The Tribal Employee Rights Office of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is considering making changes to the rules regarding contract bids for construction projects on the Qualla Boundary in North Carolina, which includes Harrah’s Cherokee Casino in Cherokee. TERO sets the requirements for licensing tribally owned businesses. Under current regulations, if a TERO vendor submits a bid within 5 percent of the lowest bid, that vendor will win the project. If no bid is submitted within the 5 percent window, TERO vendors may rebid.
Recently, tribal member and businessman Ernest Tiger said the TERO ordinance needed to be changed, particularly at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino, where there was a “lack of accountability, transparency and access to business opportunities for TERO employees.” Tiger wants the TERO rules changed to include language limiting contract terms for non-TERO tribal members and to increase rebidding opportunities for tribal members. Tiger said only 23, or 4 percent, of Harrah’s 530 vendors are TERO certified.
Tiger added certain casino departments are managed by people who have been given “complete autonomy to do whatever they want to do.” Tribal Council member Teresa McCoy agreed, noting Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian members are paying for the entire gaming enterprise on the Qualla Boundary but non-tribal members are allowed to bid on work that tribal members could perform.
Jeremiah Wiggins, director of planning and analysis at Harrah’s Cherokee, said the 4 percent figure cited by Tiger is “misleading.” He commented TERO vendors are used when possible but there are only 90 of them, and the casino uses more than 500 suppliers from all over the county due to its wide range of needs. A large proportion of the casino staff comes from the Qualla Boundary, Wiggins said.
TERO Board Chair Kevin Jackson said the office, led by Principal Chief Patrick Lambert, has been “working diligently to fix this law.” Jackson said the rules changes will give preference to tribally owned businesses and individual members. He expects to have a draft ordinance ready for the council review in the next month.
Nevertheless TERO Chairman Jackson said he and the board are committed to strengthening the law.
He told the Smoky Mountain News: “We would like to improve on current Indian Preference laws and TERO office so that they are effective in ensuring that native people receive their basic rights to employment, business and entrepreneurial opportunities on and near the Lands of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation.”
