TITLE I – CHAPTER 01
NOTTAWASEPPI HURON BAND OF THE POTAWATOMI
AMENDED AND RESTATED BYLAWS OF THE TRIBAL COUNCIL
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SEC. 1. Purpose 2
SEC. 2. Definitions 2
SEC. 3. Tribal Council Seats 4
SEC. 4. Organizational Meeting / Election of Tribal Council Officers 7
SEC. 5. Duties and Responsibilities of the Tribal Council Members 8
SEC. 6. Specific Duties of the Tribal Council and Officers 9
SEC. 7. Removal From Office 14
SEC. 8. Meetings 15
SEC. 9. Substantial Compliance 20
SEC. 10. Repeal and Precedence 20
SEC. 11. Severability 21
SEC. 12 Amendments…….……………………………………………………….. 21
Appendix A ………………………………………………………………………………….22
SEC. 1. Purpose
a) To fulfill the requirements as stated in Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians. To regulate the manner of conducting business and preserve the integrity as legitimate leaders of the people for the tribe by following those guiding principles in Article II, Section 2(b) of the Constitution.
SEC. 2. Definitions
a) Business: Any enterprise, organization, trade, occupation or profession whether or not operated as a legal entity for profit, including any business, trust, holding company, corporation, partnership, LLC, joint venture, or sole proprietorship, consultant or other self-employed enterprise.
b) Business With Which the Person is Associated: Includes any business in which the person is a director, officer, partner, trustee or employee, holds any position of management or receives income in any form such as wages, commission, direct or indirect investment worth more than $1000 or holds any ownership, security or other beneficial interest, individually or combined, amounting to more than ten percent (10%) of said business.
c) Censure: A statement issued by the Tribal Council which acknowledges that a Tribal Council member has violated the Bylaws and that Tribal Council strongly disapproves of the Tribal Council member’s action(s) which violated the Bylaws.
d) Compensation or Income: Means any money or thing of value received, or to be received as a claim on future services, whether in the form of a fee, salary, expense, allowance, forbearance, forgiveness, interest, dividend, royalty, rent, capital gain, or any other form of recompense or any combination thereof.
e) Confidential Information: Means information which by law or practice is not available to the public at large.
f) Conflict of Interest: Means the reasonable likelihood that any personal or economic interest of a Tribal Council member will be affected in any materially different manner from the interest of the general public, or by any decision, enactment, agreement, award or other official action or function of any governmental body, entity or political subdivision of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi.
g) Dependent Business: Means any business in which the person, individually or combined, has any direct or indirect ownership, investment, security or other beneficial interest amounting to more than ten percent (10%) of such business.
h) Economic Interest: Means an interest held by a person, members of the person’s immediate family living in the same household or a dependent business, which is any ownership, income, investment, security or other beneficial interest in a business, or any employment or prospective employment for which negotiations have already begun.
i) Employee: Means any person or entity working for, or rendering or exchanging any services or performing any act for, or on behalf of, another person, organization or entity in return for any form of pay or other compensation, or thing of value received, or to be received, at any time temporarily, permanently, or indefinitely in any capacity whether as agent, servant, representative, consultant, advisor, independent contractor or otherwise.
j) Employment: Means the status or relationship existing or created by and between a person designated or acting as an employee and the person, organization, group or other entity for whom or on whose behalf any such work, acts, services or other benefit has been, is being, or will be rendered or performed for pay or any other form of compensation.
k) Entire Tribal Council or Whole Tribal Council: Means all of those Council members currently elected or appointed to a seat on the Tribal Council must be present. There may be fewer than five (5) Council Persons making up the entire, whole or full Tribal Council when a Tribal Council seat is vacant.
l) Gift: Includes any gratuity, favor, hospitality, payment, loan, economic opportunity, deposit of money, services, or other benefit received without equivalent consideration and not extended or provided to members of the public-at-large.
