I’m not going to sit here and pretend I know the reasons for all the non-confirmation vote by our Osage congress, or even what this means for the tribe. From what I understand “secret ballots” are perfectly legal in our constitution for nomination votes. They are not legal for legislation. This is a nomination vote and therefore not illegal. By in no way by me posting am I implying that members of the congress have broken the law here. What I am really hoping is not the case though is that these non-confirmations are NOT a result of certain members of our congress coming under scrutiny by the gaming board for their actions regarding incidents involving audit boxes. I am hoping that these congressional members that voted out these gaming board members are doing it because they feel those members performed poorly and not for retribution. I am hoping our people are better than that. The OsageNews was present and was making attempts at asking all of the congressional members who they voted for since the ballot was secret.
As stated before I am not privy to the history of this board, or what has been accomplished or not accomplished under their watch. If anyone can shed more light on this issue, It would be greatly appreciated. If anyone knows how our casinos operate without a gaming board I would also like to know that too. (Before anyone asks me “where is all the casino money going?” I have no idea. I’m not on the gaming board. I don’t work for the casino, the NIGC or even the Osage Nation. So far to my knowledge that information has not been made public, if at any point in the future it does, I will post it.)
If there is anyone out there that knows more about this then the information I have tracked down please post, because I do not feel as if I even have enough information to form a solid opinion on the matter. I would like information on both sides of this issue.
Here is the raw audio file from today’s session click here
Article from Big Heart Times regarding todays vote click here
(full disclosure, the Big Heart Times is owned by my step-mother) (here is a partial of the article, click the above link for the entire article)
In a stunning move, the Osage Nation Congress on Wednesday failed to confirm all three members of its Gaming Enterprise Board, including a former member of the National Indian Gaming Co.
By a vote of six to five and casting secret ballots, the Congress effectively removed former NIGC member Elizabeth Lohah Homer, an attorney who also represented the Osage Nation Gaming Commission until Chief Jim Gray named her to the enterprise board, which she chaired, as well as board member Frank Oberly. The Congress also failed to confirm, the third member of the board, George Pease.
The vote was secret and largely made without any discussion, but three members of Congress – Mark Freeman, Raymond Red Corn and Debra Atterberry all made statements that they supported each of the candidates.
Click here for Osage Nation Gaming Reform Act of 2007 sponsored by Congressman Eddy Red Eagle
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We have suffered a great loss in not confirming the gaming board, and in particular Elizabeth Homer. I also hope that this vote was not some type of retribution for the board and the commission doing their jobs when it came to the incident you referred to above. Of course one need only look at what side of the room the no votes came from to get a good idea of what happened here.
Well Dude, they got kicked off. I guess the majority of the Congress figured it was time to break up the Chief’s little gaming power block. Why is it such a disappointment to you? What does this have to do with the platforms of the candidates and the June election?
A guy that worked for gaming and got the boot sued the Board and the Chief because of Jim Gray’s alleged Tortious Interference. Judging from the lawsuit, I don’t think he likes the way the Chief operates. http://app4.websitetonight.com/projects/1/2/1/5/1215402/uploads/Bill_Leonhart_suit.pdf
Cathy, thank you for posting that link, unfortunately it now leaves me with more questions. One of the members removed from our gaming board is not listed in that lawsuit, Homer, and from my limited knowledge has only been on the board a very short while. Two of the members named in that lawsuit WERE on the board but were removed yesterday. Has this gone to court yet? If so, has there been a judgement? Was this settled out of court? Or is it still in progress? Was there an internal investigation? If so where is that report? Should we reserve our judgment for these accusations until the proper judgement of the respective institutions whether they be state or tribal be made? Or is it more akin to firing someone that brings your company negative press or heat because of their actions, whether the accusations be true or not.
Please explain to me, “Chief’s little gaming power block.” From what I understand about the nomination process, the Chief nominates and the Congress approves. So at some point Congress approved or re-approved these members of the gaming board (if thats not how it works someone please correct my understanding). What happens between that point in time when they were approved and this point and time when they were removed, is the performance of their duties. So my question remains, did they do their job or not? was this retribution? Either of these concepts are not foreign to our Congress.
