Letters | Yes on 490

Yes on 490

Editor,

My grandfather told me, “Get an education because nobody can take it from you.” Today, one needs an education more than yesteryear; and we owe it to our children and community members to provide access to quality education.

Coconino Community College’s Prop 490, www.YES490ccc.com, will meet current and future needs via five major goals:

One. Construct an allied health building to train nurses at Lone Tree Campus with state-of-the-art classrooms, labs, and equipment estimated at $50 million.

Two. Rebuild the Fourth Street Campus with state-of-the-art classrooms and labs to produce certified construction and technology educated workers, law enforcement, and firefighter academy. Coconino County’s potential for catastrophic wildfire grows with every dry year, making well-trained firefighters and law enforcement essential to our safety. Reconstruction: $35 million.

Three. Across north Arizona, Page students often drive several miles just to get to class. This consumes time needed for studying and family; and burning money to burn gas. Building dormitories for Page students at an estimated $3-4 million could save time, money, and potentially lives.

Four. Currently, Williams High School provides facilities for CCC academic and vocational courses. With $1-2 million, the Williams facility could be upgraded to offer more advanced CTE courses, where high school and adult students earn credits towards their degree or certificate.

Five. Boys & Girls Club have an excellent reputation for providing healthy after-school educational and maturational activities. This program has been proposed for Flagstaff, Williams and Page campuses.

Mail-in ballots will arrive mid-October with on-site election Nov. 4.

Prop 490 deserves your voting “yes” because CCC has been exceptionally effective in using voter approved tax dollars. The 2022 tax reset that, like Prop 490, was/is based on the county’s secondary tax rate, not property values which are much higher. The 2022 tax reset was for operational funding and program expansion. It didn’t cover any capital construction which is why Prop 490 is needed.
The 2022 tax rate will expire this year. However, the rewards will continue because CCC has completed development of and initiated offering new programs cited below:

Veterans’ training for civilian jobs. Train Coconino County workers, especially those collaborating with employers in Coconino County.

Expanded and completed CTE programs established with one-time funding: automotive technology, CDL, early childhood education certificate, Google IT support professional certificate, Amazon web services certificate, increased nursing enrollment, Heating, Ventilation, Air-Conditioning (HVAC), and welding certification.

CCC has expanded new career and technical training degree and certificate programs, programs now needing state-of-the-art classrooms and labs, thus Prop 490.

Healthcare programs: paramedics, ultrasound/sonography technician, surgical technician, respiratory therapist, anesthesia technician, assisted living caregiver.

Technology: electric car and charging station technician, manufacturing technology – just starting, police academy, and fire academy.

This is an amazing accomplishment by CCC, all while being funded at the lowest secondary property tax rate in the state. CCC has consistently made good on its promise to provide high quality education and career training to residents of Coconino County.

To assure that you, your kids, neighbors, and/or business associates, receive the greatest benefit from these programs, it is essential that CCC have high quality classrooms and labs. We need to commit today to prepare current and future students (think 100 years ahead) with aptitudes, critical thinking, and other skills necessary to function with new technologies that will impact our social, economic, governmental, and environmental systems. “But, what’s the cost?”

An “average home,” $350,000 in Flagstaff, will see a tax increase of $7/month or one coffee/month. Homes in Page and Williams will see a $2-3/month increase on property tax. People living on the Navajo or Hopi nations will not see any tax increase. The bond duration is 20 years.

In retrospect, my grandfather, and perhaps yours, was saying “there are things in life more valuable than money.” Having an employable skill set, the capacity to think through challenging situations, the integrity to live an honest life, and the willingness to help each other are all attributes that provide for a sustainable quality of life. Let us leave a legacy of providing for solutions rather than the mendacity of mediocrity. We ask you to vote YES for Prop 490 so students today and beyond have the capacity to attain a life of fulfillment.

Bryan Bates
Flagstaff, Ariz.

 

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Democracy or republic?

Editor,

In 1776 the foundation of America was founded on a republic with one day of democracy but on the Navajo Nation we have fundamentally practiced a chief and council of elders system. That system was eliminated by the Navajo Nation Council when they overturned their chairman in 1989.