m) Immediate Family: Is considered the person’s husband/wife, domestic partner, father/mother, grandparent/grandchild, brother/sister, step-relative or in-law of the same kind.
n) Intentionally: A person’s state of mind with respect to a result or to conduct where the person’s conscious objective is to engage in such conduct or to cause such a result.
o) Knowingly: When a person engages in conduct with a firm belief unaccompanied by substantial doubt that he or she is doing that conduct or where the person is aware that it is practically certain that the conduct will cause such a result.
p) Prep Session: This is an informal session of the Tribal Council wherein items set for the next Regular Meeting are reviewed and revised prior to their presentation at the Regular Meeting.
q) Succession of Power:
1. The Chair shall be the head of the Tribal Council. In the absence of the Chair, the Vice-Chair shall assume the duties and responsibilities of the Chair. In the absence of both the Chair and the Vice-Chair, the Secretary shall assume the duties of the Chair.
2. If ever three (3) seats on the Council are deemed vacant at the same time, the Elder’s Committee Officers shall be called upon to assume vacant seats on the Council as follows:
a) The highest ranking remaining Tribal Council Officer shall assume the duties of Chair.
b) The remaining Tribal Council Officer shall assume the duties of Vice-Chair.
c) The Officers of the Elders’ Committee shall assume the remaining seats on the Tribal Council.
r) Tribal Council Member: A member of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi who is duly elected or appointed to a seat on the Tribal Council and has sworn to an oath of office in accordance with the Tribal Constitution.
s) Tribe: The Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi Indians, a federally recognized tribe.
t) Workshop Session: This is an informal session of the Tribal Council when Tribal government departments, committees and boards may present information and request direction from Council regarding projects and initiatives. Unless waived by the Tribal Council at a subsequent Prep Session due to exigent circumstances, all documents requiring a first reading shall first come to Workshop before the document may be considered at Prep Session or a Tribal Council meeting.
SEC. 3. Tribal Council Seats
a) Composition of the Tribal Council. The Tribal Council is composed of five (5) duly elected or appointed members of the Tribe in accordance with Tribal law.
b) Candidate Eligibility for Tribal Council. Under Article IV, Section4 and Article III, Section4 of the Constitution, a Member is eligible to be a candidate in a Tribal Council Election if he or she:
1. Is twenty-one (21) years of age or older as of the date of the election;
2. Possesses a High School diploma or its equivalent;
3. Possesses an Associate’s Degree or higher or, in the alternative, has three (3) years of combined work or military experience;
4. Has not been convicted of, or pleaded guilty or no contest to, any felony, or any crime involving theft or fraud, violence against persons, or a sex offense within the last eight (8) years;
5. Has not been sentenced to a prison term of one (1) year or longer within the last eight (8) years;
6. Has not been removed or recalled from any salaried, elected, or appointed office within the last ten (10) years, where such conduct does not result in a conviction or plea in a court of competent jurisdiction;
7. Has not become a member of NHBP through the adoption procedure set forth in Article III, Section 4 of the Constitution; and
8. Does not have a spouse, parent, legal guardian, legal ward, child, or sibling on the Tribal Council for any portion of the time they would serve on Tribal Council.
9. The burden of establishing the qualifications for candidate eligibility is on the candidate or prospective candidate. (See also Title III, Chapter 01, Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi Election Code.)
c) Election of Tribal Council Member(s)
1. The Election Board shall have jurisdiction over the election process as prescribed in the Election Code.
2. The election process and the results must be deemed certified by the Election Board in accordance with the Election Code.
