 by Merle Nancy Hawkins May 21, 2004
All of the allegations against our president are unfounded and have no merit. Stephanie has always done what is best for the tribe and her people. Our auditor, Barry Fowler, was just in town to do his regular audit of KIC financial books and he said, "there have been no misappropriations of funds." It has cost the tribe thousands of dollars in attorney fees to investigate the imagined wrongs that Mr. Makua thinks are there. The only thing wrong is that our ordinances, policies and procedures do not fit our organization and must be changed. The allegations that our president has changed ordinances, policies and laws to benefit her own agenda are ridiculous. Our CEO, Georgiana Zimmerly, did write Rules and Procedures to clarify our Ordinance 7 at the request of the 2003 tribal council. It passed in January prior to the new council members starting their terms of office. Our CEO, who has years of experience in writing ordinances, policies and procedures and who we are very lucky to have receives no respect at all from our block voting four: Elmer Makua, Carrie James, Norman Arriola and David Jensen. The block voting four, against the advice of our attorney, tossed out the Rules and Procedures and the tribe is back to using Ordinance 7, which no longer fits our organization and needs to be updated. At the last KIC meeting Mr. Makua added to the agenda to vote on appealing the proposed Gravina Island timber harvest. It was not voted on to add this to the agenda, which is required under Ordinance 7, so the block voting four continue to break their own Ordinances. Also as, Mr. Makua is the Executive Director of Tongass Conservation Council he has a conflict of interest and should not be bring in his conservation issues into making decisions for the tribe. At the last meeting with the forest service regarding this issue he made threats to bring in his environmental groups to protest the proposed Gravina timber harvest. These issues should be discussed in committee. If anyone has his own agenda it's Elmer Makua. If one had seen the smirk of satisfaction on Mr. Makua's face the evening he submitted his Recall request you would know that his motives are revenge, retaliation, and his own personal wicked retribution. He has no regard for the damage that is being done to the reputation of the tribe. When confronted by a challenging situation like this I always fall back on my personal relationship with GOD and ask myself "how would Jesus handle this situation." I look to the biblical story where Jesus tells the persecutors, "He who is without sin let him cast the first stone." Please do not vote to recall our president. Merle Nancy Hawkins
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