Ethics chief: Tighten law on sticky-fingered chapter officials
By Marley Shebala
Navajo Times
WINDOW ROCK, Dec. 15, 2011
"It really bothers me when chapter staff issue (meeting) stipend checks for themselves," John reported Nov. 30 to a joint meeting of the Council's Budget and Finance Committee and Resources and Development Committee.
The two committees met with the ethics office, Department of Justice, chief legislative counsel, auditor general's office, Division of Community Development, controller's office, and Office of Management and Budget to hear recommendations for preventing mismanagement of chapter funds.
John recommended amendments to the Local Governance Act that would increase oversight on chapter staff, who now are allowed to spend chapter funds and issue checks on chapter accounts with little direct oversight.
The safeguards should include the signatures of two different chapter workers and a clarification that stipends received for meetings are for chapter meetings and elected chapter officials, he said.
John also recommended upgrading the job qualifications for elected chapter officials to help them provide better supervision over chapter personnel.
John said he supports the enactment of laws to garnish the wages of chapter staff and elected officials who are found guilty of violating the ethics law and ordered to pay restitution.
He said the ethics office is currently working on amendments to the law to transfer cases involving theft and forgery to the criminal system.
John asked the committees to support the auditor general's request for read-only access to chapter electronic financial files, which he said would "safeguard" chapter funds while allowing closer oversight by tribal auditors.
John said the ethics office is working on a case involving a chapter, which he did not name, in which the chapter services coordinator and accounts maintenance manager issued themselves meeting stipend checks of $150 apiece for each informal meeting they held after 5 p.m. to discuss financial expenditures.
And then they got "bold," he said, and increased their stipends to $300 a meeting. Over several months one collected $36,000 in questionable stipend payments and the other got $37,000, he said.
This particular pair funneled a total of $103,000 in chapter funds to themselves, money that could have been used for scholarships, firewood and public employment, John said.
He noted that current law allows chapter staff to spend and issue checks to themselves.
John said the supervisors of the two chapter workers don't want to address the issue.
"Where's the suspension, termination, corrective action plan, vice president, secretary treasurer? Who is the one that is charged with protecting the chapter's money?" he asked.
During his office's investigation, John said the two chapter employees were asked why they took $103,000.
Their answer: "We earned it. We worked on behalf of the people."
John said ethics cases involving elected chapter officials are more disturbing to him because tribal leaders are held to a higher standard.
But they use their positions to manipulate the system to get money for themselves, he added.
John said the recent ethics case involving Tó Nanees Diz’ Chapter President Max Goldtooth Sr. and Vice President Robert Yazzie is a good example.
On Nov. 22, the Office of Hearings and Appeals found both Goldtooth and Yazzie guilty of stealing more than $37,000 from the chapter.
John said Yazzie received $20,000 in Christmas bonuses and Goldtooth's Christmas bonus totaled to $17,200.
He noted that they transferred funds from the chapter power-line extension budget to use for their holiday bonuses.
"Since when are elected officials entitled to bonuses?" John said.
He noted that during the investigation of the Goldtooth-Yazzie case, he found out that officials in non-LGA certified chapters were networking with those in LGA-certified chapters, such as Tó Nanees Diz’, on "crafty ways to cut themselves checks."
The B&F Committee and Resources and Development Committee directed the ethics office and the other agencies summoned to the Nov. 30 meeting to submit their recommendations in writing and include any proposed policies and procedures and amendments to laws.
The committees plan to meet again in early January.
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