Little River Band leader removed

Observer Staff

2/28/2006 12:00:00 AM

MANISTEE (AP)-Lee Sprague has been fired as leader of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, the culmination of a bitter feud with the Tribal Council over power sharing and blame for management snafus.

The council removed Sprague as ogema, or chief, after a sometimes emotional hearing that began in the morning of Feb. 2 and dragged past midnight. Roughly 100 Tribal members stayed until the bitter end, some debating fiercely while pleading for unity during a comment period. Afterward, they watched quietly as the council made its decision on a 7-0 vote with one abstention.

Less than a year ago, Sprague barely kept his job when the council fell one vote short of the seven needed for dismissal. Both sides pledged afterward to seek reconciliation, but relations deteriorated further amid finger-pointing over flawed financial audits that prompted federal agencies to penalize the 3,200-member Tribe.

"There's been a falling out between the ogema and the Tribal Council," said Steve Parsons, speaker of the council. "There's been very little in the way of communication, there's been very little in the way of cooperation. We need to get past that."

Sprague said he accepted the council's decision but would try to regain his post in the next Tribal election, scheduled for April 2007.

The council is expected to appoint an interim ogema next week to complete his unexpired term.

While council members focused on the audit issues, Sprague insisted his removal was part of a larger turf clash between the Tribe's executive and legislative branches.

"It's an absolute power struggle," he said.

Parsons acknowledged there was personal animosity between Sprague and some on the council, but insisted that wasn't the basis for his firing.

Sprague's wife, Janine Sam, is a council member and took part in the hearing, although she declared a conflict of interest and didn't vote. Sprague has said he is divorcing Sam.

Parsons and council member Israel Stone outlined the case against Sprague, accusing him of failing to deal effectively with the audit problems after taking office in 2003.

The Tribe had learned the previous year its annual audits had inaccuracies reaching back to 1997, Parsons said.

Staffers adjusted records and conducted internal reviews while the council hired a consultant to manage the accounting department.

Sprague sued the council in 2004, accusing it of violating the separation of powers with actions such as placing the newly created office of comptroller general in the legislative branch.

He broadened the suit last year, saying the council was meddling in auditing duties that belonged with the executive.

The suit was dismissed after the council transferred auditing responsibilities to the ogema in March 2005.

The next month, the council charged Sprague with dereliction of duty and convened a hearing, which ended with six members voting to fire him-one short of the dismissal threshold.

Parsons said the council was unhappy to learn last summer that further auditing mistakes had surfaced months earlier but Sprague's administration had done little about them.

An outside accountant eventually cleared up flaws that had delayed completion of reworked audits for 2001 and 2002, he said.

But missed deadlines for 2003 and 2004 audits led the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to sanction the Tribe and the Indian Health Service to impose "special conditions" for releasing grants for the Little River Band's medical programs, Stone said.

"It was the ogema's responsibility to manage this process adequately and he simply didn't do that," he said.

Sprague countered that the federal actions had not cost the Tribe money, but had brought on closer monitoring and extra reporting requirements. He said his administration had made great strides toward solving the auditing problems.

"We are so close to ending this nightmare," Sprague said, denying accusations of lax oversight and foot-dragging. "I knew what was happening. I didn't drop the ball."

Before deliberating privately, the council let Tribal members have their say.

Sprague's defenders said throwing him out would disregard the will of voters who chose him as their leader.

"Leave our ogema alone. If you don't like what he is doing, wait until the next election and don't vote for him," said Cornelius DeVerney of Brookfield, Wis.

Karol Ann Chabot of Benton Harbor said Sprague had not kept a promise to work more closely with the council after surviving the previous attempt to fire him.

"At times he seems to be very arrogant," Chabot said.

Members on both sides said the bickering was damaging the Little River Band.

"This Tribe is going to fall apart if we don't learn to get along," said Pat Ruiter, a former council member from Baldwin