We need not look far for examples of what happens when two branches of government are not operating as they are supposed to. Please look at the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribe. They recently had somewhat of a political coup down there where their incoming Chief (campaign supposedly funded by a gaming management company) fired approx 165 people. Those individuals whose employment was terminated resided both on the adminstrative/departmental side AND the gaming side. I think we can all agree that we do not want any executive in our tribe terminating employees of the Million Dollar Elm for political retribution or making hires for political gains. Hirings AND Firings, regardless of who they are made by, should be based on the ability of someone to do their job effectively. When I asked someone down there at the Cheyenne & Arapahos what role their gaming board played in that fiasco, their response was “none.” I asked why and they said, those guys have a comfy job, as long as they don’t say anything they get re-appointed by their council (again this is hearsay, you can look up the case here, http://newsok.com/article/3437692#disqus_thread .) Now since their gaming board did not step in and do their job that tribe now has the NIGC, FBI, BIA and I’m sure a few other federal agencies on their ingleha, as well as a class action lawsuit that is currently in progress regarding mass corruption backpay and unlawful firings. Which is about the quickest way to, get shut down that I can think of.
This post IS relevant because several of the people involved are running for office. Chief Jim Gray, as you accurately pointed out, Congressman Shackleford, Congressman Red Corn, Congressman Supernaw, and Congressman Revard. As a constituent I would like to know what these decisions are based on (both the yes and no votes). Is it fair to assume they are all working from the same information or not? Several of the people mentioned have relatives working for the MDE (as do other candidates vying for office. It’s the nature of that entity to provide jobs for our people, and is understandable) But I do not think its unfair to ask the reasons is it? Job performance? Retribution? If the goal is to remove “Chief’s little gaming power block” from control then hasn’t the “no” vote effectively by default put him directly in charge of Gaming?
Cathy if you were on Congress, what information would you want to have available to you concerning these individuals job performance so that you could make an informed decision on whether to vote yes or no. Or if you were on the gaming board what portions of your performance and prior qualifications would you want to be considered if you were up for re-confirmation? Respectfully, please help me understand, because from your statement it sounds like you are privy to more information than I am concerning what happened.
on a related note if you listen to that audio file, (or it might another file from that same session) Tim Tall Chief is approved in a unanimous vote of 11-0 to be on the health board. Cecilia Tallchief was also approved to be on the health board. I have to assume both of those individuals have a life experience and resume that qualifies them for that position (both of their campaign literature mention their work in the health field). They had to both have been nominated by our current Chief. (if anyone out there knows how that works better than me please chime in and correct me) However both of them are seeking an elected position as well and since both of them were confirmed board members, if elected, they would be expected to step down from those respected positions as it makes little sense to have our elected officials serving in both capacities. Those situations are ripe for fraud and abuse, regardless of the moral fortitude of the person in the position.
For those reasons I think this subject is thoroughly relevant to explore.
I find it difficult to understand a few things in the posts above. Like Ryan stated, the Chief appoints and Congress confirms so if there is a power block then isnt the congress just as guilty in creating it? None of the Chief’s appointments go through if congress doesn’t agree with them. As far as the statement about political platforms and the June elections are concerned, the loss of our gaming board has nothing to do with the elections or political platforms. Whether we have upcoming elections or not the work of the Nation still needs to be done and we still have to have people to do that work, hopefully that work is being done separate from political agendas of candidates running for office as the day to day operations of the Osage Nation must go on regardless of who is elected into any of our elected positions. Chief Gray thought enough about the qualifications of our health board to reappoint them even though one of them is an opponenet in his race for Principal Chief. That should say something about his interest in moving our Nation forward. Long after this election is over we are going to need motivated, qualified, and educated Osages to give their service to our Nation so that we all benefit.
correction the vote was Paul Stabler that got 11-0, Tim was 7-4 and Cecelia was 9-2.
