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About Siletz news letter. (Siletz, Oregon) 1989-1997 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1995)
2 April 1995 Chairman’s Report From: Tribal Chairman Delores Pigsley S e v e ra l h u n d re d fr ie n d s and s u p p o rte rs , trib a l m e m b e rs , n o n -In d ia n residents of the com m unity , civic leaders and members of the Lincoln City council joined the S iletz Tribal C ouncil on February 25th to dedicate the site of our Chinook Winds Gaming and Convention Center. Besides dedicating the land for our e n te rp ris e , th e c e re m o n y s ig n ifie d th e restoration of land to tribal ow nership which was, a century ago, part of our reservation, and as recently as 40 years ago, an allotment belonging to a member of our Tribe. We have com e fu ll c irc le . The ow nership of the land is once again ours - where it rightly belongs! S tan S p e a k s , B ia A re a D ire c to r expressed his congratulations and good wishes as did Lori Ann Sheridan of the Cham ber of Commerce. Mark Hemstreet donated food for the occasion and was represented by John Kneeland, General Counsel of Shilo Inns. And, of course, our drummers, singers and dancers were there to give cultural and sp iritu a l m eaning to this im portant h istoric event. THE FEATHER DANCERS I want to take this opportunity to give sp e cia l re co g n itio n to th e T rib a l F eather Dancers that have been perform ing at many tribal and other events. We are proud that under the leadership of Bud Lane and Advisor Nellie Orton, the Feather Dancers have been helping to keep our heritage alive! TRIBAL COUNCIL RETREAT On March 25 and 26th the entire Tribal Council held a retreat at the Comstock in Reno. We discussed, in depth, some of our basic tribal issues and plans for addressing them. We have been growing at such a fast pace that meeting only once a month is not enough tim e to adequately address all the issues that come before us. In addition to our own tribal issues, we must also attend regional and national m eetings where critical national Indian issues are addressed. We may need to meet two or three times a month. STEDCO REORGANIZATION When STEDCO was restructured a year ago, it was intended to be an interim measure. The Council had decided that a newly organized, more e fficie n t and productive STEDCO was needed. Since then, we have been considering various options for meeting this objective. As soon as we have co m p le te d our w ork of restructuring STEDCO , w e w ill provide you with a report. TEMPORARY CHINOOK WINDS GAMING AND CONVENTION CENTER The tribal Gam ing Com m ission is of major importance as the Tribe's "watchdog" to m ake ce rta in th a t o u r Gam ing e n te rp rise complies with all appropriate federal, state and tribal laws and policies. I have every confidence that the newly appointed C o m m issio n e rs, Jo e Lane, Brad Darcy, Mike Fisher, Cy Hill and Mark Pullam w ill re p re s e n t th e T rib e ’s in te re s ts w ith competence and dedication. NEWS ABOUT THE GAMING PROJECT I'd like to com m end Jessie and her crew for the excellent Chinook Winds Bulletin. Special recognition goes to Barbara Watson, a trib a l m em ber, w ho re ce ive d her tra in in g under ONABEN and has been publishing similar bulletins for other organizations. For m ore d e ta ils on o u r gam ing project, I refer you, once again , to Jessie Davis's status report elsewhere in this issue. REMINDER OF SCHEDULE AHEAD May 6: General Council meeting in Salem. May 23: Constitutional election to amend blood quantum. May 24: Temporary Chinook Winds open to Tribal Members. May 25: Temporary facility open to the public May 29: Memorial Services Gaming Report From: Jessie Davis, Ad Hoc Gaming Chairman GAMING COMMISSION MEMBERS APPOINTED! CONGRATULATIONS! The T rib a l C ouncil spent the entire w eek-end of March 11 and 12, interviewing and evaluating applicants for the five member Tribal Gam ing Commission. O f the thirty-one trib a l m em bers w ho w ere interview ed and screened, five highly qualified candidates were selected. O ur congratulations to Joe Lane and Brad Darcy who w ere appointed for three year terms, to Mike Fisher and Cy Hill for two years and to Mark Pullam for one year! We a ls o w a n t to e x p re s s our appreciation to all the other tribal members who took the tim e and effort to apply and to undergo the screening process. THE GAMING COMMISSION SELECTION PROCESS It was net an e a s y *ia s k to select o n ly fiv e fro m am ong th e th