Shirley’s idea of small council
draws criticism

By Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley has been promoting two referendum initiatives this week to reduce the Navajo Nation Council from 88 delegates to 24 and to gain authority for the line item veto power.

In a press release issued Wednesday, the president responded to criticisms of the initiatives by the speaker’s office. In response to the statement that the reduction does not represent reform, Shirley said he would be hard-pressed to define it as anything but reform.

“If that’s not government reform, I don’t know what is,” he said.

Shirley said a reduction in the council’s current size would greatly improve government efficiency and effectiveness, balance power between the legislative and executive branches of Navajo government, significantly reduce micro-management by council oversight committees, return the legislative branch to its intended policy-making function, and slash the costs associated with the council’s operations and expenses.

In response to remarks by Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan that the council reduction initiative “is not a democratic form of government” and that the Navajo people would lose representation by supporting it, Shirley said that 8 million Arizonans are represented by two U.S. senators in the U.S. Senate and by eight U.S. congressmen in Congress.

The president also disputed the speaker’s assertion that a reduction of council would “hinder and discourage the involvement of the Navajo people” citing recent examples where he said that the council sought to disenfranchise voters and limit citizen participation.

For instance, he said legislation introduced during the council’s spring session would have stripped the Navajo Nation Board of Education of its members who were elected barely a year and a half ago. In addition, the legislation called for slashing the authority of the board and giving it to the council’s Education Committee.

Shirley also said he vetoed legislation on Monday that would have reformed the Eastern Navajo Land Commission’s plan of operation because its revision called for the speaker to appoint six council delegates as members, leaving no local officials or citizens a place on the commission.

“The commissioners, all of them except one, are council delegates,” he said. “And in that same plan of operation it calls for local governance. They need to be deciding affairs for the people in the Eastern Navajo Agency. But with six council delegates, is that using local governance? I don’t think so. Why aren’t there any chapter officials? Why aren’t there any citizens on the commission?”

While the speaker’s press release states that in 1989 “the three branches of government was established by the Nation to create a balance of power,” the president said the balance of power cited does not exist because the three-branch government was never ratified and made permanent.

“The Government Reform Commission was given 36 months to ratify that. What happened?” the president said. “Where’s the ratification?”

The president agreed that the government should promote accountability but said that the council tries to thwart accountability, particularly when it comes to delegate compensation.

Shirley also disputed the speaker’s statements that “costs associated with the council’s operation are needed to run an efficient form of government” and that “appropriations are given to the Navajo people for direct services.”

“The legislative complex? I don’t think so,” Shirley said. “A $50 million legislative complex, what kind of a direct service is that? I hear some horror stories about what’s going on with discretionary funding. It’s not direct services.”

Shirley said those tribal funds that are given to council delegates to be dispersed as discretionary funds could be used to give Navajo Nation employees raises. He said that this fiscal year the Navajo Police Department lost numerous officers who joined other police departments that pay more.
In his press release, Shirley asked if the council was funding in a way that benefits the people, where are the power and water line extensions, the wastewater treatment facilities, jail and court facilities, new Head Start and Senior Citizens centers? Money saved from a smaller council would be an excellent start to fund these unmet needs, he said.