Greetngs Relatives/Ferns/Humans, and the Navajo Nation Government continues its Status Quo management of the Dine’ Peoples’ homeland, water, air, fire/natural resources by CONTINUING to MEET, MEET, MEET, MEET, MEET, MEET. And today’s Resources & Development Committee meeting is not even a Regular Meeting, it’s a LEADERSHIP Meeting, whatever LEADERSHIP means as defined by the Resources & Development Committee LAME DUCKS. If anything, Leadership Meetings are TOTALLING about MEETING because Leadership Meetings are not Official Regular Oversight Committee Meetings and so no Official Action is Allowed by the Committee. LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

And I’m Not Surprised that the RDC LAME DUCKS did not Provide for the Dine’ People/the Public to Attend their LAMB DUCK Leadership Meeting by setting up Call-In Info, FB, YouTube.

Navajo and Hopi communities have been Questioning the Navajo Govt/Office of Prez&Vice Prez/Navajo Council about What is Being Done to Restore their Homeland, Water, Air, Wildlife, Herbs, Trees of Cedar, Oak, Spruce, Pine from Peabody’s coal mining, which stripped the surface of Mother Earth with massive coal mining equipment.

According to the following news story, “After the Local Coal Mine Shuts Down, These Navajo and Hopi Communities Seek a Just Transition A year after the Kayenta Mine was closed, both the energy company behind it and the federal government overseeing it have done little to restore the lands they’ve trampled.” October 20, 2020, by Tim Vanderpool.

Herb Yazzie recalls the days when he could graze his herds of cattle and sheep across his homelands in the northeastern Arizona region of the Navajo Nation, between sandstone bluffs and shadowy canyons. But in recent years, the watering holes the animals relied on dried up. Like other tribal members, Yazzie blames the Black Mesa coal mine, which operated on Hopi and Navajo land for nearly half a century, until 2005. Throughout its lifetime, Peabody Energy, the mine’s owner, pumped some 45 billion gallons of groundwater to transport the coal through a pipeline as a mixture called “slurry” to a generating station in southern Nevada. The underground aquifer shrank and shrank.

“Just this spring, I had to get rid of seven or eight cows,” says Yazzie, a former tribal chief justice. “Now we have less than 15 sheep, and we only keep one horse to do ranch work. There used to be springs that our livestock would use in the arroyos and mountains. All of that is gone.”

Now, Yazzie and other tribal members see history repeating itself with another coal mine: the Kayenta Mine, which is also located on Navajo and Hopi lands and owned by Peabody. In 2019, after nearly 50 years of operation and facing increased competition from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station finally closed down. With it went the massive Kayenta Mine, and many tribal members like Yazzie worry that Peabody will treat Kayenta just as it did the Black Mesa Mine, which remains only partially reclaimed to this day.

Mine reclamation was supposed to quickly follow Kayenta’s closure, and tribal members hoped the cleanup would offer new jobs—replacing hundreds that were lost with the closures, in a place where unemployment hovers around 50 percent.

Instead, that lifeline is nowhere to be seen. In its place are silent smokestacks and ravaged earth.

I am Happy that the RDC LAME DUCKS included in their Agenda that PEABODY was paying for their Lunch because under Navajo Ethics In Government Law that is a NO-NO under the Conflict of Interest Provision of the Navajo Govt In Ethics Law and Ethics Complaints can be Filed Against the RDC LAME DUCKS, the Navajo Office of the Prez & Vice Prez, the Navajo Natural Resources Division, the Navajo Dept of Minerals, and Peabody.

According to the Navajo Nation Ethics in Government Law:

A. Purpose. Where government is founded upon the consent of the governed, the people are entitled to have complete confidence in the loyalty and integrity of their government. The purpose of the Navajo Nation Ethics in Government Law, therefore, is to require accountability to the people of the Navajo Nation by their elected, appointed and assigned public officials and employees in exercising the authority vested or to be vested with them as a matter of public trust, by:

Establishing and requiring adherence to standards of conduct to avoid such conflicts of interest as the use of public offices, employment or property for private gain, the granting and exchange of favored treatment to persons, businesses or organizations; and the conduct of activities by such officials and employees which permits opportunities for private gain or advantage to influence government decisions;

Requiring public officials and employees to abstain from using any function of their office or duties in a manner which could place or appear to place their personal economic or special interests before the interests of the general public.
B. Intent. It is the intention of the Navajo Nation Council that the provisions of this Navajo Nation Ethics in Government Law be construed and applied in each instance, so as to accomplish its purposes of protecting the Navajo People from government decisions and actions resulting from, or affected by, undue influences or conflicts of interest.

