Lynette Warren, Candidate for Tribal Council

I wish the best to our membership in 2010. I hope that tribal members, near and far, will reflect on the events of 2009 and will be encouraged to act upon them and their desire for a better tribal government. I believe that, with your support, we can reform this government. There are many areas that will be improved or resolved if we move to institute the following five measures toward accountability, wise investment, and greater transparency.

1) Increase Per Capita From 40% to 70% of the EPR

2) Cost of Living Adjustments for Chinook Winds Casino Employees

3) Term Limits for Tribal Council and Tribal General Manager

4) Internet Video Streaming of All Tribal Council Meetings

5) Detailed Profit and Loss Statements for all Tribal Businesses in Nesika Illahee

Per Capita - Excess Pledge Revenue or EPR, is the money that is left over from the gross revenue of the casino after expenses. Every year, 60% of the EPR is used in government programs. Much of it is wasted on bad investments, boondoggles, and huge pay raises for elite tribal managers. Only 40% of the EPR is distributed to the members via their per capita checks.

It has long been my position that per capita is the most equitable means of promoting the general welfare of the members of this tribe. Casino profits belong to the members, not to the Tribal Council. Leaving only 40% for the members is effectively a 60% tax on tribal members' money. If the Federal and State government charged us 60% tax on our money we would be up in arms, so why should the Tribal Government get away with levying such an exorbitant tax on our membership? The majority on the tribal council will pretend that this cannot be done, but don't believe it. Members, as individuals know how best to benefit themselves and their families with their incomes, therefore we must move forward now to increase per capita to a more reasonable level.

There are a number of ways the current government programs can be readjusted to return 70% back to the members. One thing that can be done would be to roll Economic Development and Investment into one category, since both have been marked by severe overspending and loss due to unwise and self-interested policy decisions on the part of the current tribal council majority. Limiting their funding and returning it to the membership would no doubt make the government more efficient and frugal when it comes to spending casino profits.

It's time to lower the 60% income tax on tribal members' casino income.

Chinook Winds Employee Cost of Living Adjustments – Our tribal government has, for too long, forgotten the workers at our only reliably profitable business, Chinook Winds Casino. In tough economic times our Casino employees are always the first to be expected to do more with less, while political insiders in tribal administration do less with more.

The Tribal Council majority votes for exorbitant pay raises for management in Siletz. Between 2006 and 2008, it appears that the tribal Administrative Manager Sharon Edenfield, received a 13% pay raise, Human Resource Manager Michele Rowan got 49%, and Assistant General Manager Tina Retasket took a whopping 73% pay increase. I got the figures for these positions through the Freedom of Information Act. These are matters of open public record as far as the federal government is concerned but they are heavily guarded state secrets within our tribe. And I've heard from a reliable source that Brenda Bremner's top managers received very generous raises again in 2009.

This should not be happening. We lavish fat cats in the tribal administration with high salaries while our casino workers produce the lion's share of our revenue. It's time to re-evaluate our pay raise policies and open it up to the light of day by reporting administrative salaries to the members of this tribe so that we don't have to go to Federal government agencies to obtain that information.

Term Limits – It doesn't take much of a review of what has happened over the last few years to see that conflicts of interest are becoming an insurmountable problem in our tribal government. In 2004 when Bud Lane took his seat on the tribal council, in violation of the ethics ordinance which, at the time, prohibited him from doing so while he held a tribal job, he was the only Tribal Council member with a tribal job.

From 2004 to 2009 we've gone from having one Tribal Council member with a tribally paid position to seven! Where are they now when it comes to tribal jobs?

Lillie Butler is reportedly no longer receiving pay for her WEX job with the tribe. Bud Lane and Robert Kentta enjoy full time high paying careers in the Culture Department. Loraine Butler is in Enrollment. Sharon Edenfield is among the very highest paid managers in the tribe. Jessie Davis manages the Hee Hee Illahee RV Park near her home in Salem, although she will not disclose her income to the membership who pay her. Since Tina Retasket left her $96,000/yr tribal job, she has been quietly taking temporary tribal jobs from her old boss, Brenda Bremner, refusing to disclose exactly when this work occurred or what she is being paid. She told me at a June meeting in Brookings, Oregon that it was none of the tribal members' business what she gets paid.

