Snow Days

Today, as Friday, and Monday of last week, the Tribal offices were closed.  In looking out the window, I'd say Grand Ronde has accumulated somewhere between 18 and 20 inches of snow.  I know that in some parts of this country, that might not seem like much.  But in Oregon, more specifically the Willamette Valley, it is a lot, and many residents are unprepared, as evidenced by the number of cars I've seen in ditches or trapped in snow banks.
From a governing standpoint, I realize now that the subject of administrative leave has long been a sore one, especially with casino employees who don't enjoy the multiple holidays, snow days, and other reasons for letting people off work while paying them.  To be honest, I am completely sympathetic to those who might view the administrative leave as excessive, because if we're going to be handing out days off left and right, it might be viewed as unfair.  If the roads were so icy and bad that governance employees, for their safety, didn't have to show up, then why wouldn't the same line of reasoning apply to casino employees?
I already know the answer(s) to that question, having heard them in defense of the differences during an informal Council roundtable discussion last week.  They are, simply:  Spirit Mountain Casino is meant to be a 24/7/365 operation, and the Tribal Governance Center is not.  In other words, employees need to be at the casino, and governance employees do not need to be.  They really can claim to be a 9-5 operation, and with all the other governments and businesses we work with also functioning on the 40-hour work week model, there really is a difference in the time demands.  I don't expect that to satisfy some people.
Two years ago we meant to cut back on administrative leave, but that idea fell victim to organizational forgetfulness.  We had planned on traded Presidents' Day for Martin Luther King Day, and in the end we made no trades and decided to take both days off, calling Presidents' Day "Chiefs' Day".  I guess when you preside over an organization that is used to doing something as popular with employees as taking days off, changing that is never easy.
In 2007 while serving as Tribal Chair, I flew to Washington, D.C. with staff and one other Council members to meet with different bigwigs, from Interior, on off-reservation gaming.  Only hours before our meeting the metro area started snowing, not heavily.  We got the call that our meeting was cancelled, despite there being less than two inches on the ground.  I was informed then that the Federal Government, in D.C. anyway, is known for shutting down like that, without much notice, and depending on who you ask, without good reason.
Maybe it's just a government thing.

100

I am not sure if anybody is counting, but this particular entry happens to be number 100, at least according to the administrator's side. In light of that, I've attached a story that appeared in Friday's Oregonian regarding anonymous posts on the internet. For those of you who might remember Grandrondereznews.com, there were a number of anonymous writers on that website who said just about whatever they pleased, at times I am convinced just flat out making stuff up, some of it about me and others. Message boards can be problematic, on the one hand the world wide web is the ultimate forum, and from a Council perspective, probably the easiest way to communicate with Tribal members, and for members to converse with one another. On the other hand, and this is really an international trend, the internet, blogs, and message boards have made it possible for anybody to be a faux journalist and whistle-blower. We all got the various emails about the presidential candidates this year that took creative liberty with facts, much of it not true. It would appear to be a full time job to combat falsehoods and myths parading as facts, and I would think voters can be particularly confused and reluctant to mine the avalanche of information for accuracy. Technology can be great, but for every advantage there seems to be a disadvantage, and more importantly, a way to exploit it.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/12/anonymous_blog_commenters_shie.html

