Tribal Chair Stool Ed Delgado used his ‘Message’ in the October 31, 2013 Kalihwisaks to blatantly lie about an Oneida Eye editor.
Chairwimp Delgado deceitfully claimed:
[A]t Sunday’s [General Tribal Council] meeting, we had an incident whereby a participant started making allegations which included a Tribal member who was not even at the meeting. General Tribal Council is the governing body of the Oneida Tribe. However, it is not an institution where Tribal members can make personal attacks against other Tribal members. When that kind of behavior takes place, the person acting in that improper way will have their microphone turned off and if the improper behavior continues, they will be removed from the meeting. That has been the policy in the past and that policy will continue. I am sorry to write about such a negative activity in this Message, but respectful behavior is a very important issue when there over a thousand people gathering together to make decisions regarding the future of their Tribe. In fact, I believe respectful behavior towards others is generally a good way to conduct one’s life.
Pants-on-Fire Delgado is obviously referring to the Oneida Eye’s publisher properly making germane information known to General Tribal Council which she was provided by Dishonest Delgado’s Elder Advisor, Yvonne Metivier, who contacted the Oneida Eye editors to let them know for the record (and Ms. Metivier was repeatedly asked by the editors if she could be quoted on the record and she affirmed each time that she wanted to be cited as having spoken to the Oneida Eye on the record) that Tribal Staff Attorney Michelle Mays had informed her that Tribe member Lati Hill was recently hired by Chief Counsel Jo Anne House as a “Staff Attorney” despite the fact that he does not have a license to practice as an Attorney at Law in the State of Wisconsin, and, further, Ms. Metivier reported that Atty. Mays stated that Mr. Hill would not be taking his Wisconsin State Bar exam until February 2014.
The State Bar website, WisBar.org, does not list Lati Hill as being licensed to practice as an Attorney at Law in the State of Wisconsin, and Delgado himself admitted to a Tribe member that he was aware that Lati Hill does not have a law license and also knew that Mr. Hill would not be taking the bar exam until next year.
For the Oneida Eye editor to raise that factually accurate point at the October 27 GTC meeting about a staff member of the Oneida Law Office whose hiring by Chief Counsel House was ‘retro-approved’ by the BC at their October 9, 2013 Regular Meeting is in no way a “personal attack” as Pinocchio Delgado would have you wrongly believe.
Instead, it was important and pertinent information that was specifically mentioned in relation to Council member Melinda Danforth’s comments at the GTC Meeting that the Legislative Operating Committee, of which she is the Chair, is looking at issues related to the Tribal Election Law.
The Oneida Eye editor’s comments were relevant to the discussion and material to GTC because it is our understanding that Lati Hill has been assigned by Chief Counsel Jo Anne House as a “Staff Attorney” to work with the LOC, and that former Tribal paralegal and 24-year employee Tonya Boucher‘s job was eliminated to make room for Mr. Hill despite the fact that she made a motion which GTC passed at the September 21, 2013 GTC Meeting that going forward there would be no layoffs of positions budgeted for in the 2013-2014 Tribal budget that GTC voted to pass at the same meeting. Despite GTC’s vote, Boucher was subsequently let go.
The Oneida Eye editor was concerned that the LOC and the Tribe might not be receiving proper or legitimate legal advice from someone who is not licensed as an Attorney at Law in the State of Wisconsin (or anywhere as far as we know) yet falsely purports to be an “Attorney at Law” on his LinkedIn page in contradiction to Wisconsin State Statute 757.30, Penalty for practicing without license, which plainly states:
- Every person, who without having first obtained a license to practice law as an attorney of a court of record in this state, as provided by law, practices law within the meaning of sub. (2), or purports to be licensed to practice law as an attorney within the meaning of sub. (3), shall be fined not less than $50 nor more than $500 or imprisoned not more than one year in the county jail or both, and in addition may be punished as for a contempt.
- Every person who appears as agent, representative or attorney, for or on behalf of any other person, or any firm, partnership, association or corporation in any action or proceeding in or before any court of record, circuit or supplemental court commissioner, or judicial tribunal of the United States, or of any state, or who otherwise, in or out of court, for compensation or pecuniary reward gives professional legal advice not incidental to his or her usual or ordinary business, or renders any legal service for any other person, or any firm, partnership, association or corporation, shall be deemed to be practicing law within the meaning of this section.
- Every person who uses the words attorney at law, lawyer, solicitor, counselor, attorney and counselor, proctor, law, law office, or other equivalent words in connection with his or her name or any sign, advertisement, business card, letterhead, circular, notice, or other writing, document or design, the evident purpose of which is to induce others to believe or understand the person to be authorized to practice law or who in any other manner represents himself or herself either verbally or in writing, directly or indirectly, as authorized to practice law in this state, shall be deemed to be purporting to be licensed to practice law as an attorney within the meaning of this section.
The Oneida Tribal Attorney Contract Policy on the Tribe’s website (which the Oneida Eye has confirmed is the up-to-date version) states:
Article VI. Contract Approval
6-4. Chief Counsel completes negotiation of contract contents and forwards final approval to the Oneida Business Committee. Provided that, prior to final approval, professional qualifications are verified by the Oneida Law Office through receipt of confirmation of good stating, at a minimum, with the State Bar of Wisconsin through a copy of the annual bar card or original letter of good standing.
Did you notice the words “at a minimum“? Yet Mr. Hill has not even reached that bare minimum of qualification to be hired as a “Staff Attorney.” It would appear that there may be a typo where it says “receipt of confirmation of good stating,” and that it is supposed to read, as the last part of the sentence does, “good standing.”
