I have just been informed that a letter to the BIA has been drafted requesting their assistance for the horrendous attrocities and lawbreaking by several members of the BOD. Please do not ignore this unless your preferred form of government is communism because that is the form of government that is attempting to take over this tribe.
Why would these directors show such blatant disregard for the members? What is the real reason behind their desperation?
Chairman Payment cannot do this alone. When you receive the letter, please sign it and send immediately. To follow will be petitions to remove these directors who are in violation of the constitution and laws of our tribe.
One thing to remember....the actions of these 8 members of the board are ILLEGAL! They are violating our constitution and violating our rights as members. At no point should we accept illegal acitivities by the Board of Directors. These desperate acts must be stemming from the fact that these 8 know they will never be reelected in an honest election....not in a million years.
If they should attempt to carry through with these illegal acts then we must go on, business as usual, and not validate their actions as final. If someone came in to rob a bank and said "I am robbing this bank and since I am on the board of directors of this bank then it is okay that I be able to rob this bank".....would you say "okay"?
If we sit back and accept their actions as legal, the next move they will make will be to remove the Mackinac Band and the At Large members from the Sault Tribe. Before long, the only remaining members will be Unit One and only the core families. The current actions of the board, I believe, is the result of the new constitution and the positive changes that it will bring to our tribe. The new constitution offers more protection for the members and lays the groundwork for more accountability from the board.
You haven't seen retaliation until you see what this corrupt board has in store for you if you choose to ignore what is happening right now. The letter to the BIA will be posted on this site so please print it, sign it, put a stamp on it and mail it right away.
Thank you,
Lynne Weaver
MEDIA RELEASEFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 7, 2008SAULT STE. MARIE, MISAULT TRIBE BOARD DIRECTS LEGISLATION TO REMOVE CHAIRPERSON PAYMENT FROM OFFICE AND MAKE HIM INELIGIBLE TO RUN FOR RE-ELECTION IN 2008SAULT STE. MARIE, MI - Tribal Chairperson Aaron Payment announced today that at a meeting on 12-21-07, a faction of the Tribal Board of Directors met in direct violation of the Sault Tribe Constitution and Bylaws. The Constitution has several meeting and notice requirements which were violated. At this meeting, the Board took action to direct several resolutions be drafted to deal with an organizational change announced the day before by Payment. One such resolution was the removal from office of the Chairperson which would render Payment ineligible for re-election just (11) eleven days before the start of the 2008 Tribal Chairperson election cycle. At press time, Payment had not formally announced his candidacy.At the center of the controversy is an administrative change Payment made to protect an alleged victims’ family member from retribution from Fred Paquin, Tribal Board Member and now suspended Chief of Police. The suspension was due to an internal investigation and a confirmed Detroit Free Press report (see link below) that Paquin admitted to threatening the alleged victim and her family members’ jobs. A family member of the alleged victim works at the Tribal Detention Center which administratively reported to Paquin as Chief of Police. According to Payment, “Given her formal statement to the Michigan State Police and a formal administrative complaint to the Human Resources Division of the Tribe, I decided not to allow Paquin an opportunity for retribution. Despite advanced notification of the reasons for the change, Director Cathy Abramson introduced a motion to place the Detention center back underneath the Chief of Police placing the victim’s family members at risk. The Tribal Constitution (Bylaws Article I, sec. (7)) and Tribal law (Chapter 14.111, sec. (2)(c)) require such actions to be done by resolution so the Membership can invoke their Right of Referendum (Article IX) to over-turn such decisions. Given the Board voted on this change in violation of Tribal law, I reversed their decision to protect the victim and her family, and to preserve the integrity of Tribal law and to safeguard the Tribal Members’ Constitutional Right of Referendum.”In response to this action, with just 24 hours notice (the Constitution and Bylaws require 5 to 10 days notice - Bylaws Article I, sec. (1)(2)(3)(4)) the Tribal Board met to discuss how to remove Chairperson Payment from office with the agenda item listed as Chairperson Payment’s Media release (organizational chart change). Five of the duly elected Board members refused to attend the meeting because it did not comply with the Constitutional (5) five notice requirement which affords citizens their Constitutional right for advanced and published notice of the meeting, the agenda items to be discussed, and an opportunity to plan to attend public meetings of the Tribal Board of Directors. According to Todd K. Gravelle, Unit 1 Tribal Board Member and attorney, “*are board members voting on issues during a workshop, violating the constitutional requirement for 5 days notice to even have a meeting as well as calling meetings outside of meetings? If any of [the] above is true, there are (3) three separate violations of the constitution that I can see by my count. What other violations occurred at this meeting?”During the 12-21-07 meeting several options were discussed on how to “fire” Payment. When one Board member clarified the Board did not hire the Chairperson, the people elected Payment, the discussion moved to how to remove Payment from office. When it was clarified that the Removal Ordinance (16.105 (3) (a) - (d)) requires cause inclusive of a criminal conviction, the response was to rescind this law to create a clear path to removal without cause. In addition to planning how to remove Payment from office, the Tribal Board Members who attended the 12-21-07 meeting directed the expenditure of Tribal dollars to obtain a legal opinion to limit the Chairperson’s authority and to define the Tribal Board as having the ultimate and singular authority to make any decisions they wish, and to not subject any of their decisions to judicial review or reversal regardless of whether or not such decisions violate Tribal law, or the Supreme law of the Tribe - the Constitution and Bylaws. Additional action taken during this meeting was to schedule a follow-up meeting on 12-27-07. However, the five Tribal Board Members who did not attend the 12-21-07 were not notified until 3 minutes before the meeting was to begin in St. Ignace, MI which made it impossible for them to attend as they reside in Manistique, Cooks, Munising and Sault Ste. Marie, MI.According to Payment, “It is a scary notion that the Board could meet without complying with the Constitutional notice requirements, and make several decisions including spending Tribal dollars. On its face, this is clearly a violation of the Constitution and is therefore a removable offense. However, if a majority faction believes they are not subject to their own laws, then we have a Constitutional crisis and a resulting lawlessness that begs direct intervention by the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Indians Affairs.”At the 12-21-07 Tribal Board meeting, a faction of the Board directed these resolutions be brought to the January 15, 2008 Tribal Board meeting which will be held at 5pm in Kincheloe, Michigan at the Kinross Recreation Center. Link to December 13, 2007 Detroit Free Press Article: For more information about this media release, please contact the Office of Tribal Chairperson at (906) 635-6050 or by e-mail at apayment@saulttribe.net.###
No comments:
Post a Comment