Reggie Butler points out that five members of the Tribal Council are supervised by Chairman Piglsey's niece, General Manager Brenda Bremner - who they in turn supervise themselves! The conflict of interest is appalling – they are their own boss's boss, and so is Bremner. One hand washes the other, washes the next, washes the next...

All the while, the Council members are voting to run the very programs and businesses which affect their tribal income. They may abstain from token votes when it comes to some budget questions which are most obviously affecting their income stream, but remember, this year we have a tribal council with a six person majority - the Pigsley voting majority consists of Dee Pigsley, Bud Lane, Robert Kentta, Tina Retasket, Sharon Edenfield, and Jessie Davis. They identify themselves each year in their letter supporting their candidates – this year Kentta, Retasket, Davis and Edenfield endorse Pigsley and Lane. If they get their way then next year Pigsley, Lane, Davis, and Edenfield will endorse Kentta and Retasket. You see the pattern. This block can be relied upon to vote in lock step with Chairman Pigsley's desires whenever necessary, but they also engage in political log rolling. Each of them can be confident in the support of the other five with regard to their increasing their own salaries, their family member's salaries, and funding their programs. They use this tactic to easily circumvent our ethics laws, which were intended to rein in conflicts of interest and political crony-ism And this corrupt process - “I'll fund you, then you fund me...” - has turned our tribal government into exclusive private club funded at your expense. This must end, and term limits are a way to end it.

Term limits will require a Constitutional vote and that's no small feat, but we will never see this Tribal Council allow members to vote on term limits as long as Dee Pigsley's majority remains firmly entrenched - we must first break the stranglehold of the Pigsley majority. We have the opportunity to that this year - by sending Dee Pigsley and Bud Lane back to their private lives and giving their seats to representatives who will not do the bidding of their political machine.

Video Streaming of Tribal Council Meetings – There can be no effective and long lasting reform of tribal government without an informed membership. For years the Tribal Council has been keeping the members in the dark about much of the business it conducts. The reports they pass on to members are full of sunshine and lollipops while, in reality, they continue to lose money hand over fist. When it comes to press releases and articles in our official tribal media, the information our public information officials distribute is long on fluff and short on relevant data.

Dee Pigsley has said that she wished more members would attend the Tribal Council meetings, but it's very difficult for most members to attend meetings because they don't live in the area. Imagine how discouraging it is for an out-of-area member taking special efforts to attend meetings and then being made to stand in the hallway for hours outside the council chambers waiting for the Tribal Council to come back from executive session. Most of the time the Tribal Council do not even give an adequate reason for going into secret executive sessions, much less an estimate for the amount of time they'll be there.

Over the course of her latest term, Chairman Pigsley has been asked to spend less time in executive session. Her response has been to further limit information to the members and to spend more time in secret meetings. As Reggie Butler points out, this is done to prevent even Tribal Council members from telling members what the Council is really doing.

Even when business is conducted in open session, there is the worsening problem of the minutes, which do not reflect what actually occurs in the meetings. I know this because I have attended Tribal Council meetings where relevant discussions are often glossed over or entirely omitted by the minutes.

Concerned members have urged the Tribal Council to provide accurate minutes in a timely manner, but the Tribal Council remains unresponsive and uncooperative. The best solution to this problem is to provide video streaming of the meetings - as they occur - to the members. This can be done in the Members Only area of the the CTSI website. These sessions should then be archived on the web and made available for members to view at their convenience.

Our leaders cannot make informed decisions and act in the best interest of this tribe unless they have input from an informed membership. The present situation with the lack of openness at the meetings and untimely transmittal of information to tribal members is intolerable. The technology to stream videos or audio files to our members in any part of the world as the meetings happen is now inexpensive and easily available. It is imperative that we implement it.

Profit and Loss Statements in Nesika Illahee - Every year we receive incoherent and misleading financial statements which are so difficult to decipher, even Chairman Pigsley couldn't explain the meaning of the figures in the tribe's annual report when I asked her to do so at the November 2008 General Council meeting. If the STBC Chairman can't make heads or tails out of the STBC financial report to the members, who can?

