Gas leak forces tribal council to recess again
Delegates will consider budget, residency bills

By John Christian Hopkins
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — A natural gas leak that caused the Navajo Nation Council to cut short its session Wednesday, led to another early recess Thursday.

Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan said the gas level was still considered safe by OSHA standards, but as a preventative measure, council delegates opted to recess and resume the winter session today at 10 a.m.

Council spent about an hour as legislation sponsored by Fort Defiance delegate Harold Wauneka was read into the official record, before Morgan addressed the issue of the leak. No action was taken on Wauneka's bill, which will be picked up where it left off Thursday.

Wauneka's bill proposes to amend the nation's budgets and appropriations, focusing on increased fiscal controls and performance-based appropriations.

Also scheduled for today's session is a bill sponsored by delegate Orlanda Smith-Hodge (Cornfield/Greasewood Springs/Klagetoh/Wide Ruins) that would force delegates to maintain residency for three years prior to election in the communities they represent.

"This legislation is racism discrimination mostly outdated," said delegate Ernest D. Yazzie Jr. (Breadsprings/Church Rock). "Instead of going forward in 2006, they are going backwards."

Smith-Hodge's bill claims that it would make leaders more accessible to constituents by making sure they live in the same community; and the leaders would be more aware of community needs.

But, Yazzie sees it as the older delegates fearing the loss of their seats to the youth fresh out of college.

"It's an election year and they damn well know (the youth) have been away for more than three years while living in a better place and going to school," Yazzie said.

Though it would force candidates to maintain a permanent residence in the community, the bill said "extended absences" for business, school or military service would not affect the permanency of the candidate.

The voters should be allowed to elect whomever they want, without the legislature placing unfair restrictions on candidates, Yazzie said.

A residency requirement issue also caused a flap in the 2002 Navajo presidential race when the election administration disqualified candidate Edward T. Begay, who listed his home address as Gallup.

Begay took the matter all the way to the nation's Supreme Court, which ruled his name was to be put back on the ballot.

The high court's opinion, written by the late Chief Justice Robert Yazzie, did not consider the legality of a residency requirement, but rather whether the requirement was used in a fair manner.

In Begay's case, the court found that the rule had not been applied evenly. In June 2002, a month after he filed, Begay received a letter notifying him that he was disqualified because he did not live on the reservation.

However, the court found that another candidate Larry Curley listed a home address in Albuquerque, but never received a letter disqualifying him. Candidate Dahaani Baadaani listed his address as Durango, Colo., but was allowed to stay on the ballot because the election board failed to examine his paperwork within the 30-day time limit.

Another candidate Antoinette Yellowhorse did receive a letter from the election board requesting clarification of her address. But the letter she received was different than the one sent Begay.

Yellowhorse's letter listed exceptions that could be claimed to satisfy the residency requirement, while Begay's did not mention that exceptions were possible.

The court found that exceptions were made for Yellowhorse (student), Baadaani (technicality) and Curley (owned land near Birdsprings), but Begay was never afforded the option of requesting an exception. Though poorly worded, the residency policy allowed exemptions for various reasons, including work, education or military service.

Requiring candidates to live in the communities they represent is not unique, even the United States Congress has such rules. However, those rules are often skirted. For example, in 2002, when U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole ran for the North Carolina seat, she hadn't actually lived in the Tarheel State for nearly four decades. Congressional candidates often simply open a post office box within their "communities" to establish residence.

Likewise, in 2000, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton had never lived in New York until shortly before entering that state's political race.

In the summer of 1964, Massachusetts-born and Virginia-residing resident Robert F. Kennedy moved to New York and ran for the senate seat in that November's election.

— John Christian Hopkins can be reached at 1-505-371-5443, or by email at Hopkins1960@hotmail.com.