ORDINANCE 2009-24 IS DEAD

Uncasville, Connecticut Today, Wednesday March 18, 2009, it has been reported to Brokenwing Editorials that Ordinance 2009-24 the Freedom of Information Ordinance was canceled by the Mohegan Tribal Council.

The vote to cancel the Freedom of Information Ordinance was eight in favor and one against. The one against was Tribal Councilor Mark Hamilton.

It is good that the Restriction of Information Ordinance is dead. Oh, sorry I meant the Freedom of Information Ordinance. It seems the Tribal Council has done the will of the Mohegan Tribe. It only took a petition of 41 Mohegan Tribal Members to rescind the ordinance and a meeting conducted by the Tribal Council for the Tribal Council to get rid of this bad law. I have been told that the majority of people at that meeting were against the ordinance.

I inquired of Mark Hamilton, why he voted against the rescinding the ordinance. He replied that the Mohegan Tribal Members wanted to vote on rescinding the law and the tribe was being denied that right. He also said that a new freedom of information ordinance should have been made to replace the one that was being rescinded. It sounds reasonable to me.

Tribal Members should keep their eyes and ears open, and watch and see what new law the Tribal Council will come up with to replace the canceled Freedom of Information Ordinance 2009-24. If it is like what they did when they canceled the Ethics Ordinance after another petition by Mohegan Tribal Members, and they in my opinion created another bad law. It was not petitioned against and we are now stuck with that law. When the new Freedom of Information Ordinance is passed, it should immediately be gotten, read and petitioned against if need be.

Is there a new freedom of information ordinance in the wings? Is it going to be another bad law like the one that was just killed? Is Mark Hamilton right in voting against rescinding the law? Did the majority of the Tribal Council really do the will of the people or was it a political move to make them look good? What was their motive? Do you know? What do you think?