Happy Halloween LCO! It’s the perfect day to come out with
some breaking news for our tribe. Why Halloween? Because, this is some scary
stuff. I’ve received some new information lately that suggests our tribe is in
serious financial trouble, just as I said several months ago in this very blog.
I stated that we would only have a couple of months and the money would run
dry. That couple of months has come and gone…and the money, apparently, has run
dry.
I’m working on a story that I will be sharing within the
next few days on this blog with more details on our casino bonds and the need
for restructuring. Remember this blog http://lcotoday.blogspot.com/2015/03/casino-bond-needs-to-be-restructuredor.html
that I wrote about the casino bond needing to be restructured within a year or
we’d be in default. I first made this statement back in November of 2014
because at the current rate of increase per monthly payment, within a year of
that time, we’d default. It is November 1st tomorrow, one year
later. Are we in default? No, not yet, but our tribal council is beginning to
take serious measures to avoid this happening.
I spoke with both Chairman Mic Isham and his cousin, council
member, Jason Weaver. They both told me two different stories and both pretty
much denied what I’m about to share with you. Our council has approached the
Shakopee Sioux Tribe for a large loan. I haven’t confirmed the amount yet. I
originally heard the amount was for $10 million, but Weaver confirmed to me
that the loan was for a casino makeover bond in the amount of $5 million. He
said that the Shakopee Sioux have backed off on the loan approval because they
have done several of these loans in recent years and the tribes are going into
default.
Isham completely denied that we approached Shakopee. He said
that financers are actually pitching our tribe to get a loan through them. He
said we have approached no one.
I’m not against our tribe seeking out a bond for our casino.
I believe we need a complete restructure of the current bond and yes, there
needs to be some improvements to our casino. Our debt is $28 million, so $5
million would do nothing but increase the pain. Weaver said the $5 million
would be used for some renovation and to purchase some newer gaming machines.
Would this really help? Maybe a little, but enough to get us out of the mess we
are in? I don’t know, but in another year, a balloon payment comes due.
What I am against in this whole process is what it may take
for our tribe to achieve a loan. Here is the scary part I mentioned earlier…
yet to be confirmed, but it comes from a pretty reliable source, is that our
tribe is putting up 6,000 acres of tribal lands as collateral for any loan, in
addition to casino revenues, and that was for a $10 million dollar loan that
may involve a local bank as well. Like I said, I will have the full story soon.
Something else I recently heard is that our tribal police
have been instructed by the LCO Legal Department to alert Legal two weeks in
advance prior to any more drug raids on the reservation. Isham denied this and
I haven’t bothered to call Chief Tim DeBrot yet because I know he can neither
confirm, nor deny any of this because he has a job to consider. It seems that in
the last drug raids a while back our local police made a blunder, so the
council has determined. When I said this to Mic, he no longer denied anything
and claimed that council had no say because it’s the feds. But, our council has
strong input, especially when it comes to the local law enforcement, and that’s
who they are referring to.
This is wrong on so many levels. There are many rumors in
our community that the drug culture extends all the way up to the tribal
council level, from protection and aiding and abetting, to actually receiving
profits. We can easily dismiss this as hogwash…until you hear about something
like this. The only thing I can gather out of a tribal council action like this
would be to protect the drug dealers in this community who may be tied in or
related to them personally.
I’m also going to come out with a few update stories in the
next few weeks in regards to many of the blogs I wrote during election time. I’d
like to see where the tribe sits today versus then. I know our people voted for
a new slate of council members under the anthem of “Change.” Has there been any
change?
During my talk with the chairman on Friday, he said that my
writing of those blogs only helped him. He believes that the people voted for
change and the change was to get rid of the four council members they did, and
in that action, the people voted to support him. Mic feels this way because the
four new members you all voted for did, in fact, support Mic and are continuing
to support him each and every day. I told him that he was wrong. Yes, our
people voted for change and that change was a vote against him and his
policies, but they simply voted for candidates who stayed positive in the
election process and at the same time, told the voters they represented “change.”
Jason Weaver was asked numerous times if he supported Mic and he always said
no. He said he was his own man and would make his own decisions, but now, it is
becoming clear that he always supported Mic, his cousin. If he was his own man,
he would be able to answer financial questions about the state of our tribe
rather than tell tribal members they need to talk to Mic or Norma about that.
In all fairness, Jason did answer my questions on Thursday
in a phone conversation, to the best of his ability. But, the next day when I
spoke to the chairman, I got a totally different story.
Here are some of the things that Jason did answer. He said
that the $2 million dollar balloon payment on the casino bond is coming due
next year but the money would come out of a reserve account that already holds
that money and it was always there from the beginning. He said that a company
did come in and explain the account to the council. If this were true, how come
the previous council wasn’t aware of this “reserve account?”
Jason confirmed that the tribe is taking serious measures to
meet the bond payments. He said the council has lowered the amount of money
they are taking from casino revenues for tribal operations. In doing so, the
tribe was cutting their budget by $1 million. He said that over $9,000 a month
is being saved from the cutting out of gas vouchers, comped hotel rooms and
other services.
“We are trying to be more fiscally responsible,” Jason said.
In regards to a local bank being involved in the $5 million dollar loan for a
casino makeover, or for any other loan purposes where our lands may be put up
for lien, he said there are no other loans outstanding right now, except for
the Hideout, that he knows about. This is neither confirmation, nor denial
because “he doesn’t know about it.”
Jason did say that Elders would get their Christmas bonus
this year. He also said that they are giving turkeys to only Elders this year,
but I thought it was always only elders. Maybe they are raising the age to
qualify as an Elder to receive turkeys, because he did say the price of birds
has gone up a lot due to the bird flu.
During my talk with Mic, he said that I wasn’t a reputable
journalist anymore. This is his opinion, but, I don’t care about that. I only
care about the people of this community learning the truth about what is going
on at our council level. I asked him if I was so wrong on all the blogs I have
been writing, then why has he not shown me or you any supporting documentation
that proves I’m wrong, rather than just claim it. I’ve seen documentation in
regards to my claims and I know the truth. He refuses to refute anything. His
hope is that you, the people of LCO, will believe what he says and that should
be good enough.
So tell me LCO, is it “good enough” that we don’t have a say
at all when our tribe puts up 6,000 acres of tribal land in, yet another, bad tribal
loan. Year after year we continue to operate in the red. If we receive this
loan and put up our casino revenues and tribal lands, what’s going to change?
In another year we will still be operating in the red and then what? Ask
yourselves LCO, is Mic’s word “good enough?
Maybe it's time our tribal council begin asking the people for advice instead of pretending they know it all. Not one of them has a business degree, which is seriously needed at this time. Maybe, with a few good decisions, our tribe may find its way out of this mess. Either way, when it comes to decisions on this scale, a referendum vote of the membership should be required.
