Siletz.Net Virtual Community Center for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians

From our tribe's annual reports it appears that the Siletz Tribal Business Corporation lost over half a million dollars in 2007, and that it lost almost $2 million dollars from 2005 to 2007.

At the November 1st General Council meeting I asked Tribal Council how much money STBC lost in 2007. Tribal Chairman Dee Pigsley, who is also Chairman of the Board of STBC, claimed she did not know.

I pointed out that all Tribal Council members were on the Board of STBC and asked if any of them could come up with a ballpark figure for how much STBC lost last year. The entire board of STBC remained stone silent in response to this inquiry.

Lisa Brown supplied Chairman Pigsley with the tribe's Annual Report for 2007, which had recently been sent out to tribal members. Chairman Pigsley and other Tribal Council members claimed to be unable to interpret the financial data presented in there.

It appears that STBC lost $519,311 in 2007. That figure is found on page 25 of the 2007 Annual Report, in the column for Siletz Tribal Business Corporation, on the row for Increase (Decrease) in Net Assets. The $519,311 is shown in parentheses which means it represents a negative value, a decrease of assets in this case. This figure is arrived at by subtracting STBC's operating expenses from it's revenues, both of which appear on that page.

Looking at the same figures in our annual reports for 2006 and 2005, it appears that STBC lost $629,754 and $765,906 respectively in those years. That would mean that STBC lost a grand total of $1,914,971 over those three years. And I would not be surprised to learn that our real losses are even much higher than that.

In the tribe's confidential quarterly Nesika Illahee we are currently getting regular updates on the status of STBC. Sharon Edenfield provided the update in January 2008 and Economic Development Director Dave Tovey has been providing the updates since April. I encourage all tribal members to read these quarterly updates. These reports are overwhelmingly positive and optimistic, there is nothing in them to suggest that STBC is continuing to lose money hand-over-fist.

But that's how all our tribal publications work - much fanfare is given to every optimistic plan and to every positive development, and little or nothing is said about the many failures of our tribal officials.