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Page 9

business over here … well we’re 

taking a chance on an outside 

business too, so why not take a 

chance on our own people? Because 

we deserve that right as Tribal 

members, to look out for one 

another.”

“So I do believe that creating 

another construction management 

is not only going to benefit the 

Tribe … (but) our projects will 

be overseen by our own Tribal 

members, and it’ll also create jobs 

for our membership.”

Martha: “This is another 

question for the Vice-Chairman 

candidates. Reviewing and 

evaluating financial projections and 

reports are part of the duties of the 

position you are running for. Please 

briefly summarize your education 

and experience in understanding 

these reports.”

Danielle: “I have an accounting 

background, kind of … one of my 

fortes.”

“I’ve worked for the Tribe 

for 11 years doing nothing but 

financials.”

“I worked very closely with our 

finance office, our CFO.”

“I’ve helped them with reports 

to North Dakota for our Section 

7 money, reconciling ... I’ve also 

helped other departments with their 

budgets.”

“I believe that all our 

departments all have accountability 

with the check accounts.”

“And worked very closely with 

getting to know the accounting 

manual.”

“I know when we very first, 

a few years back, brought up the 

OMB Circular.”

“We’ve always had the OMB 

Circular, it’s just that they made a 

couple of changes.”

“I do have an Associates Degree 

in General Studies, Associates 

Degree in Business Administration, 

and in ten weeks I’ll be graduating 

with my Bachelors Degree in 

Business Management with an 

emphasis in Marketing. As I’m 

going to school online right now….”

“I do feel that I do have a lot of 

knowledge and ability, and I know 

a lot of people who have worked for 

the Tribe know that I’m capable.”

“When it comes to numbers, 

it’s a whole different game plan for 

me.”

“It comes easy for me, and so 

I just wanted to let you guys know 

that I do know our accounting 

manual.”

“I also did taxes for small 

contractors when they were working 

for the Tribe, doing projects 

here. I’ve helped out numerous 

contractors with their taxes, and 

individuals with their taxes also.”

Floyd: “One of my first 

supervisory jobs was as a bartender 

down in Dakota Sioux back in the 

day.”

“And my boss at the time 

wasn’t very good at numbers so she 

always gave me the budgets to work 

with … do the end of the month 

inventory, that type of stuff.”

“The next jobs after that, I’ve 

always had to work with some sort 

of budgets.”

“Being ... food and beverage 

director at the Magic.”

“Being general manager at a 

manufacturing plant.”

“Being the Housing Authority 

director, and now in the Vice-

Chairman’s office.”

“So, working the budgets, I 

have no problem.”

“The Tribe … has a great 

Finance staff. They’re very 

knowledgeable.”

“There’s a lot of people that 

have a lot of knowledge, and it 

makes my job a lot easier to do 

when you have people who know 

what they’re doing, so you don’t 

have to go back and fix mistakes 

….”

“We’ve got a great Finance staff 

to help me out with some of the 

decision-making stuff.”

Martha: “This next one, I’m 

not really sure it’s a question but it’s 

an observation and I’d like to have 

people give their opinion on it.”

“Tribal employees get off a 

lot of days for certain funerals, 

activities, etc. In the business world, 

you get annual leave for personal 

things like that, or grievance leave. 

This person has commented that 

we waste a lot of money with paid 

leave. This is for any of you.”

Michael: “This is an interesting 

question. But I’ve dealt with it 

before on several terms.”

“We have grown so big as a 

Tribal organization that when you 

give off an hour of administrative 

leave … probably a calculation as 

to what that cost is to government. 

And I think, in retrospect, it would 

be nice if the current administration 

would have Payroll do a study on 

the actual cost for the past year on 

administrative leave.”

“I think you’ll find out that 

that cost is probably very exorbitant, 

and you’re going to have to weigh 

that against the merits of the reasons 

you let employees off.”

“I know there are objections 

to homecomings, for example, and 

shutting down government.”

“That, in my day, wasn’t 

allowed.”

