Tribal Chairman Lee Spoonhunter of the Northern Arapaho Business Council insists that a 3-3 vote of the council means that Wind River Hotel and Casino CEO Jim Conrad won’t be staying once his contract expires at the end of June.
The Wyoming casino employs about 500 and is one of the largest employers in the area.
The chairman wrote the CEO: “This is not a termination,” Spoonhunter said. “Your present contract will expire on its own terms on June 30, 2019. We expect that you will continue to serve as CEO until that date. We thank you for your service to the Northern Arapaho Tribe.”
However, other council members recall the vote differently. NABC Co-Chairman Al Addison insists that the other council members wanted a letter that would tell Conrad to stay on the job until the tied council could resolve its impasse.
Conrad has been chief executive officer since 2005 and before that ran two other casinos.
The vote came several weeks after Spectrum Gaming Group gave the tribe an “operational assessment” of its strengths and weaknesses. It painted a picture of a very successful casino operating in a challenging business climate in an isolated area with a limited employee pool that is at the mercy of the ups and downs of the petroleum industry.
The report criticized Conrad for his management style that requires almost every executive to report directly to him. It offered 18 suggestions for improvement and urged the casino to tighten its security weaknesses that invite theft by employees. It lists eight findings detailing how it could be the victim of theft without knowing it.
In an email to the Ranger, Conrad wrote, “management has already begun to address” the operational findings” in the Spectrum report, such as money handling protocols.
He added, “In addition to annual external audits, all casino operations are regulated and monitored on a daily basis, by a tribal gaming regulatory agency and an on-site regulator as required under the gaming procedures approved by the Secretary of the Interior and supervised by the National Indian Gaming Commission.”
