Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear has appointed two Osage business professionals to serve on the Gaming Enterprise Board.
Susan Proctor Kneeland and Mark P. Revard will serve on the gaming board as interim board members and both will be subject to confirmation consideration by the Fourth ON Congress during its next regular session, which is the spring 2016 Hun-Kah Session. Standing Bear announced the appointments in Nov. 16 and Nov. 19 executive messages to Congressional Speaker Maria Whitehorn.
Kneeland, of Wichita, Kans., is a category management team lead for Cargill Meat Solutions and previously held data analyst positions with Cargill and The Coleman Company, according to her resume. She comes from the Osage Boulanger family and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in public policy and American institutions from Brown University. She is also the sister of Osage attorney Amanda Proctor who is handling the Nation’s investigations into past activities of the now defunct Osage, LLC.
Revard, of Jenks, is a seasoned mortgage banker who is a regional vice president for Gateway Mortgage Group in Tulsa and is former president/ co-owner of FM Bank & Trust, according to his resume. Revard also worked as a new account representative for IBM and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Oklahoma State University.
Two spots on the five-member gaming board became vacant after the fall Tzi-Zho Session ended and the Congress did not confirm previous appointees Jeanine Logan and Justin Mays. Both appointed as interim members earlier this year.
In a statement, Standing Bear said Congress’ non-consideration of Logan, a former ON Supreme Court Associate Justice and Mays was “disturbing” and “without basis.” Standing Bear also said: “Justin Mays has over 25 years of business experience and was very familiar with our Osage gaming laws. Jeanine Logan served with distinction as an Osage Nation Supreme Court Justice and later as an Osage Gaming Commissioner. Both were highly qualified under the law and under every definition.”
On Oct. 7, the Tzi-Zho session’s final day, Congressman Otto Hamilton made a motion to suspend the Congressional rules to modify the agenda to place consideration of Mays and Logan’s appointments on that day’s agenda. Congresswoman Shannon Edwards questioned whether there are rules for consideration of confirming appointees and Whitehorn researched the Congressional rules.
According to the rules: Once a Congressional committee considers an appointee and a report is issued to the Congress, then “any member of Congress may move during the ‘Motions’ portion of a Session for a nominee (appointee) interview to be placed on the agenda, or alternatively may move for confirmation consideration of the nominee to be placed on an agenda. The motion is subject to amendment, and requires an affirmative majority vote of the members present to pass. Should either of the motions fail, the motion may be reasserted any day until the day before the last regular day of Session.”
Congressional legal counsel Loyed “Trey” Gill said the motion for rules suspension would be required for Hamilton’s request to consider the appointees since it was the last day of session. The roll call vote to suspend the rules failed with a 5-4 vote failing to receive two-thirds vote of the nine Congress members present. That day, voting “yes” were Congress members Archie Mason, James Norris, RJ Walker, Alice Buffalohead and Hamilton. “No” votes came from Angela Pratt, William “Kugee” Supernaw, Edwards and Whitehorn and absences from John Maker, John Jech, and Ron Shaw at the time.
Referring to the new appointees’ resumes, Standing Bear said Kneeland and Revard are “equally qualified as my prior appointments. These two appointees were chosen after a comprehensive search of potential candidates for their individual talents and experience to join with the three other Osage board members after the shock of the Congress rejection of Mays and Logan,” Standing Bear said in a statement. “The Revard and Boulanger families have both provided generations of leaders for the Osage Nation.”
Current Gaming Enterprise Board members are Mark Simms (Chairman), Dawn Harrington and John “Trey” Goldesberry III.
By
Benny Polacca
Original Publish Date: 2015-11-23 00:00:00
