At the request of a Member, I am posting the current organization charts for the Sault Tribe [please see pic with ‘CURRENT’ in the upper left & the proposed marked ‘PROPOSED’]. The ‘proposed’ would relegate the Chair to a mere “Ceremonial Figure Head” who would supervise no one. TRIBAL MEMBERS VOTED TO TAKE CEO TITLE OUT/ NOT STRIP CHAIR OF ALL AUTHORITY While Tribal voters did vote to take the CEO name out of the Chairperson title, they DID NOT expect that the day to day administrative oversight would be revoked by the Tribal Board. In 2012, the Tribal Board voted unanimously to delegate the administrative oversight to the Chair. With over 3,000 Sault Tribe Members responding, the vast majority of Members indicated they did not believe their vote was intended to strip the Chair of all authority and would vote to overturn this interpretation of select Board Members. Currently, I supervise eight director or executive level team members which include: the Executive Director, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Legislative Director, Appropriations Team, Chief of Police, Fisheries Director, Environmental Director, and Inland and Wildlife Director. In my capacity as administrative head, I also provide fiscal control oversight and signature authority over all cost centers of the Tribe to ensure spending is done appropriately and consistently with the Board appropriations. Even my signature authority is capped at $50,000 for items previously appropriated. For large expenditures which are pre-budgeted, I also provide the fiscal control to ensure these are spent according to Board approved spending plans. As Chairperson with the delegated authority over the aforementioned areas, I provide strategic and administrative oversight including monthly direct report meetings, project management meetings to collaborate across programs, and general administrative direction. I also directly supervise the three Membership Liaisons and an Office Receptionist/Clerical team member. In total, I supervise eleven governmental team members. The Executive Director, who again reports to me, supervises nine executive or director level team members and one administrative assistant. Christine McPherson and I have an excellent working relationship. McLEOD’S RESOLUTION NOT PRACTICABLE The resolution proposed by Director McLeod would move my 11 direct reports and add them to Christine’s for a new total of 20 director reports or subordinates. This is neither reasonable nor practicable. It clearly demonstrates a lack of understanding of some Board Members over the day to day operations and what it takes to manage a multi-million dollar organization with over 2,000 team member employees. A little bit of humility (one of the Seven Grandfathers) would be a welcome addition by some Board Members. I DO NOT supervise any of the so called “business” operations of the Tribe. While I do supervise Bill Connolly (our CFO) I do so more like a colleague than a subordinate as I respect this professional’s credentials and administrative style. My relationship will each of my direct reports is characteristic of this leadership style. The CFO, in turn, oversees our non-gaming enterprises which are all profitable. While there is always room for improvement, these businesses are turning a profit. Thus, this is an area for which no change is needed. The Tribal Board has not funded any positions for Enterprise Development for new businesses. The CFO provides some guidance here, but as CFO and Comptroller here, it is not reasonable to expect another full time professional responsibility on top of the two he already has. I support re-allocating $7,000 from each Board member and Chair to fund an Enterprise Development position for a salary of up to $90,000. Of course, such a position would require a national search and posting. CHAIRPERSON NOT OVER CASINO MANAGEMENT; TRIBAL BOARD IS! I ALSO DO NOT supervise any Casino management including the Chief Operating Officer (COO). This position reports directly to the Tribal Board. Thus, as market share has been dropping, our marketing division has gotten stale and non-productive. This oversight is directly under the Tribal Board. In April of 2013, I met with the Casino COO to discuss his recommendations for saving hundreds of thousands of dollars including organization changes to our marketing to generate more revenues and save in operational costs. These decisions were well within the COO’s authority. However, given the very public lobbying of former Chairperson Bernard Bouschor and an entourage of his immediate family and political supporters, the Board refused to accept the COO’s recommendations. Instead, the Board created Gaming Authority Workshops to hearing recommendations for casino improvements. These sessions were scheduled by the Board at a time that directly conflicts with my other administrative duties including direct report meetings, Executive Team Meetings, and Division and Program Directors meetings such that I have only been able to attend one or two of these sessions. While our Tribal Parliamentary Meeting Rules and Open Meetings Act prohibit decision making except in a duly called meeting, several expectations/directions