Records missing on $9,999 check

Navajo Nation Council Delegate Katherine Benally (Dennehotso) says a 2006 check to herself for nearly $10,000 in council discretionary funds went to help constituents, but she is unable to find the documents to prove it.

On Sept. 6, 2006, Benally wrote herself a $9,999 check using discretionary funds earmarked to benefit her chapter, according to legislative branch financial records obtained by the Navajo Times. The records do not indicate the purpose of the disbursement.

In a recent interview, Benally said the money was used to help bring electricity to 11 homes in the Comb Ridge area of Dennehotso, Ariz., and was paid to a "Warren Barney of Chuska Mountain." Barney retrofitted the houses to receive electrical service from the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, she said.

"He did the house-wiring for us," Benally said.

The improvement project was also getting funding from another source, and the house wiring needed to be done or the other funding would be lost, she said.

"We were pressed against time. I didn't have the time to come up here (to Window Rock) and process the check for him," she said, adding that she paid Barney with a personal check and then got reimbursed from the discretionary funds designated for her chapter.

She noted that she submitted a memo of explanation to Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan (Iyanbito/Pinedale) and Laura Calvin, financial department director for the legislative branch, when she requested their approval for a $9,999 check to herself.

Efforts to locate a "Warren Barney" were unsuccessful, and repeated calls to Loren Barney, listed in Benally's memo as "an electrician and owner of Chuska Mountain Enterprise of Navajo, New Mexico," were not returned.

Faulty memory?

However, Benally's recollection differs significantly from details in her memo, which bore the same date as the check, and records on file at the chapter.

Benally's Sept. 6, 2006, memo says 31 houses were wired as part of a project titled "Red Point Mesa Power Line Extension Project."

The Navajo Times contacted the Dennehotso Chapter House to confirm Benally's account, but was informed in a written response from Carmelia Blackwater, Dennehotso Chapter community services coordinator, that no file could be located for a "Red Point Mesa project."

The Comb Ridge project that Benally mentioned in her interview with the Times took place in spring 2008 - 18 months after Benally's check to herself, according to the chapter records cited by Blackwater.

Blackwater, in a Sept. 19, 2009, memo to the Navajo Times, stated that chapter records show that the chapter paid $12,681.60 to Chuska Mountain Enterprise for electrical work for the Comb Ridge power line extension project in spring 2008.

Blackwater stated that she reviewed chapter records back to 2006.

"The chapter has no record of any payments being made to Chuska Mountain Enterprise in 2006," she stated. "If this company did any work the payment arrangements may have been independent of the chapter."

Blackwater stated that she found an "unofficial letter" - Benally's 2006 memo to Morgan and Calvin - in meeting minutes from that year, and included a copy of it with the chapter's written response to the Navajo Times.

Benally states in her 2006 memo that she wanted "full reimbursement of $9,999 that I have personally paid to Mr. Loren Barney, an electrician and owner of Chuska Mountain Enterprise of Navajo, New Mexico, for wiring 31 homes in the community of Dennehotso."

Benally states that she paid Barney because Dennehotso had to have the Red Point Mesa power line extension "project ready" in order to meet a July 14, 2006, deadline for funding requests under the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act.

"We needed to wire several homes in preparation for final inspection by NTUA (Navajo Tribal Utility Authority)," Benally wrote. "The chapter did not have sufficient funds at the time and time was of the essence so I offered to pay for the project myself, however, at this point I would like to utilize my council delegate discretionary funds to pay for this project."

Benally's memo goes on to state, "Attached is a copy of the personal check I wrote to Mr. Barney ... If it becomes necessary to provide the original check to show proof that Mr. Barney indeed signed the check for cashing or deposit, I can make it available."

The Times did not receive a copy of the check with the memo from the chapter meeting minutes, and Benally said when she tried to find a copy of the records at the legislative branch offices, she was unable to do so.

After receiving Blackwater's report, the Times left numerous telephone messages for Barney about the $9,999. At press time this week, he had not responded.

Missing records

Referring to Benally, Blackwater went on to state, "Our council delegate is very well known by her chapter constituents to be a generous person, always trying to assist in the best way she can.

"Although the chapter has never received a report in writing or verbally as to how Mrs. Benally spends her discretionary funds, nor does she give copies of (the) client's name or documentation on the nature or the type of assistance she provides to her constituents to the chapter, the chapter has not had any reason to doubt (her honesty or to think) that Mrs. Benally has been deceptive with her discretionary funds expenditures," Blackwater stated.

"We will probably strongly suggest to her that she should implement some sort of (discretionary fund) report forum for her own protection."

"Lastly, Mrs. Benally has made efforts like sharing unofficial letters or documentation and does report some of her endeavors at meetings to inform her constituents, and forwards information to the chapter administration about some of the expenditures she makes with her discretionary funds," Blackwater stated, adding that "it's not perfect but she does make an effort to be upfront with the chapter officials, her constituents and administration staff."

Benally said the records she submitted to the speaker's office for the $9,999 check to herself, plus several others, appear to be missing from the 2006 legislative branch financial files.

Carol Wilson, an accounting technician in the legislative branch finance office, confirmed that she assisted Benally in searching the 2006 financial records and that she had discovered about half of the documents were missing.

The year 2006 was notable for two stories related to the use of discretionary funds by members of the legislative branch.

Documents leaked to the Navajo Times showed that two workers in the financial office had received more than $18,000 in discretionary aid. The workers subsequently left their jobs and the council established regulations for the first time on the use of discretionary funds by the delegates and speaker.

The records also showed that Ben Shelly, then the delegate from Thoreau Chapter, had received discretionary assistance from every member of the council committee he chaired at the time, Budget and Finance.

Shelly, who now is vice president of the Navajo Nation, received $100 from each committee member on Sept. 9, 2006, which he said went to pay the funeral costs of his mother.

At the time, Morgan - who had just been re-elected to his third term as speaker - said he didn't agree with delegates using the discretionary funds to help each other, but no rule has been adopted since then to prevent it.

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