5 3745. General prohibitions; conflicts of interest
A. No public official or employee shall use, or attempt to use, any official or apparent authority of their office or duties which places, or could reasonably be perceived as placing, their private economic gain or that of any special business interests with which they are associated, before those of the general public, whose paramount interests their office or employment is intended to serve.
B. It is the intent of this Subsection (B) that public officials and employees of the Navajo Nation avoid any action, whether or not specifically prohibited by the Standards of Conduct set out herein, which could result in, or create the appearance of

1. Using public office for private gain;
2. Giving preferential treatment to any special interest organization or person;
3. Impeding governmental efficiency or economy;
4. Losing or compromising complete independence or impartiality of action;
5. Making a government decision outside official channels; or
6. Adversely affecting the confidence of the people in the integrity of the government of the Navajo Nation.
   5 3746. Use of confidential information for private gain
   No public official or employee shall use or disclose confidential information gained in the course of or by reason of their official position or activities, to further their own economic and personal interest or that of anyone else.
   5 3747. Restrictions against incompatible interests or employment
   A. Public officials and employees shall not:
7. Have direct or indirect financial or other economic interests nor engage in such other employment or economic activity which, as determined in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter and other applicable laws of the Navajo Nation, necessarily involve inherent substantial conflict, or appears to have such substantial conflict, with their responsibilities and duties as public officials or employees of the Navajo Nation; nor
8. Engage in, directly or indirectly, financial or other economic transactions as a result of, or primarily depending upon, information obtained through their public office or employment; nor
9. Acquire any economic or other financial property, contractual or other economic interest at a time when they believe or have reason to believe, that it will directly and substantially affect or be so affected by their official actions or duties.
   B. Subject to the restrictions and conditions set forth in this Chapter, public officials and employees are free to engage in lawful financial transactions to the same extent as the general public. Governmental bodies and agencies of the government of the Navajo Nation may, however, adopt further approved restrictions upon such transactions or employment as authorized herein and by other applicable laws of the Navajo Nation, in light of special circumstances or their particular duties.
   C. No business or other entity shall employ a public official or employee if such employment is prohibited by or otherwise violates any provision of this Chapter.
   D. The term “employment”, within the meaning of this Section, includes professional services and other services rendered by a public official or employee, whether rendered as an employee, consultant or other independent contractor.

RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE Leadership Meeting with the Division of Natural Resources, Department of Minerals, Office of the President & Vice-President, and Peabody Western Coal Company
Tuesday, November 29, 2022, 9 am, AGENDA
PRESIDING: Hon. Rickie Nez, Chairperson, Hon. Thomas Walker, Jr., Vice-Chairperson
LOCATION: Mesa Central Warehouse (See Maps), 20 Miles to the West of Kayenta on Highway 60, Navajo Nation, Arizona

1. Welcome; Roll Call; Invocation; and Introduction [] Rickie Nez (C) [] Thomas Walker, Jr. (VC) [] Kee Allen Begay, Jr. [] Herman M. Daniels, Jr. [] Mark A. Freeland [] Wilson C. Stewart, Jr.
2. Purpose of the Leadership Meeting: The Resources and Development Committee will be conducting an in-person leadership meeting with the Division of Natural Resources, Department of Minerals, Office of the President & Vice-President, and Peabody Western Coal Company to conduct a Reclamation site tour of the Black Mesa and Kayenta Mines.
3. Presentation/Discussion:
   a. Briefing on the Reclamation and Demolition Activities by Peabody Western Coal Company and Department of Minerals.
   b. Depart Mesa Central Warehouse to Conduct the Reclamation Site Tour of Black Mesa and Kayenta Mines.
   c. Lunch (Provided by Peabody Western Coal Company)
   d. Discussion on the Reclamation Site Tour of Black Mesa and Kayenta Mines.
4. Questions/Recommendations/Follow-Ups
5. Conclusion of Meeting and Adjournment