Why Do they Ask the Chief's Opinion on Things For Which He has No Credentials?

Principal Chief Michell Hicks is not in law enforcement, nor firefighting, nor criminal justice. So why the hell is it when a reporter seeks a comment about this issue or that, they ask the chief, no matter what.
Here's his comment in the Asheville Citizen-Times Reporter Clark Morrison's coverage of the fire at the Tribal Operations Building. He even appeared on the scene himself. "Basically, we have ruled out that the fire was accidental and/or electrical." Fire Chief Curtis Arneach or Police Chief Ben Reed could've told him that. Michell Hicks is an accountant. That's his area. If the Citizen-Times wants to know how to report something on its tax return, Michell Hicks is the man to ask. If they wanted to know the cause of the fire, they should've asked those actually digging through the ashes. The title of principal chief does not bring credentials in several fields with it. If it's a public relations concern, then Chief Hicks needs to hand it off to people who know what they're doing, because he's pretty lousy at it. Wait a minute, he doesn't have any public relations people who know what they're doing, just people who sing his praises thinking that convinces tribal members that we've got a great leader. So to the outside media, find a professional working within the tribe who actually can answer your questions with some relevance.