The KIC Recall Committee for Responsible Leadership, spearheaded by Richard Jackson and Martha Johnson, faxed a statement expressing disappointment and calling the Council’s action “political smoke and mirrors.”
The recall effort kicked off earlier this month, when the committee started gathering signatures to recall the Tribal Council President, Irene Dundas, and Council Members Gloria Burns, Verna Hudson, Donna Frank, Rob Sanderson, Andre LeCornu and Norman Arriola.
Tribal Council Member Delores Churchill is not on the recall list, because she didn’t participate in a controversial vote that the committee cites as its reason for seeking recall.
The group alleges that the seven members violated the tribe’s Constitution when they voted in late May to temporarily appoint Dundas as the KIC administrator. The group further alleges that Dundas acted improperly when she fired the KIC human resources director.
Whether those actions really were a violation rests on whether the tribe is acting under the 1979 version of its Constitution, or the 2013 one, which may or may not have been approved by voters at KIC’s most recent election. According to the Tribal Council, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has rejected the 2013 vote.
The recall committee has a new complaint, though, and that’s with how the Council rejected its recall petition. In its written statement from last week, the Tribal Council claims that the number of signatures was not adequate.
In the faxed statement, the recall committee states that under the 1979 Constitution, which the Council considers valid, the petitions had the required number of signatures. More than that, the petitions have the number of signatures that the tribe’s recall ordinance calls for, AND the number that KIC staff told the group it needed.
In the statement, the group also alleges that KIC officials opened ballot boxes to compare the names on the recall petitions with those of voters.
The recall committee is exploring options, including calling a special meeting of the Tribal Council.
