increase the number of students registered to vote, Herrera’s resignation came as a welcome solution to poor job performance, according to several A.S. councilmembers.

“He wasn’t on top of his stuff and he didn’t have a clue what he was doing,” Eleanor Roosevelt College Senior Senator Erik Rodriguez-Palacios said. “He was getting closer and closer to being called incompetent.”

In addition to poor job performance, Herrera often sealed himself away from other councilmembers, which impeded council cohesiveness, according to an A.S. councilmember who declined to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the resignation.

“He didn’t interact much with councilmembers,” the councilmember said. “He had his own agenda.”

Ultimately, it was Herrera’s inability to work cooperatively and productively that led to his resignation, according to the councilmember.

Herrera, though, dismissed the idea that he was uncooperative, and cited “personal reasons” as the cause of his departure.

“I think I’m a strong student leader, but in this case I was forced to make the decision [to resign],” he said.

Shortly after Herrera left the council, however, allegations of financial misconduct on the former vice president external’s part arose, stemming from the improper reimbursement of money Herrera used to attend a UC Student Association Electoral Action Training conference in May at UCLA, according to another A.S. councilmember who also declined to be identified.

According to the councilmember, after a UCSA representative notified Khanna and Campus Organizing Director Long Pham, a Thurgood Marshall College junior who worked under Herrera in the external affairs department, about the improper use of student funds, Khanna double-checked Herrera’s receipts and noticed a discrepancy.

According to the councilmember, Herrera brought his girlfriend — a non-UCSD student — to the conference and paid for her $10 registration fee. When he submitted receipts to be reimbursed for costs relating to the E.A.T. conference, however, he included the extra money as part of the reimbursement package, the councilmember said, and was reimbursed for both registration fees, a total of $20.

Herrera, however, called the reimbursement issue a “misunderstanding,” citing miscommunication problems as the cause of the discrepancy.

According to Herrera, his girlfriend did accompany him to the conference — driving him to UCLA because he did not have a valid driver license at the time — but paid for herself at the time of registration. When he asked for a receipt, he said the UCSA staff members issued him one in the amount of $10, reflecting only his payment. Herrera then left the conference the same day, but upon his return to UCSD, misplaced the receipt issued to him by UCSA, and had to obtain a duplicate copy in order to be reimbursed properly within the allotted time frame.

UCSA, Herrera said, faxed another receipt to UCSD, but wrote $20 on it erroneously, not realizing that his girlfriend had paid for herself.

Amanda Martin, a field organizer for UCSA, confirmed that the receipt sent to the A.S. Council was for two people, but indicated that Herrera had submitted the total payment.

“The receipt I wrote [Herrera] back in April was for $20 reflecting the payment UCSA received,” Martin stated in an e-mail. “The cost per person for the E.A.T. was $10 … The receipt was issued simply to reflect the payment UCSA received from [Herrera] and how many students the payment was for.”

Herrera said that further miscommunication exacerbated the problem, and that he realized UCSA’s error but submitted the receipt to A.S. Fund Manager Peili Hsu anyway, asking her to ignore the amount written on the receipt and fill out the reimbursement forms in the amount of $10.

Hsu, who has since been relocated from Associated Students to serve as a fiscal specialist in the UCSD neurosciences department, said she could not remember Herrera’s request.

In addition, she said that A.S. councilmembers had submitted requests to her on numerous occasions to omit certain items from reimbursement receipts, but that she would always e-mail or call the student to verify that the requested items had been removed from the required forms.

“To my knowledge, I’ve never made a mistake,” Hsu said, regarding the omission of requested items from reimbursement request forms.

Herrera also said he never received a call or e-mail from Hsu verifying that the extra $10 had not been included on the forms.

After the discovery of the refund error, Herrera said he wrote a check immediately to pay the money back. He also said that he should have “double-checked” that Hsu had complied with his request.

Herrera, who campaigned vigorously last spring to win his executive seat, relied on a platform including bringing ethics and morality back to the scandal-plagued council. Former A.S. Vice President External Kevin Mann resigned last year in the wake of a discovery that he used student fees to buy personal gifts, including shot glasses.

“There are so many things that this council has done that have been appalling,” Herrera said last April after his victory had been declared. “We need to change the way we deal with moral issues, which would help us represent the students the way we should be.”

Khanna has appointed Pham, who has worked in the external affairs office for two years, as interim vice president external, and will eventually appoint a permanent member once the application process is over. Any student can apply for the position, Pham said, and a decision should be finalized around third week of this quarter.

Herrera’s departure is not a concern for the council, Rodriguez-Palacios said.

“It’s definitely not a loss,” Rodriguez-Palacios said. “I don’t think he will be missed.”

Readers can contact Matthew McArdle at [email protected].