“… I’m not criticizing, but 

I would tighten up the policy on 

administrative leave.”

“And if I’m not mistaken, the 

Tribe’s personnel policies, approved 

by Tribal Council, define what 

administrative leave is and what it 

can be used for. And I think that’s 

where we need to tighten up the 

policy. I would, but that’s just me.”

Dave: “There are some 

unwritten rules that we’ve inherited 

as Tribal leadership.”

“Just stating the facts.”

“I can say that just recently, 

Executive Committee made 

a decision to allow our Tribal 

members that ... like I said, it was 

an unwritten rule and it’s before 

our administrations, going back 

… we didn’t give off for Wilmot 

homecoming, and we about got 

clobbered up there.”

“But I did anyway.”

“But we let some of the people 

that their granddaughter, grandson 

and other family members that 

wanted to be treated equally ... and 

we did at Tiospa Zina and (those) 

with kids in the Sisseton Public 

Schools … and give them that 

avenue of leave off.”

“But I told the Vice-Chairman 

if I could that we weren’t going 

to shut down the whole Tribe for 

Wilmot.”

“And, you know, we’re damned 

if we do and damned if we don’t.”

“I can say that we didn’t just 

give off an admin day because of 

homecoming at every school, so I’m 

very proud of that.”

“I feel we did tighten the belt 

up a little bit.”

“Snow storms, that’s another 

one we get clobbered with. You 

know, the casino workers still have 

to work, the Western still has to 

work, Tribal police still have to 

work.”

“And yet Tribal administration 

buildings get shut down.”

“And those are things that 

do need to be fixed, so I wouldn’t 

disagree with that.”

“How do we fix it?”

“Like Mike said, we got to 

tighten up the belt.”

“It’s hard to recondition your 

Tribal workforce when they’re so 

conditioned to being given days 

off like that, so it’s a very tough 

challenge.”

“We didn’t have an employee 

appreciation day this year and that’s 

because of funding, but we did give 

them a day off for that employee 

appreciation.”

Ella, “I know that there’s a lot 

of complaints. I came to the Tribe 

… however many miles and they’re 

shut down. So when you don’t ... 

and, mind you, I worked at the 

Tribe, so I benefited from the days 

off.”

“But when we’re talking about 

dollars and cents, you know what, 

we’re around $40,000 a day for the 

Tribe to be shut down?”

“That’s a lot of money.”

“And with respect to our past 

leadership and when they pass the 

Tribe shuts down.”

“I just think that the personnel 

policies need to be revisited to 

ascertain what is our priority for 

shutting down the Tribe. Is it life or 

death for you to travel on the roads 

during a snowstorm? Those types of 

things.”

“And providing administrative 

leave to close relatives if they were a 

previous Council member, I think 

that should be looked at.”

“I went to Caroline Renville’s 

funeral and there were a handful of 

Tribal employees there.”

“… It’s disappointing.”

“I know at other tribes, they 

have them do a sign-in sheet, as 

crazy as that sounds, but they have 

them do a sign-in sheet if they’re 

going to take the day off to attend a 

funeral.”

“I think it’s just having 

equality, because there is no equality 

between our Tribal employees and 

our gaming facilities. They are 

required to be there rain or shine.”

Floyd: “I spent nine and a half 

years working for the casino.”

“I spent seven and a half years 

working for Dakota Western.”

“So I’ve seen it from both 

sides.”

“Back in ‘98, the storms were 

in ‘97/’98. The Dakota Sioux 

Casino was shut down, I do believe, 

for 21 days one month.”

“I was running the Parimutuel 

(betting) department at the time, so 

my department never shut down.”

“… My employees still had to 

go to work, including me.”

“So I see it from both sides.”

“Is it disrespectful to shut 

down for somebody’s funeral, 

former Council?”

“... The Chairman said there’s 

an unwritten rule, we inherited it, 

we follow it.”

“I’m not going to be that 

person that’s going to say no.”

“All the previous funerals we 

shut down for, and now want to be 

disrespectful to this person or even 

their family? No, I won’t do that.”

