Chairman Discusses Housing Concerns
Fort Peck Tribes’ chairman Floyd Azure doesn’t expect the Tribes’ housing commissioners to be reinstated anytime in the near future. Azure said preliminary results of an audit regarding the housing commissioners were presented to Tribal Executive Board members last week.
Azure said he hasn’t reviewed the report, but he’s heard that “it doesn’t look good at all.”
He explained results of an exit interview are still forthcoming. “When, I don’t know,” the chairman said of a time frame.
TEB member Jestin Dupree posted on social media that the fee accountant reported that the FPHA Board of Commissioners spent a total of $994,158.39 on several forensic audits, meals, travel and various other expenses.
A breakdown of some of these expenditures included $293,752.78 in payroll, $115,790 on travel, $44,003.44 on meals, $295,389.65 on forensic audits and $19,100.70 for groceries.
Dupree wrote, “In the end, a total of $994,558.28 was misused at the Fort Peck Housing Authority. This is why the housing board of commissioners was suspended. The tribal council also expressed that if the communities would like to reinstate the housing board of commissioners each community should meet and make recommendations to who the would like on that board.”
TEB made the decision in December 2025 to suspend housing commissioners for six months. During a Wolf Point Community Organization meeting in January, tribal chairman Floyd Azure said issues included housing committee members getting paid for too many meetings and meals, bills not being paid and micro- managing. Azure said the housing authority has been running well under the guidance of director Louella Douglas. “We had a couple of hiccups, but it’s going OK now,” Azure said.
On a different subject, Azure said it’s not true that the tribes might have to pay the state $15 million due to having 7,000 medically related encounters that were undocumented. The charge was made by a former TEB member at a recent WPCO meeting.
Azure said he and current TEB members have been busy correcting things that were incorrectly done by prior boards.
“They want to follow the rules and make the tribes better,” Azure said of the TEB.
He added that the eight new members and four more experienced members are displaying professionalism and respect for each other.
“Every once in a while, we have a hiccup, but we work well together,” Azure said.
