Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman announced he would add another seat to the 13-member Rental Housing Task Force to be filled by an ASU student who is also a tenant in a single-family Tempe residence at Thursday's City Council meeting.
The commission, organized to address issues related to rental housing in Tempe, does not have any members who are renters or students.
"I am the one wholly responsible for any failure" to appoint renters or students initially, Hallman said.
Ed Hermes, government relations director for Undergraduate Student Government, said he was pleased with the mayor's announcement.
Hermes, who applied for a seat on the task force during the first round of appointments, but was not selected, attended the first task force meeting, and said he was disappointed no students had been selected for the commission.
"[USG] will be working diligently to reach out to students that are renters to find the best applicants," Hermes said.
Hermes, who rents a single-family residence in Tempe, said he would apply for the new seat.
"I'm very excited," Hermes said. "We're showing Tempe that we do want to get involved."
Four USG senators and Hermes also addressed the council. The students advocated an early voting site on ASU's campus for the Tempe City Council election in March.
The March 14 primary is during ASU's spring break, USG leaders said.
"Many students would be discouraged from participating as a result of the election schedule," said Jacob Starsky, a USG senator for the College of Education.
The election dates are set by state law, said Kathy Matz, Tempe city clerk.
Early voting sites cost the city about $4,000, Matz said. Council approval is needed to create new early voting sites.
The city has run one early voting site at the Tempe Library, at Rural Road and Southern Avenue. The site has been "very popular," Matz said.
On the regular election day, the city has run a polling site out of the ASU Visitor's Center at Rural Road and Apache Boulevard.
"Historically, it's had the lowest turnout of any polling place in Tempe," Matz said.
Hallman said voting by mail could be a simpler and more cost-effective solution.
"Is that something ASU students are incapable of doing?" Hallman asked.
The purpose of the request was to help students become more civically engaged, Michael Iafrato, a USG senator for Fine Arts, said.
The council asked whether an ASU polling site would benefit other Tempe residents, and also expressed concern over what it would cost the city.
Hallman said all Tempe residents have the option to vote early at the Tempe Library, or by mail.
"Wouldn't it be giving special treatment to ASU students to place a polling site on campus?" he asked.
"We consider students an equal class," Hallman said. "Neither special, nor those who should be discriminated against."
Hermes said he thought the meeting went well, but the early voting site idea "was not received by Mayor Hallman as well as I'd hoped," Hermes added.
Reach the reporter at emilia.arnold@asu.edu.
