As Oneida Eye previously reported (OSGC, Greg Matson, Brandon Stevens & Paul Ninham Think GTC Is A Joke [UPDATED: So Does Jo Anne House), the Oneida Business Committee held an Emergency Meeting on Friday November 22 which was recessed and continued on Monday November 25, 2013 regarding the discovery of “open flame” incineration activities at 1201 O’Hare Boulevard, Hobart, WI.
Oneida Eye can now present a draft of the minutes of the BC’s Emergency Meeting:
Attendance at the Friday November 22, 2013 portion of the BC Emergency Meeting was as follows:
Present: Chairman Ed Delgado, Vice Chairman Greg Matson, Secretary Patty Hoeft, Council members David Jordan, Paul Ninham, Brandon Stevens; Not present: Treasurer Tina Danforth, Council members Melinda J. Danforth, Tina Danforth; Others present: Bobbi Webster, Jo Anne House, Wilbert Rentmeester, Larry J. Cornelius, Pat Pelky, Mary Jo Nash, William Cornelius, Tsyosha?aht Delgado
Attendance at the Monday November 25, 2013 portion of the Emergency Meeting was as follows:
Present: Chairman Ed Delgado, Vice Chairman Greg Matson, Secretary Patty Hoeft, Council members David Jordan, Paul Ninham, Brandon Stevens; Not present: Treasurer Tina Danforth, Council members Melinda J. Danforth, Vince DelaRosa; Others present: Larry Barton, Jo Anne House
Also, as Oneida Eye previously reported, there were two significant motions made at the Monday November 25, 2013 portion of the Emergency Meeting, the first of which was as follows:
Motion by David Jordan to adopt resolution titled Clarification of General Tribal Council Action Regarding Waste-to-Energy Activities with the noted change which is to delete the last resolve, seconded by Patty Hoeft. Motion failed with three opposed:
Ayes: Patty Hoeft, David Jordan
Opposed: Greg Matson, Paul Ninham, Brandon Stevens
Not present: Melinda J. Danforth, Tina Danforth, Vince DelaRosa
We have not seen a copy of the resolution titled ‘Clarificiation of General Tribal Action Regarding Waste-to-Energy Activites’ and so we can only speculate what it might have said which we would hope would be along these lines:
“When GTC voted on May 5, 2013 to disallow Oneida Seven Generations Corporation from engaging in incineration activites on the Oneida Reservation GTC obviously didn’t want OSGC to allow any other corporations to use Tribal or Tribally-chartered corporation-owned property on the reservation to be used for the same activities that GTC voted to prohibit OSGC from conducting.”
SEE UPDATE BELOW FOR A COPY OF THE RESOLUTION THE BUSINESS COMMITTEE REJECTED 3-2 TITLED ‘CLARIFICATION OF GENERAL TRIBAL COUNCIL ACTION REGARDING WASTE-TO-ENERGY ACTIVITIES‘
What we have heard is that at the BC’s Emergency Meeting Chief Counsel Jo Anne House argued to the Business Committee that previous actions they’d taken did allow OSGC to flagrantly ignore the words and the spirit of the overwhelming May 5, 2013 decision by GTC to prohibit incinterators on the Oneida reservation.
So what could Jo Anne House have possibly been referring to?
Perhaps Jo Anne House’s ‘legal advice’ was based on the Business Committee’s inexplicable April 11, 2013 decision to unanimously reaffirm BC Resolution 12-08-10-B in support of building a dioxin-emitting incinerator on the Oneida despite the fact that after their vote the BC falsely claimed their actions were somehow in support of OSGC’s Green Bay, WI incinerator project when in fact the wording of Resoultion 12-08-10-B says on the first page:
WHEREAS, as corporations wholly owned by the Tribe constructing this facility on the Oneida Reservation, OSGC and Oneida Energy are bound to comply with tribal land use and environmental laws as well as federal environmental laws[.]
But here are the obvious problems with that argument:
- It’s being claimed that it was not “corporations wholly owned by the Tribe” who were conducting the open flame incineration activities at 1201 O’Hare Boulveard.
- The open flame inceration activities at 1201 O’Hare Boulevard were not in compliance with Tribal land use and environmental laws.
- There is no indication that OSGC nor any other Tribal or non-Tribal corporation had obtained a Conditional Use Permit of any kind allowing them to engage in open flame incineration activites at 1201 O’Hare Boulevard.