Nevertheless, the fact of the matter is that – according to Yvonne Metivier’s relay of comments she attributed to Atty. Michelle Mays – Lati Hill has NO standing with the State Bar of Wisconsin. Therefore, Lati Hill should not have been hired by Chief Counsel Jo Anne House as a “Staff Attorney at Law” whether emergency/temporary, regular or otherwise, and the BC should not have retro-approved his inappropriate hiring by Jo Anne House.
If the Chief Counsel can just declare anyone she cares to deem an ‘Attorney at Law’ or ‘Staff Attorney’ to be so, then why was Diane Danforth House (who now serves as one of Duplicitous Delgado’s Senior Policy Advisors) quietly dismissed from the Oneida Law Office and all letterhead citing her as a ‘Staff Attorney’ ordered destroyed just because she hadn’t completed all of her coursework and lacked a law license?
Further, while there are policies which prevent the Business Committee from discussing individuals absent their presence at BC Regular Meetings, there are absolutely no policies that Oneida Eye can find which state that GTC members are not allowed to bring their concerns about Tribal employees and their lack of basic qualifications, or concerns about the Chief Counsel and Business Committee facilitating the hiring of unqualified employees, to the attention of other GTC members during GTC meetings.
Oneida Eye challenges Double-dealing Delgado to provide evidence otherwise, and we imagine he would have named the specific policy in his lying-azz ‘Message’ if there was one.
Moreover, as we’ve pointed out, Erroneous-at-best Ed’s overreaction to the Oneida Eye editor’s honest statements at the GTC meeting is a clear indication that he knew full well that such information would not sit well with a Tribal population facing possible furloughs and firings only to find out that special exceptions are being made for people on what appears to be a political rather than a professional basis.
In fact, we think GTC might find such obvious chicanery downright disrespectful of employees who don’t seek their employment by trying to pass themselves off as having credentials they haven’t obtained and don’t expect any special treatment simply because of who their familial or political connections are.
Following the GTC meeting, several Tribe members gave their welcome encouragement and support to the Oneida Eye editor for being “brave” and “strong” and “speaking up,” and a few Oneida men let it be known that they would not have allowed Duper Delgado’s goon squad to eject the Oneida Eye editor had she not returned to her seat, and we thank those people for their invaluable support.
The most common comment / question among those who easily recognized the illogic of Incompetent or Unethical Ed Delgado was this:
If GTC meetings are not the appropriate place for GTC members to openly discuss with other GTC members their serious concerns that the Chief Counsel and the Business Committee are failing to abide by the Tribal Attorney Contract Policy and are actually advising or openly allowing Oneida Law Office employees to improperly disregard State law and falsely advertise legal credentials they have not obtained, then where the hell exactly is the ‘appropriate’ place to make those legitimate and pressing concerns known to GTC?
Oneida Eye readers will be aware that Leah Sue Dodge, Mike Debraska and Cathy Metoxen have filed a Request for Injunctive Relief with the Oneida Appeals Commission:
However, the Oneida Eye maintains that GTC meetings are indeed an appropriate forum to make GTC members aware of such actions by the Chief Counsel and the BC, as well as an appropriate forum to allow the BC to acknowledge and explain their rationale and/or allow the Chief Counsel to explain what legal opinion she conveyed to the BC as to how and why it is in any way appropriate that the Chief Counsel and the BC should be allowed to flagrantly flout Tribal attorney hiring policies and State law, and therefore Shady Delgado is entirely wrong to falsely claim that the Oneida Eye editor’s actions were somehow “improper behavior.”
‘Improper behavior’ is, however, an apt term for Stool Delgado’s recent behavior:
- Leaving personally purchased bullets in a Tribal vehicle;
- Refusing to recognize motions by GTC members as they are being made;
- Driving up on a roundabout and then deceitfully claiming later that it didn’t happen;
- Lying about honest and conscientious GTC members in the Tribal newspaper by falsely accusing them of making ‘personal attacks’ which is itself a personal attack.
In fact, when the Oneida Eye was informed about Deep-in-denial Delgado’s dangerous driving by Tribe members, we specifically contacted Elder Advisor Yvonne Metivier to try to find out if the troubling incident may have been related to a problem with Delgado’s reported hypoglycemia issues, but were assured more than once that Ed said he simply forgot that the roundabout had been installed.
So who’s really lying, Sonny Boy?
You, or Yvonne Metivier and the Tribe members who witnessed your erratic and ‘improper behavior’ behind the wheel of a Tribal vehicle?
Some people will say that if Ed is experiencing the onset of dementia it’s cruel to point it out or call him a ‘liar’ when in reality he’s suffering a medical condition.
Oneida Eye is of the opinion that it would be more cruel to stay quiet about it and let it fester and allow Ed to pose a threat to the life or health of other drivers and their passengers, or to that of the Tribe by being improperly advised to sign agreements for $400,000,000 debt arrangements on behalf of other tribes that don’t appear to be in the best interest of the Oneida Tribe.
If Ed is losing it, as some Oneida Business Committee members have stated to Tribe members, then the appropriate thing for him to do would be to remove himself from office.
To do otherwise would be disrespectful to General Tribal Council and the membership of the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin.
Or Ed can try to wait it out and allow General Tribal Council to do the decent thing and vote him out in next year’s primary should he unadvisedly run again for office.
If his situation worsens precipitously, however, the Oneida Tribe may have to take action as they did with a former Tribal Chairwoman who required emergency psychiatric intervention.
As Oneida Eye readers know, this blog staunchly defended Desperado Delgado against phony rumors of sex scandals and the baseless removal petition filed by Brian Doxtator.
However, Oneida Eye’s publisher holds blind allegiance to no one and will continue to report honestly both on this blog as well as at GTC meetings no matter the lies and threats of the Tribal Stool.
Get help, Ed.
Or get lost.