“But should we tighten up our 

belt a little bit more when it comes 

to snow days? We’re in a tough 

spot. I have ... I keep saying ‘I.’ The 

Finance department, they come to 

work even if there are snow days. 

Not all of them, but a lot of them 

come to work because they know 

they don’t want to fall behind in 

their jobs.”

“Payroll department, they still 

come to work because if they don’t 

come to work, nobody gets paid.”

“… A lot of times it is unfair, 

it’s unfortunate, but where do you 

draw the line?”

“We drew the line at when the 

schools shut down, we shut down.”

“It’s worse up in the hills 

sometimes than it is below the hills. 

Some people may find that there’s 

a little bit of snow, but you get up 

in the hills a little bit and there’s an 

accident. A lot of ice on the roads, 

lots of snow on the roads, and you 

can’t see.”

“We are in a tough spot, as 

Executives.”

“But I stand behind our 

decision that the three Executives 

make and we all support each other 

when it comes to those types of 

decisions. They are tough decisions, 

especially when like I said, I’ve been 

on the other side of it for 15 years 

in the gaming and manufacturing 

sides. So, tough spot.”

Danielle: “That is a tough 

question, just because due to ... 

You don’t want to lack respect for 

anybody with a funeral leave, like 

the funerals ... any of the previous 

Council reps or Executives. Also, I 

do believe that we need to revisit the 

personnel policies and procedures, 

or policies. And maybe even like the 

snow days, re-evaluate that, whether 

or not ... if you’re able to make it.”

“At least … we can have a 

skeleton staff working for the Tribe 

during those bad storms.”

“Like you said, it’s a tough 

decision to make, just because it has 

been in effect for so many years now 

and so many different terms with 

different Executives and Councils or 

administrations.”

“So I believe that that does 

need to be revisited and it would be 

... but we do need to think about, 

like Ella had said, people coming 

in from other places, traveling 

numerous miles and hours, and 

they’re still getting here to come to 

our administration building.”

“I think that if you’re able 

to make it during a snow storm, 

then it should be based upon our 

responsibility to make sure that 

we’re they’re at the office.”

Eddie draws some laughter, 

saying “The Chairman and Vice-

Chairman, they make me sign that 

memo.”

“No, I’m joking.”

“I understand … we’re in a 

tough situation … are we being 

disrespectful with the funeral?”

“But I try to look at it on the 

other side where I think we can try 

to work on something (for) people 

that are working at the casino.”

“If the Tribe is shut down, 

maybe giving them an incentive or 

something, because without them, 

we don’t have all of this. They’re the 

ones that are bringing the money to 

the Tribe.”

“That’s how I’d like to look at 

it going forward, is maybe if they 

make it to work, giving them a little 

something because the Tribe got 

shut down.”

“Because their lives are at risk 

too if they have to go to work, and 

that’s one of the things I see.”

“Bad weather, you don’t want 

to put anybody at risk … or be 

disrespectful at a funeral.”

“But that’s something I’d like 

to look into and bring in to Council 

… maybe some type of incentive 

that you can give to the people that 

do have to work during the extreme 

times.”

Myrna: “I have to address 

this from a personal point of view. 

Because I work with people and I 

do transports sometimes to other 

reservations, to treatment centers in 

Sioux Falls or wherever.”

“And like Ella said, the 

personnel policies do have to 

be revisited because we’re not 

compensated for working over … 

there’s many times that I have to 

work overtime, transport and get 

back late.”

“We don’t get compensated 

for that and it’s because they took 

the comp time accrual out of the 

personnel policies from what I 

understand.”

“As far as the leadership, I 

think just taking the bull by the 

horns and getting tough on the 

policy ... because there’s identified 

holidays and things that you get 

administrative leave for, and there’s 

holiday leave. And the funeral leave, 

it’s out of respect that they give 

the administrative leave for former 

Councilmen and Councilwomen, 

and that’s a good thing.”

“Only, there’s a lot of people 

that don’t go, that’s the problem.”