It doesn't take a PhD in accounting to understand honest financial reports, but the reports we tribal members get are not meant to be understood. What we get is a vague and confusing overview, along with a smattering of cherry-picked highlights. The reports the Tribal Council receive on our businesses throughout the year are not the same ones they distribute to the membership. You deserve a fair and honest accounting of how your money is spent.

As the owners and investors in these businesses, tribal members deserve nothing less than comprehensive, investment-grade information. This can easily be distributed to the membership in the quarterly Nesika Illahee.

Siletz Tribal Business Corporation (STBC)

I've been asked why I persist in bringing up issues about failed STBC businesses year after year, but these examples are not ancient history. Much of it is still ongoing and all of it falls within the last three years. It's the economic record of the incumbent Chairman and Vice-Chairman who I am running against in this 2010 election.

As Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Tribal Council, Dee Pigsley and Bud Lane have also long been the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Siletz Tribal Business Corporation which exists for the economic development of the tribe. Three years ago, when Dee Pigsley and Bud Lane assumed their current terms in office, 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. You think that's bad? 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 dead standstill for over two years. What they told us would be a vibrant shopping center remains a vacant lot - years after spending millions of your dollars.

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 perpetually 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 for this building we have never been able to rent. The performance of STBC under he leadership of Pigsley and Lane has been absolutely atrocious.

Last year, a tribal member asked Chairman Pigsley what has become of STBC's shares in US Aeroteam? Recall that US Aeroteam is a company that STBC, under the leadership of Chairman Pigsley, bailed out of bankruptcy using tribal members' money. The Chairman responded that US Aeroteam is making a profit and that the profits are being reinvested. But anyone who understands the structure of ownership of US Aeroteam knows that our “partners” at US Aeroteam are simply keeping the money. Because of the way Chairman Pigsley and STBC structured the bailout deal, our US Aeroteam partners own 80% of the company but retain 100% control over the company. Their four votes on the board of directors always trump the tribe's one vote. And I'm told by those in the know that US Aeroteam stopped paying off the balance of its $2,000,000 debt to the tribe a year ago.

It appears US Aeroteam has become the latest in a string of deadbeat partners and tenants. We pay the salaries of high-priced lawyers, some of whom have made millions off the backs the tribe. So what is our crack legal team doing to collect from this parade of deadbeats? Nothing, as far as the Tribal Council will tell us. They would rather hide their losses than contest them, something which our business associates are happy to take advantage of. After all, Tribal Council aren't losing their own money, they're just losing your money.

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 both out of office.

Lisa Brown's Expulsion

Last year Lisa Brown was swept into office with a stunning 401 votes, the fifth highest total in our history. She ran a campaign of reform and has worked diligently for the last few years as an advocate for members whose voices would not have been otherwise heard. She was remarkable in her effort to bring transparency to this government. And none of this sat very well with the present Tribal Council majority.

The ink was barely dry on the 2009 election certification when the Pigsley majority set out to undo the election. At her very first regular Tribal Council meeting in February 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.

In his letter to voters this year Reggie Butler wrote:

“When the former Chinook Winds Casino General Manager resigned, he should have been a very happy camper. The majority of the Tribal Council took care of that.”

Reggie has to be very careful because of the legal cone-of-silence imposed by Pigsley's majority, but I take this to confirm that they gave Jim Kikumoto a deluxe golden parachute as part of their plan to bury Lisa Brown.

The elections are our last defense against the Pigsley-Bremner political machine. The overturning of the election via Lisa Brown's expulsion is one of the worst acts in our tribe's political history. On this basis alone tribal members should never vote for anyone who worked to expel Lisa Brown, nor anyone they endorse.

The Election Board's Lawsuit

During last year's campaign I informed 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 three prior elections, when the Election Ordinance clearly said that “Election Board members shall serve without pay.” These are well documented facts. At precisely the same time the Tribal Council was expelling Lisa Brown, their appointees, Worman and Barker – who were still on the Election Board - filed suit against 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 and Tracey Worman manages his campaign on Facebook.

