From Deseret News archives:
Utes to vote Thursday on tribal financial issues
Each of the issues is packed into a single, complex ordinance. The "ordinance to amend the financial plan" was created by tribal financial adviser John Jurrius, who is also the author of the original financial plan.
Jurrius has worked for the tribe for the past five years, increasing the tribe's coffers throughout the recent oil and gas boom. The ordinance, which proposes some changes in the tribe's current financial plan, will be put to a referendum vote on Thursday.
One-third of the tribe's eligible voters need to cast their ballots in order for the referendum to be valid. If the proposed eight-page ordinance is approved, it would end federal oversight of the last of the tribe's water settlement funds and extend the tribe's employment of the Jurrius Ogle Group for three more years. After that time, the contract could be extended on an annual basis.
The ordinance was approved unanimously on Dec. 4 by the six-member Business Committee. By calling for a referendum vote, the governing Business Committee assures that if the ordinance is approved, the measure could not be revoked should new leaders be elected and decide to shift their political allegiance away from Jurrius and his financial plan in the coming years.
The ordinance would distribute tribal dividends to individual tribal members based on age and on availability of money after funding government operations. Tribal elders would be the first in line to receive the monthly dividends from available money.
The measure also would revoke five current ordinances, all dealing with the original financial plan. The new ordinance would reinvest the tribe's 506 water settlement funds, withdrawn in 2005 from the federal Office of Special Trustee Management, in a more aggressive and diversified manner.
The ordinance calls for withdrawing the tribe's remaining $107 million in 504 and 505 water settlement funds from the oversight of the federal government for reinvestment at higher interest rates. It would maintain funding for existing programs relating to irrigation and agricultural projects that benefit the Ute Tribe under 504 and 505 settlement terms.
The measure would extend the tribe's contract with John Jurrius and the Jurrius Ogle Group through December 2009.
Former tribal Business Committee member Curtis Cesspooch said he wonders how many tribal members recognize that the ordinance is also based on "financial assumptions."
