Two fight firing from Oneida gaming panel The women say their concerns about the operations are being ignored By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle Two women fired from the Oneida Nation Gaming Commission will have their appeals heard today after a release they say came without due process. Linda Dallas and Rochelle Powless say they were kicked off the elected commission because they had raised concerns about proper procedures not being followed at the tribe's gaming operations. The two were removed after an incident in the commission offices reported by two other commission members, chairman Linda Cornelius and member Oscar Schuyler. Cornelius, tribal chairwoman Tina Danforth and a tribal personnel attorney did not return phone calls for comment. A tribal spokeswoman, Bobbi Webster, said it is tribal policy not to comment on personnel matters. The Gaming Commission, the oversight board for the tribe's casinos, has seven elected officials. The two were removed April 3 for a Jan. 6 incident. Powless said she was working on preparing the facility license report, a document detailing all of the tribe's gaming operations, down to serial numbers on slot machines. She was collating the pages, using the commission's conference room table. After 4:30 p.m., another woman, Kathy Metoxen, not a member of the commission, walked into the room. She was there, Dallas said, to take Dallas's children to day care. Under comission policy, visitors have to wait in the conference room for commissioners rather than going to their offices for security reasons. Metoxen offered to help and Powless, she said, asked Metoxen to open sheet protectors for the documents. "They claimed she handled the facility license. I can't remember her touching anothing other than sheet protectors. They (commissioners) wrote up testimony they'd seen her putting documents in the protectors," Powless said. Dallas later entered, with graphics she had worked on for the report. Dallas and Powless said Cornelius, Schulyer and two other commission members had seen them in the room. On Jan. 27, Powless was called into a meeting and was asked about the incident. "There was testimony and people signed it saying they saw Kathy handling the documents," Powless said. By Jan. 31, she said, the commission had already written removal resolutions. "They said I wasn't being charged. The next day, at the regular meeting, they put on the agenda removal resolutions," Powless said. She said the commission did not go through proper procedures. On Jan. 31, the commission voted to remove Dallas, then changed their minds after Dallas complained the people accusing her and testifying against her were the people doing the investigation. "I held up the removal resolutions ... and I said 'is this what you're removing us for?'" Dallas said. "They said yes, And I said 'if this is what you're going to remove (us) for, then you damn well better be removing Oscar and Louise also, because they actually engaged in an act of impropreity. We didn't.'" She said several commission members left the meeting while testimony was being taken, later returning. The commission then hired API Services to do an investigation. Dallas and Powless said the API investigation focused on them and not on any other issues, including the behavior of other commissioners. Powless said if Cornelius or Schulyer had seen wrong doing, they had a responsibility to stop it first. "You could have asked me to step out of the room, you could have given me a warning. Instead, you're removing me as an elected official," she said. They also said other commission members had family and friends in secure areas. The commission did not follow tribal law regarding removal of officials, says the attorney for the two women, Timothy Blank. "Due process requires notice of a hearing, the right to present evidence, and also a requirement that it be before a neutral and detached magistrate. The commissioners who made the decision are the ones who decided to prosecute and hired API," Blank said. Normal procedure would require warnings and sanctions before removal, Powless said. Powless said she is appealing to try to erase the mark on her record and to allow her to work in jobs that require contact with confidential information. The news of the release was not printed in the tribal newspaper, the Kahliwaksis, she said. "I believe they kept it quiet because of the compact negotiations," Powless said. She believes she was targeted for removal because of her views on the commission's role. "If you're a gaming commissioner you should be on the floor, you should be going in there, you should be looking around, and they don't want to get off their butts and go in there," she said. She noted that two members of the commission, Louise and Amelia Cornelius, were gaming managers or assistants, while Shirley Hill was on the business committee, which supervises gaming management. Powless has worked for the tribe since 1978, mostly in education areas. She has two adult children who live with her, and takes care of six grandchildren, five from a daughter who died. Dallas is divorced with four children.