The claim that the Navajo Reform Office has is that they represent the people. Do they? Did the people impeach the chairman? Or did a group of 49 councilman over throw their chairman and claim to be the people when the chairman who clearly had the most votes from the people really represented the majority of the people.

There is not documented evidence indicating that the people impeached their chairman.

Did we the Navajo people elect the Navajo Nation reform office to represent the people? If so when was the election? Or was this a Navajo Nation Council resolution? Why does Navajo Judicial branch need to clarify the need for a department of the government to establish its need and existence if that office is represented by the people?

History is open to interpretation, but the documented facts will show us these experiences and claims of the past.

In 1868 the Navajo Nation Treaty was signed by General William T. Sherman, an Indian Peace commissioner, Samuel F. Tappen, an Indian Peace commissioner, and it was signed by then Chief Barboncito, and a council of elders at Fort Summer, New Mexico.

It was later ratified by the United States Senate on July 25th, 1868, establishing a permanent reservation for the Navajo people.

The leaders were a group of decision makers for the Navajo people under a democracy style of governorship that is liken to a commonwealth.

A democracy system of government is actionable power that is vested in the people, who rule either directly or through elected representatives.

In this style of government, the majority rules and it does include direct involvement from the community.

All this changed legally in 1924 when the Navajo became United States citizens, and later in 1967 on the Navajo Nation with the introduction and passing resolution of the Navajo Nation Resolution CD-59-86 the Navajo Nation Bill of Rights and federally in 1968 during the introduction and the passing of the (I.C.R.A.) Indian Civil Rights Act in the Federal Government.

These documented legislative acts changed the way the Navajo are identified as legal citizens with individual liberties both on the Navajo Nation and off the Navajo Nation.
We are by definition a people under a democracy with individual liberties.

With these changes we now have a conflict of interest and a conflict of identity. In a democracy it’s the group of people that rule but because we are United States citizens, we are under a republic that is ruled under a constitution and a bill of rights for individual rights. So, are we a democracy?

Our Navajo Nation is a fundamental government and is first subject to the United States Constitution and secondly subject to the individual rights and liberties described in the U.S. Bill of Rights and the Navajo Nation Bill of Rights.

This clearly is the problem, under the proposed Navajo Constitution it clearly describes we as Navajo have individual rights, and in Article II section 209 it declares the Navajo nation is a democracy.
The differences of a democracy and a republic is when a majority rules the republic protects rights against majority decisions, ensuring that all voices are heard.

In a republic decisions are made by elected representatives who are expected to consider the long-term consequences of their decisions. In democracy it often involves direct voting on issues, which historically can lead to impulsive decisions.

In a republic it strongly emphasizes the protection of individual rights and liberties, often identified in the constitution which the proposed constitution does in the beginning of the proposed document, quoted as, “affirm our individual autonomy, our individual rights and duties to community.” And later identified in Article 5 under k’é duties Section 502, and our citizenship to the United States and under the Bill of Rights.

Also, in Article II, Section 204 it states that we are a sovereign Navajo Nation, occupying its own territory with boundaries accurately described, in which the laws of the United States can have no force,” yet the Navajo Nation is under the advocacy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

This is not the English legal definition of sovereignty. We will have a litigation issue in the future with this permanent constitution without an understanding of sovereignty which is identified as supremacy of authority or rule which we don’t have.

We clearly don’t have sovereignty according to its definition if our land is under the advocacy of Bureau of Indian Affairs, so the question is what are we sovereign over?

Well according to history our sovereignty comes from a Supreme Court ruling called Winter’s ruling or also known as Winters doctrine, that is and was the water rights we have claim to as the original inhabitants of the land we live on.

The question is If we release and sell our water rights is our sovereignty null and void? If we pass a constitution based on this sovereignty, will we be forfeiting our claim to sovereignty under a democracy operating as a republic.

In a democracy governance can be unstable due to fluctuating public opinion and passions. In a republic the stability comes through checks and balances, reducing the risk of impulsive decision making.

If we continue to not properly identify what form of government, we practice we will only repeat the errors of the past and issues of the present.

I encourage our people to research the differences between a democracy and a republic. Also to properly identify what we are sovereign over.

Neal Riggs
Leupp, Ariz.

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