Posted update by BTBC Member Joe McKay Well, it has been almost a month since we took office, so it is time for report. If you havent heard, the Tribe is broke. The Tribal general fund has been depleted, and it will take 1.2 or 1.3 million dollars to finish the fiscal year through September 31. No money is expected to come in to save the Tribe from this financial catastrophe. And then there is the almost 6 million dollars of federal money that was used and now has to be repaid. We will have to borrow money to make up this difference or suffer further federal sanctions. As I said during the campaign, the complete lack of leadership of the last council has left the Tribe in financial turmoil. Those in control were more interested in playing power games and traveling than they were leading the Tribe in a responsible manner. In my opinion it will take a year and half to two years just to get back to financial breakeven. We cant even fund all of the existing tribal programs, let alone having money for any new programs - including not having any funds to dedicate to the effort at Constitutional reform. Those of us who are really committed to change will have to make that effort on our own. I will post the final numbers in the next few days, but it looks like Indian Days (with all the rodeos and increased prize money for those rodeos and races and all the other extras) will run over $400,000. That is the most that has ever been spent on the Indian days celebration. In terms of prize money and drum money, the Indian Days powwow itself was less than in the past. With the Tribes financial condition, the $400,000 spent was not appropriate. The money spent was already committed in the tribal budget. The Tribe has experienced a significant loss of revenue and it does not look like we are going to return to the $11,000,000 or $12,000,000 level at which the Tribe has been spending for a long time. The bottom line financially is that Tribal Government is going to have to shrink in size. And then there is audit issue. The Tribe has now been advised that it will be sanctioned by the loss of contract support funds starting on October 1 for failing to complete the 2012 and 2013 audits. Because of the failure to accurate keep the Tribal books, it doesnt look like those audits will be finished until at least December 31 if we are lucky. That could mean an additional loss of $400, 000 or more in contract support revenue which is used to support essential functions like finance, personnel, planning and procurement/property. Shrinking the size of tribal government will therefore result in permanent layoffs. Yet one program, Headstart, paid 10 employees more than $160,000 in overtime during the period from Sept, 1, 2013 through July 21, 2014 (much of that overtime was collected between March of 2014 and the present). Little wonder that the program couldnt serve the children during that time. Between their wages and overtime, one employee collected almost $100,000 from Headstart. If those overtime payments are declared as disallowed costs by the funding agency, then the Tribe will have to repay the money. In a recent review of Headstart by the funding agency, there was also a finding that the Program had purported to meet a $40,000 in-kind Tribal contribution requirement by holding a 1 hour workshop supposedly put on by two community members and then trying to value that workshop at $25,000 for one person and $15,000 for the other person (shades of Poka Ranch all over again). To be clear, that money was not actually paid to anyone, Headstart just claimed that the value of the one hour workshop was equal to those amounts. The Headstart Program also had findings related to its excessive travel costs and failure to conduct the required student development assessments to determine if it was meeting the purposes of the program. During my campaign, I outlined 4 goals of my term in office: 1) restoring financial and operational accountability; 2) protecting tribal resources; 3) rebuilding and restoring to their rightful functions the Tribal Court and Law Enforcement programs; and 4) Constitutional reform. The current state of Tribal government demands reform of the Constitution to ensure that this never happens again. In the next couple of weeks I will get access to a tribal building and hold an organization meeting for those committed to reform. In the meantime, I will continue to work for the accomplishment of those goals. I could go on for a couple of more pages, but I will stop for now. However, I will report on the state of the Tribal Court and the Law Enforcement program in the coming days.. As I said in my campaign, it will take significant improvement for the Tribal Court to be ready to accept its role as a co-equal branch of Tribal Government in a separation of powers. It is definitely not ready now. Today, at the general council meeting, The so-called Blackfeet Against Corruption were given time on the agenda. They along with a couple of council members thought it more important to attack others in their attempt to continue to control by division and denial. I therefore call on all of those out there who claim to support change and positive reform to come forward and be on the next council agenda to make your case. As I said on the night of the election, I need your help now more than ever before. It is time to show those Council members that there are 14,000 or more Tribal members whose voices are never heard, and that the small group of haters and negative minded People do not represent everyone and that they are not the majority of the People. If you are not willing to come forward and let your voices be heard in Council chambers, then dont expect change to happen soon. I as one person cannot bring about change without your support. Finally, I have not hired my own secretary/Administrative Assistant - I did not think that the Tribe could afford me that luxury. I am sorry to each of those highly qualified ladies who made inquiry to me. Each of you are good people and in a different time I would have been happy to have any one of you be my Administrative Assistant. This is just not that time. Good night, and light, love and Creators blessings to everyone out there. While the current state of tribal government is deeply troubling, working together in a productive and positive manner, we can and will over come these problems and build a better, stronger government and brighter future for all the Ampskapii Piikani People.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 06:52:20 +0000
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