TME

Wednesday night's Council meeting featured what has become a regular occurrence, Tribal member employees broadcasting their complaints. I think it safe to say that this has always been an issue, but as we've allowed more and more of them to use our public meetings as a forum to talk about their respective problems, appearing before Council, either in private or public, has virtually become a part of the chain of command. That is not a good thing.

I remember in a meeting earlier this year, following a Tribal casino employee griping about something, Toby McClary, pre-Council obviously, stepped up to make the observation that it seems now we are encouraging workers to come to Tribal Council when they don't get what they want. We'll fix whatever problem you got. That mentality reached a new level on September 16, when an employee who has become almost a fixture on Wednesday nights was clearly dissatisfied with how her situation was being dealt with, told us Council didn't "have my back", and could fix her situation with a simple phone call.

Last year we actually allowed employees with beefs to appear before the SMGI board, with staff present. That seemed to make all the difference in the world. When Tribal members corner us with their issues/problems, we are given a compelling case for why we should supposedly interfere. But at this particular SMGI meeting, with the right staff there on hand to shed light on the situation (I'm being polite), it was remarkable how key facts had been omitted from the version we were told. I had to wince.

Which is precisely why I hesitate when a Tribal member brings me their employment concerns. We rarely get the whole story. I don't mean to say some of my fellow members fib when they have their time with us, but to sell us on an incomplete picture is wrong, made worse by the fact that we shouldn't be dealing with personnel matters anyway. But like Toby said, in the mind of many Tribal members we really are another de facto court of appeals, even though we can do little. I do wonder though if in the past, before my own time on Council, coming to us didn't yield some sort of gain. I wonder because this has practically become a part of the organizational culture.

I guess we will be looking at the possibility of creating a Tribal Employment Rights Ordinance and office, the purpose of which would be to deal with and advocate for Tribal member employees who are facing discrimination, harassment, glass ceilings, etc. My first guess is this would be another sounding board, which would cut back on using our public meetings as theater. So that would be good. And maybe some of these employees really could get their issues dealt with and not go through us, which is also good because we by the nature of our position can politicize anything. How it might fail, though, is if employees who are being treated fairly but are still not getting what they want will be right back at the podium Wednesday nights, harping on what a failure TERO is, and they've got to bring their problems before us, again.