NOTES TO THE NATION
MARCH 15, 2008
11TH SPECIAL SESSION HELD LAST MONDAY, MARCH 10
Last Monday the Osage Nation Congress held our 11th Special Session for the purpose of adopting new rules which included the restructuring of Congressional Committees
(this is an attempt to cover up the real purpose of reorganizing committees to suit the negatives on certain members of Congress)This session was the result of a general agreement that there were problems caused by the 6 to 6 split in the Congress. The situation was not working well for Congress and was interfering with the smooth conduct
(should be interference not conduct or conduct unbecoming) of the Nation’s business.
The new rules included the adoption of
Robert’s Rules of Order and reassignment of the jurisdiction of the committees
(key word jurisdiction of the
Conduct should be to write laws not get involved with the daily workings of the Tribe.). Health and education responsibilities were divided and placed under two separate committees and the budgeting process will undergo a complete new procedure, making full use of the newly hired budget analyst, Clinton Hill.
Discussion began on October 4 last year in a Committee of the Whole in an effort to address methods of solving internal difficulties. The actual work of developing new rules did not start until January of this year when
Faren
Anderson took over the responsibilities of the Rules ad Ethics committee.
This statement is a falsehood
and should be
considered as such – you can look back over his own notes and see the truth for yourselves.
It was the rules developed in her committee, with minor amendments, that we voted on Monday.
One of the new rules did away with the Committee on Committees
(that was discussed prior to this change.) that formerly selected members of Congressional committees. Now, committees are made up of Congresspersons who determined for themselves, where they thought they could contribute the most.
Kugee thinks a lot of himself because his is the only one on 6 committees) Another new rule was that committee members have to receive seven votes in order to be assigned to a committee. The seven vote amendment was added Monday to address one of my main concerns. The seven vote requirement eliminated ties which had formerly been settled by [an executive branch member, the Assistant Chief
] This statement shows the lack of respect for our elected Assistant Chief and the executive branch.. This had been the source of a lot of
(his
) frustration
Now, anyone elected to a committee position has to receive seven votes, which effectively eliminates the six to six stalemates of the past
: This statement is once again wrong. According to the Constitution, any other ties
where the full Congress votes, ties will still be broken by the assistant chief.
Monday, the standing committees will meet and elect their chairman, and from each standing committee one representative will be elected to serve on a
five-member Appropriations Committee.
This statement conflicts with his previous statement that there are 7 member committee.
The task of the Appropriations Committee this year will be to compile the annual budget for the Nation. Most of the work on the departmental budgets will be done by the committees having jurisdiction over those departments after working closely with the budget analyst. Everyone is hopeful that the budgeting process will go much smoother this year than in years past.
The only jurisdiction and responsibility for the Osage Congress is writing laws and not dictate what the Executive Branch and the running of the Agency.
I just don’t know what some of these people are thinking, other than they have a control problem.
NEW DIRECTOR HIRED FOR:
THE OFFICE OF FISCAL
AND PREFORMANCE REVIEW
Kelly
Corbin,
former Comptroller of the Nation, has been hired by the Congress as director of the Office of Fiscal and Performance Review. This is the department formally called the Audit Department. Getting this department established has been one of the biggest battles that the Congress has had to fight with the Executive Branch. You will recall that the chief even filed suit against all members of Congress last year in an effort to stop the establishment of this department.
Contracting with an investigator to examine casino construction questions has been stalled pending the hiring of a director for this department. It is hoped that
Mr.
Corbin will be able to begin the process of selecting an investigator soon.
The following background information for those of you unfamiliar with Kugee’s appetite for ego control
.
Reference the Above:
NEW DIRECTOR HIRED FOR THE OFFICE OF FISCAL
AND PREFORMANCE REVIEW.
NOTES TO THE NATION
DECEMBER 18, 2007
CONGRESS TO
HIRE INVESTIGATOR FOR CASINO CONSTRUCTION
The Osage Congress is not in session and three Committees have been addressing allegations of political corruption, extreme overcharging of construction cost, and failure to properly oversee gaming construction.
Around the first of November, we began to get reports of possible problems at the new Ponca casino site. The Properties Committee, which I
(Kugee) Chair, called a meeting and went into Executive Session to discuss with our Congressional attorney
(Standing bear) the things that needed to be examined, that being the Ponca City and the Bartlesville construction site. The result was that we decided to request that a private investigator be hired by the Executive Committee. Our thinking was that the Nation has no laws
(and
who’s fault is that?
