Siletz.Net

from: Lynette Warren
to: selina rilatos, elections@ctsi.nsn.us
cc: Tribal Council
date: Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 1:57 PM
subject: Re: Lynette's TC application

On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 1:09 PM, selina rilatos wrote:
Lynette,
I recieved your application via postal mail today December 22,2009. Remember we need your candidates statement and your photo by 4:00 pm tomorrow December 23rd.

Thank you, Selina. Below is the text of my candidate's statement for the Voters Pamphlet and I've attached a photo in this email.

Please email me to let me know, either way, if my statement is approved or not. If the election board has any issues with this statement, please provide me with specific feedback explaining what elements of the statement are in conflict with Election Board rules. If you will explain how any of it violates Election Board rules, I can best consider how to modify my statement.

Thank you for your help.

Last year the Election Board Chairman told me that she would consult the with Tribal Council before rejecting any candidates statements. That didn't happen so this year I'm cc'ing the Tribal Council.

Lynette
_______________________________________

Last year the reform candidate, Lisa Brown, was elected to the Tribal Council with a resounding 401 votes. But at her very first regular Tribal Council meeting in Februrary council members Dee Pigsley, Bud Lane, Robert Kentta, Tina Retasket and Jessie Davis voted to initiate expulsion proceedings against Brown. The first notice that tribal members saw in the Siletz News concerning these expulsion proceedings was the notification in Chairman Pigsley's column in April that Lisa Brown had, in fact, been expelled from the council on March 29th. All tribal members in the community and across the country should have had the opportunity to have their voices heard on so grave a matter as the immediate expulsion of a newly elected Tribal Council matter. Instead many tribal members were not even aware this was going on until it was over.

Siletz Tribal Business Corporation (STBC)

As Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Tribal Council, Dee Pigsley and Bud Lane have also long been the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Siletz Tribal Business Corporation which exists for the economic development of the tribe. Three years ago, under the management of Dee Pigsley and Bud Lane, STBC announced it's top priorities for the economic development of the tribe which you can find in the April 2007 issue of Nesika Illahee. The top three priorities were:

1. Siletz Aeroteam

2. River Reclamation Group (RRG)

3. Chemawa Station

STBC invested millions of your dollars in these three projects. So how has STBC performed under the leadership of Dee Pigsley and Bud Lane in their current terms?

Siletz Aeroteam never broke ground in the Siletz area and had to be de-funded by the end of 2007. River Reclamation Group didn't even survive the month! RRG was shut down in April 2007 when it was discovered that the permits required for it's operation were not in place. The tribe invested a great deal of money in the Chemawa Station project with no return on our investment – the project has been at a two year stand still.

Upon the shutdown of RRG, it's equipment was used to found a new venture for the tribe: Northwest Maritime. Northwest Maritime appears to be in disarray and unprofitable. Another multi-million investment of STBC is the Salem Flex Building which has remained vacant of paying tenants (other than the tribe) throughout the entire current terms of Chairman Pigsley and Vice-Chairman Lane. We continue to make huge payments every month on the Flex Building.

STBC continues to lose money year after year under the management of Chairman Pigsley and Vice-Chairman Lane. This has been going on longer than just the past three years. There is no reason to expect this to change until we change leadership by voting them out of office.

During last year's campaign I told voters that Tracey Worman and Kurtis Barker, who were at that time the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Election Board, had received pay for serving on the Election Board through the three prior elections, when the Election Ordinance clearly said that Election Board members must serve without pay. Shortly after last year's election, while still Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Election Board, Worman and Barker sued me in tribal court for statements I made during the campaign. That lawsuit continues to this day, even as Kurtis Barker runs for Tribal Council. I urge tribal voters to ask Barker how it was legal for him to receive such pay at a time when the Election Ordinance said he could not.

I ask for you support. I also ask you to not vote for Dee Pigsley, Bud Lane, Kurtis Barker, or any other candidate that they endorse. In order to reform our tribal government make them accountable to the membership, we need a clean sweep in the coming election.

For full coverage of the election, the lawsuit, and the details of my policy positions, please visit www.siletz.net .

