Friday, March 29, 2024

Board member accused of ‘destabilizing’ NNOGC, refuses to resign

Board member accused of ‘destabilizing’ NNOGC, refuses to resign

WINDOW ROCK

Frances Totsoni hasn’t had an easy time being a member of the board of directors of the Navajo Nation Oil and Gas Company.

She’s been shunned at board meetings, she’s been kept out of some discussions and now she received a letter from Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly asking her to resign because her role on the board “has placed the Navajo Oil and Gas Company in an adverse position to the stability of the organization.”

In a reply back to Shelly, Totsoni has refused to resign, saying basically that she has done nothing wrong and especially has not placed the company in an adverse position.

“I can only assume,” she said in her letter, “that someone on your staff who has close relations with the chairman (of the company), members of the company’s board and/or (its) executive officers persuaded you to sign that letter.”

“I give you more credit than to think that you would initiate the writing of such a letter based only on ‘jini’, gossip or hearsay.”
Over the past several months, Totsoni has been the odd person out, belonging to a board that has pledged its loyalties to the current director, Louis Denetsosie while Totsoni has been viewed as a supporter of the former administration.


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About The Author

Bill Donovan

Bill Donovan wrote about Navajo Nation government and its people since 1971. He joined Navajo Times in 1976, and retired from full-time reporting in 2018 to move to Torrance, Calif., to be near his kids. He continued to write for the Times until his passing in August 2022.

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