"Code reform a 'council initiative': Staats"

SIX NATIONS - Proposed changes to the Six Nations Elections Code won't get off the ground without first being presented to band council, says Six Nations Elected Chief Wellington Staats.

Staats told the Teka Monday that proposed amendments currently being hammered out by Community Elections Code Committee cannot be considered for inclusion in an updated code, because they have not yet been submitted to band council for review.

Because the process of amending the current code was launched by band council's 2000 Elections Code, he said, the development of proposed revisions for community review remains a "council initiative."

"We've had a problem with some of the (current Elections Code) committee members because they're saying this is a community initiative. It wasn't initiated by the community - it was initiated by a Band Council Resolution, and that's where we're having a little bit of difference in the interpretation of what's going on."

Staats says it remains council's responsibility to steer the process that it started.

"As a council we said there seems to be a lot of loopholes in this Elections Code, so we struck a council committee up that was supposed to look at the code along with our legal advisor," said Staats.

"What they were supposed to do was look at it, bring it to council, then take it out for some public input or at least suggestions or recommendations or whatever you want to say, and ask the general public 'Do you agree or disagree?' That's really the process that's supposed to be going on."

What has happened instead, he said, is rather than adding comments of suggestions to recommendations made by council, community members have gone a step further by developing proposed amendments on their own.

Staats added that while the community is welcome to offer their own amendments, such submissions must first be sent to council if they are even to be considered.

"According to the code it says that the people would present a petition or a suggestion or a recommendation to council, but that didn't happen. Nobody presented anything to us," said Staats.

Band councillor and Elections Code Committee volunteer David General strongly disagrees with Staats' assessment of correct procedure. General said Tuesday that because band council had admittedly started the process of revising the code last year, there was no reason for the community to petition council that the code be revised.

"We're way beyond that stage," he said.

General also noted that band council had already proceeded with the second stage of amending the code by launching the community consultation phase, a stage he said isn't meant to be restricted to debate solely on proposals originating from council.

According to the current code, he said, once the amendment process reaches the community consultation stage, no further intervention from council is warranted.

As a contingency, however, General said the committee is prepared to petition band council with the amendments that have originated in the community.

Staats, meanwhile, said that if band council did receive a petition in the near future, he doubts there would be enough time to act upon it before the next general election.

"Whether or not it's changed for this election, that's not really a concern to me as long as we change it right. You still have the old code you can work on. You can have an election under the way we had it before."

It may not be a priority for council, band councillor and Elections Code Committee volunteer Roger Jonathan said at last Wednesday's public meeting on the document at Six Nations Tourism, but it has clearly become a priority for the community.

"As an elected councillor I've been asked by the community to have this into place before the election and that's what I'm going by. I can't turn around and say 'No, let's do it next term," said Jonathan.

"One reason Dave (General) and myself got into this is because council is hot listening to what the community is saying. The majority of the community at every meeting said they want this done before (the election)."

Jonathan, like General, affirmed that amending the current code is a community process free from the intervention of band council.

"They can't stop this," he said.

"It doesn't fall upon the current council to stop the process that you (the community) have started."

Jonathan was asked if his colleagues on council also believed they couldn't intervene in the ratification process.

"Of course not," he responded.

"That's why they're going to discuss this in an in camera meeting Monday night."

On Monday Chief Staats said although the issue of the Elections Code could come up at that night's political liaison meeting, it wasn't among the main issues council planned to discuss.

"I don't know if we'll be discussing much of it tonight. We've got about three other issues on here. The big one is health right now."

It isn't currently known if that meeting resulted in any new decisions or positions by band council on the Elections Code amendment process.