These are questions you are going to have to address to the Congress if proprietary constraints even permit them to give an answer. Apparently, after full confirmation or interim appointment, they felt that the members of the GEB had either not done their jobs well over time or felt that they should not continue to serve. I feel certain that each member of Congress has their own individual reasons for voting not to confirm. That’s how the nomination and confirmation process works. There is much proprietary information that is held back from the members of the Osage Nation where this Enterprise Board is concerned by law. What they know, that we don’t, may have lead them to vote their conscience. We don’t know why and probably never will. We do have a window of understanding that there have been problems of some sort going on of a serious nature or Leonhart would still be working for the MDE Casinos today and would not have filed that damning lawsuit against the Chief for his alleged level of influence and interference exerted on the Board, as would former Board member, Slamans, that resigned.
Cathy: What is your proof that Leonhart and Slamans were doing a good job for our casinos? Who are your sources? Give us some facts.
New to all this, Its seems everyone has complicated something that is so simple. I would think the ultimate goal would be to do what is best for the people of the Osage tribe , not a few but as a whole.
You elect a Chief, he has a vision for the betterment of the tribe . Instead
of getting to focus on those goals and making his policies & goals work and move forward , he is constantly taking side steps ,patching distractions created by egos that are content with not moving forward. The people elected him and for that the Chief deserves all the support of everyone to keep moving forward to meet his goals for the tribe and If you do not like his direction and his results the people always have the opportunity to elect a new Chief. Help him do what he needs to do to benefit the tribe while he is meeting his elected responsibilities.
It just seems What is best for the people of the tribe has gotten so complicated..The Osage Congress seems so Washington Dc , So white and that is so sad. Is so sad that the Osage Congress has taken the Federal Fiasco’s path so that nothing gets done for anyone…..
I have heard from several sources that the Osage Congress would never receive actual income statements and other documents related to the Gaming Enterprises without the Executive looking them over and then deciding what Congress should see. Whether this is what the Gaming Board decided to do or somebody else, this is not how it is supposed to work.
It was like everytime Congress would receive anything financial related to the Casinos, it would be “prepackaged” first by Executive. As proof of this going on, just look at the argument over the casinos funds related the tribe’s spending, we had one group saying we only had like 25 million or so and the other group saying we had well over 50 million. This tells us something is wrong, you mean we don’t even know how much mony we are bringing in!!!”" This is ridiculous.
There seemed to be a very big disconnect between whoever was privy to casino financials and the people in Congress who were the overseers of the gamng. Something needs to change and our people need to start communicating and working together!
Story posted today on OsageNews.org
http://osagenews.org/2010/04/on-congress-leaves-nation-without-gaming-board/
The members of congress are not the overseers of our gaming operations. The congress writes laws, passes laws, and appropriates money to the tribal programs and branches of government. They keep claiming the have oversight responsibility but I don’t believe that is so. I’ve read the constitution and I just don’t think oversight is one of their duties.
On back to the discussion of our gaming board members. It occurred to me that congress has the power to impeach board members who they feel are not doing their job given they have proof to back up their claim. So working with the theory that the gaming board was not re-confirmed because they were doing a bad job and there was proof to that effect then why weren’t they impeached? The gaming board did do their job and had good reason to terminate Mr. Leonhart. He was given chance after chance to get our accounting office (gaming) compliant and he kept asking for extension after extension. He didn’t do the job. Its very simple.
“I’ve read the constitution and I just don’t think oversight is one of their duties.” It’s not written into the Constitution of the United States either. Can anyone bring Ms. Gray up to speed on the implied powers of a Legislative body?
Olivia, are referring to the following parts of our Osage constitution?
Article V sec 2
Separation of Powers: The Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches of government shall be separate and distinct and no person or collection of persons, charged with official duties under one of those branches, shall exercise any power properly vested in either of the others except as expressly provided by the Osage Nation Constitution.