The tribal council is taking applications for Election Board volunteers. Even though the Election Board terms expired in June, there have been no notices asking for Election Board volunteers in the Siletz News since May. In fact, two tribal members who did volunteer for the Election Board in early June were told by the Tribal Chairman that they were too late to do so. Clearly, it's not too late for them to apply now. The revised deadline for application is September 30th, but I don't think those volunteers have even been informed by the Tribal Council they have the opportunity to re-apply.

This is Dee Pigsley's answer to an email I sent her today requesting her to write an appeal for volunteers in her September Siletz News Chairman's Report:

from: DELORES PIGSLEY
to: [Lynette Warren]
date: Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 5:29 PM
subject RE: Election Board Applications in Sept. Chairman's Report

The application and notice will be in the newsletter. We have always actively sought volunteers.

I'm happy to see they plan to put a notice back in the paper, but I have to disagree with Dee's claim that they actively seek volunteers. How can Chairman Pigsley claim that she has "always actively sought volunteers" when we've gone for the past three months without a word in the tribal newspaper asking for volunteers?

Tribal Chairman Pigsley has stated on several occasions over the past few years, that no one volunteers for the Election Board. But the fact is that the tribal government doesn't make much of an effort to recruit volunteers for the Election Board. While notices in the Siletz News that volunteers may apply for the Election Board have sporadically appeared in the paper, I've seen little evidence that the Tribal Council actively seeks volunteers for the Election Board. Instead, they seem to favor delegating the power to General Manager Brenda Bremner to handpick an Election Board from her staff.

You can see where there are substantial conflict of interest problems with allowing the General Manager, who is also Chairman Pigsley's niece and her close political ally, to choose the exclusive pool of nominees from her staff. Instead of choosing from Bremner's staff year in and year out, using volunteers from tribal members at large is a better way of minimizing the conflict of interest problem. Selection of an Election Board from volunteers should be the preferred method of appointing a board, but in spite of Dee Pigsley's assertion that they actively look for volunteers, there have been no vigorous efforts on the part of the Tribal Council to recruit volunteers.

I'm hoping this will change and so I've asked Chairman Pigsley to use her September Chairman's Report to inform the membership of just how important it is that we have an independent Election Board. That means we need volunteers instead of staff employees running our elections. We have a large pool of potential volunteers who probably don't know that the Election Ordinance says they may be reimbursed for their expenses if they volunteer for the Election Board. Chairman Pigsley is in the unique position of having an unlimited amount of space in her Chairman's Report every month which she could be using to inform tribal members of the importance of the volunteers AND that they can be reimbursed for their expenses while serving on the Election Board. I'm certain there are a number of people who would be willing to serve from areas like Salem, Portland, Eugene, Brookings, and beyond if the Chairman would make it clear to them how important these volunteer positions are and that they are enabled by law to be reimbursed for their expenses while on the board.

I hope that Dee Pigsley will comply with my request to use her Chairman's Report constructively and to make a real effort this year to recruit volunteers for our Election Board.

Election Board Applications Due
Deadline for consideration for the 2009/10
Election Board is by 4:30 p.m. on September 30, 2009

Any tribal member interested in serving on the Election Board must fill out the following form and return it to the address below prior to September 30, 2009. Please mail or fax your application to Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, Attn: Executive Secretary to Tribal Council, P.O. Box 549, Siletz, OR. 97380-0549; Fax: 541-444-8325. Email and/or phone requests are not accepted.

Name:________________________________Roll No:_______________
Address:____________________________________________________
City:___________________State:________________Zip:____________
Telephone: Day ( )_________________ Evening ( ) _____________

Once applications are reviewed by the Tribal Council, appointments will be made and appointment letters will be sent to selected applicants.

By a predictable 6-2-1 vote, Lisa Brown was expelled from the Tribal Council today.

Those voting to expel were:
Dee Pigsley
Bud Lane
Robert Kentta
Tina Retasket
Jessie Davis
and Loraine Butler

Lillie Butler and Reggie Butler voted no on the expulsion. Lisa Brown abstained, as required.

Chairman Delores Pigsley will appoint someone to fill Brown's seat, presumably within the next few days. I've been informed that Phil Rilatos had already been asked if he was interested in taking over Lisa's seat prior to the February 21st meeting when expulsion procedures began. It remains to be seen, however, who Dee Pigsley will pick to take Lisa Brown's place.