The vision · regardless of the election

What needs to happen now

≈ 4 min read · or listen, or skim the bold lines

This page is different from the rest of the site, and we want to say so plainly. Everywhere else, we bring you the record and stay out of the conclusion. Here, we draw one: the record shows six fixes that are needed no matter who wins in July or November, and no matter how the constitution referendum goes. These are this site’s conclusions — not neutral findings, and not endorsements. Every item links to its evidence so you can check us. And the test that keeps this inside our covenant: any candidate, any winner, either referendum outcome could do every one of these.

Taking this to a candidate? We turned these six fixes into a checklist you can hold up next to anyone on the ballot.

This page is one of three that map what’s broken and how it gets fixed: The Root Problem (the analysis), How the People Fix It (the tools already in the law), and What Needs to Happen Now (the six fixes any winner could do — and your say on them).

The six fixes

FINDING

1. Publish the law

The published Navajo Nation Code stops at 2009. Everything the Council has enacted since is scattered across individual resolutions — a voter, an employee, even a judge cannot open one book and read the current law. The fix is codification and posting. Who can do it: the Council and the Office of Legislative Counsel. What it costs: a budget line. Evidence: The Basics — What You Cannot Get.

FINDING

2. Publish the rulings

The decisions that define what “just cause” means at work are not public. A worker cannot learn the standard they are judged by. The fix is posting them. Who can do it: the commission that already holds them. What it costs: a filing cabinet. Evidence: The Basics.

FINDING

3. Fund the watchdog

Oversight that cannot afford to look is not oversight. The Auditor General’s capacity is a budget decision made every year. The fix is funding it to the size of the job. Who can do it: the Council, at the next budget. What it costs: a vote. Evidence: Who Watches the Money?

FINDING

4. Staff the seams

In almost every dispute we reviewed, the law applied — the failure came where two rules meet and no one was standing at the seam. The fix is naming an owner, in writing, for each seam. Who can do it: any branch, tomorrow, by directive. What it costs: a memo. Evidence: The Seams.

FINDING

5. Put the Nation’s own eyes on the money. Period.

Federal inspectors watch federal healthcare dollars from Washington and Phoenix. The Nation’s own check on money spent treating Diné patients is the missing seat at that table. The fix is creating it. Who can do it: the Council and the Department of Health. Evidence: Who Watches the Money?

FINDING

6. Adopt the public checklist

We published a checklist of what an open government would post — budgets, contracts, decisions, the law itself. The fix is adopting it as policy and posting against it. Who can do it: every office, starting with any one of them. Evidence: What Should Be Public.

Do you agree?

FINDING

The budget is the master key

Read back through the six fixes and notice what they have in common: publishing the Code is a budget line, publishing the rulings is a filing cabinet, funding the watchdog is a vote. Codification is already a legal duty under 2 N.N.C. § 221(A) — so the honest question for any candidate isn’t “do you support transparency” but “is this a law problem or a budget problem, and which line would you fund?” The budget is where good intentions go to be tested — and where quiet decisions can undo loud promises, year after year, without anyone voting against anything. Appropriations are legislation like any other: they post for public comment on DiBB before passage, which means the people’s window into the budget exists — if the people use it. How the money side works: Budget, Appropriations & the Permanent Fund 101. The budget’s own laws are on the Ledger — the § 221(A) codification duty, Title 12’s Auditor General — and its seams are already on the map: audits whose follow-through is a budget vote nobody schedules, records requests that die in an index, and — a pattern candidates describe in the interviews, not yet independently verified — funds appropriated for chapters and projects that sit unspent while the need waits.

This is where you weigh in. It’s anonymous — nothing identifies you, there is no account, and comments are never published without being de-identified. It goes to the volunteers who run this site, and if enough people answer, the totals will appear on the Community Findings page.

Corrections and disagreements are welcome — they make the record better. That’s the covenant working as intended.