The advantages of suing one's political adversaries will surely be apparent to future candidates. Substantial investments of a candidate's time which should be used to run a campaign must be devoted a legal defense and held in reserve for court dates.

Is this really the way we want to conduct our elections in this tribe?

This isn't a theoretical fear. In November the Tribal Council passed a law making it possible for them to sue tribal members for criticizing them in their official capacities. Please see www.siletz.net for the details of it. Clearly, the Pigsley-Bremner political machine are preparing to go much further down this road and if they are successful, all effective political criticism will be silenced. Your own ability to freely communicate with one another without fearing retribution from litigation happy tribal officials will vanish, as well.

Note that they don't have to win a case to cripple their opponents campaigns, they just need to tie them down in court. In defending myself in Barker's case against me, I have subpoenaed Dee Pigsley, Brenda Bremner, and Tina Retasket as witnesses. They have used the tribal attorney, Craig Dorsay, on your behalf and at your expense, to attempt to quash the subpoenas, denying me discovery in my defense. It's their opinion that I can be sued by their appointees, but they cannot be questioned under oath.

It's important to remember that I'm not suing tribal officials, tribal officials are suing me. Unlike the Tribal Council and the General Manager, I have no access to attorney services on your dime, as the Tribal Chairman and General Manager do, nor am I receiving assistance from members of the General Manager's staff, as the Plaintiffs appear to be.

But this case is not only about me. The mere threat of such suits will necessarily have a chilling effect on free speech in our tribe. The next time it could be you or another candidate that you support.

We are at a crossroads here. Are we going to let public officials haul tribal members into court merely for criticizing them, or are we going to uphold the freedom of speech that was clearly intended for us through our own tribal Constitution? The voters must send a strong message to Kurtis Barker and to his mentors on the Tribal Council that this abuse of the court system for political gain will not be tolerated. And please don't fail to note that the entire Pigsley voting block on the Tribal Council endorsed Kurtis Barker in their letter to voters this year. This isn't an incredible string of coincidences, this is a political team that is using every tribal resource they can get their hands on to crush their critics.

I Need Your Vote

I ask that you vote for me in this election. If elected I will fight to make our government accountable to all tribal members and to break the stranglehold of the Pigsley-Bremner political machine.

I do not agree with some important votes that Lillie Butler cast this year, but I will never forget that she and Reggie Butler were the only tribal officials who stood up for Lisa Brown and voted against overturning our election. On that basis alone she deserves your vote this year. Lillie and Reggie have also been the only Tribal Council members willing to tell us the truth about STBC – that our businesses are floundering. I urge you to vote for Lillie Butler.

I don't have enough knowledge about Melinda Logan to make a solid recommendation, but she has been endorsed by Reggie and Lillie Butler so I encourage you to consider her for your third vote.

Last year we elected Lisa Brown, but the Pigsley-Bremner political machine was able to overturn the election because we also elected Jessie Davis, a loyal member of their voting block. Taking one council seat from them wasn't enough – they simply took it back. We must defeat all three of their candidates this year – Dee Pigsley, Bud Lane and Kurtis Barker – or we leave their political machine with the power to overturn another election.

Please visit www.siletz.net for full documentation and discussion of everything I've said here, and for ongoing coverage of the the election and our tribe. You can reach me via siletz.net if you have any questions.

Please share this letter with other tribal members.

Lynette Warren
email: areswarren(at)gmail.com

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 .

Looks like it's going to be Sharon Edenfield and she'll be appointed at a Special Tribal Council Meeting tomorrow morning, June19. The meeting isn't shown on the official tribal website. Sharon appears to be intelligent and knowledgeable about tribal affairs. It's not likely, however, that she'll be an independent voice on the tribal council. In all probability, this appointment will increase Chairman Pigsley's power base on the Tribal Council to a lopsided 7-2 majority.

Recall that Sharon Edenfield served as interim director of Siletz Tribal Business Corp (STBC) in 2007 after Henry Cagey was fired. She served until Dave Tovey came aboard to assume the helm of the sinking STBC ship last year. She is the mother of Election Board member, Felicia Carmona, and is now holding the job of Admin Manager, one of the top paying positions of employment in the tribe. It will be interesting to see if she retains her high-paying position while holding office, as so many Tribal Council members have.

