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"The power to withhold the
facts of government is the power to destroy that government." During the last session of Congress we formed a revenue projection committee that included members of the Executive and Legislative Branches. We projected revenues to approach $50 million this next year and it was decided that we would be safe to appropriate $25 million. This would be up about $6 million dollars from last year. The amount was divided into two separate amounts: $22 million to fund tribal programs and $3 million for capital improvements. The Congress unanimously passed Resolution ONCR 07-09 approving these amounts. The resolution sets caps on spending but there is support in Congress for spending less. I am the chairman of the properties committee. Other members of this committee are: Doug Revard, Mark Simms and Raymond Red Corn. Our area of responsibility is properties, villages and community improvement. We will review the requests for funds for new construction and maintenance and will work with the villages on the issues they will have. Three million dollars has been established as the amount available for capital improvements and maintenance next year. We know that many requests for funds will be coming to this committee in September or before. Since the Congress has no procedures in place for evaluating and prioritizing these projects, it seemed obvious that we should begin to develop these policies in advance of the requests. What I thought was going to be a routine matter is turning into what may be a major controversy. We called a committee meeting on Mar. 26, 2007 and invited the Chairman of the 5 man board of the Pawhuska Village and the director of the maintenance department. We knew these people could answer the questions we needed to ask. Neither individual showed up at the meeting. When we inquired as to why they didn’t attend, we were told that the Executive Branch had told them they couldn’t. In their place came 3 members of the Executive staff who said they could answer any questions we might have. They said the directors couldn’t come because we had not complied with Executive Branch’s “new protocol” that requires a Congressional committee to request in advance, in writing, that we wished to talk with a director. They also would require a written request from the Speaker as well. When I discussed this with the Speaker, he acknowledged that he had never had to do this for any committee Chair. I asked other committee Chairs and they confirmed that none of them had ever had to do this. We asked several questions of the representatives and they were not able to answer most of them. In fact, we discovered later that some of the things they told us were wrong. They agreed to submit a written report on the unanswered questions within 30 days. It has been over 90 days now and still no report. We later tried to get assistance on developing forms for requesting bids and evaluating project requests. We were told that additional restraints were being imposed on directors and staff people. Now any questions we might ask had to be submitted in writing and the answerers approved in advance by the Executive Branch. No other questions could be answered. The frustration of these employees of the Nation was obvious to me. Suppression of information under the name of “our new protocol” is still suppression of information. The opposition didn’t stop with these roadblocks. On May 3 the Chief sent a letter of complaint to the Speaker. I had been warned a few months ago that there would be an attempt to discredit me in an effort to stop the “Notes to the Nation”. So, this was no surprise. Fortunately, the Chief was wrong on all points. His letter alleged in part: “It has recently come to light that privileged information contained in the Osage Nation Gaming Enterprise Board’s Annual Plan of Operation was revealed and discussed on the internet by a member of Congress. I am enclosing a print-out of that communication. (Attached were copies of my Notes to the Nation.) While the Osage nation Gaming Enterprise Board’s Annual Plan of Operation was disseminated in an open meeting, it was given only to members of Congress, and it was openly agreed upon by those members of Congress that the Osage Nation Gaming Enterprises Board’s Annual Plan of Operation was confidential and proprietary information.” (There was no such agreement and the Congressional attorney asked to be excused because he said the questions were political not legal.. He then left the meeting.) Those of you who have followed the political process since the 1st Congress began may remember the fuss that was made over our rules concerning “Executive Sessions”. There was so much fear that these sessions could be abused that the Congress greatly limited the things that could be discussed in private. You need to know this because it is the way the rules are now and obviously the Chief doesn’t know. We can only discuss four topics: Personnel matters discussed in session to protect a person’s reputation, attorney client confidentially, records required by law to be confidential (payroll records, etc.) and matters that are required by law to be confidential. (Keep this last one in mind because it will come up later in this letter.) That is all we can discuss in private. Everything else must be discussed in open meetings that the public can attend. Rules require that discussion must be audible. In other words we can’t meet in public and then whisper or circumvent the law by discussing the agenda by passing notes back and forth. It was illegal for us to discuss the Plan