January 08, 2006
Sunday

Sally Chapin is justified in her indignation over the horribly unethical resolution that precluded her and other former employees from running for the Ketchikan Indian Community tribal council.
 
 KIC 05-50, is about preventing former employees and current council members from being employed at KIC. This policy is absolutely self-serving to the incumbent council candidates as it limits the pool of attractive candidates who can run and win against the same people who seem to think that former employees, who know KIC in and out, would be detrimental. Additionally, if you are a longshoreman, hairdresser, bus driver, City employee or a contractor, you would not likely be hired from the council as the next General Manager or department head. The previously listed occupations are held by: Rob Sanderson, Carrie James, Norman Arriola, Joel Buchannan and Chas Edwardson. These are the authors and supporters of KIC 05-50. The first three are asking for your vote in the next election while precluding Sally Chapin from running.  This Machiavellian policy represents the majority of the policy created by the aforementioned council members, unless you count firing our last General Manager.
 
The same folks, who brought you KIC 05-50, also fired the hardworking and dedicated General Manager: Georgiana Zimmerly.  As tribal council President, I tried unsuccessfully to get the council to go into training to learn how to interact and work with the manger. I wanted them to learn how to: set identifiable goals that are not subjective but can be measured, how to have meaningful oversight on our only employee and to treat our employees with respect and trust that anyone in the work-place deserves. Most importantly, I wanted to let the world know that we were a fair council and one who treats their own members and employees fairly and adhere to our policy of hiring and promoting our own members to positions within KIC. Instead, they summarily fired her with no plan for the future, not even who was going to be the interim manager. Since then, we have been at a near stand-still at KIC.
 
We need people on the council that can see how desperately we need to restructure ourselves. The interim General Manager, with my support, brought forward a restructuring plan that addresses our long-standing deficiencies at KIC. It called for a compliance position that would address the ever increasing reporting requirements to the Federal Government and a planning department to help address the vision of making a new campus at 429 Deermount that would include a permanent place for our parent organization: ANB/ANS and would dedicate 2960 Tongass Ave. to healthcare. Instead, it was voted down with no alternative policy offered up in its place.   This council has not given any clear direction to staff on how to move forward. Anything that we bring up is voted down with no other direction given. "No" is not leadership; it's the absence of it.
 
People like Sally Chapin, who are former employees, who know the issues and the apparent inability of the current council to address them, are exactly what KIC needs. You and I don't need to have our choices at the polls restricted by career council members. Instead we should let all our enrolled members apply themselves to our political process regardless of their employment history. A victory of a write-in candidate like former employee Sally Chapin would send a clear message to the council: start looking after our interests, not your own. You have my vote and endorsement Sally.
 
 
Best Regards,

Samuel Bergeron
Ketchikan, AK - USA

About: Samuel Bergeron is the outgoing tribal Council President and current tribal council candidate. He has served one term on the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly and owns and operates Bergeron Construction Company LLC.

Related Viewpoint:

WRITE IN SALLY CHAPIN FOR KIC TRIBAL COUNCIL By Sally R. Chapin - Ketchikan, AK - USA

 

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