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Monday, July 21, 2008
Navajo Council Summer Session Begins Today
By Felicia Fonseca
Associated Press
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — The Navajo Nation Council's summer session starts today, and among the items to be considered are a ban on the use of commercial tobacco, more than $13 million in spending measures and a proposal to reduce the number of people on the tribe's board of education.
Some delegates will arrive at the council chambers on horseback — part of an annual dayslong ride from different parts of the reservation to honor past tribal leaders. Other delegates will arrive on motorcycles.
The proposed tobacco ban is near the end of the council's agenda and likely will be taken up Friday. The measure would prohibit smoking cigarettes and chewing tobacco in public buildings and shared public air space, such as fairs and rodeos. Tobacco used in ceremonies for traditional or religious purposes would not be included in the ban.
The council also will consider a proposal to cut the tribe's board of education from 11 to seven and strip it of its authority to hire an education superintendent. Delegates voted during the spring session to table the bill to allow the board and the council's Education Committee to work out their differences.
Delegates also had tabled a measure to create a tribal Department of Veterans Services so that a budget and a plan of operation could be drawn up.
Council Delegate Jonathan Nez again will ask delegates to support a referendum vote to limit the time they can spend in office. Under the bill, delegates could serve no more than four consecutive 4-year terms and the speaker four consecutive 2-year terms. The measure failed in the council's spring session in January.
More than $13 million is included in spending measures, but the council cannot fund them all. Tribal Controller Mark Grant said Friday that $9.4 million is available in the so-called Undesignated, Unreserved Fund that delegates draw from for supplemental appropriations.
Some council committees had voted to table certain spending measures because there's not enough money in the fund. Bills can reach the full council floor even if they are tabled or rejected in committee.
The spending measures include $6.6 million that would be divided among the chapters for capital improvement projects; $2.5 million for the construction of a new elections building and $1 million to the Dine Power Authority for work on the controversial Desert Rock power plant and a transmission line.
The power authority received $2 million from the council in April 2007 after having requested the funds at the previous three sessions. At the time, delegates questioned how DPA had spent previous allocations and wondered how often DPA would ask the council for more money.
In a letter to Council Speaker Lawrence Morgan, DPA general manager Steve Begay, said the appropriation is "paramount to complete these large scale energy projects and not lose the investment that has already been made by the Navajo Nation."
Copyright ©2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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