So did Jo Anne House use a tortured legal argument to try to unjustly justify the actions of OSGC by falsely claiming to the BC that they had somehow pre-approved the activities at 1201 O’Hare Boulevard by adopting & reaffirming BC Resolution 12-08-10-B (the same way BC members said Tribal attorneys misrepresented the specifics of Resolution 12-08-10-B prior to their April 11, 2013 reaffirmation) or does the Chief Counsel have some other harebrained explanation as to how the BC supposedly pre-approved open flame incineration activities no matter who was conducting them in a building ‘owned’ by OSGC on the Oneida reservation regardless of whether proper permits were obtained? (No offence to hares, of course.)
Rather than approve the resolution titled ‘Clarification of General Tribal Council Action Regarding Waste-to-Energy Activities’ the draft minutes of the Emergency Meeting show that the BC adopted the following course of non-action:
Motion by Brandon Stevens for the Chairman to send a memo with the current resolution language to the Oneida Seven Generations Board President and for the BC Liaison to have a scheduled meeting between the Board President, Tribal Chairman and BC Liaison, seconded by Paul Ninham. Motion carried with one opposed:
Ayes: Greg Matson, Patty Hoeft, Paul Ninham, Brandon Stevens
Opposed: David Jordan
Not present: Melinda J. Danforth, Tina Danforth, Vince DelaRosa
It should be noted that Brandon Stevens basically made a motion for himself, as the BC Liaison to OSGC, to have a meeting with OSGC Board President (and Oneida Gaming Commission Counsel) William ‘Bill’ Cornelius and Tribal Chairperson Ed Delgado, following – of couse – a memo being sent to OSGC by Delgado.
Whether or not such a ‘memo’ will simply be a copy of the May 5, 2013 anti-incinterator motion (which was overwhelmingly approved by GTC) and perhaps a Post-It note attached with a frowny face drawn on it is unknown at this point.
In any case, it is obviously now up to General Tribal Council to make it clear once and for all at the December 15, 2013 GTC Meeting that OSGC’s ongoing corporate intrasigence will not be tolerated but instead met with the fate that any out-of-control serial violator of the most basic standards of honesty, ethics, integrity, competency & accountability deserves: DISSOLUTION.
Likewise, it is up to GTC to remember during the April 2014 Primaries and July 2014 General Election exactly which BC members were willing to take responsibility for clarifying to OSGC what the will of GTC is regarding its overwhelming rejection of incinerators on the Oneida reservation and holding OSGC accountable to that standard, and which BC members were instead eager or willing to settle for weak sauce and weasling out of the responsibilities that GTC hired the BC to carry out as elected representatives.
See also: OSGC: Too Big; Too Fail
UPDATE: Here is a copy of the resolution that Greg Matson, Brandon Stevens and Paul Ninham voted against:
WHEREAS, the Oneida General Tribal Council is the duly recognized governing body of the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, and
WHEREAS, the General Tribal Council has been delegated the authority of Article IV, Section I of the Oneida Tribal Constitution, and
WHEREAS, the Oneida Business Committee may be delegated duties and responsibilities by the Oneida General Tribal Council and is at all times subject to the review powers of the Oneida General Tribal Council, and
WHEREAS, the General Tribal Council met on to discuss the opportunity of implementing a waste-to-energy facility on the Reservation, and
WHEREAS, the General Tribal Council adopted the following motion:
“…to direct the BC to stop Oneida Seven Generations Corporation from building any gasification or waste-to-energy or plastic recycling plant at N7329 Water Circle Place, Oneida, Wisconsin or any other location within the Oneida Tribal reservation boundaries.”
WHEREAS, the discussion regarding waste-to-energy and other similar activities identified the General Tribal Council is of the opinion that this technology may result in causing health and environmental damage; and
WHEREAS, the Oneida Business Committee has identified a need to clarify the application of this action of the General Tribal Council to allow it to be fully implemented to meet the opinion of the General Tribal Council;
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Oneida Business Committee directs that all corporations, entities, and enterprises of the Tribe shall not engage in, or allow tenants or lessees to engage in, the business of operating a waste-to-energy, plastics recycling, or other similar technology on Tribal fee or trust property within the Reservation.
IT IS FURTHER RESOLVED that all corporations, entities, and enterprises of the Tribe who are engaged in, or who have tenants or lessees engaged in the business of operating a waste-to-energy, plastics recycling or other similar technology shall take necessary steps to cease those operations in a reasonable and timely manner.
Apparantly it’s too much to expect Greg Matson, Brandon Stevens and Paul Ninham to hold Tribally-chartered corporations like OSGC accountable for their obvious violations of GTC’s overwhelming rejection of incinerators on the Oneida reservation and so GTC will have to do what those three knuckleheads refuse to do and dissolve OSGC on December 15, 2013, as well as send the Three Stooges packing in the April 2014 primaries.
