In Riverton, Wyoming, a judge of the Northern Arapaho Tribal Court recently ruled against a request to overturn the Northern Arapaho Business Council’s decision not to fire Wind River Hotel and Casino Chief Executive Officer and Assistant Manager Andrea Clifford. The NABC had voted on September 9 to fire Conrad and Clifford. However, when the NABC reviewed the terminations the following week, only three of the six council members supported the action. Michael Blackburn, an enrolled member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe, then asked the Tribal Court to carry out the NABC’s directive to remove Conrad and Clifford from their posts, as well as to “banish Jim Conrad from our tribal land.”
Blackburn said the NABC had a duty to fire Conrad and Clifford because the Tribal Council has authority over the NABC. Judge M. L. Barton of the Tribal Court ruled that the NABC, the defendant in the case, is explicitly immune from lawsuits under the Shoshone and Arapaho Law & Order Code.
Barton wrote, “If Blackburn had established a waiver of immunity allowing him to proceed, his action would still fail because the gaming code places exclusive authority in the NABC concerning the CEO. The Code also proscribes factors that must be considered by the NABC.” He said any action he could take on Clifford’s employment also would violate Conrad’s contract, which gives him “exclusive authority regarding employment and/or termination of all other employees of the gaming operations.” The judge stated, “There is no showing that the Court could order the NABC and the CEO to interfere with employment of a single individual and ignore the provisions in the Gaming Code.”
Earlier, a petition circulated among tribal members “asking for the immediate resignation of Jim Conrad as CEO of the Wind River Casino and all tribal businesses.” It said Conrad “has demonstrated a track record of highly questionable financial decisions that has not only created extreme concern from tribal members, but has lead to the recent layoffs of up to 120 employees by January of 2016.” The petition said, “The excuse that was given to the media that the oil industry ‘boom and bust’ as the cause of this layoff is unacceptable, and further shows the lack of understanding of our local and national economy.”
The petition continued, “Jim Conrad understands without a doubt he has been the center of controversy from many Tribal members in the past. Northern Arapaho Tribal members have been in turmoil over the issue of his contract for many years now. Many times it has led to heated General Council meetings leaving community members in disarray and divided. It has ultimately led to our Tribe not having meetings at all. The result is tribal members currently have no knowledge of what is happening with their revenue.”
