Outside Looking In!
The board for the casinos and the other businesses must be separated for no other reason than that it is utterly impossible for someone to operate the government of the tribe and at the same time ensure the financial well being of the tribe from all of its businesses. There is simply no way anyone could operate both, there are not enough hours in the day.These folks need to be interviewed and selected based on skills, leadership abilities, and business acumen. They should get a base salary and performance bonuses.
The reason the banks are breathing down our neck is because they see the turmoil we are under on a daily basis. They see all of the political unrest and they see poor financial skills, thus they are very worried and they should be! All they care about is getting paid, so we need to pay them and plan to move forward with the completion of Greektown. If we need a partner, I can think of quite a few that would love to get in on the deal who are NOT our competitors. C'mon guys, let's think about this deal. really...... ...
I feel that the reason that so many of these decisions are being done behind closed doors is that members of the council are afraid to make an honest mistake because they will be publicly humiliated. Just as they are there to represent us and act in our best interests, we must support them and enable them to make honest mistake while operating on the "tribes" best interests.
As long as these mistake are not repeated and people are not profiting in any way from them, then we must allow our members of the council to operate free from public humiliation.
Being a public servant (or any elected position) means putting not only your job out there, but also your entire personal life for all to see. Speaking from my own experience, it is not an easy position for anyone, especially if you have an ax over your head every single day.
Look, we have to learn to respect each other, trust each other, and support each other to make the RIGHT decisions. Decisions based on facts, based on the best interests of all members of the tribe and not personal vendettas or educated guesses.This comes form having people to lead this tribe who are not there to lay blame or to constantly remind us of mistakes made years ago, but to lead us, to plan for us, to ensure that we are progressing, expanding and maintaining a healthy progressive environment that all members can be proud of.
JFK once stated "The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings."
In order for our members to once again regain trust in its leaders, we must move toward a free and open government. We must act in the best interests of ALL of our members. We must move forward financially by planning tactically and intellectually to secure today and plan for tomorrow. We must enable our members to share in the gains of the tribe and partake in the shortcomings as well.
So many of our elders have given so much of themselves to give us the freedoms and securities that we share each and every day. We must enable those who wish to share their expertise to do so. This should not be and "us against them" state of mind. It should be a "we" state of mind. What can i do to make my tribe better? What is good for one should be good for the entire tribe.
I have no issues with our elected officials being paid a fair salary; however why not a base salary and bonuses based on performance just like others? I mean if you really think about it, we are somewhat like a publicly traded company. We are the shareholders and the board runs the operation. However, our board is making decision's behind closed doors and making deals that are undisclosed and that is no way to run a company, nor a government.
The bottom line is that we fail as a tribe and we gain as a tribe and who will really care 20 years from now who is at fault? We will only care that we have something really good an we ruined it because of a lack of planning and a lack of execution.We need to take responsibility for our actions, access the damage we are in and execute a plan to ensure our financial stability over the next 3-5 years. From there, we can build a plan for long term growth which will enable all of our tribe and its members to flourish.
Until then, we have to tighten our belts, stop spending money that we do not have, cut where we can and get our act together and get some folks in Detroit that know how to swim with the sharks and take care of business. It can be done! We Can this around! We must act together.
My Best~Scott Killips
