Meet Your Commissioners
TIM JACKSON, COMMISSIONER OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
What is it like to go from working on the gaming floor at the casino to the government side of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe stepping into the role of Commissioner of Community Development? Imagine driving a semi with a 53-foot fully loaded trailer carrying bits and pieces of your family’s precious cargo through rush hour traffic in the metro area on I-94. Your adrenaline kicks in while you are switching lanes and shifting gears at high speeds all while navigating the tunnels and bridges in a blinding blizzard. When this happens you need to trust your navigation device and run on instinct. That is what it is like to travel the highway as the new Commissioner of Community Development. Tim Jackson has been in that role for a few short but fast few months and knows he has a long road ahead of him..
“It’s been crazy, and very exciting coming to work every day. You never know what to expect,” Jackson said. “Knowing how many lives we touch every day is amazing.”
The Community Development Department is the trailer full of precious cargo such as Housing, New Construction, Rentals, Public Works, Maintenance, and more. While Jackson may be in the driver’s seat, he has learned to trust his navigation system built on the expertise of the 80-90 employees and various directors and department heads who have been doing the work like a well-oiled machine — some of whom have been in the department nearly 30 years.
“They do their jobs very well,” Jackson said. “It is amazing the level of responsibilities there are. Just think: Gina Anderson told me when she first started working here 30 years ago, there were 30 houses we were responsible for. Now we have over 570 including those for the Elders and handicapped.”
Patience and understanding is key to many aspects of Community Development. “Everything takes time. One of the biggest areas of time is spent on housing issues. It is more than just a house here or there. It is a family under that roof. We are here to help that family and every family with dignity and respect.”
Jackson said one goal is to build a Housing Department Warehouse. And in this warehouse will be a space for training homeowners and renters to perform regular maintenance tasks such as cleaning gutters, changing filters, basic plumbing, and more. “We want people to take pride in their homes. Learning new skills to take care of the smaller issues is huge and they should be proud of that,” Jackson said. “We want people to wake up in their homes every day and be happy where they are at.”
Jackson grew up in East Lake and worked for a local farmer during his younger years. He has also worked on many construction jobs. His career with the Mille Lacs Band began at Grand Casino Hinckley where he worked for roughly 30 years. He started as a blackjack dealer and worked his way up the ladder at the casino. “The gaming floor was a different kind of exciting. Your days started out a little on the slower side and really kicked in in the evenings and especially on weekends when it really got busy. Here, you just get going fast and you go all day like that.”
Jumping in getting his hands dirty and doing the hard work is nothing new to Jackson. He also has a small hobby farm at home where he has lived for 20 years taking care of pigs, turkeys, peacocks, cats and dogs. He doesn’t do it alone, however. The hobby farm is a family deal with his wife and kids.
Hard work was taught to him by his grandpa Archie Moose, who worked on a farm and taught Jackson most of what he knows about farming now. “Grandpa also taught me to snare rabbits and pick birch bark for medicines and to build canoes. He taught me how to make baskets and I would sell them to make money to buy my first dirt bike,” Jackson reminisced.
His grandpa passed away in 1983 when Jackson was 12 years old. "That’s when I chose to be seated as Head Drum Keeper in my Grandfathers Seat. The same drum that he asked Sam & Ada Yankee to sit beside Archie & Madeline Moose. My goal is to continue cultural traditions until my final days."
After his grandpa passed, his grandma took care of him, “And I took care of her.” As they were caring for each other, he learned to make syrup and process rice. He was the middle child and only boy between four sisters. “We all worked together to get jobs done, hauling wood, doing dishes, we all did a little bit of everything,” Jackson said. “We always listened to our Grandpa and Grandma, Mom and Aunts and they taught us to speak up for what is right.”
Culture is important to him and passing that on to his kids has been a mainstay in his own family.
He learned at a young age that working together to help everybody translates to a better life for not only his family, but for the community. “We need to realize that everybody’s dream is different. We try to accommodate as much as we can and working together for one goal, we can accomplish so much more.”
Trusting the navigation system and knowledge base of the staff in Community Development along with his hard work ethic and strong instinct sums up Jackson’s leadership goals of, “working together to create a safe and prosperous community. It’s a long road, but we will get there together.”
NICOLE ANDERSON, COMMISSIONER OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
As Commissioner of Health and Human Services, Nicole Anderson is no stranger to facing challenges head-on. Anderson began her career in HHS in the middle of a term beginning February 14, 2019. Roughly one year later, the entire world was experiencing unknown territory with the COVID-19 virus entering the United States. As the pandemic began to explode across the country, it crept into Minnesota and closer to the Mille Lacs Reservation. Even more challenging was the virus created a world where details were key to making decisions, but the combination to unlock the information as it was exploding was as puzzling to the world-wide experts as it was for the Mille Lacs Band leadership. “COVID was right there in our face and everything changed quickly,” Anderson said. “We all worked together to make decisions — sometimes very tough and difficult decisions — all with the safety of the community at the forefront.”
Teamwork and collaboration is vital to decision making for Commissioner Anderson who noted HHS now has a dedicated upper management team who she can count on to bring the right information forward so that all members can have input in the process. “My first two years was really hard. A lot of re-organization of HHS and it changed dramatically. It took time for everyone to get comfortable with that change,” she said. “I have had to have very critical conversations with some of my peers and they were my friends. Something that is really important to me, however, is I am always going to be straight forward and honest and I am going to make decisions with honesty and integrity. That, and I am consistent.” Maintaining consistency in the rapidly evolving realm of the pandemic was like running in several directions all at the same time in complete darkness while listening to and comprehend- ing information from Indian Health Services, The Center for Disease Control, Minnesota Department of Health, the Federal Drug Administration and a host of others, all while maintain- ing a sense of calmness and certainty in an uncertain world was the challenge. At the very forefront was the need to make tough decisions ,to keep the community informed, reduce rumors, and help the community and staff feel safe.
“I think it taught me that I could be a black and white think- er and when in leadership you have to be able to pivot on a moment’s notice,” Anderson said. “It is my job to serve the team in order for us to be successful to lead the Band membership. We all have boots on the ground and do the frontline work. I know that I can pick up my phone at any time and call my team members and things are going to be taken care of immediately. I am very proud of our team. We are all human and we all have to do our best every day and treat everybody with kindness and understanding while communicating effectively.”
When asked who has been the most influential in her life she said, “I speak very candidly about my mother’s substance abuse and that taught me what I didn’t want to be for my children and for myself. People who have impacted my life over the years, are people who have integrity and go against the grain. People who do the right things for the right reasons regardless of what the crowd thinks. I always stood up to the bullies and still do that to this day. Not one person alone has taught me, but these are traits that I admire from people who have passed through my life.”
Re-appointed as Commissioner of Health and Human Services Nicole Anderson is up for the challenge to continue the work that she began in 2019. She is committed to leading the HHS staff and serving the Band membership for the next four years with kindness, fairness, integrity and honesty.
Now, there is a better understanding of the pandemic. Anderson said she and the staff at HHS will continue to fight the good fight for the health and safety of the community. In as much as the virus has mutated and variants emerge, the way individuals carry on with daily lives has changed as well. “The way we think about the people we work with, and our families, those things have changed. All of that reflects on my leadership style. There are things I am very strong in but there are areas where I know I need growth in my leadership. I study it in my free time. I take employee issues very seriously if and if there is an issue, we work through it. My thing is I know if the work environment is better, it is better for our Band members. People need to be happy at work because if they are happy, they work better and that is better for the Band.”
