Gov't development moving forward
By Marley Shebala
Navajo Times
WINDOW ROCK, Dec. 1, 2011
"I'll go to bat for them," said Russell Begaye, Council delegate for Shiprock, on Monday.
Referring to the critics' complaint that the commission has trouble getting a quorum because many of its seats are empty, he said, "I have no problem drafting legislation for (commission nominees) to be confirmed (by the Council).
"The commission needs to get these nominees confirmed," Begaye said. "I'll work with them. I think I'll enjoy working with them."
Begaye's statements came after subcommittee Chair Leonard Tsosie put off the question of whether his subcommittee would assist the commission in getting up to working strength after it was abolished by the former Council in 2007.
The subcommittee met Monday to discuss the "roles of Navajo Government Development Office and Navajo Government Development Commission."
Tsosie opened the meeting with an announcement that he had created the agenda with the approval of Speaker Johnny Naize.
The discussion was needed, he said, because Government Development Office Director Caleb Roanhorse had "unilaterally" withdrawn office staff support from Tsosie's subcommittee.
Tsosie based his perception on a conversation with Jamie Henio, one of Roanhorse's staff assistants, who said Roanhorse had directed the Government Development Office to help the Commission on Government Development get back on its feet.
"So you were told that the subcommittee is no longer a priority," Tsosie concluded.
Henio said that was not what he or Roanhorse said.
The question of who controls the government development process is a touchy one. The commission was born of reform efforts following the fall of Chairman Peter MacDonald Sr. and was to be an independent body tasked with researching alternative forms of government
Eventually, the Navajo voters would choose which form best suited the Navajo Nation, based on its culture and history.
But in 2007, as the Council wielded increasing power under longtime Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan, it passed the Navajo Government Development Act, which abolished the 12-member commission and moved its office under the speaker's office.
The sponsors of the bill were Morgan and Charles Damon II, who survived the 2010 Council downsizing.
In 2010, the Navajo Nation Supreme Court ruled that the Council's action was illegal, citing a section of the tribal code that said all amendments to Title 2, especially the commission and its office, must come from the people and the commission and then be approved by a vote of the people. Title 2 of the Navajo Nation Code defines how the tribal government is to be structured.
The Supreme Court also ordered the Council to immediately reinstate the commission, return its administrative staff and fund it.
The current Council, which took office in January, did not act on the court order immediately but included the commission in the 2012 budget, which took effect Oct. 1.
There remains the problem of filling the commission seats. The new Council has not confirmed nominations to the commission, which have been sitting in the legislative branch for about five years.
In 2007, Morgan and Damon justified abolishing the commission by saying it had not generated any government reform models.
At that time and again in September, commission Chair Bessie Tsosie (no relation to Leonard Tsosie), countered by saying the commission could not achieve a quorum because it had too few members. And this, she emphasized, was because the Council either refused to confirm the nominees made by other entities, or failed to name any itself.
Bessie Tsosie said the process to select new members was too time consuming and that the 1989 Navajo Government Development Commission Act needed to be amended.
The Government Reform Subcommittee agreed, but proposed amendments that would put five Council delegates on the commission, instead of one, and would remove mandatory representation from the Navajo Women's Commission, medicine people, Diné College student body, and a graduate student.
The rationale of the subcommittee was that the commission never got Council approval for their government reform amendments because there was no "buy-in" by the delegates.
In a concession to Bessie Tsosie's concerns, the subcommittee's amendments also would have all 12 commissioners appointed directly by the groups designated in the law, and would drop the requirement for Council confirmation.
The subcommittee approved the amendments Oct. 5 and directed acting Chief Legislative Counsel Edward McCool to draft legislation for Council approval, after which they would become law.
However, McCool drafted the bill as a voter referendum, telling the subcommittee that in his legal opinion, changes to the government development committee fell under the Supreme Court directive to get voter approval.
Leonard Tsosie and most members of his subcommittee were irate that McCool had produced a referendum bill, but the bill's sponsor, subcommittee Vice Chair Jonathan Nez, said the referendum language was keeping the discussion of government reform active among delegates and reservation residents.
Tsosie reported to the subcommittee that the commission informed him on Nov. 9 of its opposition to the subcommittee's amendments and further that McCool maintained his position that he could not draft their legislation without the referendum.
Faced with these roadblocks, the subcommittee decided to drop the amendments.
The subcommittee also agreed to more forward with its Council mandate to produce "comprehensive" government reform models by June 2012 and to allow time for public comment during subcommittee meetings.
"I think we need to very clearly state that we are not in competition nor do we oppose the Government Development Commission," Begaye explained. "We want to work with the commission and any group putting together Navajo Nation government reform. And that anyone and everyone is invited to our meetings and make a comment."