The Evening News -- Dec. 17, 2008Sault Ste Marie--Petitioners finally received their answer more than a month after submitting a document requesting the Sault Tribe board of Directors to cut their annual salaries from $67,200 to $30,000 or allow tribal members to determine the board's salary.
"I have been asked to kindly inform you that the Board of Directors has determined to take no action on your petition," wrote tribal attorney Aaron Schlehuber, in a Dec. 10, letter to Sault Tribe member John Hatch, who submitted the petition.
Schlehuber advised Hatch that the petition "is not a petition requiring action pursuant to Tribal Code Chapter 12: Referendum Ordinance. But rather is best described as a request to the Board of Directors for one of two voluntary actions to be taken, a stipend reduction, or the letting of an advisory referendum.
Hatch and the 100 plus tribal members who signed the petition argue that the Sault Tribe is in dire financial shape. The Board has cut hundreds of member-jobs, reduced member services, cut the annual elder dividends and ended the tribe’s Children’s Christmas party. The Board has not included its own salary that amounts to more than $1 million a year.
“We’re a loosely knit organization that wants to see fair and balanced policies out of the tribal government,” said Hatch, calculating cutting board salaries would save about $300,000. This is a way to pump money back into the system.”
The petitioners will re-circulate the measure for the tribal ballot. “This time we are not asking the Board to do the right thing,” Hatch said. We will make this a legal matter using the Tribe’s Constitution.”
The tribal board just passed its 2009 governmental budget, triggering member rights to hold a referendum on board salaries. Another petition is planned this month.
Hatch contends it’s not the failing national economy that hurt the tribe’s pocketbook, but the board’s poor management of its tribal businesses and casinos. “We are paying for their incompetence,” Hatch said. It is time they put some skin in the game”
(For more information place email johnhatch1@charter.net)
"I have been asked to kindly inform you that the Board of Directors has determined to take no action on your petition," wrote tribal attorney Aaron Schlehuber, in a Dec. 10, letter to Sault Tribe member John Hatch, who submitted the petition.
Schlehuber advised Hatch that the petition "is not a petition requiring action pursuant to Tribal Code Chapter 12: Referendum Ordinance. But rather is best described as a request to the Board of Directors for one of two voluntary actions to be taken, a stipend reduction, or the letting of an advisory referendum.
Hatch and the 100 plus tribal members who signed the petition argue that the Sault Tribe is in dire financial shape. The Board has cut hundreds of member-jobs, reduced member services, cut the annual elder dividends and ended the tribe’s Children’s Christmas party. The Board has not included its own salary that amounts to more than $1 million a year.
“We’re a loosely knit organization that wants to see fair and balanced policies out of the tribal government,” said Hatch, calculating cutting board salaries would save about $300,000. This is a way to pump money back into the system.”
The petitioners will re-circulate the measure for the tribal ballot. “This time we are not asking the Board to do the right thing,” Hatch said. We will make this a legal matter using the Tribe’s Constitution.”
The tribal board just passed its 2009 governmental budget, triggering member rights to hold a referendum on board salaries. Another petition is planned this month.
Hatch contends it’s not the failing national economy that hurt the tribe’s pocketbook, but the board’s poor management of its tribal businesses and casinos. “We are paying for their incompetence,” Hatch said. It is time they put some skin in the game”
(For more information place email johnhatch1@charter.net)
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