3. Prior to the start of the first regular meeting of the Tribal Council, following the certification of election results, newly elected members of the Tribal Council shall be sworn into office.
a) The oath of office will be the first order of business at the Organizational Meeting following certification of the election results.
b) In open session the oath of office shall be administered to newly elected Tribal Council members by the Elder Committee Secretary. The oath to be administered is as follows:
“I, (name of Council Member), do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of Tribal Council for the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi Indians, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Pottawatomi Indians, and to adhere to the Tribal Membership’s mandates. I affirm this by all I hold sacred.”
c) After the oath is administered to the new Tribal Council member(s), the new member(s) may take his/her seat at Council Table. The persons leaving Council will be thanked and honored for their service to the Community as he/she steps down from office.
d) The Organizational Meeting of the newly elected/appointed Council may then commence with the election of Officers as described in Section 4, Organizational Meeting/Election of Tribal Council Officers.
4. No person may perform the duties of a Tribal Council member until such person is duly elected or appointed and has taken the oath of office. Once a member of the Council leaves his or her seat on Council, he or she no longer has any authority to act on behalf of the Tribal Council or the Community in general unless through the appointment by Tribal Council to some other position and then only within the constraints of that newly appointed position.
d) Appointment of Tribal Council Member(s)
1. A Tribal Council seat is considered vacant when:
a) a Council member is removed from office, or
b) a Council member is no longer a member of the Tribe, or
c) a Council member resigns, or
d) the Council member dies while holding office or becomes too ill to fulfill his or her duties.
2. In the event any Tribal Council member seat becomes vacant, the remaining Tribal Council members shall:
a) Make a formal motion declaring the seat vacant and stating the reason for the vacancy and the date the seat became vacant, and
b) By majority vote of all remaining members, appoint a tribal member, who meets the Constitutional and statutory qualifications, to serve until the next special election to be held in April at the General Membership meeting.
c) The declaration of vacancy for a Tribal Council seat and the appointment of a new Tribal Council member do not have to take place at the same meeting.
d) The Tribal Council alone has authority over the appointment process to fill a vacant Council seat and may hold a seat vacant until the next General Membership meeting unless five (5) Council Members are required for a pending action before the Council.
e) To fill a vacant Tribal Council seat by appointment, the Council shall:
1. consult with the Tribal Enrollment Office to verify that the appointee is a tribal member eligible to serve and,
2. is not disqualified subject to the provisions as stated in Article III, Section 4(a)(2) of the Constitution which includes a background investigation.
3. Upon meeting the requirements to hold office as stated in Section 3(d)(2)(e) of these Bylaws, the Tribal Council may vote on the appointment of the person.
4. If the Tribal Council approves, by majority vote of the whole Tribal Council, the appointee shall take the oath of office, as stated in Section 3(c)(3)(b) above.
a) The oath of office shall be administered by the Elder Committee Secretary.
b) The appointed Council Member may NOT perform the duties of a Tribal Council member until such person has taken the oath of office.
5. The person appointed to fill the vacant seat shall serve until the next special election or when the term of the vacant seat expires, whichever comes first.
SEC. 4. Organizational Meeting / Election of Tribal Council Officers
a) Nomination/Election of Officers.
1. After any newly elected or appointed Tribal Council member(s) are sworn into office, the Tribal Council shall conduct an organizational meeting for the purpose of electing Tribal Council Officers.
a) The Organizational Meeting is to be held before and separate from the first Regular Monthly Meeting of the newly elected Tribal Council.
b) The Organizational Meeting is open to Tribal Members.
2. All current Council members and any newly elected or appointed members are required to be present at the Organizational meeting. However, the inability or refusal of a Council Member, who will be stepping down, to attend does not prevent the Organizational Meeting from taking place.
3. The Interim-Chair, for the purpose of conducting the election of Tribal Council Officers, shall be the remaining highest ranking Officer holding a seat.
4. Tribal Council Officers are selected by simple majority vote of the entire Council.
5. The Interim-Chair shall call the Organizational Meeting to order and seek nominations for the Chair of the Tribal Council. The Interim-Chair shall call for the vote and based on the results, he or she shall introduce the Chair of the Tribal Council. The appointment is official and the Chair will conduct the rest of the Officer elections and the meeting to follow.