The Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin and the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior are exploring the possibility of waiving their sovereignty in exchange for coverage under the Wisconsin Retirement System.
A state-tribal committee will continue to discuss whether tribal police officers can obtain state retirement benefits. However, in order to acquire these benefits, tribes would have to relinquish their sovereign immunity.
David Lovell, a member of the legislative counsel for the Special Committee on State-Tribal Relations, said the committee is looking into the plan after some tribes expressed interest. However, other tribes do not want to give up sovereignty.
According to Lovell, surrendering immunity could make tribes vulnerable to lawsuits.
""Tribes do not have many waivers of immunity,"" Lovell said. ""They are very reluctant to do that because philosophically they are fighting for their sovereignty everyday. Therefore, they're disinclined to voluntary relinquish any element of it.""
Before the committee meets in January, state Rep. Terry Musser, R- Black River Falls, is requesting input from various tribal leaders.
""It will be a substantial bit of legislative effort to make this happen,"" Lovell said. ""Representative Musser, the chair of the committee, wants to make sure this is a request coming from tribal government, not just from tribal police department.""
Kevin Cornelius, director of legislative affairs for the Wisconsin Oneida Tribe, said the problem with the current system is the tribe is only able provide their officers with one type of benefits package.
The Internal Revenue Service can offer different retirement plans for their employees. For example, teachers and police officers receive different pension plans based on different levels of potential harm. Because tribes have sovereign immunity, they are not recognized as eligible for the IRS plans.
""The Oneida tribe started working on a plan with the IRS at the federal level to have that recognition so that we could offer our police officers a separate retirement plan than the average employee like myself,"" Cornelius said.
Lieutenant of the Oneida Tribal Police Department Ronald King said the police force has had experience with officers leaving for other departments because of limited benefits.
""For some time now the department has been looking into trying to acquire its own pension plans in order to retain police personnel,"" he said.
The tribe will consider the cost of participating in this program as it continues to consider the pros and cons of giving up sovereign immunity.
""We don't take waiving our sovereign immunity lightly,"" Cornelius said. ""There are times when we have granted a limited sovereign immunity for a specific situation but we never waive all of our sovereign immunity. It would have to be something very specific that would have benefit to tribal members.""