of Operation in executive session. The rules for the Gaming Board were even more restrictive and the entire development of the Plan of Operation had to be in public meetings. I have never seen a notice of such a meeting. Where has this occurred? No one can circumvent the law by simply agreeing to do so - no more than agreeing to drive 90 miles an hour would make it legal. Everything discussed in the “Notes” having to do with the Plan of Operation had previously been discussed in public by someone and some items by the Chief himself or his staff. Since I had broken no rules, this attempt to interfere with the people’s right to know went nowhere. A meeting has been called for Monday at 1:30 PM to discuss the Plan of Operation (PO) for the gaming operation in executive session. The Executive Branch will have “several of their staff” in attendance. On or about June 17 the new gaming Act went into effect. It specifies that the entire Plan of Operation is confidential. It can now be argued that it is confidential by law. The problem is that it might be argued that all items are to be hidden and much of the plan should be public knowledge. Someone could put issues in the Plan of Operation that should be public information. Remember when the same entity came to us in December last year with a plan to borrow $14.1 million at 9.5% interest to pay for the Bartlesville casino and tying up our floor space by allowing the lender to control it? Due to public discussions this was stopped and we paid cash for the facility saving the Nation over $2 million in interest and now income is projected to double by regaining our floor space. Now this type of loan could now be done in secret. In my opinion, an artificial fear is being created. The result of this could be the redirecting of money that would have been surplus now will go to enterprises that are only loosely connected to gaming. With the new gaming Act this could all be done in secret under the guise of protecting us from competitors. The effect would be that what could have gone into the Nation’s treasury will never be distributed but will be held in the gaming operation. If someone put in the PO $1 million to buy a hot dog stand, the money would be called an “operating expense” and deducted before computing the net profit to be distributed to the Nation. Members of Congress should be the best judge of what is proprietary information. Some have been involved in competitive business longer than the Chief has been alive. It is doubtful if much in the plan of operation is truly sensitive information. One Congressperson has said “Our large competitors are so far ahead of us that what we do is likely to be more amusing than threatening to them.” Our smaller competitors will probably not be influenced much by our actions. A meeting of the Executive Committee has been
called for 9:00 AM next Tuesday at the Chambers and one of the stated
purposes is to develop a “filtering
committee” proposed by the Chief. This
committee tentatively would be made up the Chief, Assistant Chief and
two members of Congress. The
purpose of the committee is to decide what information should be passed
on to Congress and what can be withheld by the committee.
If anything like this were to be established then 10 of your
elected representatives could be prevented from having access to
information but the same information could
be in the hands of unelected staff people in the Executive Branch.
I hope that no member of Congress would go along with this scheme
which would severely interfere with the people’s right to know. Still,
if we don’t stop to think - it could happen. Congress can not pass a
law abridging the freedom of speech nor can we delegate to a
committee the right to do so. I know of
no Rule of the Congress that exists about confidentiality. The
Chief is not part of the Legislative Branch so his opinion is outside
this branch of government and has no effect or force, at all. No
member of Congress should allow anyone to destroy our freedom of
speech. Our Constitution provides that the government shall not make or
enforce any law prohibiting the freedom of speech.
The wording in our Constitution mirrors that of the first
amendment to the U. S. Constitution. For an expanded discussion on representative government -- the People's "Right to Know" and a "Well-Informed Electorate read PURPOSE at the following link: http://www.netmagic.net/~franklin/RK02.html There are those in Congress who strongly support the people’s right to know but while I am confident of the People’s Six, we still need one more vote. Meanwhile, since I’m representing you, I intend to keep asking the questions I think you would ask if you were here and had the information we receive in Congress. When we meet resistance, I try to react as I think you would react. If you asked a man you hired to run your business “how’s my business doing?” and he answered “I don’t think I’m going to tell you!” It’s not too hard to guess what you would think –the hard part is having the courage to do what you would want us to do and then it takes seven people to get it done. If Congress is stonewalled and information is withheld, then you are being denied your rights and the process is not working. This government exists to best serve you by allocating the resources of the Nation in a way that benefits the most people in the most efficient manner. The government exists to serve the people, if it ever sees the people as serving the government, that government should be condemned and corrections made immediately.
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(Submitted to webmaster early July 2, 2007 ) |