Challenging the vote

Council delegates and some residents of the Western Agency said Monday that they will not stand by and watch the 88-member council be reduced to 24 and the presidential line item veto established.

About 20 residents joined the delegates at a press conference Monday morning to criticize President Joe Shirley Jr. for not coming to their chapters to hear their concerns.

They especially wanted him to explain how the council reduction and line item veto would work and how it would benefit them at the local level.

Of the 18 chapters in the Western Agency, 12 voted down the council reduction and 11 opposed the line-item veto. Total votes were: 3,445 against reduction and 3,296 in favor; and 3,473 against the line-item veto and 3,257 in favor.

Tim Nelson, 50, of Leupp, said he would file a complaint against the election because the ballot did not specify how Navajo law would change.

Nelson said that Title 2, section 102 (A), which states that the council consists of 88 delegates, should have been part of the ballot language because that's the law that would have been amended by the Dec. 15 election.

On Wednesday, Navajo Election Administration Director Edison Wauneka said that as of Wednesday morning there were no complaints filed against the election.

Wauneka said that the deadline to file a complaint is at 5 p.m. on Dec. 28.

Also on Monday, Delegate Kee Allen Begay Jr. (Many Farms/Round Rock) presented a request from the Western Agency to the Intergovernmental Relations Committee for $100,000 for legal fees to file an injunction in tribal court against the implementation of the reduction and line-item veto.

The IGR, which consists of the chairs of the council's 11 standing committees, planned to discuss the request today (Dec. 23).

The IGR voted unanimously on Monday for Chief Legislative Counsel Frank Seanez to draft legislation to authorize an appeal of the tribal court's Dec. 14 decision to reinstate Shirley and void the council's Oct. 26 action that placed Shirley on leave.

He was placed on leave while Attorney General Louis Denetsosie reviewed investigations of the business dealings involving OnSat, a telecommunications company, and BCDS Inc., a manufacturing company.

Seanez was also directed to include $400,000 from the speaker's office for legal fees to hire an outside attorney to represent the council in its appeal.

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