Shirley: Navajo Speaker stalling

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Nation president’s office issued a news release Thursday saying that seven weeks of silence and inaction by Council Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan has jeopardized the chance to bring comprehensive government reform to the Navajo government, but the speaker’s office said that Morgan is moving forward with a separate plan for reform.

The memorandum of agreement signed by Morgan and President Joe Shirley on Aug. 13 states that legislation for $2 million to fund all activities related to the restructuring of the government shall be presented at the next special session of the Navajo Nation Council.

The next special session after the agreement was signed was on Sept. 11, but the legislation was not on the agenda for consideration by Council.

In his release, Shirley said he was aware in June when the speaker sought discussions with him that it may have been a strategy to slow or stop the collection of petition signatures, but he chose to take the speaker at his word and give the effort the benefit of the doubt.

“As the leader of the Navajo Nation, laying aside politics, and in the spirit of compromise, resolution and ke’, I wanted to give this effort the chance it deserved,” Shirley said. “As we can now see, reform is not really what the speaker wants,”

The president’s office said that once the speaker began talks with the president, political pressure from Council delegates started which ultimately led to the demise of participation in government reform by the legislative branch.

“This is what you call the wheels coming off the wagon. He (Morgan) wanted talks with the president and guess what? He got them. He wanted to negotiate an agreement with the president and lo and behold, he got it. At every step along the way, the president was willing to meet the speaker halfway,” George Hardeen, spokesman for Shirley, said.

“They wanted something. They got it and they decided they really did not want it, but the Navajo people do,” Hardeen said.

Joshua Lavar Butler, spokesman for Morgan, said that it was up to Council to decide on the proposed legislation in question.

 “What are we supposed to do? The agreement said it would come up before the special session, which it did and it failed,” Butler said in response to the release.

The legislation itself was not considered by the Council during the Sept. 11 special session but delegate Leonard Tsosie, Pueblo Pintado/Torreon/Whitehorse Lake, co-sponsor with Raymond Maxx, Coalmine Canyon/Tohnaneesdizi, unsuccessfully attempted to add it to the agenda on the Council floor.

Legislation must be deemed an emergency and voted “yes” by two-thirds of the Council membership to be added onto the agenda on the day of session.

Butler said that the legislation was an emergency item, which does not go through the same process as regular legislation, which is why the speaker did not include it on his proposed agenda to the Ethics and Rules Committee the day before the special session.

The committee had also ruled it out of order, Butler said.
Butler further added that the speaker is moving forward with comprehensive government reform.

“The speaker is committed to comprehensive government reform and he does have a plan that he will be presenting to Council during the fall session,” Butler said.

Butler did not provide any details of the plan but said it will include the Diné Policy Institute.

Now Hardeen said that the legislative branch wasted time by asking for the meetings.

“They wasted the president’s time. They wasted their own time and they wasted the Navajo people’s time, but they didn’t waste the lawyers’ time. They paid for that,” he said.
Just as the speaker is moving forward with his own initiative, the president is continuing with his initiatives to reduce Council and to give the president line item veto authority. Shirley asked for those with petitions to do everything they can to gather as many signatures as possible, Hardeen said

The meetings and subsequent agreement came about after Shirley began his initiatives to reduce the Council membership from 88 delegates to 24 and to obtain budget line item veto authority. The speaker’s office criticized Shirley for focusing reform efforts on the legislative branch and not on the entire government.

The agreement that Shirley and Morgan negotiated and signed calls for a team of representatives of both to put together the rules and procedures for a convention to be held that would result in a document for comprehensive government reform. The document would be sent to the Navajo people for a vote by referendum. The $2 million would pay for expenses related to that initiative. The funds for the effort and the proposed referendum election hinge on Council approval.

Hardeen added that terms of the MOA would have called for reducing the Council to 40, not 24, and would have taken the line item veto off the table.

Butler said that the legislation to fund a comprehensive government reform effort for $2 million may still come before Council, but Morgan is not the sponsor of the legislation.