Situational Rights

Situational Rights

Yesterday's General Council Meeting featured what might be one of the oddest, or at the very least disorganized, actions I've seen for some time. A request came forth by a Tribal member to de-classify the results of the Leno letter investigation. That request was made by a motion, which was then seconded, and then rescinded, and then seconded again to put forth the matter right then and there for an advisory vote of the General Council present. Multiple people sought clarification on the motion, and exactly was being decided and voted upon. Our chief attorney offered multiple words of caution, considering the range of legal repercussions. And then a vote was made, overwhelmingly, to guide the Council in their decision over whether to publicize the results of the investigation. At least, that is my interpretation of what happened.
The series of events that lead to the vote, and what exactly we are voting on, raised not just a number of legal questions, but issues regarding process, and what in my opinion is more important, fairness. You see, the motion was intended to be only for the investigation of the Leno letter, and presumably other audits in the future. What would remain cloaked in secrecy, for the general membership anyway, were audits from the past. None of which made a whole lot of sense to me.
Although the investigation has not yet concluded, we have were told some time ago back in mid-October who the suspect(s) were. So the Council members pushing for opening up the audit know fully well who is under suspicion. Furthermore the person who requested for the audit to be opened also seemed to know more than they let on. Sometimes a question, no matter how worded, gives away any pretenses.
There were a number of objections I raised to this request. First was one course the utter lack of clarity in what we were voting on. Second the issue of legality, since this was a personnel issue. Last was the sense of a larger policy, i.e. if we open up one audit for public scrutiny then we open up all. I also questioned the process of how the request was being handled. This was not an agenda item, there are well over 4000 Tribal members who aren't here to vote, and lastly we have more constructive means of dealing with this kind of think, especially from a policy standpoint. We could just as easily amend the public records ordinance, and open those changes for public comment.
None of my comments had any bearing on the outcome. In fact I voted with the vast majority of those present to open up audits, though my suspicions are despite how the motion ultimately ended up being worded, the interpretations will vary.
It should be interesting to see how things play out from here. I do believe that there are some who in a way believe they are accomplishing something good by blowing the lid off, but in the long run I see further complications, not just in the results of this one specific audit, but in others. I am very familiar now with how audits are conducted and how the people named wouldn't necessarily want their names being thrown out there.  It is bad enough to be caught doing something wrong, but public shaming has a way of making things worse.  The truth can be ugly, I guess.  And I've seen few audits that made anybody look good.

Defining Waste

Admittedly, I am one of the younger generation who, prior to Barack Obama, spent little energy following politics, even in college.  Sure I had an opinion, and even would do the occasional research to back up an argument.  But in general, I did not make a daily habit of reading columnists, editorials, and surfing the internet for political fixes.  But the historic Presidential election of 2000, mess that it was, got my attention.  Since then, politics has become one of the main topics I read about when perusing the world wide web.

In 2001 I read an article by a conservative columnist, myself being far from the right usually.  It was through this article I was introduced to a hazy concept that has been around for decades, and one that for whatever reason seems to have been largely associated with Ronald Reagan, and that is government waste.  Inefficient government, i.e. "big" government, seems to be a favorite complaint of conservatives and Republicans, and in my observation it always leads to the argument for lower taxes, promising voters money no doubt the oldest and often most effective campaign method in many elections.  But that doesn't mean on some levels the basic argument for efficient government does not carry weight.  It does.

I've seen some of the same rhetoric thrown around lately in our Tribal political arena, at Council meetings, General Council sessions, and often from the mouths of my peers.  I am not very sure that the root of this concept isn't also based on the same premise and belief as tax cuts, that is diverting the money spent on wasteful government into the pockets of members who vote, or voters, is always popular, and to do the opposite is equally unpopular.  But that can be discussed later...

As in national politics, for all the arguments I hear for non-"big" government and efficiency, the answers to what some perceive as a real problem are about as well-defined as the actual complaint. In other words, not very much.  When we talk about government efficiency, we are ultimately suggesting that there should be a quantifiable level of service(s) that citizens and in our case Tribal members are getting for their money.  It is the proverbial "bang for the buck".  Unfortunately, I've yet to find any sort of method by which to gauge whether or not the government is efficient.  I've never heard anybody say that with a population of nearly 300,000,000 people the United States government should be able to run on "x" amount of dollars, including in those services education, police, a war overseas, highway maintenance and all the other things government does.  In fact I don't see how the government of any population could be anything but "big", but then again "big" to me is probably not the same to those who would disagree with me.

On the Grand Ronde side, I've been told numerous times that the Tribal government is "too big" considering the services it provides.  And for all I know it is, but once again, nobody has ever brought me a model that gets into specifics.  Nobody has ever brought me the model of a Tribe that also has 5000 members, provides health care, per capita, disability, plays a role in local government, runs a community clinic, is developing local housing and community infrastructure, and said "Here Chris, see!  They run provide all the same services you guys do and do it with half the employees and budget."  I'd be thrilled if somebody did, as would some of my peers.

When I think back on the article from 2001, the writer had his version of waste.  Being openly conservative, he of course took aim at environmental programs, and welfare.  Had a liberal written the article, no doubt he would have focused on issues not rated very high by the left-leaning, like subsidies for oil companies.  Which just goes to show, one man's garbage is another man's gold.  What might be waste to one person is vital to another.  Both might be right.

We are looking to make cuts on the government side, and not just to keep per capita at a respectable level.  The revenues over the last 12 months have just not matched the previous two years.  The money is just not there to spend.  Somehow, we'll get it sorted out.  We always do.  We may not get the government efficiency part figured out though, but in my own opinion, I'm not sure anybody could.

