When Will Tribal Government Get It? We Need to Conserve Money

Bill Killian at easternband.com certainly has drawn the ire of Principal Chief Michell Hicks, to the point of the chief during a tirade in 2005 calling his site "trash." Well not his site but ebci.com, which sells printing supplies. Bill touched on something though. He's usually about 90% accurate with what he posts, and he now says that, according to Chief Hicks, the tribe will be bidding out installation of Christmas lights in Cherokee, something that volunteers had been doing for free.
Bill is right to call out the boneheaded decision making going on at the executive and legislative branches, but this is one example of far too many that demonstrate the tribe's wasteful spending. The Hicks administration is without a doubt the most reckless administration when it comes to spending. It's worse than any teenaged girl with daddy's credit card and her own cell phone.
I've written before that with upcoming hard times ahead, and any of the business owners in Cherokee can attest that times are hard, the tribe needs to cut its spending. For the tribe to not look at cutting expenses and add additional ones where they used to get them free of charge is asinine.
Other examples, the building of the theater. Driving by on a weekend night usually shows three or four cars parked there. The building is elaborate, much more so than most theaters, and unlike most theaters that were likely built at a fraction of the cost, this theater only has two screens. Why the tribe didn't just approach investors to spring for the costs themselves and do it in a way that could actually make money is a total mystery. I'd love to hear the chief's explanation on that.
I'd love to know how much the tribe has spent trying to attract Wal-Mart to Cherokee. With as much money as this company has made, for the tribe to have spent anything to bring it here is outrageous.
Of course there's also the consideration to purchase Cherokee Hardware for well above what the business is likely worth. And let's not mention the tribally-funded narcissism through the Goss Agency and Marketing and Promotions.
Sooner, more so than later, the tribe will have to pay the piper. If the first area they look is laying off employees, then the chief and every council member should hang their heads in shame.