Ute Council rejects group's list of demands

By Geoff Liesik
For the Deseret Morning News
Published: Sunday, July 1, 2007 12:22 a.m. MDT
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FORT DUCHESNE, Uintah County — The Ute Tribe Business Committee has no intention of meeting a list of demands it received from members of a group calling itself the Coalition to Preserve and Protect Our Future and Financial Security, according to the governing board's chairman.

Curtis Cesspooch called the coalition's demands "outrageous" and said the group's claim that the tribe's membership has the right to exercise control over the Business Committee is only partially correct.

"They've mentioned that the people are above the Business Committee. That's true, but it's the people as a whole, not just 16 or 18 of them," said Cesspooch, referring to the 17 signatories on the paper submitted to the Business Committee on June 21. "These 16 or 18 (people) aren't speaking for all of the people who voted for a change in government."

The list of demands seeks to address concerns the coalition has about recent actions by the Business Committee that it believes are "detrimental to the Ute Tribe" and are ultimately aimed at severing the nation's relationship with financial adviser John Jurrius.

Chief among the group's demands is that a Business Committee resolution to hire independent auditor Mary Ellen Demony to review all of the tribe's oil and gas transactions since early 2000 be rescinded. Resolution 07-152 passed with a unanimous vote on June 1.

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"We deem 07-152 to hire Ms. Demony is detrimental to the Ute Tribe, its Financial Plan, and is nothing more than a witch hunt and intimidation of those who work with the Plan," the coalition wrote in its letter to the Business Committee. "We demand to know who recommended Ms. Demony. Any payment to Ms. Demony is a misuse of tribal funds."

Coalition members argue that there are currently four audits that perform the identical task the Business Committee plans to hire Demony to undertake.

According to the coalition, a Salt Lake City-based accounting firm conducts audits of the tribe's Membership, Enterprise, and Venture funds, and its Housing and Grants departments each year. A Colorado-based accounting firm carries out annual audits of the tribe's oil and gas concern — Ute Energy — while another Colorado auditor examines the activities of producers and operators working on tribal lands.

In addition to private firms, the coalition argues, the remaining audits are conducted by four agencies within the U.S. Department of the Interior, making a review by Demony unnecessary.

But Cesspooch is unmoved. He said the audits that are currently being conducted are all tied to tribal departments or the federal government, and do not provide the Business Committee with the information it needs to make informed decisions about its energy-development interests.

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