Sharon Edenfield can be reached at (541) 444-2532 x1202 or sharone@ctsi.nsn.us

According to well-connected sources, Phil Rilatos had been asked if he was interested in taking Lisa's Browns position before the expulsion proceedings began. Many will find it surprising that Dee Pigsley didn't pick Rilatos, whom she endorsed in the elections and who won the second highest number of votes this year of available alternates. It would have, at least, been a nod to the voters in a year when few gestures of respect for the voters have been forthcoming from the Tribal Chairman.

One wonders what role Chairman Pigsley sees the voters as having in choosing Tribal Council members, but this appointment presents an even deeper problem. The Tribal Council knows very well that Lisa Brown's case is still underway. Tribal attorney, LeeAnn Easton informed the Tribal Council last Friday that Brown still has time to file for an appeal. I'm not saying that Brown is likely to win an appeal, but what kind of situation would filling the vacancy she left put the tribe into if she did win her appeal? And how could any action prejudice Lisa's case more than seating someone in her place while her case is still in progress?

On January 6th 2008 I asked Tribal Council member Robert Kentta a simple question:

Has the Siletz Tribal Business Corporation ever shown a net profit in any of the years you've served on it's Board of Directors?

Kentta is of course also on the Board of Directors of STBC. I had not heard from him by January 26th, so I asked again.

His response is posted here.

I sent Robert a point-by-point response which I will now post below. Robert Kentta's words are indented.

---

Robert,

You wrote:

Please don't be put out by my late, or lack of, response to you. We've had our communications in the past, and I've pointed out to you that I've grown to distrust your motives, intentions and ways of spinning that which is told to you. You have a generally poor opinion of your tribal government, and are in the process of again seeking office, and I know that which you glean from the individual responses will be pitted against each other, or used to spin a great rant, or both.

I've sworn to protect the interests of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and anything that feeds your hate-mill I consider to be a detriment to the CTSI. You, I consider to be a detriment to your tribe. Not for the questions you ask and results you expect, but the whole sale tearing-down of all for whatever reason, or maybe no reason at all.

Regardless of your suspicion of my motives, I think any tribal member is entitled to have Tribal Council members answer simple questions about our tribal government and businesses.

We have not had a good track record with the investment of tribal resources into businesses. Very few in fact have produced a profit over the years. I think you know that. I think you know that I know that. So what is your point in asking, and then hounding me for an answer - after I've indicated my position on communication with you? If that seems harsh, I will share my philosophy: To be treated with respect, you must treat others with respect. Once you've proven that, we may begin to have open lines of communication.

My question was: Has the Siletz Tribal Business Corporation ever shown a net profit in any of the years you've served on it's Board of Directors? It's a simple question and you still have not answered it.

My point in asking is that the Tribal Council has never told tribal members that STBC has lost large sums of money during every year of it's existence. The reports you publish would lead members to believe that STBC hits a bump in the road now and then but is basically doing all right. Don't you think that the Tribal Council, which is also the Board of Directors of STBC, has a responsibility to tell members plainly and honestly that they have lost considerable sums of money every year in STBC? Don't tribal members have a right to know that your business decisions have consistently lost money?

You may explain these losses any way you like, but don't tribal members have a right to the plain truth?

You and Lisa, always harping about "Transparency" but where is all of that when it comes to you - the finger pointers???

You've gone on and on (in what should have been a "campaigning" - i.e. convincing people of your skills, will and intent to serve their best interests) about how rotten this one, and that one, and all these others are too, because they signed the letter... and this one's related to that one, and they're both related to this one... *You are related* to the entire core group you demean. You're all descendants of Scott and Minnie Lane, and if you extend that to Tina, then again, another generation back, and you're ALL descendants of Joshua Louie. Monte is included in that same scenario. Because you have diminished sense of family ties, does not mean that you are absent from the family tree. You talk about all of those people being related to each other, like it's some sort of crime, but never that you are related to all of them.

