Strategic Planning?

I recently received a letter from the Executive Office at the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde (CTGR). It stated that there was a violation of confidentiality in a letter that was sent to the membership in June of 2008. That was over a year ago. It was an anonymous letter (Leno Letter) basically saying that Reyn Leno's influence on Tribal Council had put his family members in high-paying, respectable positions at CTGR. Now, whether or not this is true, I don't know because there was never an investigation done on that side of the letter. The immediate focus was put on the author of the letter and the private records that were obtained in order to find out people's personal financial status as well as the membership's addresses. I totally agree that this violation should not have occurred and it is a breach of confidentiality. I would never stand for this kind of behavior and I hope that the guilty parties are held responsible for their actions.

Now let's go back to the letter that was written by the Executive Office. The letter went on to say that personal and private records were obtained to write the "Leno Letter" and that the Executive Team was concerned for the membership's private lives as a result. That may be true. They may be concerned. But have they been concerned for the last 12 months? Again, the "Leno Letter" went out in June of 2008. The letter from the Executive Team said that we (the membership) should run credit checks and keep a close eye on our bank accounts in case of identity theft due to the records obtained by the author of the "Leno Letter". To me, 12 months of potential criminal acts to my identity and bank accounts is too long of a period of time to show that somebody is truly concerned for my well-being.

With all of the information and the timing of it being released (the day after nominations), it leads me to believe that the letter sent from the Executive Office was also a strategic, politically-feuled source of information. It is at the very least, something to think about. Why wasn't that letter sent 10 months ago, six months ago or even 30 days ago?

I do not steer away from the fact that the author(s) of the "Leno Letter" committed criminal acts and need to be held responsible. I do feel that there has been too much time, money and focus on the letter and everything needs to come to a head, resolved and we all need to move on. How could any productive business be conducted when this tension is lingering over the heads of not only Tribal Council but the entire membership?

Thank you,
Toby McClary