Thursday, August 19, 2010

DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL?...NO DEAL

"According to the tribal constitution, members can referendum any expenditure of $10,000. The board hid the purchase, they broke tribal law."

The words of this anonymous poster regarding the recent expenditure of $180,000 for property near a racetrack near Detroit are worth taking into consideration.

Although real estate transactions may be discussed in closed session in order to secure the best deal, there is no reason to maintain the secrecy once the transaction has been made. We should also expect that a full, chronological accounting of all of the details regarding the Greektown catastrophe, as well as the voting matrix, will be published in an upcoming issue of the Sault Tribe newspaper because the members require an explanation of the who's and why's behind the failure.

Many Sault Tribe members feel that the action of withholding such extensive information involving finances is nothing short of a conspiracy. Billions of dollars have flowed through the tribe but members are not afforded the right to know how it is spent but they always seem to come up on the short end of the deal.

The 'Don't ask, Don't tell' theory doesn't apply here. If the members had more to say about how our money is spent there would likely be a lot fewer questionable deals being made.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So many of our Board members carry an arrogant attitude that they were elected to conduct the business of the Tribe and the manner in which they do it should be above criticism. They become so inflated with their own sense of power that they think of themselves as the leaders, rather than the workers, of the people. Give all incumbents the boot !

Anonymous said...

i'm the down stater who checks out the sault tribe via the net each day. the land purchase looks like a deal which was a long time in the works. the loss of greek town to both parties now involved in this land deal should send up major red flags. who is profitting from the deal? why is the seller determning what the best usage for the land would be? does the seller look on the tribe as his cash cow? does he view the membership as a pack of cretins who will apathetically go along with whatever the corrupt leaders propose? come on members get involved. demand a referendum on this latest boondoggle of the not so wise leadership.

Our right to make changes through referendum is the one voice we have left....use it.