Updated at 2:50 a.m. CST March 3

The Government of the Student Body rejected a resolution by a 15-14 vote addressing student concerns with the Ames City Council.

The treatise, which went through a number of revisions, originally began as a response to the City Council’s reaction to a petition establishing a special election to shorten Council terms. The resolution presented comments by the Council calling the election “a tremendous mistake” and “detrimental to the collective interests of the community.”

It also addressed Mayor Ted Tedesco’s question to the Ames city attorney concerning whether the council could deny the petition or bill the petitioners for the cost of the election.

“The senate couldn’t reach a consensus on what the best way to respond to the City Council was or whether to respond at all,” said Tony Borich, GSB College of Design senator.

The final revisions cut the clause including the Council’s remarks.

The resolution, which started with a title of “Treatise on the Conduct of Attitude of the Ames City Government,” and ended with the title “Reaffirming GSB’s Commitment to ‘One Community,'” also dropped a statement that the city had more than 16 separate punitive laws that primarily affect the short-term residents of Ames.

Jake Larson, GSB off-campus senator, said the resolution was originally compiled by the collective thoughts of more than 10 senators after the GSB meeting Feb. 23 “in the heat of the moment.” He said people got hold of that first version and thought it was the view of the whole senate.

“We had written it without hearing the City Council’s side,” Larson said.

Dave Stout, GSB College of Business senator, said he was disappointed with the coverage of the original resolution by WHO-TV 13 in Des Moines. The students were seen as whining and complaining because they were being picked on by the city, he said. A lot of the negative overtones were because the bill was “leaked” to the media, he said.

Stout called the media coverage “a misrepresentation of the original author’s intent.” He said the resolution should get passed to be presented to the media as an effort to clarify any original thoughts.

Larson said the final resolution presented in the meeting was compiled by 15 different senators.

Debate on the resolution created amendments that took out three separate clauses and changed other aspects of the resolution.

Larson, who introduced the resolution, tried to move to remove the bill because it was completely different from its original intent. This was rejected because it was no longer Larson’s resolution because of the amendments.

Ames Councilman Matthew Goodman was present during the GSB meeting Wednesday. He said he was present because he was interested in what was going on.

He said he was concerned with the first version of the resolution because it attributed the words of some members of the Council to the whole Council. The words of individuals are rarely the words of the entire body, he said.

He said he would bring to things back to the City Council. First he would tell the entire Council that GSB had responded very well to concerns of the first resolution and had intelligently debated the issue. Second, Goodman said, he plans to talk to individuals on the Council on what caused the original resolution and what can be done.

Goodman said he hopes the GSB senators who had the original concern will have a conversation with the individuals who created the concern.

Stout said he would “continue going to the City Council and the community to be seen as equal members.”