Battle over Navajo Nation youth clubs becomes a national issue

By Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — A new fight is brewing between the Executive and Legislative Branches of the Navajo Nation is over who will now operate the 14 reservation Boys and Girls Clubs. The latest battle occurred Friday at the Legislative Branch's Ethics-Rules Committee meeting and in the later responses from the Executive Branch's Expansion Office.

Since taking office in January 2003, President Joe Shirley Jr. has refused to bow down to the council. The running battle over the youth clubs is just the latest engagement.

During Friday's meeting, board member Warren Denetsosie charged that all the Boys and Girls Clubs on reservations across the country are having an identical problem the national staff from Atlanta only wants to deal with tribal governments and is not helping the clubs operated by the non-profit corporations.

The national headquarters is scheduled on April 5 to revoke the charter of the non-profit Boys and Girls Clubs of Navajo, the Shiprock-based non-profit which brought the program to the country's largest reservation. Denetsosie said his group will take the fight to the national board to seek to keep the charter.

Investigation
Council Delegate Lawrence Platero of the To' Hajiilee Chapter on the Canoncito Navajo Reservation west of Albuquerque, who chairs the council's Economic Development Committee, also revealed he will ask the Government Services Committee, which oversees the presidential bureaus such as the Expansion Office, to conduct its second fact-finding investigation into Shirley's administration.

In June 2003, the GSC turned over its nepotism-based investigation information to the Ethics-Rules Office, which has now hired a Colorado attorney to investigate, and if needed, prosecute Shirley. The ethics staff will handle the parallel case involving Vice President Frank Dayish Jr.

Three audits of the non-profit and one of the Expansion Office have trashed both groups on charges of financial and operational mismanagement.

The non-profit's remaining board members Chair Angie Deale, Denetsosie, Dineh Benally and Jim Issues along with volunteer Chief Executive Officer Fran Rowden continue to try to salvage the operation, now $730,000 in debt, including about $250,000 owed the Internal Revenue Service for employee withholding unpaid since October 2003.

Platero is sponsoring a resolution to take $1.3 million from the tribe's Undesignated Reserve Fund emergency account for what he hopes is a one-time allocation to pay for a six-month operation of the 14 clubs, now closed. The full budget for a year would be about $2 million. The rules panel endorsed the resolution 6-0 and the council is expected to vote on it Friday.

The lack of stability from the controversy has made it extremely difficult to raise funds, Denetsosie emphasized, although this would help reopen the centers for 8,000 Dine' youth.

Allocated money
Spencer Willie, Expansion Office director, said the financial mismanagement prevents release of money to the non-profit because the corporation didn't use the funds its received for their restricted purposes.

As an example, he said the Central Consolidated School District (which serves Shiprock) used the corporation to be able to use Government Services Administration vehicles for which it is not directly eligible. The CCSD paid the corporation, but the corporation didn't pay the GSA. This leaves two unpaid bills, he said, and the millions of dollars of federal funds his office has can't be given to the corporation to reimburse it for ineligible spending.

Platero told fellow delegates he has tried at least three times to convince Shirley not to absorb the clubs into a tribal department.

When he finally did get a face-to-face meeting, he said Shirley already had his mind made up, even when the delegate placed in front of him 14 chapters resolutions opposing the conversion to direct tribal operation, along with a stack of letters from boys and girls making the same point.

Platero commented, "I think we've learned we can't count on the president."

Denetsosie added, "It seems apparent the president is going to proceed, despite GSC's not wanting him to do this." He added that the 14 centers duplicate many of the offerings of the tribal Youth Department.

Not cooperating
The lawyer a relative of Attorney General Louis Denetsosie also said Shirley has been invited to appoint members to the corporation's board, to help answer his concerns. "They don't seem to be willing to do that."

Corporation supporters point to the recently released audit finding of extravagant spending by Willie and his staff for non-youth purposes.

Willie replies that the auditors did not want to listen to the Expansion Office's answers, especially where the Expansion Office found discrepancies. He charged that the reason for the rush is politics, especially from Platero and a few other delegates opposed to Shirley.

Since the Youth Department's Plan Of Operation (POO) already contains what is needed, the clubs could easily be absorbed, Willie indicated.

He labeled comments by the corporate supporters as a "smoke screen" to turn peoples' attention away from the three non-profit audits which, he hinted, are the real reason for the lack of donations.

At a recent meeting of the financial people on both sides, Willie said Deputy Attorney General Harrison Tsosie advised the board to go into bankruptcy because of the unpaid costs the Navajo Nation can't legally incur.

— To contact reporter Jim Maniaci, telephone (505) 371-5443.