“So I think just going back to 

the policy and enforcing the policy 

with the identified holidays and 

things that you actually can get days 

off for, would probably have to be 

something that they need to do.”

“And like I say, just revisiting 

that policy and addressing those 

different issues, because we are such 

a huge operation now, and we are a 

government.”

“And the only time the federal 

government shuts down is during 

the continuing resolution threat. 

But yeah, I think we’re too huge to 

shut down randomly.”

Lisa: “Paid leave … I have 

been at Magic 2001 to now, and I’ve 

traveled those roads through storms 

all the time.”

“And like most of the 

candidates up here acknowledge 

that Dakota or DNGE employees 

are required to be there, whether it’s 

storming or not.”

“So this issue hits our table 

quite a bit, and our policies are a 

little bit more stringent than the 

Tribe’s.”

“But we still take a huge hit in 

costs when it comes to admin leave.”

“And some of the things we 

had to look at when it comes to this 

is, we had to readjust our admin 

hours versus bereavement leave.”

“So you’re given admin leave 

for a reason, so we’re asking our staff 

to begin to use your admin leave for 

times like those.”

“And it’s tough; it’s tough 

decisions that we have to make, but 

it does effect the bottom line.”

“And we are a little bit ... 

we’re a lot different than the Tribal 

programs here because we’re a 24-

hour, seven days a week business.”

“… We have to make sure that 

we’re paying attention to this issue 

and we’re trying to be fair at the 

same time.”

“Some of the things that we do 

internally is when we know a storm’s 

coming, our department identifies 

those who can be there and who can 

wait out the storm.”

“Done it many a times and so 

that becomes an internal process 

that we do as a team.”

“And so these are some of the 

experiences that I’m aware of and 

that I can bring to the table when it 

comes to this issue.”

“We got to think out of the 

box.”

“I agree with everybody up 

here who talked about … revise the 

policy.”

“We always should be revisiting 

our policies at least … annually, 

and making sure we’re making 

adjustments as we evolve.”

“We are a government … we 

are growing. And so when we lapse, 

the whole Tribe outfit does have a 

huge impact on us. So we do need 

to think outside the box and we 

need to ask from our employees 

too, ‘What are you willing to give to 

help us be successful in this move?’ 

Because really we need to do it 

together.”

“So this is something that 

we can do and talk about with 

our departments and see what 

recommendations they would have.”

Martha: “Just for your 

information, I was on Council in 

‘93 and ‘4, so when I die, I want 

you guys to be off all week.”

Martha: “Okay. We got like 

18 more questions and we want 

everybody’s question to be … 

answered. So guys … you’re going to 

have to talk a little bit faster, okay?”

Martha: “Since North Dakota 

is a state that provides medical 

marijuana to its people, and this 

year recreational marijuana is on 

the ballot in South Dakota, would 

you support a cannabis business in 

North Dakota?”

Floyd: “Medical marijuana. I’m 

100% in on medical marijuana.”

“If we can get it taxed, if we 

can grow our own, why not.”

“If we can’t get the tax out of 

it, I don’t know if I’m necessarily in 

favor of it.”

“I look at the economic dollars 

for the medical marijuana, same 

way as ... recreational marijuana. If 

we can grow it and we can make a 

dollar off it, I’m all in on it. I really 

am.”

“It’s money that’s come in, it’s a 

whole new resource that we’ve never 

had before in the past.”

“Obviously, Colorado is doing 

very well with it.”

“So I’d be all in, but if we don’t 

get the tax from it, the Tribe don’t 

get the tax from it, then I wouldn’t 

be for it. That’s my opinion.”

Ella: “I’ll try to be short and 

sweet.”

“I was involved in the research 

that we did to establish the hemp 

project. And so actually the hemp 

project … is our foot in the door for 

… cannabis.”

“Right now, hemp, we wanted 

to use it for manufacturing and 

I’ve had a number of people ask 

me, ‘What is your view on medical 

marijuana?’ And I know that we do 

have Tribal members that do receive 

prescriptions from North Dakota.”

