Oneida Eye was able to access documents related to the serious scandals surrounding Chairperson Delgado which have resulted in the circulation of an important petition to remove him from office.
Exhibit #1) Chairperson Delgado, a well-known spendthrift (just look at his fancy car!), issued a ‘Certificate of Appreciation’ providing two face cords of wood to a local wellness worker who conducts sweat lodge ceremonies. (Shockingly, the wood was to be used for ~gasp~ more healing community sweat lodge ceremonies! Obviously this is a profit-driven business!)
Exhibit #2) Chairperson Delgado flagrantly tried to waste $800 to help a sick elder who had car trouble while traveling from Arizona to Green Bay for life-saving dialysis. Petition circulators say this man already received $800 for new tires, but that didn’t stop Chairperson Delgado from recklessly trying to him ambulate to receive medical care. (Apparently the sick man couldn’t figure out how to use the tires to travel without the car itself. Selfish, really, the both of them, except that the elder in question never got the funds and had to seek help elsewhere. Petitioners won’t admit how they obtained private information about the elder’s plight, but why worry over such trivial violations of the confidential records of Tribe members when there’s a conscientious leader to be persecuted?)
Exhibit #3) As if recognizing and rescuing individual Tribe members wasn’t bad enough, Chairperson Delgado had the nerve to try to help all Southeastern Oneida Tribal Services recipients in their efforts to obtain a high quality facility, and he deliberately did so in such a way as to save the Tribe money by highlighting a bid far less that what had been budgeted. (Wanna bet he planned to brazenly lavish those ill-gotten savings on even more sick Tribe members? Jerk.)
Exhibit #4) …Need we go on?!
Obviously, this deplorable pattern of grave misconduct is crushingly disappointing to every GTC member who cast a vote for Chairperson Delgado believing in their heart that he would surely let sick people die on the side of the road in the desert and issue only photocopied notices of appreciation to valued community members, perhaps on color paper with a gold star and signed with a smiley face at most. (Okay, maybe a Snoopy sticker for very special occasions.)
It’s surprising that the petitioners forgot to note that, back when he was just a Council member, Delgado cowardly declined to vote to support Oneida Seven Generations Corporation and Oneida Energy, Inc. in their admirable efforts to build a dioxin-emitting gasification facility on the reservation. (And all over pesky and petty concerns about “unanswered questions,” “what we are putting up for collateral,” having “enough resources,” and that OBC had “not seen any written agreements.” For proof of Delgado’s insolence just feast your eyes on item 4 on pages 7-8 of this damning document: December 8, 2010 OBC Meeting Minutes.)
Perhaps the petitioners didn’t want to bring unnecessary attention to the fact that Tribal Secretary Patty Hoeft was somehow brainwashed at that time into joining Delgado in mutiny over her silly concerns that pursuing the project might harm the Tribe’s relationships with surrounding communities.
However, after seeing the error of her ways, on April 11, 2013 Secretary Hoeft repented and joined with seven other current members in unanimity for OBC’s righteous reaffirmation of OBC Resolution 12-08-10-B, ‘Supporting Dioxin-Emissions on the Oneida Reservation,’ which – as they convincingly explained at the time, as told to by attorneys – was actually in support of building dioxin-emitting incinerators ‘renewable energy’ facilities wherever the hell they want to. (Chairperson Delgado is the only OBC member who has failed to ever vote in support, the rat fink.)
Together, the Business Committee valiantly ignored OBC Resolution 11-08-00-B, ‘Dioxins & How They Threaten the Very Existence of the Tribe or Whatever,’ thereby boldly and unanimously undermining the very purpose of the Code of Ethics (3.1-1. Policy and Purposes).
By courageously refusing to be bound by their promise to “promote the highest ethical conduct” and proudly violating the requirement to “work upwards and strive to work toward improving the health, safety and welfare of the Oneida Nation” they instead heroically chose to risk endangering living generations and the next seven in the hopes of profiting from dioxin, thereby setting a brave new standard for ethics, logic and justice: ‘Whatever We Say Goes.’
(Some still fail to comprehend that Anti-Dioxin Resolution 11-08-00-B was merely a ploy to move others out of the dioxin game so the Tribe could swoop in later and capitalize. Duh! Cha-ching!)
Obviously, honorable freedom fighters who throw caution (and others) to the wind have no use for a lily-liver like Chairperson Delgado who would dare prioritize honoring good people and protecting ill people in need over the bottom line. It’s simply unconscionable, whatever that means.
Therefore, Oneida Eye encourages its readers to consider joining the intrepid souls who are sick and tired of do-gooders who waste Tribal resources on the selfless or literally sick, or stand up for anyone other than our corporate overlords as they lead us down a glorious path to their riches and our ruin. (Isn’t that what we deserve?)
When this matter finally comes before GTC for a vote (as it most certainly will), remember: Leave your heart, mind & spirit at the door, and let misplaced resentment be your guide.