As far as I know there still is not a law written
3/17/2008)
this is a Gaming Commission responsibility!
in place to address some of the situations that may be revealed, so federal law might have to be applied. The Osage Gaming Commission had been alerted and was looking into the
Ponca City question, but there was some concern in Congress that they had no one on staff that had experience with Federal law besides the National Indian Gaming Act.
The problem was that we were concerned about the quality of evidence that might be obtained in an investigation and we wanted to be sure it was obtained correctly.
Now he questions the reliability of his evidence? The day after our meeting the Chief brought over a letter from the Gaming Commission that outlined their authority. I
(Kugee) discussed this with the Chief and told him that we weren’t questioning their authority, but we were concerned that they may not be prepared for this type of investigation. During that conversation, the Chief mentioned a report that the Commission had done on the Bartlesville Casino some four months ago. I
(Kugee) asked him why Congress had not seen that report and I
(Kugee) said that it was strange that we didn’t get it when we were considering settling with K & D in late August, he just shrugged his shoulders and didn’t offer an explanation.
I
(Kugee) then talked with the Gaming Commissioner and asked when we could get a copy of that report, and he suggested that he would like to deliver it to Congress in Executive Session. He further suggested that he would like to be there with some of his staff to deliver the report and answer any questions.
At the next Executive Committee meeting I
(Kugee) asked that they hire a private investigator familiar with federal law to investigate procedures at the
Ponca City construction site. They voted to table that request. I
(Kugee) then asked that we make arrangements to receive the report previously done by the Osage Gaming Commission. The Speaker was at that meeting, and he suggested that an Emergency Executive Session be held the next day for the purpose of receiving the report. After contacting the Gaming Commissioner, the meeting was set up for
December 6, 2007 two days later. We did receive the report, which was dated
August 2, 2007, in executive session on
Dec. 6, 2007. When we came back into Regular Session of the Executive Committee they voted to hire an investigator to look into the Bartlesville Casino construction. But instead of hiring the firm recommended by the Congressional Attorney, the Executive Committee decided to go through a bidding process. This will, of course, delay the investigation, but the investigation of the
Bartlesville site is not as urgent as the
Ponca City site, which is ongoing and will involve the spending of millions of dollars in new construction. Hopefully, this item will be taken off the table soon.
The Congressional Attorney, Geoffrey Standing Bear recommended the Fidelis Group, Inc., which includes the former Chief Counsel of the Oklahoma FBI and the FBI Team which successfully prosecuted Timothy McVey in the Oklahoma City bombing case. Fidelis also has retired
IRS criminal investigators working with it and has experience in Indian Gaming corruption cases. Osage Gaming Commission attorney
Elizabeth
Homer and
Richard
Chissoe, the Osage Gaming Commissioner, have expressed strong objections to this recommendation.
The Gaming Commissioner and
Elizabeth
Homer have controlled where this report went until the Congress Committees began their inquiry. They had provided the audit report documenting many violations and problems to
Chief
Gray in August.
The Gaming Commission admits they have not conducted any interviews of suspects or witnesses.
During the last month we discovered that several people, including at least one Congressperson, had knowledge of the contents of this report but had never notified any authorities.
The Chief told me after we received the Gaming Commission report that he was going to issue an Executive Order “to stop the hemorrhage at
Ponca City” but we have seen nothing yet.
During the process of the committee hearings the Chief came and tried to persuade Congress to not hire an investigator. We had heard that he might file another suit alleging a separation of powers issue. Even members of Congress still seem to be confused as to our oversight authority. One even said that she thought we could only legislate and not investigate. However, at the last Executive Committee meeting the Chief appeared to agree that Congress was within it’s power to perform investigations, but then he made an odd statement: He said that whatever comes of this, the enforcement side is still within the Executive Branch, and if Congress jumps into the enforcement side, they are violating the separation of powers issue and that’s where the boundaries are drawn. This seemed to be a strange statement because no one has ever suggested that the Congress would serve as a prosecutor. Actually, it may be that the federal government will step in, if necessary.
SPRING MEETING OF NAC MARCH 22 AT
HOMINY
INDIAN
VILLAGE
The Spring meeting of the Hominy Chapter of the
Native
American
Church will be held next week in the new church in Hominy Indian village. Road man,
Steve
Pratt, will be conducting the meeting. We will be going in about 8 p.m., Saturday night and will come out just before
noon Easter Sunday.
|