Article VII sec 14
Tribal Enterprise Boards: There shall be established, by Osage law, a Tribal Enterprise Board(s) in the Executive Branch, and the Principal Chief shall appoint qualified professionals to oversee operations of Osage Nation business enterprises, by and with the advice and consent of the Osage Nation Congress. The Osage Nation Congress shall reserve the right to review any action taken by the Board, and may approve the Annual Plan of Operation for the coming year. No Osage Nation elected official may be appointed to such Board.
Cathy – I’m not a constitutional scholar, but it would seem that implied powers are trumped by explicit powers. And the constitution seems to be very explicit about this subject, not implying anything. The “oversight” of enterprises is assigned to Enterprise Boards, which are placed in the Executive branch. Therefore if, as the Constitution says “no person or collection of persons, charged with official duties under one of those branches, shall exercise any power properly vested in either of the others” this would mean Congress does not “oversee” the enterprises. If there is someone out there with a more qualified legal opinion on this, I’d like to know if my understanding on the matter is correct or not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_oversight
Ryan – nice explanation. I’m glad it finally left Cathy with only a wikipedia explanation of the US constitution as a response. I didn’t see anything about the Osage Nation on that link. This is a nice forum. I appreciate your contributions. They thoughtful and open-minded.
It all starts with Congress. We are treating the Gaming Board like an Administrative Law Branch, which means that they derive their all their power from a Statute or the Constitution. Who makes these laws? It’s the legislative branch. The Executive is there to only “carry out” the laws. Just because Congress makes the law, doesn’t mean that all authority and responsibility just leaves Congress and goes right to Executive. Who decides to fund the casinos, who makes the decisions to build new ones or to close existing ones down, I’m pretty sure it has to start at Congress.
In the United States, when someone has a problem with an Administrative Agency, the Courts will always look at the “organic” statute first and try to determine “congressional intent” in deciding what exactly this Department is supposed to be doing and if they are doing what Congress wanted them to do.
Yes, Congress does not directly oversee the day to day operations. But the Gaming Board has to answer to Congress, they are the ones who were elected by the people, the ones who oversee the committees to make sure the programs are running correctly, and the ones who ultimately decide where the Nation’s money is going and what future legislation is needed to continue our tribal operations.
An excellent explanation, Joe, and you are exactly right. This is where the concept of checks and balances comes into play where a three branch form of Constitutional government is concerned.
I agree that is an accurate assessment of the United States constitution. A form of govt that has been around for over 200 years with miles and miles of precedent set by court cases and interpretations of where those power lay. However this is the Osage constitution which seems to be fundamentally different in its goals than the U.S. Constitution, and truly untested. Two seeds from the same cob can grow completely different stalks. To infer powers established by precedent in the US Constitution that have been known to fall under implied interpretation is drastically different than if it straight up says what it is explicitly in our own constitution. Now we very well could end up in the exact same place the US constitution ended up, but that does not mean we have to.
While my understanding of “board” relationship is rather incomplete with the federal government, they seem to be created by specific acts of US Congress meaning that every time a board is created it can be drastically different than any of the other boards, hence where they fit in, in there relationship to the executive branch and legislative can change everytime, and does, according to the area/field they are intended to govern (without getting into a federal reserve debate on this thread) Our Osage boards (sometimes) are created to manage highly profitable entities, whether those be gaming, Osage LLC, or Health (profit potential at the behest of the board) All of which are created by acts of Osage congress and seem to fit neatly into a power scheme predesigned for them. (please correct me if that is wrong)
Are we simply asking if our boards are supposed to take directives from anyone, whether it be executive or legislative? are those the powers that need to be laid out explicitly instead of implied? Is this a gaping hole in our constitution that can be remedied by law? Because if its not, no matter what side of the fence you are on, the Osage people will pay for it in our own court system.
