{"id":16275,"date":"2016-01-12T00:24:42","date_gmt":"2016-01-12T00:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/?p=16275"},"modified":"2023-09-16T00:53:03","modified_gmt":"2023-09-16T00:53:03","slug":"alamo-locals-call-for-chapter-school-board-finance-transparency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/2016\/01\/12\/alamo-locals-call-for-chapter-school-board-finance-transparency\/","title":{"rendered":"Alamo locals call for chapter, school board finance transparency"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY COLLEEN KEANE<\/strong>
\nSPECIAL TO THE TIMES<\/p>\n

ALBUQUERQUE<\/strong> \u2014 It is all too common that people move off the rez to the city in hopes of a better life for themselves and their families.<\/p>\n

But for one young mother from the Alamo Navajo community, it was the other way around.<\/p>\n

Since she fears she may be retaliated against for speaking out about her experience moving back home, the young mother is referred to as Carolina in this story.<\/p>\n

Tucked away in the sprawling mountainous terrain south of Grants, the Navajo satellite community of Alamo is separated by hundreds of miles from the Nation\u2019s capital in Window Rock.<\/p>\n

Some say it\u2019s known as Alamo, T\u00ed\u00eds Tsoh, after a big cottonwood tree that marked a spring where the people originally settled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI moved back from the city, because there\u2019s resources,\u201d said Carolina, referring to programs for education, housing, and family services that have been established for the community of about 2,000 residents.<\/p>\n

Besides, she added. \u201cI love my community. It\u2019s where my heart is.\u201d<\/p>\n

But soon after Carolina moved back to Alamo with her husband and school-aged children, they found that there were more roadblocks than open road to get resources and services they needed.<\/p>\n

First, she said she tried to get her Navajo Nation scholarship application processed through the chapter. Following all the minute instructions, she completed the paperwork and left it with a chapter representative, as instructed.<\/p>\n

When time went by and Carolina hadn\u2019t heard anything, she went to the chapter to check on her application, but was told it was nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n

Alarmed, she asked, \u201cHow can that be?\u201d She worried that in addition to missing out on a scholarship that she needed to return to school, her identity could be stolen.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of my information was on those papers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She noted that some time later her application surfaced at the chapter house, but by that time deadlines had passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis kind of setback is a huge deterrent to students trying to go on to higher education,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Then, hoping to fix up their home so that it would be weatherproof for the winter, the family applied for housing repair funds.<\/p>\n

The chapter officials told the family to get quotes from different stores for plywood, lumber, installation, and roofing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got the quotes and turned them in with proof of tribal membership and voter registration,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n

But then she was told that there wasn\u2019t any money available.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you ask for support, you just get the runaround and in the end the door gets shut on you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Carolina\u2019s family isn\u2019t the only one feeling left out.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of families need help, but because the chapter (officials) act this way, they don\u2019t try to get any,\u201d she stressed.<\/p>\n

As reported in a Navajo Times story on Dec. 8, a disabled elder at Alamo went through similar hoops when trying to get help to fix his roof that leaked whenever it rained.<\/p>\n

During the Dec. 20 chapter meeting, tribal member Hotona Secatero handed Navajo Nation Council Delegate Norman Begay (Alamo\/Ramah\/To\u2019hajiilee) a letter written to him on behalf of dozens of community members. Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye was copied on the letter.<\/p>\n

The two-page, single-spaced correspondence expresses concerns about mismanagement of funds, meetings behind closed doors, questionable election practices, failure to report to the community, and nepotism that spills over from the chapter to the school board and vice versa.<\/p>\n

Referring to then Chapter President Stanley Herrera and Vice President Earl Apachito, who also serve as school board members, the letter reads, \u201cConflicts have arisen from these two officials serving both as chapter officials and as school board members, such as mismanagement of funds, failure to serve in the best interest of the Alamo Navajo community, denial of services and proper conduct of elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giving an example, the community dispatch questions why poll officials in the primary election included Herrera\u2019s relatives and why tribal officials\u2019 spouses work for the school board.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a clear violation of the Navajo Nation Election code,\u201d claim the community authors.<\/p>\n

The letter also puts a spotlight on the failure of the tribal officials to keep the community informed noting a Nov. 22 school board meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe meeting was a closed door meeting all day,\u201d per the letter to Delegate Begay.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also deeply concerned as previous attempts to question and request the Alamo Navajo School Board of their fiscal expenditures as they are reluctant and refuse to address this issue with the Alamo Navajo Community members,\u201d the letter stated.<\/p>\n

According to the letter, it\u2019s the community members\u2019 understanding that meetings are to be open and conducted at times and places convenient to the public, except in certain circumstances like disciplinary actions.<\/p>\n

In addition to bringing the complaint letter with them to the chapter meeting, community members also brought a resolution requesting that a complete forensic report be conducted on the Alamo Navajo School Board.<\/p>\n

In a community vote, Resolution # ANC 12-20-2016 passed 33 in favor, 13 opposed, and 1 abstaining.<\/p>\n

On the scanned copy provided to the Navajo Times, Council Delegate Begay signed off on the resolution, but Herrera and Apachito did not.<\/p>\n

The community request for a forensic audit of school board finances comes on the heels of an audit of chapter finances conducted by the Navajo Nation Auditor General\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

The chapter audit found that there were 14 unresolved issues that include: lack of documentation for monies spent on purchases and direct services; incomplete inventory lists; unreconciled bank statements; uninsured property; failure to deposit federal taxes in a timely manner; and failure to provide funds for needed services, like housing repairs.<\/p>\n

The issues carried over from 2013 when the Chapter\u2019s first corrective action plan went into effect.<\/p>\n

Navajo Nation Bill No. 0386-16, sponsored by Delegate Begay, accepts the Auditor General\u2019s findings, and approves a corrective action plan that includes financial sanctions.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s pending acceptance by the Budget and Finance Committee.<\/p>\n

For now, Carolina and other Alamo residents concerned about transparency are on a wait list – waiting to see what response they get from tribal leaders in Window Rock and waiting to see if the new and not so new local officials do things differently.<\/p>\n

Per a community source, Buddy Mexicano was inaugurated as Alamo chapter president taking over for Herrera; Angela Apachito as Secretary\/Treasurer, with Earl Apachito remaining as Vice President.<\/p>\n

Mexicano previously served as a chapter official.<\/p>\n

Carolina said that she hopes that the incoming administration will be responsive to the people, like they were when she was growing up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI miss my old community, when the leaders were there for the people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Herrera did not respond to phone messages left for him before deadline.<\/p>\n

In a press release from the Office of the Speaker, Herrera stated that the chapter did not get the technical assistance from the Navajo Nation it needed to comply with the corrective action plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY COLLEEN KEANE SPECIAL TO THE TIMES ALBUQUERQUE \u2014 It is all too common that people move off the rez<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16277,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16275\/revisions\/16277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}