have been given by the Board to the Casino COO which led to layoffs and what I believe were targeted terminations. While I do not believe all Board Members were part of the plan to excise retributional terminations, those who allowed this to occur were nonetheless complicit. While I do provide some operational oversight over mistrial duties over the following areas like approval of vacation and leave slips and budget oversight, I DO NOT SUPERVISE the Tribal Court, Enrollment, Housing Commission, Gaming Authority or Gaming Commission. Director McLeod (and previously Director Sorenson) has used the smokescreen of separating the business operations of the Tribe from the politics. This is nonsensical given I do not oversee ‘business operations’ of the Tribe. Our CFO does that. Our Casino operations are under the COO who reports directly to the Tribal Board. I do provide administrative oversight over operations of the governmental arm of the Tribe. I believe I do so very competently and expertly. Of course, this is to be adjudged by the voters of the Tribe and not politicians who have an axe to grind or jealously for not having these skills themselves. DUMBING DOWN THE CHAIRPERSON POSITION FOR A LESS SKILLED FUTURE CHAIRPERSON It appears to me that those lying in wait to become Chair someday, realize they do not have the skills, experience, or credentials to provide executive level oversight over the Tribe. Thus, they wish to reduce the position to nothing more than a, “Ceremonial Figure Head” of the Tribe. These are the actual words used by Director McLeod in her resolution which would strip the Chair of all authority. While others are content to parade around as, “ceremonial figure heads” while wearing their culture on their sleeves, I am qualified to serve as the administrative executive over the operations of the Tribe. FIRST BOARD VOTE ON ORG CHART TO ACCOMMODATE FRED PAQUIN’S CORRUPTION Until December 2007, the organizational charts were entirely under the administrative authority of the Tribal Chairperson. Members would be alarmed to know that the corruption of our former Chief of Police and Board Member is what changed this to a Board vote item. First, while Fred Paquin was arrested and prosecuted for assault of a tribal woman in 2007, I fired him given his threats to fire the woman and her entire family if she continued to cooperate with the State Police. The Human Resources Department, Tribal Legal and I all listened to the State Police wire-tapped phone conversation where Paquin threatened to, show [her] “who is really in charge of this tribe.” To protect the victim’s immediate family Member, I took Paquin out of the chain of command so he could not fire her father. Again, I fired Paquin for several violations of the personnel manual for making these threats. The Board’s response was to force a vote on the organizational chart to put her father back underneath Fred Paquin at which time her father was fired. So while I tried to fire Paquin for the coercive threats he made to stymie a criminal investigation, the Board instead voted to put him back to work. All the while, Paquin was investigated by the BIA Criminal investigative unit. It is my belief that several Board members knew of the crime he committed embezzling over $321,000 from the Tribe and providing his daughter a salary for a position for which she did no work. The reason I knew about the investigation is that I was approached by the BIA given their observation that our then CFO, Victor Matson was stonewalling the criminal investigation. I then assigned our current CFO, Bill Connolly to work directly with the BIA Criminal investigator. It is also my contention that select Board members knew what Fred Paquin was doing and lied to the police during the investigation to provide an alibi for Paquin. NEW CEO PROJECTED COSTS $200,000+ The actions of those who support the current resolution to strip the Chair’s authority (McLeod, Hollowell, Pine, Sorenson, Causley?) would take away from the people, their elective choice to select their top administrator for the Tribe. Given our Executive Director Christine McPherson already has a full time job, this would either add 11 new director reports to give her 20 subordinate team members or require the hiring of a CEO at a pay level projected to be $200,000 annually. I arrive at this figure given I had our Human Resources Department project what my pay would be given my duties and the amount was $200,000. I did so to have HR demonstrate how our wage and salary software worked and we used my position as an example. Anyone want to venture a guess who the above Board Members would wish to hire as Executive Director? Could this be payback for bankrolling Board Members’ campaigns? Stay tuned, as soon as the Board votes to pass Jennifer McLeod’s resolution to strip the Chair of all Authority and relegate the position to a “Ceremonial Figure Head” the People of the Tribe will take this decision away from the Board one and for all and vote via Tribal Referendum (see draft petition). Maybe then some stability will come to the Tribe.
Posted on: Mon, 26 May 2014 17:05:10 +0000
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