“My sister was trying to get 

one, Ellen Robertson, before she 

passed away from cancer.”

“And I think about that … 

these people have terminal illness.”

“You have terminal illness, and 

it’s not about recreation.”

“And so I think if we’re looking 

at alternative medical sources the 

same as we would our traditional 

medicines, I think that we’re starting 

the research in doing that, and I 

think that there is potential for the 

Tribe to move in that direction.”

Eddie: “Medicinal? I would be 

in favor.”

“I’m in agreement with the 

Vice-Chairman. As long as there’s 

a dollar that’s coming in, because 

there’s a lot of that money that 

could come back to which would 

help with the Tribal Secretary’s 

office programs, which is, you know, 

the meth epidemic, the opioid 

epidemic.”

“I see that as something that’s 

sort of a catch 22, where one thing 

and trying to fix another and people 

see it as the same thing.”

“But that’s where I stand on it, 

as long as the dollar’s going to help 

prevent whatever epidemics we have 

that we need the help with, I’m in 

agreement with it.”

Lisa: “The question is 

recreational marijuana, medical 

marijuana,”

“I would be in support of 

medical marijuana. To regulate this 

product, it’s costly. Some of the 

training that I’ve gone to as far as 

compliance and how recreational 

marijuana is being presented for 

casinos, I would have to say I would 

be against.”

“I will agree that a dollar, if it 

makes a dollar, it’s good for us.

“I feel like recreational 

marijuana is going to open the 

door to bring in different types of 

activities that I think we right now 

are trying to combat and get out of 

our communities.”

“So there’s a difference here 

between medical marijuana and 

recreational marijuana. I’m not in 

favor of recreational marijuana.”

Danielle: “I’m going to have 

to agree with that whole statement 

there. I do agree with the medical 

marijuana, because medical 

marijuana, you can bring in a lot 

of money, a lot of revenue, because 

you can use it for ... they have 

patches, they have pills, they have, 

I mean, it’s going to be beneficial to 

people who are dealing with long 

term terminal illnesses.”

“I do not agree with the 

recreational marijuana, just because 

we have so many issues already that 

we’re dealing with, within our own 

Tribe here. And that would just 

lead onto another issue that you 

know, with … us trying to get rid 

of the meth and drug use, illegal 

drug use. So I do agree with medical 

marijuana, just because it will help 

out financially.”

Myrna: “That’s a good 

question.”

“I’ve learned that marijuana 

is a gateway drug that leads to 

other drugs, however the medical 

marijuana, they can give that to 

children that are suffering from 

cancer and things. And I work with 

a lot of clients that actually use 

marijuana to combat their anxiety, 

so I know that it can calm people 

down. It can help them with their 

anxiety, it can help them with their 

sickness, with their nausea.”

“So, you know, there’s some 

benefits to it, but I cannot support 

the recreational use because of how 

it can be a gateway drug into other 

drugs. But I am supportive of the 

medical marijuana.”

Dave: “I say this respectfully, 

it’s dollars versus morals.”

“We just talked about language 

preservation of culture and history, 

and that is not part of our culture.”

“And speaking from experience 

with it myself, I’m not proud of it, 

but there are other states, North 

Dakota, Minnesota. I know Tribal 

members that have chosen to move 

to Denver because of their laws, 

because of the sicknesses they have, 

unfortunately, and Minnesota is a 

medicinal state and I believe North 

Dakota’s got it on their ballot.”

“So there’s land in North 

Dakota, we could build housing 

maybe, maybe get into that.”

“Morally, it’s wrong.”

“I understand the dollars part 

of it and the medical part of it, 

but it’s not part of us, as Dakota 

people.”

“We have traditional medicines 

here that can heal the same types of 

sicknesses.”

“Warriors in the day 

experienced post traumatic stress, 

they experienced different social 

dysfunctions in their Tribe, different 

illnesses. Smallpox, influenza and 

those types of illnesses that back 

then, those … (were) able to 

make medicine within their own 

homelands and they were able to 

cure any disease.”

Exec candidates forum

Continued on Page 10

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