In addition to providing two-hundred and thirty-four signatures for a petition to dissolve Oneida Seven Generations Corporation, the Oneida General Tribal Council also voted at the July 1, 2013 GTC Semi-Annual Meeting to table the acceptance of both the Oneida Tribe’s 2013 Semi-Annual Report and the 2013 Corporate Report in order to give GTC members the chance to review both as was noted in item 5 of the GTC Semi-Annual Meeting Action Report.
The vote to table acceptance of the reports followed a discussion period which included questions posed to Tribal Treasurer Tina Danforth from Oneida Eye’s June 29 post: The Mystery of Green Bay Renewable Energy.
Specifically:
Who owns Green Bay Renewable Energy, LLC?
If OSGC owns GBRE then why didn’t OSGC disclose that fact in their ‘Disclosure Report; as of December 31, 2011′ as the Corporate Report Model of their Corporate Charter requires them to have done?
If OSGC doesn’t own GBRE then why did the Oneida Business Committee apparently provide money from the Tribe’s General Fund for GBRE’s legal fees in the failed lawsuit against the City of Green Bay and the ongoing appeal?
Are there any shareholders other than the Oneida Tribe, and if so who are they?
Who is on the Board of Green Bay Renewable Energy, LLC, who are the key management personnel, and what are their salaries/stipends?
Instead of answering these very simple, straightforward questions, Treasurer Danforth deflected them by saying, “I’m not responsible for what goes into Corporate Reports.”
Another GTC member said that the GTC deserves answers and there was applause, including from some members of the Business Committee.
While it’s good news that GTC members want to read the Tribe’s and OSGC’s reports before accepting them, Oneida Eye has made clear that OSGC’s reports have consistently failed to provide or have intentionally excluded information that the shareholder (i.e. the Tribe/GTC) has a legal and legitimate need to know:
- Debts, Loans & Salaries
- Quotes & Comments on OSGC’s Narrative
- Business Mysteries: Unaccountability for Acts
Given that the Corporate Report Model included in OSGC’s Corporate Charter requires them to provide an updated Disclosure Report
…whenever there is a change to the Corporation’s Board membership, turnover to key management personnel, or a business venture creating a new partnership, LLC, subsidiary, or any other legal entity connected to the Corporation for any purpose
…OSGC should have submitted an updated Disclosure Report regarding the swearing in of Owen Somers and Todd Van Den Heuvel as new OSGC Board Members on June 26, 2013.
The Corporate Report Model requires that the updated Disclosure Report submitted following their swearing in contain information about Somers and Van Den Heuvel regarding any financial or familial relationship between them and other OSGC Board members and key management personnel
…as well as any relationship, financial or familial with any current member of the Oneida Business Committee or any member of any regulatory body within Oneida such as a board committee or commission charged with regulating the Corporation’s industry or activities.
Oneida Eye has previously demonstrated how OSGC’s Disclosure Report as of December 31, 2011 failed to include or blatantly omitted these basic and important relationships:
- OSGC manages properties on land owned by the Tribe and the Oneida Land Commission oversees land use and zoning, yet the report fails to note that Land Commission Chairperson Amelia Cornelius is the mother of OSGC CEO Kevin Cornelius.
- OSGC and some of its business ventures have contracts and agreements which must be reviewed and approved by the Oneida Gaming Commission, yet the report fails to note that OSGC President & Chairperson Atty. William Cornelius is Counsel for the Oneida Gaming Commission and that Gaming Vice-Chairperson Amelia Cornelius is the mother of OSGC CEO Kevin Cornelius and she oversees the contract between Atty. William Cornelius and the Oneida Gaming Commission in addition to having approval of contracts between Oneida gaming operations and OSGC ventures including Oneida-Kodiak Construction, LLC, and Oneida Generations, LLC.
- OSGC doesn’t disclose that Oneida Generations, LLC, has a Memorandum of Agreement with the Oneida Tribe, nor that Oneida Generations receives monthly lease payments from the Oneida Casino for occupancy of the 29/32 Oneida Travel Center.
- Names of persons whose businesses are doing business with OSGC for purposes of mutual enterprise are entirely omitted.
- While registered agents’ names can be found publicly on the Wisconsin Dept. of Financial Institutions website, the owners, partners and key personnel of each entity is not listed. For example, the board members of Oneida Energy, Inc., which include President William Cornelius, CEO Kevin Cornelius, Director Nathaniel King and Michael Metoxen are not disclosed.
- The very existence of Green Bay Renewable Energy, LLC, which was formed on December 15, 2011 and registered in the State of Delaware and is a co-party with OSGC in their failed lawsuit and current appeal against the City of Green Bay, is completely absent from the Disclosure Report.
It’s obvious that GTC cannot trust OSGC to fulfill their reporting obligations nor can OBC be trusted to hold OSGC accountable for their disclosure obligations, among other things, which is why GTC members – as the shareholder/owner of OSGC — have a legitimate need to have access to OSGC’s Disclosure Reports.
Predictably, Tribal Secretary Patty Hoeft and the Business Committee don’t see things that way as is revealed in her June 25, 2013 response regarding multiple requests to review OSGC’s latest Disclosure Report held by her office.
Not only did Secretary Hoeft’s reply fail to note that the requests by a member of GTC to review OSGC’s Disclosure Reports was based both on GTC membership as well as Tribal employment, there was no analysis provided by the Oneida Law Office backing up the basis for Secretary Hoeft’s decision.
If GTC members don’t have a legitimate need to know the actual and potential conflicts of interest regarding Oneida Seven Generations Corporation nor those of other Tribal corporations which GTC owns, who does have a legitimate need to know?
OBC members who cannot be trusted to hold OSGC accountable even after it’s been demonstrated to them that OSGC is failing to adequately and accurately disclose information?
Secretary Hoeft can’t even be trusted to update the Tribe’s website to provide GTC access to a copy of OSGC’s most recent Corporate Charter which underwent changes a year-and-a-half ago!
See for yourself. Click the following link to OSGC’s page on the Tribe’s website then click on ‘Seven Gens Corp Charter’:
https://oneida-nsn.gov/Templates/OneColumn.aspx?id=169
The hosted version is from January of 2011. The most recent version is from February 2012.
Tribal Treasurer Tina Danforth said that she’s not responsible for what goes into OSGC’s Corporate Reports, and Tribal Secretary Patty Hoeft and OBC feel that the shareholder doesn’t have a legitimate need to see what goes into OSGC’s Disclosure Reports.
It is unavoidable that GTC will have to demand that they – as the shareholder/owner of OSGC – have every legitimate right to exercise responsibility for uncovering and addressing OSGC’s and OBC’s corporate and administrative irresponsibility, because the Oneida Business Committee is simply unwilling to protect GTC from OSGC.
GTC must make it clear to current and prospective members of OBC that OBC will not be allowed to impede GTC’s access to information which is crucial for GTC’s self-defense, because the alternative will be removal from office.
