Navajo Nation government:
Talking reform
Speaker of the Navajo Nation Council, Lawrence Morgan, left, and Navajo Nation President, Joe Shirley Jr. take questions during a press conference at the Quality Inn in Window Rock Wednesday, August 13. — ©2008 Gallup Independent / Cable Hoover

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — In a move that was “a long time coming,” Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley and Council Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan announced their government reform agreement Wednesday.

In 1989, a three-branch government was created to replace the chairmanship with the understanding that a re-examination and restructuring would take place before 1991. Although there have been several attempts to begin that restructuring, it wasn’t until this year that an agreement to do so by the legislative and executive branches has been brought forth.

The government reform would begin with the president and the speaker each appointing five people to a group charged with producing written procedures to be used in the comprehensive restructuring of the Navajo Nation government, a timetable to complete the process and identifying the people involved and their roles in the process.
The group will develop the rules and procedures will meet once a week. Those written procedures would be agreed to and signed by both the president and speaker.

A group of the people identified in the procedures would produce a document outlining the restructuring of the government, such as a constitution, charter or similar document.

That document would be presented to the Council — the governing body of the Navajo Nation. The Council would not be able to make any changes to the document, according to the terms of the agreement.

“The Council would then just refer that to the people for a vote, so for the first time in the history of the Navajo people, the Navajo people will vote on the form of government, structure of government, and I suspect that the old Navajo law that still exists today, which is ‘all power rests with the Council’ will change so that it will say all power rests with the people and the powers are delegated to the Council,” Albert Hale, former Navajo Nation president and attorney for Shirley on this matter, said.

The process would begin within one month after Council appropriates $2 million for the reform effort and conclude within six months, according to the agreement,
The appropriation for $2 million would be considered during the next special session. Morgan said that a petition is currently being circulated and when a majority of delegates request it, a special session would be announced.

“It could be at the end of the month,” Morgan said.

The funds appropriated would go toward such expenses as mileage and lodging for members of the group producing the government reform document and possibly consultants for the matter.

As part of the agreement, legislation would also be introduced to Council for a referendum election to require changing the size of Council to be approved by a majority of voters in an election with at least 35 percent of the electorate votes, instead of the majority in each of the 110 chapters that is now required. The 35 percent was intended as a compromise between a simple majority and the so-called “supermajority,” said Council Delegate Leonard Tsosie, Pueblo Pintado/Torreon/Whitehorse Lake.

Legislation would also be drafted to reduce the size of the 88-member Council to 40 members.

Should the Council not appropriate the $2 million or not approve the referendum votes, Shirley would be able to proceed with his initiatives to reduce the number of Council delegates to 24 and to obtain line-item veto authority which the Council would not be able to override.

However, if Council approves legislation sending a referendum to reduce the size of Council to the people, the president will withdraw the initiative petitions and both the speaker and president will move to dismiss any actions pending before the Office of Hearing and Appeals.

As of yesterday, Shirley said 10,000 signatures have been collected. A minimum of 15 percent of registered voters, or 16,820 certified signatures, for each initiative is required.
“I hope the agreement we have put in place will be acted on in an affirmative manner and brought to fruition by the Navajo Nation Council. There is a real dire need to address government reform at this time and I am glad we are actually doing something about it,” Shirley said.