WAMPSVILLE, N.Y. -- Managers of an Oneida Indian Nation-owned SavOn gas station refused to let Madison County, N.Y., Department of Weights & Measures inspectors inspect gasoline pumps Friday, reported The Oneida Dispatch.
In a letter addressed to Weights & Measures Director William Wilcox, OIN Commissioner of Public Safety Arthur Pierce said he was astonished that the inspectors appeared unannounced.
He wrote, This unnecessary tactic undermines the government-to-government cooperative relations that Madison County has [image-nocss] claimed publicly that it wishes to pursue. It shows a desire to inflame the public at a time when the Nation has shown its willingness to enter into municipal compacts to resolve these issues.
A statement released by the county said the inspectors were simply following state law to inspect the SavOn pumps in the same manner as all stations throughout the county.
Managers of the SavOn consulted superiors over the phone before telling the inspectors that they could not inspect the pumps because of sovereignty issues, said the report.
The county cited the 2005 decision in City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York that states the OIN does not have sovereignty over land other than the tribe's 32--acre territory.
The county also said that the letter is replete with untruths and is a blatant attempt to orchestrate the very conflict and controversy the author professes to deplore.
Pierce said that the Nation has offered to cooperate with the county by paying an independent third-party inspector acceptable to both parties to check its fuel pumps. He said that even though the county has refused the Nation's offer, he invites the county inspectors to conduct legitimate, non-discriminatory inspections.
Click here for full text of the OIN letter.
Click here for the full text of the Madison County, N.Y., Department of Weights & Measures statement.
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