Lawsuit filed over Tribal Council's recall dismissal

Observer Staff

7/5/2005 12:00:00 AM

Organizers of a recent recall petition have filed a lawsuit over Tribal Council's dismissal of the matter based on an inadequate number of valid signatures.

Plaintiffs Delores Jackson and Patricia Peters claim in the lawsuit, filed May 18 with the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Court, that a certain section of Ordinance 4 is unconstitutional and contradicts a separation of powers.

"The ICRA [Indian Civil Rights Act] requires that the government shall not prohibit the people's right to petition the government to seek redress of grievances," stated the lawsuit. "The Council's action to review petitions and then to deny petition signatories the right to see the review and deny any other governmental body the power to review their action, violates this provision in the ICRA and the Constitution of the United States."

In its review of the petitions, Tribal Council found that the Tribal Clerk had improperly counted many signatures that were not in compliance with the requirements of Ordinance 4. Their action overturned the Tribal Clerk's findings on April 11 after a review of his administrative record and the submitted petitions on April 15.

The ordinance-which governs Tribal elections-has several requirements for "the following information handwritten in ink" by each petitioner. That includes the printed name of the petitioner; their signature; the date they signed the petition; their Tribal membership number and the residential address of the petitioner. A post office box number is not valid as a residential address.

Ordinance No. 4 also provides that if a petitioner fails to provide complete, accurate and legible information for each of the five categories of required information, their signatures will be invalid and will not be counted.

The five petitions were filed against Chief Audrey Falcon, Sub-Chief Bernie Sprague, Treasurer Charmaine Benz, Secretary Ruth Moses and District 1 Representative Brent Jackson. According to Tribal law, petitions need to have valid signatures of at least 30 percent of the registered voters who reside in the voting district represented by the council member who is subject of the petition.

The Tribal Clerk established 231 as being 30 percent of 769. Signatures validated by the Tribal Clerk's Office included: Falcon, 255; Sprague, 274; Benz, 265; Moses, 275; and Jackson 292.

Council's review found the following number of valid signatures: Falcon, 146, Sprague, 143; Benz, 152; Moses, 144; and Jackson, 151.

Recall organizers have maintained after a recall is validated by the Tribal Clerk, an election should be called within 30 days, based on Constitutional provisions.

"The Clerk made his �final written determination' on April 11, 2005," stated the lawsuit. "The date of receipt by the Council was April 12, 2005. Therefore, the Council was required to complete its review by April 26, 2005. Therefore, the Council's review, completed on April 28, 2005 is of no effect under the law, and the Special Election required by the Constitution should proceed forthwith."