The Fifth Osage Nation Congress and the Executive Branch are heading to court regarding the Congressional subpoenas issued earlier this month.
Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear and Executive Branch officials – who were issued the subpoenas – say they would not be able to fulfill the demands for the various additional financial and operations information by the Sept. 19 and Sept. 20 deadline dates.
In the Sept. 19 complaint, Standing Bear asked the court to quash or modify the Sept. 8 and 9 subpoenas citing undue burden to provide the information and also argues the subpoenas require testimony, but those subpoenas did not state a subject of testimony.
The complaint focuses on the Congressional subpoenas issued to Treasurer Samuel Alexander, Human Resources Director Scott Johnson, Director of Operations Casey Johnson and Education Department Director Mary Wildcat.
The court filing comes one week after the Congress voted to decline a settlement offered by Standing Bear on one of the subpoenaed items, which included information regarding Executive Branch employee positions and job salaries and the salaries calculated according to the most recent merit market survey. Standing Bear proposed to provide the Congress with the exact amount of salary and hourly wage paid now, but without the names of individual employees, as well as the exact proposed salary and hourly wages for the coming 2017 fiscal year without the names of individual employees.
Citing the Standing Bear v. Whitehorn decision by the ON Supreme Court, Standing Bear believes the decision is landmark “which effectively changes everything we do and makes reliance on past practices constitutionally suspect.”
Several Congress members have argued throughout the Tzi-Zho Session the additional supporting documentation is needed to make informed decisions on the FY 2017 budgets. The current fiscal year ends Sept. 30, but the Congress continues to meet in committee meetings to use budget information supplied by the Executive Branch, as well as past year budget information.
Some information not deemed to be a burden or private would be provided, Standing Bear said on Sept. 16 as he met with officials named in the subpoenas for updates on their progress in providing the subpoenaed documents.
In the Executive Branch’s court complaint, Standing Bear also cited concerns of privacy for the employees, as well as individuals receiving benefits or participating in ON programs. Among the subpoenaed items is several Education Division-related information including numbers of students on academic probation, numbers of student interns and numbers of students enrolled in the Sylvan tutoring program.
Congressional Speaker Archie Mason said he had no comment on the complaint. Check back to www.osagenews.org for more updates on the budgets and remaining Tzi-Zho Session.
To view filed legislation and the Congressional calendar for scheduled sessions and committee meetings, go online to: www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/legislative-branch
The sessions and meetings are also live streamed at the following link: www.osagenation-nsn.gov/multimedia/live-media
By
Benny Polacca
Original Publish Date: 2016-09-23 00:00:00
