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U.S. rules for St. Marks in whistleblower case

No reinstaatement ordered

Correction:

The U.S. Department of the Interior has determined that Ken St. Blatt Marks was illegally removed as chair of the Chippewa Cree Business Committee, but has not ordered he be reinstated, his attorney, Martha King said.

St. Marks and his attorneys will have 15 days to present the relief they would like to see implemented, she said.

The tribe will then have 15 days to respond.

The Department of the Interior solicitor said she would like to see the two sides come to an agreement, but if that isn’t successful, the department will determine what the remedy should be.

St. Marks said over the weekend that he had been reinstated and planned to soon return to work.

King said that he was mistaken .

The U.S. Interior Department has ordered the Chippewa Cree Tribe to reinstate elected chairman Ken Blatt St. Marks as leader of the tribe.

St. Marks was removed as chairman by the Chippewa Cree Business Committee in March 2013 and has since then been re-elected in a special election, recently sworn in and again removed in a continuing power struggle.

The decision was made after St. Marks and his lawyers submitted a request for an investigation into the tribal government’s alleged retaliation against him for whistleblowing activities. St. Marks cooperated with federal authorities in the investigation that led to a string of indictments the Guardians Project issued against embezzlers who siphoned federal funds designed for a new water system on Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation.

“Based on an examination of the facts … , we find that Mr. Blatt-St. Marks has met the burden of demonstrating under (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's) whistleblower provision that, on March 25, 2013, he was subjected to a prohibited reprisal by CCT,” reads a legal document from the Interior Department.

March 25, 2013, was when St. Marks was removed from office by the other members of the tribe’s business committee.

The document reads that St. Marks has successfully proven his disclosures to U.S. government entities about mismanagement of funds on the reservation were a contributing factor in his removal.

The Interior Department said it would not be able to rule that the tribal government had retaliated against St. Marks for his actions if the tribe could demonstrate that its actions were not motivated by retaliation.

“CCT has failed to rebut by clear and convincing evidence Mr. Blatt-St. Marks’ showing that his disclosure was a contributing factor in his removal,” the document reads.

The department orders that the tribe take affirmative action to “abate the reprisal” by reinstating St. Marks to his position as chairman and paying him compensation through back pay and damages and pay him an amount equal to the costs and expenses of the reprisal, which includes fees for lawyers and expert witnesses.

The document clarifies that this decision does not take into account his recent removal from his position on Dec. 1, so it does not speak to the allegations made against him that the business committee removed him for most recently.

St. Marks said he will take his position immediately and thinks that he will receive his compensation soon.

“I’m happy that the federal government has finally seen it my way,” St. Marks said. “I have a lot of work to do. I think we all have to bury the hatchet and work for the people. Instead of trying to destroy this place, we got to build it back up.”

He said he plans to sit down with the three council people that are seated, work things out with them and “go from there.”

“I gotta put these people (the Chippewa Cree) back together and make them whole again,” St. Marks said.

He said due to a death in his family over the weekend, he will not be able to begin work today, but he may visit the tribal offices to get things going.

As of deadline, acting chairman Richard Morsette had not return phone calls.

Derek Hines, the tribe’s attorney from Pepper Hamilton LLP in Philadelphia, declined to comment about the decision.

Timeline

Interior Department documents indicate that in 2009, $19,860,000 was given to the Chippewa Cree Tribe for the construction of a pipeline to provide sustainable water to residents of Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation.

The tribe awarded the contract to Chippewa Cree Construction Company, called in the document C-4, which is owned by the tribe, to do the work, and in 2010, $7,666,000 in additional funds was given to the tribe for the project, the document reads.

A subcontract with St. Marks to excavate, install water lines and bond joints was made in 2010. In August 2012, St. Marks contacted the Office of Inspector General “alleging the (Chippewa Cree Tribe) Business Committee’s questionable expenditure of tribal and federal funds,” the document reads.

St. Marks won the tribal election for chairman of the business committee in November 2012, and in December 2012, he submitted a letter to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation that stated he and his office would investigate “potential conflicts of interest and ethical violation.” In the letter, he told the bureau that the termination of C-4 CEO Tony Belcourt was imminent due to Belcourt’s being suspected of embezzling the funds given to the tribe for the water project.

In January 2013, St. Marks met with the Bureau of Reclamation to tell them C-4 submitted false financial reports to them and that the business committee had held an emergency meeting to “replenish $3.5 million in federal funds.” The quotes are the document’s.

In response to this information, the OIG issued an audit report in December 2013 and found $12,914,545 in questioned costs. Of that, $4,379,460 was from USBR funds awarded to the tribe.

In March 2013, St. Marks sent a letter to tribal council members announcing that he was working with federal agencies who were investigating the misuse of the funds and in the same month, requested whistleblower protection from the Montana U.S. Attorney’s Office, which then forwarded it to the OIG.

Six days after he made the request, the business committee held a closed-door meeting and voted to suspend St. Marks from his chairman position and afterward removed him for “neglect of duty and gross mismanagement” in violation of the tribal constitution, the document reads.

In April 2013, the results of OIG’s investigation, which included information provided by St. Marks, was used in federal grand juries who returned indictments against individuals including John “Chance” Houle and Tony and Hailey Belcourt.

 
 

Reader Comments(2)

rbcitizen writes:

This corrupt bunch is like drug addicts, they will stop at nothing to keep stealing and hiding there corruption. Little do they realize that back in DC and the entire nation they know whats going on on this Rocky boy reservation. It's just sad.

rbcitizen writes:

This council and past council all have corruption to hide along with our lawyers doing the work for them, it makes the community sick to have to put up with all corruption going on in every tribal department on the rez. This is why they are fighting so hard, doing right thing doesn't matter anymore because the wrong has already been done. As being a community member we seen it and talked about it. Yes Guardians we need your help.