A plan to create and secure jobs through business development

A new direction for our tribe must include a vision to improve the health of our reservation. And by health, I mean the personal health and well-being of our tribal community members, but also, improving the economic conditions of the tribe by creating more jobs, insuring job security for those who currently hold a job, returning jobs to those who have recently lost their job, by mandating that any and all tribal enterprises begin turning a profit or face closure, and finally, by investing in new business developments that will make money for the tribal fund and at the same time, create more jobs.

I know it’s difficult to imagine closing down any of our tribal enterprises that aren’t making money because of the jobs that might be lost, the families that would be affected, but, this doesn’t have to be the case. There are ways that we can readjust these enterprises so that they either do start making money, or convert into a business that would make money for our tribe, and those jobs would just be transferred into a different style of workplace.

One of the most important things we have to focus on is turning around tribal enterprises that are failing. A business should be given a certain amount of time to turn a profit, and if not, then it should be converted into a business that may make money, or an entirely different approach should be taken, such as leasing the business out so that it doesn’t fall onto the tribal council. That’s the major problem right now, our tribal council tries to micromanage every business and after decades of failures, it should be apparent now that it doesn’t work. We need to give our managers more responsibility, and at the same time, make them more accountable.

In focusing on turning these businesses around or shutting them down, we don’t want people to lose their jobs. There’s been enough stress in our community lately over losing jobs. But, the tribe can’t continue to fund businesses that drain on our general fund for the sake of keeping people working. I propose that we take those businesses that won’t make money and either lease them out, or try a different business that might make money.

Let’s take a look at the biggest financial drain on our tribe year after year, LCO Development. The system of management there isn’t working and never has. So, why do we continue to fund this operation in the millions of dollars? The answer is simple, for the sake of jobs, and this is a good thing, but it’s not right for the rest of our membership. Those millions of dollars could have been used for a lot of great services to our people throughout the years. I can’t stand to see people lose their jobs. Jobs are a person’s life security and there’s nothing worse than getting cut off from a lifeline that takes care of a family. So what can we do?

I think it’s time we try something drastically different and with that approach, there may be two different options. The first option may be to lease the company out to someone, most likely a tribal member, and then the success or failure of the business would fall upon that person. The tribe would receive a monthly payment and any amount received would be much better than losing millions! I know of a couple of good qualified persons who may want a try at running the company as their own. And of course, part of any agreement would include the new owner hiring at least 75% LCO workers. The best course of action for leasing the company may also include separating LCO Development into two different leased-out businesses which would include Construction and Roads.

The other option is something that LCO Development workers would appreciate. We give it to them! We lease the entire operation out to the employees and make it an employee-owned business venture. They create their own board of directors from within their own ranks, hire their own management team and pay the tribe a set lease amount every month. The tribe wins because now, instead of paying out funds to cover losses, the tribe would receive a small monthly income. The employees and the management would then work real hard to make sure the business turns a profit, or, they wouldn’t get paid. The new management team would make sure the business is run correctly, or they’d have a bunch of ticked off employees to answer to. The harder the employees and management team work, eventually they may have some profits that they can share amongst themselves. I guarantee you that if the employees owned LCO Development, they would work harder, take pride in the business and more likely than not, hire a management team that will start showing profits. A management team accountable to the employees rather than a tribal council that tries to micromanage them will have a much better shot at success in their own bidding processes, paying bills on time, executing a contract in a timely fashion as well as insuring  a proper work ethic from the employees.

I can’t say for sure if this would work, but I believe it would have a much better chance at success than the current system. Isn’t it about time that we at least try something new?

As for other businesses that are struggling to make money, let’s lease them out as well. Let’s lease the space out to someone to run as their own business and to insure that we don’t lose tribal jobs, we bring the Tribal Employee Rights Ordinance (TERO) to LCO that would require any business owner on the reservation to hire at least 75% tribal member workers. If there’s currently a business running in a lease space, we keep that business running until the space is leased out so that the workers continue to work, and possibly, we could negotiate some terms that would benefit the new business owner to hire the same workers. It’s just a thought, but a good one. If we could rid the tribe of all the failing businesses while keeping tribal members working, is that not a good thing? We should start working towards this end, and having a TERO here at LCO would help a great deal in keeping LCO members working and working for much better wages.

Not only should we be looking at ways to turn around failing businesses and leasing them out, we need to invest money into businesses that will succeed and we need to consider investing off-reservation. We are not confined to stay here on the Rez with business investment. Why have we never considered investing in off-reservation convenience stores like other successful tribes have done? Why have we never considered investing in businesses out in Hayward and aiming to capture more tourist dollars? And we should seriously be considering a medicinal marijuana operation here on the Rez. I know Shondel Barber has done a lot of homework on this business venture and the profit potential is enormous. Our tribe could make millions annually from a growing operation.

It’s time for some serious and drastic changes in our business structure here at LCO. We should be making profits every year, in turn we should be providing services to our people, which include, ridding tribal homes of mold infestation, taking better care of our elders, making sure none of our people are homeless and raising the wages of our workers. If council members can afford to give themselves an 8% annual raise, then we should be able to afford a raise for all of our workers, and if not…then council sure as heck shouldn’t get a raise. Shouldn’t a management team earn such a raise by having a few success stories? What are their success stories? Homelessness, joblessness, hopelessness and despair throughout our reservation?

When I’m elected I will push these ideas forward. We must change our current system and we need to do it now so that later, we can show results instead of more failures.