Panel OKs Executive Branch budget
Delegate: Budget is 'out of whack'

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The Government Services Committee narrowly approved an "out-of-whack" budget for the Executive Branch on Tuesday and sent it off to Budget and Finance for review and dissecting, after which it will move to the council floor where delegates are likely to devour it like an Angus prime rib.

Chief of Staff Patrick Sandoval and Kirby Bedonie, executive staff assistant, presented an overall Fiscal Year 2006 proposed General Fund budget trimmed of $36,137 in fat over last year's budget, for a total of $4,993,967.

Under the Executive Branch budget, the Office of Hearings and Appeals took the biggest hit, with $58,356 carved out of last year's $164,245. The amount for FY 2006 is $105,889.

The Office of Public Defenders was hit second-hardest with a loss of $38,885 over last year's allocation of $753,415. The proposed total for FY 2006 is $714,530.

The proposed budget for the Navajo-Hopi Land Commission dropped $18,836 over last year's funding level of $563,673 to a proposed budget of $544,837. Nearly $4,500 was trimmed from the Office of Miss Navajo Nation; $4,000 from the Executive Protection Program, and $3,000 from Telecommunication & Regulatory.

President's office
The Office of President/Vice President is seeking a budget increase of $84,352 over last year; the Navajo Nation Washington Office, an increase of $1,720; and the Office of First Lady, an increase of $5,385.

Goals from the President/Vice President's office in the coming Fiscal Year are No. 1, to forge new partnerships among levels of government on behalf of the Navajo Nation by "collaborating between levels of government locally and globally" by attending 17 meetings per quarter.

Among other objectives, OP/VP representatives plan to attend eight congressional and federal hearings per quarter to advocate on behalf of the Navajo Nation at the federal level, and six Navajo Indian Irrigation Project and New Mexico Water Trust Board Committee meetings per quarter.

Projects include completing the components of the President's Bond Financing initiative and amending the OP/VP Plan of Operation by Sept. 30, 2006.

Personnel costs amount to $1,501,173, an increase of $89,616 over last year, while travel costs are proposed at $256,440. In addition, $61,000 is proposed for general assistance.

Travel for the President/Vice President's office totals $30,240 for the use of seven permanently assigned vehicles from Fleet Management, including six Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and one 3/4-ton pickup. An allocation of $37,200 is proposed for mileage, $48,000 for personal travel expenses, and $110,000 in commercial and charter air fares.

"This budget is out of whack," said Delegate Mel Begay (Coyote Canyon/Mexican Springs).

Washington office
Expenses to run the Navajo Nation Washington Office include $796,964 for personnel and $189,812 in fringe benefits, $122,800 for travel, $81,326 for supplies, and $223,520 for lease and rental. Vehicle rental costs total $21,000 per year, as do per diem meals, while lodging amounts to $28,000. Tack on another $35,000 for commercial airline travel and $10,800 for train/subway fare.

According to budget totals, the Washington Office spends $35,000 a year on books, periodicals, and subscriptions, including $22,000 alone for a subscription to Congressional Quarterly, the "bible" on legislative action.

The Washington Office spends $186,000 annually on office space ($15,500 monthly) and $23,400 for colorcopier/printer/scanner use ($1,950 monthly).

Fax equipment costs total $1,560 per year; postage meter, $2,400; phone equipment, $5,160 ($430 monthly); and $5,000 for meeting space.

Executive protection
Costs to protect Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. and Vice President Frank Dayish Jr. amounted to $459,913 in Fiscal Year 2005. The proposed budget for FY 2006 downscales costs by $3,977.

Personnel expenses last year totaled $306,924 for five security officers. The FY 2006 budget includes an increase of $18,674 for a total of $325,598.

The Presidential Protection Detail includes five senior police officers with salaries ranging from $37,148.80 to $44,345.60. An additional $30,000 is budgeted for the five officers for overtime, $5,000 for holiday pay and $80,123 for fringe benefits.

One of the goals for the coming fiscal year is to send the five officers off for Arizona POST and firearms training.

Hearings and appeals
The office of Hearings and Appeals is poised to take a $3,877 cut in personnel costs, an $11,506 reduction in travel expenses, while zeroing out lease and rental costs.

Chief of Staff Patrick Sandoval tried to reassure Government Services Committee members that the reduction in travel expenses was justified.

"Looking at the previous Hearings and Appeals budget, removing the money from the budget was going to be very legitimate because that's all the travel they did last year for the dollar value; so in order to cut back on those costs, that's where we took from," he explained.

Sandoval's assistant, Kirby Bedonie, told the committee that the Office of Hearings and Appeals pays a daily rental for its vehicles. "They have been before the Transportation Committee a couple of times to request for a tribal vehicle to be assigned to them," she said.

"However, they anticipate not being assigned a tribal vehicle again, and that is why they have put a daily rental within their budget." Sandoval said the rental rates are made for rentals from Navajo Nation Fleet Management.

"Although they don't have a permanent vehicle to give to the program, they have rentals available that they would use. One of the things I do discourage is the use of personal vehicles on these long trips because at the current government rate for mileage, it gets very, very expensive," he said. "We at the Nation are able to rent the vehicle from our Fleet at a much lower cost."

Public defender
The program budget for the Office of Navajo Public Defender dropped nearly $39,000 to this year's proposed total of $714,530. Personnel expenses for 12 budgeted positions declined nearly $2,000 to $638,109 in the new fiscal year.

Operating supplies declined $26,419 from last year, for a proposed total of $27,450. That amount was removed from program Director Kathleen Bowman's budget, Sandoval said, though Bowman indicated she deserved the money for the purchase of computers.

"The $26,000 that she had allocated in the supply section for the purchase of computers, what we're going to do there is to follow up on the commitment through our grants people and our office people to make sure that we can work diligently to find those types of equipment, not used brand new for the function of that office over there," Sandoval said.

"There are organizations out there that are more than willing to provide through the grant process these types of equipment, training and so on. So that's where our commitment stands, to assist in the effort to acquire those pieces of equipment for those offices and cut back on training. With those commitments to the committee from the President's Office, we ask again that we respectfully leave the budget intact as it is."

Delegate Leo R. Begay of Chinle questioned Sandoval regarding cutbacks in travel. "The president lessened the travel for all programs. By doing that, how much productivity has he lessened also?"

Sandoval addressed the Executive Order signed by the president, saying, "Any travel that is deemed necessary and beneficial to the Navajo Nation, which would include meetings ... is not impacted. The travel that's impacted is what we deem unnecessary.

"For example," he said, "the Department of Head Start wanted to take 1,000 people to Phoenix like they had done every year for the last five years. The total cost on that, minus the hourly salary for that week, was at $652,000. When you factor in all those thousand employees' work hours, it was well over $1 million."

What they did instead was travel to Shiprock where they all met at Shiprock gymnasium for two days of orientation. "The follow-up meetings, they went ahead and did business with local. They have a choice of going to either Gallup or Farmington or Flagstaff, because those are border towns that to a degree support the Navajo economy.

"We didn't want all of the money flowing off the Nation over to Tempe where we were going to pay them $650,000 of which, I think, it was $52,000 that went into Tempe city taxes alone. That is what the president was trying to avoid."

"He said the savings to date is probably in excess of $1 million for unnecessary trips."