Tribe looks to strengthen preference laws for tribal businesses
Change is likely coming to the ordinance outlining preference rules for tribally owned businesses. The rules come into play when bidding contracts for everything from construction projects to office supplies.
The board for the Tribal Employee Rights Office, which has new leadership since Principal Chief Patrick Lambert took office in November, has been “working diligently to fix this law,” board chair Kevin Jackson told Tribal Council this month.
“There is a lack all through it,” Jackson said. “It does not benefit the vendors right now. We’re working on an ordinance change. It’s not going to be 10 or 15 pages like what’s on the books right now. It’s going to be more in-depth, and I believe the changes we’re getting ready to propose will benefit our tribal members.”
In a nutshell, the TERO ordinance sets out requirements for tribally owned businesses to get licensed through the office and a process by which anyone bidding a project on the Qualla Boundary must abide. Basically, if a TERO vendor submits a bid that’s within 5 percent of the lowest bid, that vendor gets the project. If no bid comes in within that 5 percent window, TERO vendors get another chance to bid.
But according to Ernest Tiger, a tribal member and businessman, all is not well in the world of TERO. That’s why he approached Council this month asking for a revision to the ordinance, at which time Jackson came up to explain that the board is already working on a revision.
Tiger focused the crux of his criticism on Harrah’s Cherokee Casino, pointing at the “lack of accountability, transparency and access to business opportunities for TERO employees at casinos.” In particular, he said, the TERO ordinance should have some kind of limitation on the contract term for non-TERO vendors so that tribal members will have a better chance to get in on rebids.
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Of 530 vendors at Harrah’s, he said, only 4 percent — about 23 — are TERO-certified.
“The people who are overseeing these departments have been given the complete autonomy to do whatever they want to do,” Tiger said. “They’re acting completely unprofessionally.”
Tiger found support for that position from Councilmember Teresa McCoy, of Big Cove.
“I think what disturbs me the most is that we, the Indian people, the Cherokee people, are paying the total debt on that gaming enterprise and then we turn around and allow that many people who have no affiliation to this tribe do the things at this casino that so many of our Indian people are capable of doing,” she said.
But Jeremiah Wiggins, director of planning and analysis for the casino, sees it differently, calling that 4 percent number “misleading.”
“When we can use a TERO vendor, we do use a TERO vendor, but based upon our diverse needs here we have to seek suppliers from all over the country,” Wiggins said.
For example, every year the casino spends several million dollars on gaming machines. Nobody on the Qualla Boundary makes those. There are also the orders that go into Pepsi, the power contract with Duke Energy, shipments from USA Foods out of Charlotte and contracts with insurance providers. The list of similar examples is quite long, Wiggins said.
Anyway, compared to the more than 500 vendors the casino engages, TERO-certified businesses number just over 90.
As a Bryson City native, Wiggins said the staff at the casino contains a large proportion of people from the Qualla Boundary and the non-tribal Western North Carolina region.
“We look for reasons to keep that money here in Western North Carolina and on the boundary, and right now providing TERO service providers that 5 percent hedge appears to work fairly well,” he said.
However, Jackson and his board are still working to make the law stronger — considering not just preference for tribally owned businesses but also for the hiring of individuals.
“We would like to improve on current Indian Preference laws and TERO office so that they are effective in ensuring that native people receive their basic rights to employment, business and entrepreneurial opportunities on and near the Lands of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation,” Jackson said.
Jackson expects to have a draft ordinance ready for council’s consideration in the next month or two.
