 Tribal Chairman calls for immediate HUD monitoring
 Tribal Chairman Purnell Swett contacted the Office of Native American Programs (ONAP) with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and requested three weeks ago that the office begin their yearly monitoring of tribal housing expenditures early. Chairman Swett on Friday, March 25, revised that request to ONAP and requested that they begin their monitoring and review of tribal programs and compliance at the tribal housing complex immediately.
“I became concerned several weeks ago,” says Chairman Swett, “that due to the constitutional issues I raised in regard to the processes and tactics that the Tribal Council were using to try and obtain information, particularly regarding contracts, the perception would become that I had something to hide. I now take this action to assure the tribal membership and the Tribal Council that I, nor my administration, have anything to hide.”
Chairman Swett recently sued the Tribal Council in a case heard by the Lumbee Supreme Court over three basic constitutional issues. Such issues include that it is the Tribal Council’s duty to adopt the annual tribal budget, and after adoption, it is the Chairman’s duty to implement the budget while ensuring strict compliance, and that the Tribal Council’s action of freezing budget line items as a means of controlling operations, without the request of the Tribal Chairman, is illegal.
Secondly, the Chairman argued in his petition to the Court that the selection of contractors, consultants and attorneys in the normal course of tribal business is solely an executive function, and that sharing such sensitive and confidential information would allow politics into the business of deciding contractors, consultants or attorneys, if given to the Tribal Council.
The third major contention in the Chairman’s argument against the Tribal Council was that the Tribal Council, as the legislative body, is responsible for writing all the laws that govern the Tribe, and that once a law is duly enacted that it is then the responsibility of the Chairman and his administration to implement that law through policy and procedures, particularly when dealing with tribal programs and employees.
“The Office of the Tribal Chairman is an institution established by the Lumbee Constitution,” said Chairman Swett. “I have taken an oath to uphold the Lumbee Constitution, and as such, to faithfully defend the Constitution. All my actions up to this point have been to protect this document given to this government by our tribal membership.”
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Chairman in a unanimous decision on February 16, 2011, despite several news reports. The Court found in its order that the Council attempted to give itself powers far beyond those enumerated in the Lumbee Constitution and struck down Ordinance No. 2010-0617, the “Budget Approval and Monitoring Ordinance”.
 While the Court did find that the Constitution gave the Tribal Council budget oversight powers, and the duty to make reasonable inquiry regarding expenditures, the Court states that such budget oversight powers do not give the Council authority to direct where or with whom the Tribal Chairman and his staff spend monies after the Council enacts the budget, nor does it give the Tribal Council the authority to demand prior approval before expenditures are made.
In addressing the final allegations, the Court ruled that the transferring of funds within the budget, after approval, or the “freezing” of certain budget line items, without the Chairman’s request is unconstitutional and therefore illegal.
Furthermore, the Court found that the Tribal Council, in attempting to make changes to the Tribe’s employee handbook, was also an invasion of the province of the Tribal Chairman and his staff, and therefore illegal, and not binding upon the Lumbee Tribe.
“It is important that these constitutional issues be resolved because they set precedent for future generations” said Chairman Swett. “We must not think about the now, because the ends do not justify the means, but we must think about preserving for all time, until the 7th generation, what our grandfathers and grandmothers have given to us.”
Tribal members may review the ruling of the Supreme Court by contacting Ruth Locklear, the Tribal Clerk, at 910-522-5471. |
