October
14, 2005
Calvin Moser
Director, Grants Evaluation Division
U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Oklahoma Field Office, Region VI
Southern Plains Office of Native American programs
301 N.W. 6th
Street, Suite 200
OKC, OK
73102
Dear
Mr. Moser:
Your letter of September
30, 2005, contained two allegations
regarding Cherokee Nation Tribal Council member Buel Anglen which the
Cherokee
Nation has investigated. Both
allegations are unsubstantiated.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
- The
anonymous complainant alleges that the subject [Buel Anglen] has
violated HUD’s rules and regulations. The
subject, employed by the Oklahoma Correctional Industries (OCI), a vendor for the Cherokee
Nation Housing Authority, is a Tribal Contractor. The
complainant is concerned that this is a conflict of interest.
The
informant claims Buel Anglen has a conflict of interest because he is
a member of the Council and worked for Oklahoma Correctional industries
(OCI). Title 28, Section 3(c) of the
Cherokee Nation Code defines a conflict of interest as “matters and
issues for
which a person may have an unfair advantage by virtue of his position
and would
receive more than significant value in money or items of worth by
participating
in the decisions of such matters and issues.”
In support of his/her claims, the
informant provides a copy of the agreement between the Housing
Authority of the
Cherokee Nation (HACN) and OCI. As it
plainly states in the agreement, HACN is an agency of the state and OCI
is a
division of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, another state
agency. The informant provides a phone
listing of OCI
employees that includes the name of Buel Anglen. The
Informant does not allege nor provide any
evidence to suggest that Buel Anglen was anything more than an employee
of the
State of Oklahoma whose
agency
sold products to another state agency.
On or about September
8, 2005, Cherokee Nation Justice
Department personnel questioned Mr. Anglen about his employment with
OCI. He stated that he was hired as a
sales representative
and that as a condition of his employment, he was prohibited from
having any
business contact with the Cherokee Nation.
Mr. Anglen stated that he is no longer employed with OCI. According to Mr. Anglen’s statement to
Cherokee Nation Justice Department personnel on October 13, 2005, he was a salaried
employee of OCI and
did not receive commissions for sales.
He further stated that he left employment with OCI in December
2004. Attached are affidavits from Mr.
Anglen and his former supervisor at OCI affirming that Mr. Anglen did
not have
any business dealings with the Cherokee Nation.
OCI is a division of the Oklahoma
Department of Corrections. It is an arm
of the State of Oklahoma. HACN is also a state agency.
In accordance with 57 O.S. §549.1, the HACN
is required to purchase products from OCI if a required item is
available
through OCI and OCI has the lowest bid on the item.
This amounts to a purchase of products by one
state agency from another. OCI sells
only to agencies that are supported in whole or in part by the State of
Oklahoma
or which are non-profit or tax exempt entities such as churches and
charities. All other entities are
prohibited from purchasing OCI products except for surplus agricultural
products. OCI is not a “for profit”
entity.
Buel Anglen, when he was employed by
OCI, did not do any business with the Cherokee Nation.
The anonymous informant does not allege that
Buel Anglen did business with the Cherokee Nation nor does the
informant present
any evidence suggesting Buel Anglen solicited business from the
Cherokee
Nation. Further, the Cherokee Nation
Tribal Council does not control the purchasing activities of the HACN. No member of the Council has the authority to
influence the purchasing procedures of the HACN.
Because Buel Anglen did not do any
business with the Cherokee Nation or the Housing Authority of the
Cherokee
Nation, and because HACN is a state agency required to purchase
products from
OCI, no conflict of interest existed when Mr. Anglen was employed by
OCI. Further, because Mr. Anglen left
employment
with OCI in December 2004, even if a conflict of interest had existed,
it ended
when he resigned his position with OCI.
HACN REHABILITATION FUNDS
- The
subject [Anglen] has also received emergency rehabilitation funds of
over $34,000 for a property that he claims is leased to his mother. But at the same time the property was
supposedly leased to Mrs. Emery, he claimed it as his residence for
tribal membership and voting cards.
The
informant accuses Buel Anglen of some sort of misdeed regarding his
mother’s home rehabilitation application, for a residence located at 100
West Cherry Street in Sperry,
Oklahoma.
An application for home rehabilitation is between the Housing
Authority
and the person requesting the service.
The informant does not allege that Buel Anglen signed any
application
for home rehabilitation nor does the informant provide any documention
in which
Buel Anglen requests home rehabilitation for a home in which he resided. The real issue is whether Anna Belle Emery,
mother of Mr. Anglen, qualified for home rehabilitation.
