Thoughts....

It's been a while since I've posted on here.  Sorry, I've been extremely busy but I want to give my opinions on those who were voted in the preliminary elections plus my thoughts on the Deb Deleon and Fred Kiogima mess.  I will give my comments on the per cap issue too.

First of all, I felt bad that Allan Kesick didn't make it through the preliminary elections.  I happen to know him and think he's about the ONLY one who would be working for Tribal members and not trying to line his pockets.  As of now, Frank Bernard made it through the preliminary election but so did Deb and Fred, along with David Harrington.  John Keshick didn't make it through the preliminary and he has appealed that.  I have no idea what happened on that.  He was a lousy Councilor who was in the job strictly for the money, from what I've heard.  He never did anything for the Tribal members.  I sure hope he isn't re-elected to Council.

Now onto the Deb-Fred issue.  They're the greediest Tribal members that I know.  They're still getting paid for being Chair and Vice-Chair!!!!  Within the last couple weeks, they lost their court battle to keep their payments (Chair {Fred}-$7500/month and Vice-Chair {Deb}-$5,000/month) so they appealed this decision.  All their shenanigans have pushed back the elections for Tribal Council and also for Chair and Vice-Chair.  They should be sued because they're accepting payments for a job they should be doing and aren't.  They were RECALLED by registered Tribal voters for not doing their jobs so they can't do the jobs they had been elected to do.  Why are they continuing to get paid??  I just don't understand that, even though by the Constitution, they can collect that money.  If they had done their jobs, we wouldn't be in this situation.  So, now they're running for Tribal Council!!  That's so unbelievable that they think they will do the Council jobs that it makes my head spin.  The cards they sent out were the same ones they sent when they were running for Chair and Vice-Chair except they put the words in that let people know they were running for Council and that they were ethical and that sort of garbage.  Then I saw an e-mail where Deb had asked her family members to vote only for her and Fred.  She didn't think she'd get elected to Council without family votes and thought Fred would make Council but not herself.  Good God Almighty, that woman has the gall to think she should be on Council.  Well, to my way of thinking, she and Fred had their chances as Chair and Vice-Chair to do something for Tribal members and didn't.  Does she think all Tribal members don't know they were in those positions and didn't do anything for Tribal members at all except go to meetings?  I cannot believe the gall of those two and the greed?  Forget it!!  I can't stand either of them personally and damn sure not politically!!!!!!

The per cap issue:  Tribal Council pulled their crap again about the Tribe not having enough money to up the per cap payments to $2,500.  There was a meeting with the Elders in July and they sent in their people to convince the Elders that most departments would be closed if the per cap was raised.  The financial people (whom Council had sent to the meeting) were asked why Council should give themselves raises if there was no money and, if there was no money, why are they going ahead with building a casino in Mackinac City.  No answer from any of them - those questions were either denials by those running the meeting (Council henchwomen) or no comment was made.  I believe that they didn't convince the Elders that there was no money.  The per cap needs to be raised, salaries cut along with a smaller government.  Council doesn't need to give the Council members more money - all they do is meet twice a month for two days each time and they want to be full-time, hence more money.  Council controls the whole Tribe!  They have departments under them that should be on their own and that's a violation of the Tribal Constitution for them to do that.  There's supposed to be three (3) separate divisions of Tribal government:  Executive, Legislative, and Judicial.  The judges supposedly are in Council's "back pocket", so to speak.  Our Tribal government is so corrupt that it makes me want to cry because everybody, it seems, is out for more money and they want it, come hell or high water.  We certainly need help from the Great Spirit!!
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 It's a holy wonder:  Deb and Fred lost their appeal, I think sometime in the latter part of October or early part of November 2015!!!  Yay!!  They lost their income for sitting on their butts, not doing anything for anybody except themselves.  Bet it hurts!!

Spoke to an elder from the Tribe a day or so ago.  Was told that the meals will cost at least $2 each in "donations" from each person who eats the meal.  Plus, it sounded like the meals are going to be only once a week, not twice a week as it was for years.  Was also told that a staff member in the Elders Department was demoted to just a regular employee and working 40 hours per week.  Elders are not a happy group.

I sat and talked with the elder for quite awhile and the person was really upset at how the Elders Department is run.  What I was told by the person was also posted on the Red Arrow.  What is going on with LTBB??  Council members are so greedy - they voted themselves a raise but yet took $99 from our per cap checks this year because they said they didn't have any money.  YET, they're going ahead with the Mackinaw City casino.  How STUPID can they be?  No Tribal member wants the casino for Mackinaw City - they haven't even paid off the casino that the Tribe currently runs in Petoskey!  We need help, not only from the Creator but also from someone who can be Chair and be honest and look out for the Tribe's best interests.  Is there anybody out there like that????????

