by Felicia Fonseca
Arizona Central
26 October 2009
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Navajo lawmakers voted
Monday to place the tribe's president on administrative leave,
pending an investigation into allegations of ethical, civil or
criminal involvement with two companies that had been operating on
the reservation.
The Tribal Council voted 48-22 in favor of the
measure during a special session in Window Rock, Ariz.
The vote to place Navajo President Joe Shirley
Jr. on leave comes a week after council members discussed
investigations and alleged legal violations arising from tribal
contracts with Utah-based OnSat Network Communications Inc. and
Shiprock, N.M.-based Biochemical Decontamination Systems.
Shirley's spokesman says the council has yet to specify what the
accusations again Shirley are.
The measure originally included tribal Vice
President Ben Shelly, but delegates amended it to exclude him.
Council spokesman Joshua Lavar Butler said the
reports the council heard last week in closed session revealed
serious impropriety and violations within the executive branch.
Six others besides Shirley are targeted as part
of the investigation, including his chief of staff and the
directors of the tribe's divisions of economic development,
community development and public safety.
The council referred the reports on the two
companies to tribal Attorney General Louis Denetsosie to consider
the appointment of a special prosecutor.
Shirley's spokesman, George Hardeen, said the
council has not given the two-term president an opportunity to
respond to the reports, nor have the allegations against him or
others been made clear.
“All he's hearing is hearsay,” Hardeen said.
“He can't dispute any wrongdoing when any particular wrongdoing
has not been made clear to him, and he hasn't been given a report.
He hasn't been told what he's accused of.”
OnSat had provided satellite Internet services
on the Navajo Nation. BCDS was created to seek large federal
government contracts for the sale of metal fabrication products.