Begay seeks response to memo

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — It’s been more than two months since Navajo Nation Council Delegate Kee Allen Begay Jr., Many Farms/Round Rock, sent a memorandum to Attorney General Louis Denetsosie requesting an opinion on activities related to President Joe Shirley’s initiatives to reduce the size of the Council and to obtain line-item veto authority.

Though Begay sent the memorandum to Denetsosie on July 18, the attorney general still has not provided an answer to the six questions Begay submitted.

Begay said he went to the Department of Justice twice since he submitted the request asking for an update, and staff only tells him that it is still on Denetsosie’s desk.

“I gave them my phone number. Have I got a response? No,” Begay said. “If the president is able to get a response from the attorney general in one or two days, I think the attorney general should have the same courtesy to all elected officials, including delegates.”

A message seeking comment to the Office of the Attorney General was not returned.

Begay, perhaps the most vocal opponent of the president’s initiatives, also said he has been asking the Navajo Nation Washington Office, which is under the executive branch, for an update on the status of funding that he is seeking for his communities but he also has not received an answer from that office.

“I’m just being ignored,” he said.

Begay noted in the memo to the attorney general that the Navajo Nation president has made it known that he is moving forward with the petition initiative as a Navajo Nation voter and not as an elected official.

In his memo, Begay wants to know if those listed on the initiative petition, including the president, vice president and division directors, should step down from their official positions.

“This initiative literally has to be achieved as a full-time, day to day activity if they are to collect 17,000 signatures with only 30 petition committee members and with a time frame of only 180 days,” Begay wrote.

Begay next asked if the president has the privilege to use Navajo Nation resources to get signatures and to conduct informative meetings at chapter houses. He said that the president travels with division directors, security detail and appointed staff members for the initiative and uses tribal vehicles.

The third question Begay has for Denetsosie is about the potential ethics violations if the initiative petition committee members utilize Navajo Nation funds and resources if they did not take official leave to conduct activities pertaining to the initiative.

“Petition Committee are all top level executive branch staff including President and Vice President,” he wrote.

Begay also asks if any Navajo individual can request for the financial activity related to the initiative, including details of funds paid for newspaper and radio advertisements, how much money has been raised and its balance and a list of contributors.

Begay wants to know if the petitioners can collect signatures anywhere, including off the Navajo Nation. He said he heard that signatures were being collected at a squaw dance in Lukachukai.

The final question Begay asked of the attorney general is if a majority of chapters opposing the initiative by chapter resolution will halt the initiative process. Begay said that the president’s office faxed out templates of supporting resolutions to the 110 chapters.

He said that the Round Rock chapter opposed the initiative by resolution and the Many Farms chapter tabled it because the members want to hear from the president.