Severed CNB Head Speaks

David Stewart (Photo Courtesy KOTV)

When last we talked, on Friday, CNB’s board was in the process of putting their CEO on leave.  Turns out, this is a very busy board, because they had another meeting today and KOTV Channel 6 was there.

They got a confession from board chairman/funeral service guy Sam Hart saying that CNB “is in great shape, we’re making great strides, we’re in great shape.”

So if we’re in great shape, then why is the CEO taking a leave of absence?   Well, according to Channel 6, the CEO, David Stewart, says he was “placed on a 30 day leave of absence last Friday. He says he hasn't turned in his resignation, doesn't plan too, and he hasn't been asked to resign.”

So if he’s doing a good job and doesn’t want to go, and his boss, the chairman of the board says he’s doing a good job, what gives?

Channel 6 also says “In 2002, Cherokee Nation Businesses had around a thousand employees, this year it has more than 4,500."

"In 2002, CNB's revenue was close to $25-million, in 2012, it's more than $600-million. Stewart says if this is indeed the end of his time with Cherokee Nation Businesses that he's proud of how the company has grown.”

One person who can shed light on this personnel issue, and has, is the speaker of the council, Tina Glory-Jordan, who shared details of the agreement with the media.  She says that Stewart's situation is neither a “termination or resignation but is a ‘standstill agreement between mutual, voluntary partners…”

He Means Business!

Bill John Baker means business.  He told us so, and one of his first orders of business looks to be replacing the Cherokees who run our businesses.   

According to the Cherokee Phoenix, Baker is appointing five new board members, and giving the boot to four folks who are on the board of directors.

The people who Baker does NOT want to run our businesses are:  the former CEO of CITGO, the third largest independent oil refiner in America (David Tippeconic), the executive vice president for financial services for Bancfirst, a bank with $5 billion in assets (Jay Hannah), the top guy at one of the biggest, if not the biggest, commercial real estate company in Tulsa (Mitch Adwon of Adwon Properties) and a financial executive at one of Oklahoma’s only Fortune 500 companies, ONEOK (David Ballew).  All are Cherokee.  All have helped, in some degree, build businesses that now make $90 million a year.

The people Baker wants to replace them are: Tommye Sue Wright, Bob Berry and Michael Watkins, of Tahlequah, as well as Stilwell’s Rex Earl Starr and Brent Taylor from Pryor.  The Cherokee Phoenix sums up their experience:

“A real estate agent with Century 21, Wright manages more than 50 sales agents and support staffers and is responsible for more than $60 million in real estate sales annually...

A graduate of Harvard Business School, Berry is the founder of American Nursery Products and Tri-B Nurseries. His family owns two nurseries and Tahlequah’s Cherry Springs Golf Course... 

Starr is a private practice attorney whose clients include five school districts in Adair and Sequoyah counties...

A graduate of Northeastern State University, Taylor is an entrepreneur who has brokered lease agreements with Jackson Hewitt, Pizza Hut, Covington Finance and Pryor Creek Music Festivals...

Watkins retired earlier this year after eight years as chief financial officer and controller of Park Hill Plants. He is a former vice president of Cherokee Nation Enterprises, now Cherokee Nation Entertainment.”  

All of these people have had good careers.  The Phoenix doesn’t mention it, but we’ll give Baker the benefit of the doubt that they are all Cherokee until we're told otherwise.  And maybe it’s just us, but when you are replacing a guy who has run one of the biggest companies in the world with a guy who’s resume includes lines like ‘brokered lease agreements with Pryor Creek Music Fesitivals,’ or one of the top guys at a $5 billion bank with a guy who does a little legal work for “five schools in Adair and Sequoyah counties” that seems like a downgrade. 

Election Limbo Part II, Day 6: Two Bulls are Better Than One

One of our readers sent us this link to this political cartoon:

 

Courtesy: Indian Country Today

 

We’re pretty sure S. John Crittenbaker is out of the tree already.  Megaprops to Marty Two Bulls, who does great work.  You should check out his web site http://m2bulls.com/ and buy some stuff.

40 Days Until the Election- Who Decided to Build that Casino, Anyway?

We had a question earlier this week about who makes the budget decisions at Cherokee Nation Businesses.  We’ll keep it short so your eyes don’t glaze over.

The truth is out there, if we just know where to look for it.  In this case, we look on the Cherokee Nation’s online resource for legislation and find that the tribe’s corporation act appears to have first passed in 1996. 

It’s been amended a few times since then, the most notable being in 2005, when CNB was established to basically own and manage the other companies (mainly just CNE and CNI at that time), and in 2010 when they combined all the boards of directors to form one company.

Smith signed the amendments in 2005 and 2010, and Baker voted for them, so there should be no controversy there.  Baker also voted for the 1996 act when he was on the council.

Those acts designate the corporations and their board of directors to make the policy decisions for the businesses.  The board of directors are proposed by the Chief and confirmed by the council.  So the elected officials don’t make the decisions on the businesses, but they are able to hold them accountable.

After the debate where Smith talked about the smart guys from Harvard saying that, basically, the Cherokee Nation has done it the right way by keeping politics out of business, we looked to find out if the smart guys from Harvard actually said that.  It took a few minutes of googling, but it turns out, yes they do (skip the boring stuff and go to page 12).

Turns out that research confirms what your eyes can probably tell you:  tribes with a stable government and no politics in their business probably do better than the other way around.  Chickasaws and Choctaws, for instance, are doing really well and don’t play politics with their businesses. And they’ve had the same Chief longer than the Cherokees.