1983-10-15 Char-Koosta News

              VOLUME 12 NUMBER 11 THE HUNTING MONTH OCTOBER 15, 1983
October quarterly: * Whole tribe wiped out'; 99-year lease requested
interview. "All Tribal members have been shafted by Personnel," he declared.
Personnel's assistant director, Thelma Gray, was at the meeting, but her comments were restricted to pointing out that Friedlander's most current application, which had been submitted earlier for another job, didn't show he was qualified for a job with TFME.
When the discussion wound down, the audience was assured by Fred Houle, Jr., that some way would be found to increase objectivity in the future. One suggestion was to give each application a number, or black out the names, so future screening committees would make recommendations for interviews based solely on qualifications noted on each application. Tribal members were cautioned to
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Reminder. . •
Interested Tribal member men and women have ten more business days to put their names on the November 12 primary election ballot The closing date to file is Friday, October 28, at 4:30 p.m. See the election notice inside for more details.
The Tribes' Personnel and Credit offices really took it on their figurative chins October 7 at 1983's last quarterly meeting.
A crowd of about three dozen — equal numbers of employees and non-employees — listened as Kenny Fried-lander charged the Personnel department with discrimination, and Revan Rogers requested a 99-year homesite lease.
Friedlander said that 84 people
Oft
signed up for six forestry technician jobs. After the screening process was finished, 16 people were called for interviews but all "the Kootenai boys [were] omitted," Friedlander charged Some were even veterans, he said, which violated personnel regulations giving veterans extra points toward being hired.
George DuCharme, director of the Tribal Forest Management Enterprise (TFME), explained that four people on his staff helped two people from the Tribes' Personnel office screen the pile of applications. An important consideration was past work experience with TFME, he said.
As the discussion progressed, other allegations of hiring practice abuse were made. Bearhead Swaney said he knew of three people with fisheries experience who weren't called for interviews when they applied for biologist jobs with the Tribes.
He recalled a few years ago when a Tribally contracted program needed a director. Only one applicant was qualified for the job, in his opinion, but "four others were led on to believe they had a chance" by being called in for interviews.
He mentioned a young woman in St Ignatius who had applied for 73 positions (he didn't say if they were all Tribal) but has been granted only one