American Indian Report - July 2008 - (Page 12)

TRIBAL COUNCIL B For most tribes, such “dual roles” raise legitimate conflict-of-interest issues. However, the dilemma for many is that neither their laws nor existing policies prevent such conduct. A “conflict of interest,” in this case, can be defined as “the presence of any outside influence that interferes with the ability of the decision maker to act in the best interest of the tribe.” It is important to remember that the decision maker can be either an employee of the tribe or an elected official. Also, the conflict of interest may exist when there is only the “perception” of such an outside influence. In other words, if a tribal council member or casino manager reasonably appears to have been under the influence of an outside influence that interfered with his/her decision making, it is not necessary that he/she actually be influenced in such a manner. The harm caused by the mere appearance of impropriety is sufficient. What outside influence could interfere with a tribal council member’s ability to serve as a casino manager? Conceivably, there may be many instances where tribal Joseph M. Paiement is a tribal attorney and an council members are called upon to make policy and budgetary instructor for Falmouth Institute, teaching Ethics, Tribal decisions for the casino that impact management. At a basic level, Constitutions and American Indian Law. If you have an almost all decisions regarding casino operations will in some way ethics question you would like him to address, please impact casino managers. Specific decisions concerning managesend it to joe.paiement@americanindianreport.com. ment’s authority, chain of command and compensation can be expected to have a direct and immediate impact upon individual casino managers. Are such considerations enough to justify banning tribal council members from assuming tribal administration or casino employment? Maybe. If casino decision making consumes a significant part of the responsibilities of a particular tribal council, it may be impractical to expect a tribal council member who is also a casino manager to abstain from participating in such decisions. The council member is rendered ineffective in his/her elective role because of their casino position. On the other hand, if, as is the case for many tribal casinos, casino management is essentially distinct from tribal government, there may be few, if any, instances where elected officials are “conflicted out” of participating in tribal council meetings. Each tribal government needs to consider the proximity of their tribal businesses to tribal government and craft a “conflict of interest” policy, preferably within a larger “Ethics Ordinance” that balances the need to promote tribal member employment with the duty to prevent corruption within the government. n 12 July 2008 American Indian Report Q A r i E f i n g ETHICS & STANDARDS OF CONDUCT Dual Roles — A Balancing Act Should tribal council members be permitted to hold management positions in their own casino(s) or assume other paid positions in tribal administration?

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Indian Report - July 2008

American Indian Report - July 2008 Contents Wolf Research; Native Language Scrabble; Indian Baseball History; Art; NEA Award Ethics & Standards of Conduct: Dual Roles - A Balancing Act Congress: Activity on the Hill Knowing Your Customer Grants: Tribal Transit Program - Putting Public Transportation in Rural Tribal Communities Indian Country Struggles with Skyrocketing Gas Prices Isolated Village Tackles Unique Environmental Issues CSKT and Wildlife Service Sign Bison Range Agreement Fostering Connections to Success Act Passed in House Tribal Government: Strategic Planning - A Shorter Assessment Process

American Indian Report - July 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.