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Monday, October 26, 2009
Navajo Lawmakers Place Tribal President on Leave
By Felicia Fonseca
Associated Press
Navajo lawmakers voted Monday to place the tribe's president on administrative leave, pending an investigation into allegations of ethical, civil or criminal involvement with two companies that had been operating on the reservation.
The Tribal Council voted 48-22 in favor of the measure during a special session in Window Rock, Ariz.
The vote to place Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. on leave comes a week after council members discussed investigations and alleged legal violations arising from tribal contracts with Utah-based OnSat Network Communications Inc. and Shiprock, N.M.-based Biochemical Decontamination Systems. Shirley's spokesman says the council has yet to specify what the accusations against Shirley are.
The measure originally included tribal Vice President Ben Shelly, but delegates amended it to exclude him.
Council spokesman Joshua Lavar Butler said the reports the council heard last week in closed session revealed serious impropriety and violations within the executive branch.
Six others besides Shirley are targeted as part of the investigation, including his chief of staff and the directors of the tribe's divisions of economic development, community development and public safety.
The council referred the reports on the two companies to tribal Attorney General Louis Denetsosie to consider the appointment of a special prosecutor.
Shirley's spokesman, George Hardeen, said the council has not given the two-term president an opportunity to respond to the reports, nor have the allegations against him or others been made clear.
"All he's hearing is hearsay," Hardeen said. "He can't dispute any wrongdoing when any particular wrongdoing has not been made clear to him, and he hasn't been given a report. He hasn't been told what he's accused of."
OnSat had provided satellite Internet services on the Navajo Nation. BCDS was created to seek large federal government contracts for the sale of metal fabrication products.
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