Dear Tribal Member:

For the last 9 months, a lot has happened in our Tribe. Greektown in peril and on the brink of a multi-million dollar loss to the Tribe. Long standing employee protection policies were abandoned. The Elder fund has been all but decimated. Tribal Member services and holiday events have been eliminated. The Elder check this year was cut from $1,600 to $600; for Tribal couples, they received a $2,000 cut. All while the Board secured their retirement and eliminated a tax liabilitfor themselves through a convoluted referendum. The only budget that hasn’t taken a cut was the Board salaries. When I became Chair, I accepted a salary cut from $245,000 to $100,000. Maybe it is time you choose the salary of those who represent you via referendum. What's your opinion?

A new Sault Tribe Member blog is under development and is intended to be a news and information forum driven by you the Membership. We have suffered a void of information (the Black hole) from our tribal government as a result of the current administration. We saw the Communications Director fired for allowing the publishing of a letter to the editor that was critical of the Board salaries while they laid off about 150 people (for which 80% were our own people). A tribal member woman with a graduate degree who brought in $3million in new funding to the Tribe was fired after she broke her back coming to work at the Tribal headquarters. Then, a Board member's niece was promoted to her spot. Nathan Wright, candidate for Unit 1Tribal Board, who supposedly lost this election by 3 votes, was terminated out of retribution. Who claimed his seat? None other than Bernard Bouschor. Who announced the termination throughout the local media? Michelle Bouschor (Bernard Bouschor’s daughter-in-law) who continues to draw a $70,000 salary.

Greektown Casino has lost $142,000,000 just since the current administration took office! So much for a business background. In the meantime, he has missed about half of all Tribal Board meetings and instead spends most his time securing ‘minority preference’ contracts for his private company on Tribal time. He also eliminated member meetings where you reside; cut out the Board meeting broadcasts locally and on-line, and silenced his critics by firing them. It is no wonder, those who may have a different agenda and support for the people, sit in silence on the Tribal Board.

In the next several weeks, we will try to compel updates on what is happening in Greektown. During our most serious crisis, you should be receiving more information, not less. The latest was an offer to buy Greektown that will likely mean a $300,000,000 loss to the Membership. Let’s not forget the original debt was incurred through a sweetheart deal offered up on a silver platter to the Greeks by Bernard Bouschor. $268,000,000 on a $24,000 investment! ‘Back to Business’ was his campaign slogan after all. Bruce Green, attorney out of Colorado reported to me that Bouschor signed the deal with no legal representation present. What did he get out of the deal? Does anyone really believe he didn’t get a kickback?

Stay tuned. During my administration, I saved a number of documents to share with the Membership when the time was right. These will enlighten you to some members of the Tribal Board. You be the judge, but look at least look at the documents and ask questions. A healthy democracy is one in which the citizens ask questions.

Aaron Payment

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