Joe, can you clarify your last paragraph? Because it speaks partially to one of my initial questions. If the congress removes all the board members, who then is responsible for the duties of the gaming board? We have effectively removed a layer of government that we had put in place for a very good reason. Does congress take over those duties or does the executive branch? or are they split? The answer to that question will probably tell us where the confines of power lay. The only portions of US law that applies to Osages is the “Law” part, not the separation of powers of the US Govt has with its own self. Those types of relationships are relegated to us to decide in our own govt. In lieu of a tax base to support our government we are somewhat forced to operate as a for profit socialist state. Or more or less a giant corporation with legal footing and land holdings. I think the constitution reflects that, in another post Will mentioned this set up as being fundamentally capitalistic. I think he’s right, it is. This board relationship and its functionality becomes somewhat of a lynch pin by which the major funding of our entire government depends on. Internally different yet externally analogous.
My suggestion would have been to never set the law up to get us here in the first place. I would recommend staggering ALL board nominations and appointments so that no matter who is in power, an entire board is not wiped out, and all of us are sitting here looking at each going… Now what? Let us hope that whatever the case is that our current elected leaders can act swiftly to remedy the problem created by this vote. I think we can all agree here that we NEED a gaming board right? Any other ideas on how to fix this problem our nation finds itself in?
Once the gaming board is gone, I think that the Chief would then be directly in control of the gaming operations while having to answer to Congress. The board is just created to add expertise, experience, and make things run more smoothly.
I would suggest that when we add gaming board members, make it to where they are up for renomination every 6 to 8 years. This would benefit everybody, for one, they wouldn’t be caught up in the political scene as much, and for two, they would be on the board long enough to implement their plans and learn year to year of the gaming operations which would make them that much better. Of course Congress would nominate these people, so it isn’t like they would be in disfavor with Congress for the whole 8 years.
You raise a good point Ryan, about the ability of people being wiped out. Many top Native Business and Law scholars, such as Lance Morgan, have always said you should keep your business away from your politics. This way your businesses will not get threatened or be wiped out by the emotions of a couple of congressman.
With gaming though this is a very tough problem. Like you said, gaming is our cash cow, we derive so much revenue from it that Congress has to be involved quite a bit because it is our main revenue generator. The Congress when passing legislation needs to know what is feasible and just how much money they are working with. In my opinion, yes we can contiue to operate the casinos via a direct executive order from Chief.
Did everyone just see what happened there? Consensus.
And I would go further to say, no matter who is in charge in the executive office…no executive, not Lance Morgan, not Steve Jobs, not Captain Planet, none of them should be DIRECTLY in charge of the casinos or any other cash cow entity directly subject to political whim. Lance Morgan is absolutely 100% right on that. Which is why, i am assuming they put the “enterprise board” clause in the constitution in the first place.
I believe that Gray can’t do anything until nominations for new Gaming Enterprise Board nominees have been put forward by him. Any government that is based upon the U.S. Constitution is presumed to have both its legal precedents and its traditions. You can make it up as you go along but it doesn’t wash. Our Constitution is in a long line behind that of others and don’t fancy it as stand alone. You may not know this but the Judicial Branch of the Osage Nation certainly does. No consensus on such Constitutional yarn spinning here whatsoever.
On a more serious side, I am Isanti Dakota from Minnesota. My tribe is the Lower Sioux Indian Community. I have been following this website for about a month now, and I must say I find it incredibly useful! Of course…me being non-osage, I can hardly claim any direct benefit from this website and its content. However, I think its amazing to see tribal nations having open, civil dialogue on critical issues facing their peoples. If anything, I wish our L/N/Dakota nations had such a resource.
Our tribal nations are ripe with dissatisfaction, bellowing with a constant groan because of tribal politics and community division. Most of which stems from the fact that our tribal governments lack transparency and adequate forms of accountability. There aren’t many public forums for tribal members to voice their opinions. Very few public spaces where one can truly speak their mind without fear of political and/or personal retribution.
And such websites like this…..are changing that.
Its a great tool for community members to voice their thoughts, and a great opportunity for community leaders to be apart of that dialogue.
Its a great resource that I hope somehow, someway to replicate within my own community!
thank you for the insight