By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Staff
The idea of term limits for Tribal Council representatives of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) has been discussed for years. During the regular session on Thursday, Feb. 3, Tribal Council tabled Res. No. 50, which sought to clarify language in a referendum that was approved last year.
Council passed Res. No. 11 (2021), submitted by Robert Jumper, an EBCI tribal member voting in the Cherokee Co. – Snowbird township, unanimously on Oct. 11, 2021. Vice Chairman Albert Rose, Wolftown Rep. Bo Crowe, and Big Cove Rep. Teresa McCoy signed on as sponsors of the legislation that approved three referendum questions regarding term limits including:
- Do you agree to change the terms of office prescribed in the Charter and Governing Document for Tribal Council members from 2 years to 4 years?
- If you agree with Question 1, do you agree to amending the law to hold Tribal Council member terms of office to “staggered” with one Representative seat from each township being up for election every two years?
- If you agree with Question 1, do you agree to limit the number of consecutive terms a Tribal Council member may serve to two terms?
Res. No. 50, submitted by the EBCI Board of Elections and Jumper, sought to clarify the questions as such:
- Beginning in 2025, should Tribal Council terms be changed from two years to four years and result in the staggering of individual terms so that one seat in each community is up for election every two years?
- Should Tribal Council representatives’ terms be limited so that a representative may not be elected to serve more than eight consecutive years in office excluding any time served by any representative as a result of a special election?
During Thursday’s session, Council originally passed Res. No. 50 by a margin of 10-2 with no discussion by Council representatives.
Jumper did state prior to the vote, “I do feel that they have fixed it so that it is a little more clear to the voter. I don’t have any issues, and I support the changes that they’ve made.”
Following the vote, Yellowhill Rep. David Wolfe, one of two representatives to vote against the legislation, said, “I was hoping that this question would have been taken back to the Constitution Committee. I know they’re working hard to try to present a Constitution, and they report every month at our community meetings on their progress and questions that come from other communities.”
He also questioned how the staggered terms would start. “Is everyone going to start from ground zero when you come in?”
Cherokee Co. – Snowbird Rep. Adam Wachacha agreed with Rep. Wolfe saying it needs to be determined how the staggered terms will work from the start. He noted, “When the Constitution Committee came in here, I had suggested that we try to create a smaller leaping off point. And, if this is coming from the Election Board, I felt like they (Constitution Committee) needed to be included too because that’s the intent of the Tribe is to move towards a Constitution.”
Painttown Rep. Tommye Saunooke, who also voted against the legislation, questioned the idea of term limits. “What if you have a chief that you don’t want to have a term limit? What if he’s the greatest chief we’ve ever had? Does that mean you can’t have him anymore?”
She added, “That concerns me. When you have good leaders, you want to keep the best I say… You really don’t want to lose good leadership. I don’t care how many terms they’ve been here. When our people decide they don’t want them here any longer, they’ll decide.”
Principal Chief Richard G. Sneed spoke to add clarity to the discussion. “To me, the point of this particular resolution was just to establish questions for a referendum to allow the people to express whether or not they wanted term limits and staggered limits for Council members. The staggered part, I think, is probably the more important piece because you could have a complete turnover of Council and lose all historic and institutional knowledge of the Council. That’s pretty dangerous.”
Chris Siewers, EBCI Office of the Attorney General, said the legislation was an effort to take the questions outlined in Res. No. 11 and change them to minimize the confusion as much as possible.
At that point in the discussion, Painttown Rep. Dike Sneed made a motion to bring Res. No. 50 back to the floor. “There’s really too many questions out here now.”
Rep. Wolfe seconded the motion, and it was brought back to the floor unanimously. He noted, “There’s just too many questions, and we’re going to be working on the Election Ordinance…so, I don’t want to get in too big a hurry and our people suffer the consequences of not knowing. I could not go to the Yellowhill Community Building and explain this right now.”
Rep. Sneed then made a motion to table the resolution which was done by a unanimous vote.
Big Cove Rep. Teresa McCoy commented after that vote, “I don’t have a problem tabling this, but my term limit is two years…you’ve already got term limits. So, what’s the problem? This is not rocket science. This is simple English, and I think we can work it out.”
At the moment, Res. No. 11 remains intact.
