Freedom of Information?

When the tribe's freedom of information law was passed, I thought it was a great thing. In fact I, along with then Attorney General Mike McConnell and Tribal Council Yellowhill Rep. Alan B. Ensley, helped craft the law that exists today. While we didn't agree on every aspect of the law, we did come to an agreeable compromise, and a workable law resulted.
Big Cove Tribal Council Rep. Teresa McCoy has introduced legislation to amend the law, because as she puts it, the current process to obtain information is cumbersome at times. Her amendment, she says, will give tribal members another option for obtaining information, that being a request to their council members.
What this really illustrates is the real problem with a number of tribal laws, enforcement. When tribal members resort to asking their council members for information that should've been released to them, that's indicative of stonewalling, something of which tribal government officials have become masters. Case in point, I'm still waiting for information I requested nearly two years ago. The attorney general's office, to whom I made the request, has used the excuse of being "busy." I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for the tribe to follow its law. The same office has even argued at one point that the principal chief's authority actually trumps tribal law.
I appreciate Rep. McCoy's addressing the issue, but I hope she and other council members will address the real problem, which is the autocratic manner in which tribal government is operating under the leadership of the principal chief with the guidance of the attorney general. Chief Hicks vetoed the public information law when it first hit the floor, under the guise of protecting tribal departments from those who would use the law to hinder tribal operations. The Council, seeing how weak his arguments were, overrode his veto. Now the challenge is convincing tribal officials that the laws they pass need enforcement, or else the laws they pass are paper tigers and Tribal Council has about as much use as a gelding to a breeder.