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 .