Osage Nation Congressman Anthony Shackelford said he was not at Oct. 26 closed-door meeting

Osage Nation Congressman Anthony Shackelford said he did not attend the Oct. 26 meeting in which the legality of the meeting has been questioned by the Osage News.

“I went into the common area of the congressional offices and saw them sitting down at the conference table and thought I’d sit down and see what they were up to,” Shackelford said. “They were [discussing] the Chief’s budget and they were talking about dollar amounts . . . I maybe sat there for three minutes and got up to get something to drink.”

“When I came back I looked at them and said, ‘Okay guys, I’m out of here,’ and went to go play golf,” Shackelford said.

Shackelford said at that moment he grabbed his keys and left the building.

An e-mail sent by Congresswoman Shannon Edwards to Principal Chief Jim Gray and Assistant Principal Chief John Red Eagle named Shackelford, along with five other members of Congress, in violation of the Open Meetings Law and congressional rules. Edwards said that when the six members of Congress met in the common area in the congressional offices to discuss budgetary cuts they were in violation of the Open Meetings Law. The e-mail does not stipulate how long each member of Congress was in the common area.

Edwards said she stands by her e-mail and her recollection of the nature and attendance in the non-public morning meeting.

The Osage News received an anonymous tip around 3 p.m. Oct. 26 that an illegal meeting was taking place in the Osage Nation Congressional Chambers. The doors were dead-bolted and the Osage News was not allowed inside.

That would leave Osage Nation Congress members Doug Revard, Eddy Red Eagle, William “Kugee” Supernaw, Jerri Jean Branstetter and Faren Anderson inside the chambers. Those five members make up quorums for the Congressional Affairs committee, Rules and Ethics committee, Appropriations committee and the Cultural committee.

The next day during the congressional session 96 amendments were made to cut more than $3 million to the Nation’s spending. The cuts included the eradication of 10 positions (vacant, proposed or filled), salary cuts and other cuts to 15 departments, with Chief Gray’s office receiving more than $830,000 in cuts.

During the Nov. 2 congressional session Congress decided not to vote on the amendments and instead sent the budgets back to their jurisdictional committees to allow the directors of the programs to help the Congress make decisions on what cuts were to be made.

Congresswoman Debra Atterberry called out Congressman Doug Revard for the closed-door meeting during the Nov. 3 congressional session, prompting replies from both Revard and Congressman Red Eagle that they did nothing wrong Oct. 26 and that they were just doing their jobs. Neither congressman commented on why the doors were dead-bolted or why they did not allow the Osage News access to the meeting.

The Osage News is the only entity that has raised issue with the closed-door meeting.

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