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A series of public hearings were held as part of the Dewey City Council meeting on November 7 to review properties that were significantly damaged and considered non-habitable under municipal and state standards. Of the four properties reviewed, only one property owner attended the meeting to present a case for the property not being condemned.

The City Council reviewed photographs of all four properties that were taken by their maintenance crews and city code manager before making any decisions about declaring the houses to be dilapidated beyond repair and therefore, needing to be torn down.

Two houses are owned by a single property owner who has been attempting to work on deconstruction since early summer but as reported difficulties in obtaining workers to complete the tear-downs. The council moved to provide the property owner another 14 days on each property, to run consecutively rather than simultaneously. The council will then take measures to remove the dwellings and bill the property owner if the property owner does not complete the removal in the time given.

A third house was already partially torn down by its property owner so no action was needed on setting a timeframe for removal but the city will work with the property owner on hauling away the debris.

The fourth house was discussed at length with the property owner, who was present, and who had brought along family to help represent her case. The property has been suffering on-going damage over the past eight years according to city documents and was finally condemned for the first time in 2020 right before COVID began and was then left unprocessed due to COVID issues. The Council was addressing a continuation of the dilapidation at this meeting but the property owner is stating that because she is a tribal member, the city has no jurisdiction over the property and therefore, cannot force her to tear it down. The property currently has no bathroom and no running water, along with roof and foundation problems, putting it in the classification of being hazardous in health to the property owner, who claims she still lives in it. After some initial investigation, Cana Mize, attorney for the city, said that the City of Dewey does have jurisdiction over deciding to tear down the dwelling and that the McGirt law, which the property owner cited as her basis for sovereignty over the property, does not apply in this case.