"The Grand Ronde Story"

Yesterday I was interviewed, along with Greg Archuleta, Kathryn Harrison, and Margaret Provost, live on Oregon Public Broadcasting Radio's program "Thinking Out Loud". Click the link below to hear the hour-long broadcast. Plus, a former Council member has posted a comment on their website...

http://action.publicbroadcasting.net/opb/posts/list/1900610.page

Government to Government

Thursday marked the 11th Annual Government-to-Government Summit in Oregon. The conference was started back in the 1990's under then-Governor John Kitzhaber, and Kulongoski has continued the tradition. I have attended the Summit each and every year while on Tribal Council. Like a many conferences, the value lies in the ability to network, for Tribal officials to see, meet and intereact with the assorted State agents who deal with issues pertinent to Indian tribes in Oregon. For state workers, I am sure the vice versa is very much the same.
For 2008 we all converged in Florence, where the Coos tribe just recently opened their own prestigious gaming center. Last year the conference was held in Warm Springs, in 2006 at Cow Creek, and the year before that in 2005 at Portland State University, when Vice-Chair Angie Blackwell staged a famous walk-out. All of us Grand Ronders left when it was our time to speak, and we did so in protest to the Governor leaving early. Our relationship with Kulongoski was not especially good back then, and that we've managed to mend it and been quite cooperative has benefitted both parties. Diplomacy, I believe, always matters.
What I remember from 2006 was that as Chair I was responsible for speaking on behalf of Grand Ronde. The lessons I took from that are numerous, but the two which stand out are first always be aware of where your mouth is in relation to the microphone. Multiple people explained to me that I strayed from the mic one too many times, making my speech inaudible during some stretches. Second I decided from that point forth whenever possible I would draft my own speeches. The one I read from that day was a mix of talking points and my own style, prompting a good friend to note that he could tell which parts of the speech were my own and those that were not. I didn't sound comfortable or natural reading off lines written by another person.
Last year there was a lot of buzz in Warm Springs over Jacobi Ellisbury, a young man born and raised in the nearby community of Madras who starred as a baseball player for the Oregon State University Beavers and the Boston Red Sox. He was already a local hero, in fact if I remember correctly there was a short speech made on his behalf during the opening ceremonies.
This year tribes did their usual updates for one another, as did the Governor and his staff. Of note are that times are tough all around, not just in Grand Ronde. One tribe, the Coos actually, are making the bold move of serving alcohol on the gaming floor, a precedent we in Grand Ronde have been waiting for, although the practice was taken up in Washington State years ago.
I did get a few minutes to chat with the Governor, he was returning to the Summit after a conference call with a number of other elected officials in regards to the water issue in southern Oregon, a call that included Arnold Schwarzenegger. We were both quite ecstatic about the recent presidential election. Of particular importance to us is the mystery over who will be named Secretary of the Interior. He had heard, like us, that John Kitzhaber was a possible candidate, which would be a great thing for Oregonians. I told him we had also heard Tom Daschle was a possibility, though not likely.
The Summit finished early, almost 90 minutes early. The day outside was stunning, and I took a few snapshots of the sanddunes for which Florence is famous. I also drove through Eugene, home to my alma mater the University of Oregon, and dropped some money at the local bookstore to brighten my abode with green and yellow. The biggest surprise of the Summit was that Burns-Paiute sent a representative. They, the most disadvantaged tribe in Oregon, will go long stretches without being heard from. In looking at the Summit Tribal directory, there was nobody listed as the Tribal Chair. It simply said "Chair" with a phone number.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

Okay, the name of the post is one of my favorite David Bowie songs. I was fortunate enough to get tickets to the Democratic Party's bash at the Portland Convention Center on Tuesday, November 4. These pictures don't even come close to doing the event any justice. This could be the most memorable and momentous Presidential election of my life. Tears were flowing, hope and optimism were in the air, and Obama gave an incredible acceptance speech, which I'm sure many people also listened to. For the first time in my life, I am genuinely excited about a President. I really believe that Barack Obama is a once-in-a-lifetime candidate.
My only regret is that after meeting him twice and speaking to him both times, shouldn't I have been the Democrats' version of "Joe the Plummer"? I mean, we have the same hairdo and neither of us are licensed plummers, and we both make less than $250,000...