I am a second-cousin of Dee Pigsley. We discuss genealogy at Siletz.Net and I've been entirely candid about my ancestry. See http://siletz.net/node/21 for instance.

As I said explicitly at the General Council meeting in November, there is nothing wrong with tribal members supporting their family members in tribal politics. But it was important for tribal members to know who signed the letter in order to understand the profound conflict of interest involved.

You said you do not know what was in the campaign letter Tina Retasket sent out while on the Election Board. I'll take you at your word, even though this directly contradicts Chairman Pigsley's assertion that everyone on the Tribal Council knew exactly what had happened. I certainly don't hold you, or anyone else who signed the letter, responsible for the fact that Tina sent it out if you had no knowledge that she would do so.

But, as a Tribal Council member, you are fully responsible for the fact that you didn't even bother to find out what was in campaign letter sent out by by a member of the Election Board. You are fully responsible for not bothering to find out who else was involved. You are fully responsible for not disclosing to tribal members that the offender was in fact the Assistant General Manager. You are fully responsible for allowing Tina to depart with no paper trail recording her removal. And you are responsible for saying nothing when Tina was put back on the Election Board for the very next election.

It is important for tribal members to know who signed the letter, to demonstrate Chairman Pigsley's conflict of interest when she whitewashed the matter on election day. Tribal voters had a right to know what had happened so that they could judge for themselves. But it was not in Chairman Pigsley's personal political interest to admit that Tina Retasket had been caught campaigning for Dee and Bud, sending out a letter that you had signed.

Can you honestly say you don't see the conflict of interest?

...and continuing along with the transparency theme: Everybody.....EVERYBODY has a past. and Lisa can scream about how nothing is out in the daylight.....but how much of her dirty laundry has she shared? What kinds of of opportunities has she had - and blown - how long has she stayed in various positions, and why not longer? ....and you, what of your past? Is it true that you was a supporter of Clifford Case, Pat Duncan, Lillie, Reggie and that set prior to/around the RECALL of several then Council Members?.... - are you aware of the vast dollar amounts and other ways that cost the Tribe dearly? That brief era was a particularly low point of CTSI history.

Are you are saying that Lillie Butler/Pat Duncan chaired Tribal Council cost the tribe more money than STBC has lost during your tenure on it's Board of Directors? May I see the figures?

You don't seem to understand much about your own tribal community. People can live far-off and criticize, I'm sure it's easy to do. Few who live outside the area probably have any true sense of how small and fragile and essential the group of families who live and *on a daily basis* support, defend and work on behalf of this confederation is. Go back far enough, and most of our present day "families" collapse down into several base families. We've been torn down by warfare, disease, imposed political systems, church rule, and other federal policies including being barred from freedom of spiritual expression, language, thoughts, beliefs.... and those battles are not over, and yet you want to tear down those who are willing to step forward and dedicate so much of their time and energy to the re-building and betterment of our tribe? Count me out on adding to your "campaign".

I hope that you do reach understanding of yourself, your family, your tribe, federal Indian policy, and whatever it takes to reach a place where you can shed the blind-hate that you have now. When you are that reasonable, respectful person, then we can talk for hours, and work together.

R...

Robert, the fact that I criticize your performance doesn't mean I hate you or any other tribal official. I don't. My criticism has been measured and well supported by evidence.

Lynette

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I'm Lynette Warren and I'm running for Tribal Council....

...but you won't see my statement in your voters pamphlet because, for the first time in our history, a candidate's statement was rejected by the tribal government. You also won't see any details of my candidate's declaration in our quarterly Nesika Illahee, because, for the first time in it's history, the candidate's declarations made at the General Council Meeting were not reported. That is because Tribal Chairman Dee Pigsley, and her niece - General Manager Brenda Bremner, along with Bremner's hand-picked Election Board want to keep you from seeing what you're about to see in this letter. But it's important that you read it.

