Delegates tussle over 2007 budget

About 30 community members march to the Council Chambers to show their support of the zoo. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

By John Christian Hopkins
Diné Bureau

Four-month-old Natalia Tahy and her mother, Arabella Tahy, hold a sign urging Navajo Council delegates to approve a supplemental funding proposal to keep the Navajo Naiton Zoo operating in Window Rock. The zoo was turned over to the Department of Fish and Wildlife on Aug. 2, and funding for the zoo runs out on Sept. 30. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

WINDOW ROCK — Some delegates thought the fiscal year 2007 budget session of the 20th Navajo Nation Council would resemble a kind-hearted midget short and sweet.

Instead, wrangling over the $10.2 million in the Undesignated, Unreserved, Fund dwarfed the efforts to call for fiscal accountability.

And though the council chambers did not become a zoo, that is exactly the word on everyone's mind.

Delegate Amos F. Johnson said he wanted to keep the Nation's zoo from closing. He proposed giving the zoo nearly $287,000 from the UUF for operating expenses.

"If the zoo doesn't get your support, it will close on Sept. 30, 2006," Johnson said.

"I certainly echo the same support for this," agreed Delegate Roy B. Dempsey. So did Delegate Curran Hannon, who said animals represented sacred symbols to Native people and played vital roles in their culture, tradition and legends.

But Delegate Jerry Bodie wondered why the Resource Committee, which oversees the zoo, hadn't done anything about the funding shortfall.

"As far as our legends, I don't recall anything about keeping animals captive," Bodie said. "They should be in the wild that's why they're called wild animals."

"I support this amendment," said Delegate Mark Maryboy. "Who speaks for the animals? I has to be us."

By a 61-6 vote the zoo amendment passed and was added onto the comprehensive budget under consideration. The council is likely to vote on a final version of the 2007 budget today.

In all, by the end of the day, delegates had added amendments that would use up about $8.7 million leaving roughly $1.5 million in the unreserved fund.

Among the other amendments offered were:

Young Jeff Tom motioned to take $2.1 million from the UUF to allocate $19,200 per chapter for use by the chapter officials. The amendment passed 64-9.

Tom also made a motion to use undesignated funds to make a supplemental increase in the speaker's budget to use for consultants' fees to help in lobbying Congress. Delegate LaVernWagner said the Nation had its Washington office and if it couldn't do the lobbying on its own, maybe it should be closed down. But Delegate Omer Begay said he was getting weary from all the attempts to add amendments. "If this keeps up I'm turning my vote around and vote no," Begay said.

An amendment to allocate $1 million from the UUF to the Navajo Prepatory School passed by a tally of 34-23.

"We're getting ahead of ourselves here," argued Bodie. "We're making amendments and we don't even have an 07 budget yet."

Omer Begay agreed. "We're putting the cart before the horse."

The session was almost dominated by Young Jeff Tom due to an inadvertent slip of the lip by Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan. When Tom asked to reserve his time for speaking, Morgan told him he had three million and four seconds before catching himself.

"Did I say millions? I meant minutes," the speaker laughed.

The council's budget session is expected to end today.

John Christian Hopkins can be reached at hopkins1960@hotmail.com or (505) 371-5443.