President wins battle to confirm Denetsosie

Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — President Joe Shirley Jr. won his second confirmation of a controversial division director when the Navajo Nation Council approved his appointment of Louis Denetsosie as Attorney General.

Shirley told the council he considers the position so critical, Denetsosie was his first division director appointment, on Jan. 16, only two days after taking office.

The 60-12-7 vote on Friday came after a three-hour plus hearing that included an 80-minute executive session when chief foe Ervin Keeswood Sr. started delving into particular incidents and people.

But the three hours was only a quarter of the council's marathon final day of the spring session that went from 10:15 a.m. to almost 11 p.m., with about 75 minutes off for lunch.

Later Friday, Shirley press officer Deana Jackson said, "The president is very pleased with the support the council has given him in all of his division director confirmations. He was most pleased with the fact that they can come together, agree to disagree and come to a consensus."

Jackson said this relays a strong message to the people, "the council supports the president in his decisions."

"Mr. Shirley looks forward to working with the council and completing the priorities set out by the Shirley-Dayish administration," she added.

The president also shares the council's concern about getting the rest of the division director appointments ratified."This is his concern on a daily basis," she said, adding he hopes to have the rest ready for approval by the summer session.

Earlier in the day, delegates voted 73-1-3 to ratify Ken Peterson as General Services Division director. The other controversial confirmation this session, Arvin Trujillo to continue as Natural Resources Division director, resulted in a 45-32-4 vote Wednesday. This gives the administration four confirmed directors with about a dozen more to go.

Stands beside me

Shirley told the council of Denetsosie's education and experience, including being a previous deputy attorney general. The president used the phrase, "Mr. Denetsosie has been standing beside me," to refer to four key situations.

The president said they include water rights he expects Arizona, California and Nevada to file motions in federal court to intervene in the Navajo move to stop the U.S. Interior Department Secretary from parceling out any unused Colorado River mainstream water until the Navajo Nation's share is decided.

"It's going to happen very shortly," he said of the anticipated legal move to give the three lower basin states a say in the decision. They currently divide 7.5 million acre-feet among them. An acre-foot equals almost 326,000 gallons of water, while the Navajo Reservation gets nothing from the river that forms a large part of its western boundary.

The other three are the water source for Peabody Energy shipping its Black Mesa coal to the Mohave Generating Station that managing partner Southern California Edison plans to shut down in early 2006, meeting with Hopi Tribe Chairman Wayne Taylor Jr. about the Bennett Freeze and Big Mountain Hopi-Partitioned Lands people, and trust reform.

(Late Friday night the council rejected, 10-50, a long-delayed Resources Committee resolution supporting the seeking of another water source beside the high-quality deep Navajo"N" Aquifer under Black Mesa that Peabody Energy ships to Laughlin in a pipeline by mixing the ground coal with water to form a slurry.)

Denetsosie told the council, "I stand for what I believe; I have principles and believe in the rule of law to help my people. I will tell it to you straight; I'm an honest person."

The new"A.G." talked about his conflict with a trio of"senior members" of the council over not renewing the contract of former chief legislative counsel Steve Boos.

Denetsosie said he would not renew the contract for Boos"because Mr. Boos represents parties adverse to the Navajo Nation." He indicated the Durango law firm member is past history and the tribe should move on.

Just before his time as attorney general ended, Levon Henry gave the contract to the firm for which Boos works to help the Inter-governmental Relations Committee's four-member team negotiate a custom-written deal with New Mexico for the To' Hajiilee Chapter's gambling contract. It expired March 31.

Chapter Delegate Lawrence Platero, Hope MacDonald-Lonetree, George Arthur and Larry Anderson make up the negotiating team.

Platero and MacDonald-Lonetree joined Keeswood in writing a letter against Denetsosie's confirmation.

Arthur declined to sign until he could give Denetsosie a chance to clarify his position. Anderson's name never came up in what turned out to be a fierce battle for power to see who would control the tribe's top lawyer in the previous administration, Boos and Henry were close allies. And Keeswood chaired the presidential oversight committee in both councils.

Olive branches

The new attorney general admitted to the council he handled it wrong when Platero came to him about switching lawyers in mid-stream and offered to extend an olive branch to him.

Platero, in turn, was diplomatic, but reminded Shirley the attorney general works at the pleasure of the council. Technically the post is within Shirley's Executive Branch, though. The gambling chapter delegate said Denetsosie should cooperate and the council is his client.

Keeswood asked Denetsosie about not giving his committee requested legal advice on the president's chief of staff hiring the president and vice president's wives. Arthur interrupted to seek an executive session. Orlanda Smith-Hodge's motion, seconded by Lee Jack Sr., failed 30-45.

Keeswood continued for a few minutes, saying Denetsosie called his staff stupid for not putting calls through directly to him, that he has a problem with the unnamed person Denetsosie wants as his deputy attorney general, and some of the five Navajo attorneys who want to join Denetsosie's staff have sued the tribe before.

When he mentioned the name of a federal Bureau of Reclamation official in Durango, Delegates Leonard Chee and Joe Lee won a 51-19-2 vote for the closed door session.

Delegate Raymond Maxx commented,"Their need is so great to derail this confirmation they are willing to expose themselves?"

After the executive session, Arthur asked Denetsosie to cite more than one instance of Boos acting against the best interest of the tribe.

The new attorney general said in addition to seeking to change the wording of a business act the council had acted on, Boos went to the Economic Development Committee seeking to rewrite tribal law. Denetsosie said this was not Boos' job, but the justice division's. Thus, he said,"This interferes with our attorney-client relationship."

Denetsosie said Boos denied a conflict of interest in representing clients"occupying lands leased to other parties and not moving off" their trespassing in Shiprock.

Delinquent client

A third case involves Boos representing a client who is delinquent on a tribal loan, yet wants to have more tribal business, he said.

Because Boos left the tribe, there is a certain time which must pass before he can under tribal law receive a contract to work for the tribe, the new attorney general pointed out.

Denetsosie also said Boos engaged in a conflict of interest in the 2000 and 2001 war between the council and the election board. The former chief legislative counsel was the legal advisor to the council and in charge of the attorneys he assigned the board at the same time.

"He used (his knowledge of the situation) against them (the board) and no one raised the issue (of a conflict of interest) at that time. I'm saying I will not let this happen again," Denetsosie said.

The new attorney general noted Boos instigated an investigation against the board, then had Henry conduct a six-month prosecution against the board, based on his office's attorney-client knowledge of the board's reasons for postponing the primary election in 2000. The charges were dismissed before coming to a rare jury trial.

But when it came time to have his lawyers as key prosecution witnesses, his office invoked the attorney-client privilege, which in essence, killed the case.

Denetsosie concluded, "I do not want lawyers like that representing the Navajo Nation."

The new attorney general also offered some thoughts on land selection (the tribe still has 20 square-miles each coming from Arizona and New Mexico), what he expects of the council and his work plan.