Included in the meeting packet for the November 13, 2013 BC Regular Meeting is a Job Description for two new grant-funded positions paying $16.14/Hr.
Interestingly, the Job Description appears to have been three pages long but the second page, which would have listed the positions’ qualifications & requirements, was entirely omitted from the version included in the meeting packet.
However, Oneida Eye has seen no evidence that these jobs were ever posted Tribal-wide nor in the Kalihwisaks in order to find the best qualified and most capable applicants for the positions.
Were these new job openings posted as widely as possible within the Tribe and in the Kalihwisaks as would seem to be required for new positions or were they intentionally kept secret by HRD & the BC from the local and national Oneida Tribal member talent pool?
Text accompanying the Job Description in the November 13, 2013 BC meeting packet says:
If services for this Grant is [sic] not fulfilled we could possibly lose the 1.3 million dollar grant.
In that case you would want to make damn sure that the very best and the most highly qualfied applicants were chosen to oversee the implementation of a million dollar grant-funded program.
According to a flyer posted on the Oneida Tribe’s website, the positions were apparently filled by Rosa Laster and Peril Huff.
Rosa Laster is the niece of Human Resource Dept. Manager Geraldine Danforth and the niece of Grants Director Cheryl Stevens.
Peril Huff is the niece of Tribal PR Director Bobbi Webster.
It is Oneida Eye’s understanding that Peril Huff was working as an HR Assistant, and Rosa Laster was working as an Emergency/Temporary Gaming HR Assistant (#02376) at $13.34/hr. Another document in the November 13, 2013 BC Meeting Packet shows the E/T position was set to end on November 22, 2013, but the BC granted Geraldine Danforth’s request for an extention of the E/T position until February 21, 2014 which would make it appear that Rosa Laster’s new position was waiting for her (with a $2.80/hr raise!) rather than having been published as widely as possible in order to attract all of the qualified Oneida Tribal applicants.
Is this an example of the Oneida Tribe’s HRD Manager engaging in nepotism and favoritism rather than working to ensure that all of the qualified Tribal candidates had a fair & equal chance to submit an application for these important employment opportunities?
What are the job qualifications & requirements and why were they strangely omitted from the copy of the Job Description in the November 13, 2013 BC Meeting Packet? Do the people who were hired for these positions actually meet the qualifications?
Even if they do, shouldn’t the HRD job openings have been posted widely so that those Tribe members who are as – or more – qualified have had a fair & equal opportunity to apply for employment?
Eventually the hiring decision would have been made by the Personnel Commission, of which Geraldine Danforth’s mother and Rosa Laster’s grandmother, Carol Smith, just happens to be a member. Hmm.
This information has been emailed to BC Chair Ed Delgado, Tribal Secretary Patty Hoeft, and BC members Vince DelaRosa & David ‘Fleet’ Jordan. We encourage Oneida Eye readers to contact them and ask if OBC allowed HRD to keep these job openings secret. If so, why? If not, how will they address HRD Manager Geraldine Danforth’s improper denial of employment opportunities to Tribe members?
Oneida Eye will present more information as it becomes available.
This is Pinteresting.
Especially in light of this:
UPDATE: The Tribal Secretary’s office reports that the copy of Job Description #02486, Workforce Development Specialist, as submitted to them by the HR Dept. for inclusion in the November 13, 2013 BC Regular Meeting packet was, in fact, missing the second page regarding the postion’s requirements and qualifications. A request made by the Secretary’s office to the HRD Dept. for a complete copy of that Job Description was not responded to by the end of business on Friday January 31, 2014.
