Due to the recent federal government shutdown which has resulted in the Oneida Tribe’s Emergency Cost Containment and Spending Restrictions and Emergency Furlough Policy, Don Miller told the media that there is no longer perishable food available from the Oneida Food Distribution Center and that supplies of non-perishables are rapidly dwindling.
The Cost Containment resolution also:
Eliminates all travel except for government and legislative officials traveling for governmental/legislative business.
Even so, a concerned Oneida woman informed Oneida Eye of this recent Facebook post by Council member Melinda Danforth:
Finally in bed after a super frustrating day of politics! To top it off 5 elected officials went to Senator Cowles office in Madison to speak w him on the Mascot issue and he tells us to talk to his Secretary! Wtf… I’ll be remembering that when elections roll around!!
Melinda sounds like she’s unaware (or more likely just doesn’t care) that there are Tribe members still waiting for their requested logins for the Tribe’s website so they can know what their government is doing (or failing to do), or that have had their email addresses blocked by BC members and their staff for voicing opinions on issues that affect them and their families (but, of course, those people aren’t as important as Melinda is… to Melinda).
Did the Tribe really pay for five elected officials to travel to-and-from Madison to speak to a secretary about mascots when the community pantry can’t even provide food to Tribe members who need it?
How is that sense of ‘priorities’ looking out for the “health, safety and welfare” of the Tribe as required by the Code of Ethics?
The Business Committee has also been busy for the past few weeks having meeting after meeting after meeting about whether to support the Menominee Tribe’s proposed off-reservation casino in Kenosha which is slated to be managed by out-of-state interests.
Did the Business Committee finally decide to give their support for that terrible idea out of selfless charity of the kindness of their hearts?
Of course not.
The Oneida Tribe supports the Menominee project and has agreed to work together on providing our banking services through Oneida’s Bay Bank. Bay Bank will provide a variety of financial and banking related services for the Kenosha casino project.
It makes perfect sense that a corruption-plagued project would use Bay Bank’s services given that Bay Bancorporation Board member Diane House lied about having a law license while she acted as an attorney for the Oneida Police Department and was never fired for her illegal deceit but simply transferred to another department and now serves as one of Chairperson Delgado’s Senior Policy Advisors, which might explain why Chief Counsel Jo Anne House thinks she should be able to get away with hiring someone without a law license as a Staff Attorney and Chairperson Delgado obediently accepts and permits Jo Anne’s unethical, crime-advocating bullsh¡t.
(Because, really, why should the Chief Counsel and the Oneida Law Office staff be expected to know and obey the law, or the Chairperson be expected to hold Jo Anne accountable when he knows she’s encouraging dishonest, criminal behavior by her subordinates?)
According to an October 17, 2013 report on WGBA NBC26, the Oneida Tribe’s Emergency Resolutions will stay in effect even though the federal shutdown is, for now, over.
Wouldn’t it have been nice if the BC had spent at least half as much time trying to secure help for the Food Distribution program as they have on supporting a questionable casino project (which could negatively impact Tribal finances) and traveling en masse to Madison to grandstand against mascots?
(As if T.C. & Where-the-Sun-don’t-shine Band showing up and tumbling out of their clown car would have any meaningful influence. Lulz!)
It seems the most appropriate mascot for the BC is Marie Antoinette.
General Tribal Council should be sure to remember what the current Oneida Business Committee thinks is more important than having a functioning food assistance program or a law-abiding legal office when Tribal elections roll around next year.
See also: Endorsement vs. Enforcement
