July 17 2024.
July 16 2024 was the day DJ Hoffman, Aaron Payment and the Sault Tribe Guardian Team all agreed on something. We all believe the Sault Tribe Board of Directors should act immediately to pass a resolution to allow voters to vote on a Constitutional Amendment that provides a separation of powers in our government. The moment occurred at approximately 6:53 pm July 16 2024 during the Sault Tribe Board Meeting held in Novi Michigan during the section of the meeting reserved for Board Concerns. At that time Aaron Payment asked that immediate action be taken by the board to take the needed actions to create a separation of powers in the Sault Tribe Government.
While most of us are not paying attention ...the issues are that......
The Tribal Court currently appears to have a very limited ability to regulate the tribal board's behavior and as a result it is causing discord in the tribe.
The Sault Tribe Chairman's so called "branch of government" is the one that may be causing the most trouble in the needed revisions. That appears to be because of past behavior of former chairmen resulted in harm to our tribe.
In our view as a result of many costly abuses by various tribal chairmen the Sault Tribe Chairman has virtually no powers. Currently he is required to vote when needed to break a tie vote on a resolution or other matter that the board is addressing, execute board approved contracts, runs the meeting with the help of the staff, attend various meetings representing the tribe, and make press appearances on the tribe's behalf.
It appears the Elder Committee has been charged with making the recommendations for needed changes to the separation of powers clause in the constitution but their suggestions to date have not been finalized though according to Aaron they have made at least two recommendations that have been ignored by the board for various reasons.
The response from the majority of the Board of Directors to Aaron's request for a public conversation about this matter was to vote to adjourn the meeting. However to be honest it appeared that was more likely a result of them being weary of his endless grandstanding during the entire meeting than the issue of separation of powers.