Navajo OKs spending $17 million on projects

By John Christian Hopkins
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Members of the Budget & Finance Committee were still livid Tuesday about the way the Council cracked open an $18 million nest egg for reimbursable projects during a special session last week.

Previously, Council had decided to set aside money to finish projects that would then be reimbursed by state government. That so-called Grant Reserve Fund was stuffed with $22 million — and dueling lists of incomplete projects provided by the Office of the Controller and the Division of Community Development.

The Feb. 26 special session, called to vote on the Navajo Nation Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, became a grab bag as delegates argued, cajoled and eventually voted to spend $17 million from the reserve fund. Delegates left $1 million dollars in the fund.

Amid questions of whether or not Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. would veto the Council’s action, B & F wanted to find a way to safeguard any future money that might be placed in the Grant Reserve Fund.

“I’d like to make a directive that the president don’t sign the legislation,” committee member Lorenzo Curley said.

“I think a request might be more in order,” B & F Chairman LoRenzo Bates suggested.

“I don’t like what happened last Tuesday,” Vice Chairman Leonard Chee said.

A lot of time and effort went into putting together a project list, and help from the chapters was even solicited, Curley said. Then, after all that, Council turned its back on the myriad unfinished projects standing silent among the 110 chapters, he added.

Ironically, it was the president himself that loosened the purse strings, committee member Nelson Begaye said.

State of emergency
After a state of emergency was declared because of the wicked weather recently, Shirley asked Council to provide $1 million for the chapters to aid them in digging out from the crisis.

Delegate Young Jeff Tom offered an emergency amendment, and, before the cork was put back in the bottle, Council was looking at spending $17 million.

The committee should meet with Shirley, Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan and Chief Justice Herb Yazzie to get a handle on just what the Nation’s priorities are, Begaye said.

“I’m upset by what happened (last week). With the amount we spent, we could have built a casino,” Begaye said. “I’d like to get guidance and support from the president, the speaker and the chief justice.”

The problem was that though money was set aside for reimbursable projects, there was no formal process in place to trigger the controller’s spending of the money, Bates said.

The reimbursable fund was never given an account number, so money was never officially placed into it, Community Development Director Arbin Mitchell explained.

“If we had an established account number, it would be better for us,” Mitchell said.

“We tried to set aside $20 million and most of that money got spent,” Controller Mark Grant said.

Elementary accounting
Unless the money is put into a separate account, delegates just view it as money available from the Unreserved, Undesignated Fund, Bates said.

“We’re talking elementary accounting,” Begaye said. “It’s mind-boggling that this is not being done.”

B & F and the Transportation and Community Development Committee made a good-faith effort to help chapters complete stalled projects, but the president “threw a monkey wrench into it,” Begaye said.

“He wanted to take $1 million out, and that just opened the door for everything,” Begaye said. Now, even if Shirley vetoes the legislation, some delegates are planning an override, he added.

“It seems sort of contradictory that (Shirley) would consider a veto, since he initiated all this in the first place,” committee member Pete Ken Atcitty said.

He wanted to see a system put in place to keep Council from raiding future funds set aside for a specific purpose, Bates said.

Though B & F and TC/DC agreed to put money aside to create a revolving fund, no specific legislation was passed to earmark the money for any particular project, Legislative Counsel Frank Seanez explained. The bottom line was that the money was never officially removed from the UUF, Seanez said.

“We might be one week too late, trying to save this money,” Chee said.

Office of Management and Budget Director Domenic Beyal said there should have been a management plan in place.
Such a plan was not needed, Grant said. The committee wasn’t trying to set up a fund, but rather create a process, Grant added.

It appears to be an administrative matter, so the controller should work to get this problem fixed, Bates said.

B & F’s Hoskie Kee said the blame for this fiasco belongs at the feet of the controller and community development division.

“Mr. Controller, I can point to you. You’re wrong. And you’re wrong, too, Mr. Mitchell,” Kee said. “Whose job is it to set up this fund management plan? Is it the committee’s? Is it Mr. Controller’s? Is it Mr. Mitchell’s? Who gets paid to do it?”

There is no use pointing fingers, Begaye said. The thing to do is to correct the process so it won’t happen again, he added.

In the end, B & F accepted the report – but decided against making an official request to the president to veto the legislation.

“It should be an individual request, not a committee request,” Kee said. He noted that he had voted in favor of the legislation on the Council floor.

“You have two options — you can vote yellow or vote red,” Curley replied.

“If you want the president to veto it, there’s the phone — pick it up and call him,” Kee said.