I've been encouraged and grateful for the support given to me throughout the past year. In May we led a successful drive to block a Constitutional amendment that would have further disempowered the membership. In the the last election I received 177 votes. That's an impressive showing from an out-of-area, first time candidate who was virtually unknown until last year. My friend, ally, and long time tribal activist, Lisa Brown, nearly won, but she fell short by a mere 29 votes. Let's elect Lisa Brown this year! Reggie Butler has spoken out against our failed business policies and against the conflicts-of-interest inherent in the fact that six of our Tribal Council members hold tribal jobs, five of them under Brenda Bremner. I also endorse Reggie Butler.

In this letter, I will explain in detail how our business ventures have become one disaster after another. In fact, the Siletz Tribal Business Corporation has lost millions of dollars of your money and has lost money every year it has existed. But Dee Pigsley's political machine will not allow this to be mentioned in any tribal publication.

I will also explain in detail how our election process has been corrupted. Did you know that before Tina Retasket became a Tribal Council member, she was removed from the Election Board in early 2007 when she was caught campaigning for Chairman Pigsley and Vice-Chairman Bud Lane in the middle of an election she was supposed to be administering fairly? You probably don't , because the details were never published and there was no written record of her removal. And Pigsley's political machine put Retasket back on the Election Board for the very next election! I will also document how Brenda Bremner arranged illegal payments to her hand-picked Election Board through our last three elections. And now that Election Board has rejected my candidate's statement for the voters pamphlet, because I explained all this in my statement.
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A tribal member has written to me regarding the members' desire to see the creation of an elders center, a place where elders can go during the day.

While the tribe offers outings and events for in-area elders, there isn't a place for them on a day to day basis. Elders in the tribe are diverse. Some are barely ambulatory and some are quite vigorous, but they could all benefit from a center or a place they could go on a daily basis where they can network, share thoughts and ideas, assist one another, and enjoy the company of others. Having a place for them to go on a daily basis would be a valuable service for the tribe to provide.

There are a number of ways an elders place could come about. Below are just a few examples of wasteful spending which could be corrected to free up resources for it.

The tribal government has committed over $8 Million dollars for new clinic facilities that we don't need. While some expansion could be merited and some of that funding will be provided by the Federal Government, we are about to go much further into debt to build a Taj Mahal of a health care center which can only benefit a fraction of tribal members. It's far more than is needed to upgrade our health care service.

The Tribal Council voted to take General Welfare casino profits to put in a fiber optics system for local projects, like the new gym and the USDA building, at "costs not to exceed $135,000," according to Resolution No. 2007 - 443 they passed a year ago. That's a huge amount of money to wire a gym and USDA Building for internet and I can't think of why other needs go should unmet when we spend so much for a fiber optics system.

I was present at the June 2007 Tribal Council meeting when General Manager Brenda Bremner got the Tribal Council to approve a $3000 coffee break for a conference in Hawaii. I was stunned that Brenda would ask tribal members to pick up the tab for coffee and croissants for others at a Hawaiian boondoggle. That money could have been better spent or, heaven forbid, saved. $3000 would buy furniture and a nice entertainment system for an elders center. Instead it took about 15 minutes to spend at that conference in Hawaii. Gone in 15 minutes for what? To stroke the vanity of the General Manager.

Our investment entity, STBC (Siletz Tribal Business Corporation) has apparently been hemorrhaging hundreds of thousands of investment dollars every year since its inception. If we could stem the flow of those losses, the tribe could use just a modest amount of the savings to benefit our elders and their families.

We have the means to do this now with properties like Salem Flex. We already spent millions for the Flex Building and continue to lose money on it. Why not use some of that vacant space? A small part of the building houses Salem Area Office, but most of it sits there empty, year after year. We might lower the ceiling in a section of it and remodel an area for an elders center. It's right next door to some great facilities at Hee Hee Illahee RV, which has amenities that our elders could share with the customers there.

We could also utilize room in the new buildings which will comprise the $6 million dollar museum and cultural center that is partially built near the Siletz Community Center. There are so many ways we could make an elders place happen.

There was small amount of discussion about an elders center in the minutes some time ago, but nothing lately. The plans for that seem to have drifted along the wayside. I challenge the Tribal Council to seriously reconsider it now. If we throttle back on some of the more extravagant projects and wasteful STBC ventures the tribe could afford to have one or more elders centers.

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.