On
November 7, 2000,
Mrs. Emery signed an application with HACN for home rehabilitation. Mrs. Emery, who was 80 years old at the time,
requested the service to repair deficiencies with the home and to make
the home
handicapped accessible.
At
the time of the application, Mrs. Emery stated that she owned the
home. At a later date, HACN or Cherokee
Nation discovered that, while Mrs. Emery resided in the home, legal
title was with
Mr. Anglen. Because of this situation,
the home was not eligible for rehabilitation.
To cure the defect in the application, HACN requested and
received
documentation of a life estate from Mr. Anglen and his wife to Mrs.
Emery. That life estate was dated December 14, 2001, and
followed a
previously executed 30 year lease between the Anglens and Mrs. Emery
dated January 15, 2001. After receipt of the life estate
documentation, HACN found that the home was then eligible for
rehabilitation
and performed the services requested.
Buel
Anglen did not reside in the 100 West Cherry
Street home at the time Mrs. Emery applied
for home rehabilitation nor did he reside n the home at any time while
work was
being done on the home. Based on his
statements to Cherokee Nation Department of Justice Personnel on October 13, 2005, as of
approximately July 1999, Mr. Anglen had moved out of the 110
West Cherry Street address.
In
April 2002, Mr. Anglen moved into his home in Skiatook,
OK, where he resides today. Under Federal regulations, 24 C.F.R.
§9454.2,
“Household means one or more persons occupying a housing unit.” Therefore, a person who does not actually
reside in a home is not a household member regardless of whether he/she
claims
that residence for any other purpose.
Supporting affidavits are attached which show that Mr. Anglen
was not a
resident of the 100 West Cherry Street address from November 2000 and
after.
Mr.
Anglen wrote a letter to the Election Commission on March 27, 2002, stating that
his
residence was 100 West Cherry Street
in Sperry, Oklahoma. He stated that he would be moving into a home
in Skiatook “within a couple of weeks.”
At the time he wrote the letter, Mr. Anglen was being considered
for
appointment to the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council to fill a vacancy. Based on the affidavits attached hereto, he
had not lived at the 100 West Cherry Street
address for approximately 17 months.
Based on his statement to Cherokee Nation Justice Department
personnel
on October 13, 2005,
he
had not lived at the address for approximately 20 months.
Apparently, he claimed the address in Sperry
to meet eligibility requirements to be seated on the Tribal Council.
Mr.
Anglen did claim the 100 West Cherry Street
address in his correspondence to the Cherokee Nation Election
Commission. No other evidence has been
presented showing
that Mr. Anglen resided at that address from November 7, 2000, the date of the
application, through August
13, 2002, the date the invoice
for payment was submitted to HACN by the contractor for the home
rehabilitation. Attached is an affidavit
from Mrs. Emery stating that Mr. Anglen did not live in the home during
the
time in question. Together with the
affidavits from Mr. Anglen and Jeff. M. Stephens, we are convinced that
Mr.
Anglen did not reside in the home during the time in question but only
claimed
the residence in his correspondence with the Cherokee Nation Election
Commission. The information Mr. Anglen
gave to the
Cherokee Nation Election Commission regarding his residency at the 110
West Cherry Street address was inaccurate,
based
upon the attached evidence. However, as
to the home rehabilitation application, because Mr. Anglen was ot a
resident of
the home, it is an immaterial misrepresentation of fact that does not
affect
the home rehabilitation application. The
inaccurate information in the letter to the Election Commission is an
internal
matter for the tribal council or the electorate to address.
CONCLUSION
In
summation, no conflict of interest existed under Cherokee Nation law
regarding Mr. Anglen’s employment with OCI while a member of the
Cherokee
Nation Tribal Council, OCI and HACN are both state agencies and HACN,
by state
statute, was required to purchase products from OCI.
Further, Mr. Anglen was prohibited from
soliciting business from the Cherokee Nation or its entities. Finally, Mr. Anglen ended his employment with
OCI in December 2004.
Based
on the affidavits presented, Mr. Anglen did not live in the 100
West Cherry Street address during the time
in
question. Mr. Anglen’s statement to the
Cherokee Nation Election Commission and the Cherokee Nation Tribal
Council
regarding his residence were inaccurate.
The ramifications of his statements to the tribe are an internal
matter
that may be addressed by the appropriate body.
For HUD purposes, he was not a member o the household of 110
West Cherry Street when Mrs. Emery made the
home
rehabilitation application nor did he ever reside there after the date
of the
application. His inaccurate claim of
residency made to the Cherokee Nation Election Commission should not
invalidate
mrs. Emery’s application with the HACN.
___________________
Richard D. Osburn, Staff Attorney
Cherokee Nation Department of Justice
(918) 456-0671, ext. 2438