Dear Mr. White, Thank you for your timely response to my email to Chief Red Eagle. We are very happy to hear that the Skaitook Travel Plaza is now making a profit. The mission of our group, Osage for Fiscal Responsibility is to make sure that our business ventures make money. We also appreciate your sending us the information from the REDW audit. Even though you did not send an exact total, the losses of individual transactions in excess of $5000 are greater than $730.000 and the losses of individual transactions less than $5000 could be as high as $365,000. Therefore, we could conservatively estimate the total losses at $900,000 dollars, or approximately $31,000 per month. These enormous loses would not be acceptable in any business and this is exactly why we need a forensic audit. No reasonable person would view this as a record of fiscal responsibility. Losses of this extent need to be clarified. As I stated in my email, “we must learn from our mistakes. Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it. The information about the Travel Plaza being shut down and bull dozed was given to me by a member of the Osage Congress. If you also would read “My vision of an Osage Travel Plaza” on our OFFR facebook site, you will see that I would very much like to have it stay open and continue to be profitable. Included below is my original facebook post in its entirety. We have the greatest respect for our casino employees. They are the ones who get up every morning go to work and it is through their efforts that we prosper now. Nowhere in my post below will you find any question of their loyalty. You will note, that the only casino employee mentioned is the manager of the Travel Plaza, of whom I said “if “ the losses shown by a forensic audit are due to mismanagement they should be replaced. “If “ a forensic audit shows this to be true, this would be the logical outcome. Without a forensic audit, these questions cannot be answered. This is not reckless statement, or a rumor, it is a fact supported by the fact that your information shows a loss of $900,000 over a 31 month period, a staggering figure by anyone’s business standards. If there are no examples of mismanagement in a future forensic audit, I will be the first to apologize. As you can see in my post, there is no misinformation and no rumors. Only facts that are supported by a Congress members comments and the numbers you sent me. A forensic audit would also give us the exact totals of the loses. Once again, I would like to thank you for sending me this information and I hope that a forensic audit will be performed in the future to give us the answers we are seeking. Jim Ryan It is now time for political action in regards to the Skaitook Travel Plaza. The word is that they are going to bulldoze the business and simply write off the nearly 900,000 dollar lose that it incurred. This is not acceptable. We need a forensic audit to determine where and why these loses occurred. If it is simply mismanagement, replace the manager. If there are irregularities in the audit, isolate them and fix the problem. We need to learn from our mistakes, bull dozing them and covering them up in a pile of dirt will only perpetuate them. Those who don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it. The three entities we need to contact are the Chief, The Gaming Commission and the Gaming Enterprise board. Please contact each by email and, or phone and let them know how you feel. Below you will find a copy of the letter that I sent out. You may copy any part of it that might help you make your case. Be sure to mention that you are a member of this group. By doing so, you will give us credibility and add political clout to our message. Their names, email addresses and phone numbers follow. These are taken directly from the Osage Nation web site. Dear Chief Red Eagle, I am a member of the Osage Nation and the Osage For Fiscal Responsibility facebook group. It has come to our attention that the Skaitook Travel Plaza is to be shut down and bulldozed. Even though this business has been a losing venture for the tribe, I don’t believe that this is the way to deal with the problem. A forensic audit needs to be performed in order to pin point where and why these loses occurred. If they are simply due to mismanagement, replace the manager. If there are irregularities in the audit, isolate them and fix the problem. We need to learn from our mistakes. Bull dozing them and covering them up in a pile of dirt will only perpetuate them. Those who don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it. Thank You, Jim Ryan
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Mr. Whites response to my email sent to the Chief
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