irty -o n e candidates. The selection process revealed once again that we have many highly capable tribal members. B efore the a p p o in tm e n ts are made o ffic ia l e a ch a p p o in te e w ill u n d e rg o a background check, required of all management officials and key em ployees of the gaming enterprise. In the meantirne, the appointees will be issued provisionnal licenses. The C om m ission's jo b is extrem ely difficult, se nsitive and crucial, to make sure th a t all a p p lica b le laws, re g u la tio n s and policies are complied with. The Commission is the regulatory body over the gaming center. C om m ission m em bers will begin their intensive training program on April 10th. APPOINTMENT OF GAMING CENTER MANAGERS At the last General Council meeting, I w as charged w ith a p p o in tin g the G eneral Manager of the Gaming Center. I regret that misinformation continues to be d isse m in a te d re g a rd in g my role as Chairman of the Ad Hoc Gaming Committee. I b e lie ve it is im p o rta n t to se t th e record s tra ig h t. I personally did not appoint the General M anager. The in te rv ie w c o m m itte e w as com prised of representatives of the Comstock, (our managem ent com pany w hich is investing up to $20 million dollars in Chinook Winds) Bill & John Douglas, B urgess H arm er and three S ile tz T rib a l C o u n c il m e m b e rs. T hey interviewed and selected John Fultz from a list of five candidates. Only candidates with extensive casino management backgrounds were considered for the interviews, John Fultz was selected and comes to us highly qualified, with over 20 years of gaming and hospitality experiance. The bottom line is that the Siletz Tribal Council can't afford to appoint a person with little or no qualifications to manage a multi m illion d o llar enterprise with a sta ff of $00- 600 employees. It would be a disservice to our Tribe if we did. As in all major decisions regarding the G am ing p roject, it is my responsibility, as Chairman of the Ad Hoc Gaming Committee to make recommendations to Tribal Council and to actively participate in the decision making process. S om e d e c is io n s a re s p e c ific a lly delegated to a core group of the Council, but are then brought back to full Council for their consideration or vote. At the same General Council meeting, co n ce rn w as a lso e xp re sse d th a t trib a l m e m b e rs a re n o t b e in g co n s id e re d fo r management positions. Your attention is called to the fa ct that the recent Chinook W inds Bulletin, advertising m anagem ent positions, w as sent only to our tribal m em bers, all who were encouraged to a p p ly fo r p o s itio n s fo r w h ich th e y are in terested and are q u a lifie d . Any qualified tribal member has an excellent chance of being hired. Once again, Siletz tribal preference applies. It must also be remembered that based on our recom m endations, the Tribal Council decided to appoint only tribal members to the Gaming Commission to oversee the enterprise. This differs from other Oregon tribes that have appointed non-Indians to their commissions. For th e m anagem ent p o sitio n s that require co n sid era b le gam ing experience, we hope th a t tribal m em bers w ho w ant to be appointed to those p o sitio ns w ill make the com m itm ent to gain experience so they can qualify. It is the Tribal C ouncils intent that within 3-5 years all management positions as well as other gaming positions will be~fiiled by trib a l m em bers. U n d e r o u r m anagem ent agreement, Comstock is also committed to this goal. TRIBAL/STATE COMPACT APPROVED BY THE DEPARTMENT A n o th e r m a jo r m ilestone has been crossed! O ur Tribal/State Com pact for Class III gaming has been approved by the Secretary of the Interior. By the time you receive this bulletin it may already be published in the Federal Register. CONSTRUCTION OF THE TEMPORARY FACILITY Although our tim eline is very tight, the target date for the opening of the Temporary Chinook Winds is still May 24th. Among other things, we have selected Trans S ierra to install our surveillance system and we have negotiated w ith Bill Grahm, of Tierra, to do our environmental assessment. Dennis Lowery and Dietmer Goebel of C re a tive D esign and E n g ineering, who re p re s e n t th e T rib e ’s in te re s t in the construction project, have been coordinating the planning and construction of the temporary facility. They have been putting together all the key com ponents of this project including PCL (Continued on Page 14)
