S-R: What was the corporation’s financial situation when you took over in January 2010?

Pakootas: The Colville tribal council activated the federal corporation two months before I started. The previous corporation, which also included the tribes’ two lumber mills and the Lake Roosevelt houseboat concession, was $8.1 million in the red. By the end of the fiscal year in September 2010, we were $2.3 million in the black.

S-R: What caused the turnaround?

Pakootas: When they closed down the mills (in 2009), they sent home the production workers, but they kept all the managers on the payroll, and it was costing us $200,000 a month. We couldn’t fire them, so I closed both businesses completely and laid everybody off.

S-R: Where else did you save money?

Pakootas: The houseboat operation on Lake Roosevelt had lost an average of $250,000 a year for 20 years. The council kept it going because of jurisdictional issues on Lake Roosevelt. I closed that down, too.

S-R: How did you generate more revenue?

Pakootas: We refinanced $28 million in debt. Also, we’d just completed a new casino at Lake Chelan and made some improvements in our other two casinos, and that increased our revenue quite a bit. Since then, gaming revenue has gone up 15 to 20 percent a year.

S-R: How would you characterize the corporation’s health today?

Pakootas: Revenue-wise, we’re very successful. The first year we replaced the business structure, we had $49 million in total gross revenue. Last year, we had $86 million and, this year, we hope to be up around $120 million to $140 million. But we still have a long way to go. We have 55 to 60 percent unemployment on the reservation.