2015 Tribal Council Candidates and Note about Per Cap Initiative

Please excuse the missing punctuation and non-capitalization of titles in the article below.  I copied this from the Red Arrow website.  It contains the names of all those running for the 4 available seats this year.  I also left the comments made by "4 new councilors are needed in 2015 make your own decisions".  The comments (don't elect past Chairs and/or Vice-Chairs, past Council members or those current Council members running for re-election) contain my sentiments exactly.

From what I gather, common consensus is that Tribal Council is corrupt.  This corruption is ruining our Tribe!  They spend money like water going through a person's fingers and have no accountability to Tribal members.  I could add more but I won't.  Just think about the definition of corruption and you get the idea of what I'm talking about.  Our Tribe needs change and the first place to start is with new Tribal Council members who are not corrupt, at least not yet, and will look out for Tribal members' interests and needs.

NEW COUNCIL CANDIDATES THIS YEAR (2015):
(give these citizens a chance )

1} Douglas Wylie Emery
2} Frank Bernard
3} Allan Wayne Kesick
4} John Angus Kawegoma
5} Virgina May Lewis
6} Jesse Lewis Boda
7} Dollie Keway
8) David M. Harrington
9) Warren Donald Petoskey (he has dropped out)

Past Councilors & Chairs & Vice Chairs :
(they had the chance to help the ltbb citizens but did not.  Who wants to give them another chance?)
They all were not good but the ones who were on Council were corrupt, along with the other Councilors.

10) Ken Harrington - chair - recalled
11) John Louis Gasco - councilor
12) Dexter Marsh McNamara - councilor & vice chair & chair
13) Kevin Alexander Gasco -councilor
14) Debbie De Leon -vice chair - recalled in 2014
15) Fred Kiogima- chair - recalled in 2014

Present Councilors and Present Chair
They have had 4 years or more years, some up to 12 years, to give back to our tribal citizens but instead voted to spend money on a day care, spent money on buying land for another casino and put themselves on more council committees and the last one they all voted yes to buy a farm and pay out $750,000.00 for and really close to 1 million dollars so far has been spent on it.
So everyone one states they have done economic development has anyone in ltbb seen really any change except to spend our monies on travel and buying land that is never used a day care that was shut down after a few months of buying it.
All they do is talk and spend money that is not theirs but the tribal citizens money and then when we try to ask questions at our own community meeting they hide behind a bad spokes person that is in with their games of not answering any questions.

16) Regina Gasco Bentley
17) Winnay Jolene Wemigwase
18) Jon W. Keshick, lll (another one that goes by John, Jon and sometimes puts lll (sic) in his name and other times not)
19) Bill A. Denemy (this time not putting Jr. in his name, hoping you think it's his father running- sneaky)
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An initiative to raise the per cap to $2,500 is currently going around for Tribal member signatures.  If the group handling this matter get enough signatures, it will go out to the general membership for election in June 2015 when voting for Council members.  Should the per cap be approved by the Tribal membership, we may get a portion of it this year but, next year, we will get the whole $2,500.  Council will have to budget at least $12,000,000 to fund this raise next year.  The reason I'm saying we may get a portion of the amount this year is that the budget has already been made and Tribal Council did not foresee the initiative going around for Tribal member approval.  The nice thing about this initiative is that it will force Tribal Council to do what has to be done if they come back and say there's no money for a raise.  This initiative did go around for signatures a couple years ago by Tim LaCroix and wasn't approved because Council told the elders that there was no money for the raise and they were told a couple other things so that went out to members through word of mouth and it did not get the required signatures.  The current initiative is exactly the same one as Tim put out, nothing was changed in it whatsoever.  Judy Feathers is the one who started this initiative going and she and Judy Field are the main ones collecting signatures but there are others in the Tribe who are collecting signatures too.  I was told that the group WILL get the required amount of signatures this time and they believe that Tribal members will approve this raise.  Good luck to them! 

People are saying the per cap will put them in a new income category and also a new tax category.  It may also affect a person's Social Security amounts received too and the member should check with the local Social Security office for clarification on this matter.  You should be aware that a person DOES NOT have to accept the per cap raise!  He or she can donate the amount back to the LTBB Tribe or some other agency for charity, elder or youth programs in LTBB, and claim that on their taxes.
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