There’s something to be said for experience. We know this by how badly Cedric Cromwell, Aaron Tobey, Mark Harding and Yvonne Frye Avant squandered what political capital they had. And they did it in short order.
Incapable of Running the Government
Even premiere politicos keep the staff ( for at least 6 months ) until they find competent replacements. But Cedric and his gang were so giddy with power, greedy and incompetent they got rid of everyone and replaced them with unqualified family members or girlfriends. In a brand new government run on federal grants supplemented by investors…well it gets a little dicey. Scandal after scandal, and no budget for the first three years they were in office. No audio taped records of meetings for the first 7 months they were in office.
Consequently they have what is called “Tah Tah’s Most Random and Occasional Meeting Minutes “never to be revealed to anyone.” It’s so bad they haven’t had any minutes since June ( Ahemmmmm). Cedric and his former oh so cozy pal Tah Tah have been raging back and forth via email about who’s at fault for all this “mismanagement.” All this is also emailed to the few traumatized staff who come to work. The place is like The Walking Dead.
Sack the Pros
The Greenhorn in them couldn’t be disguised. Early on, Cedric, Aaron, and Mark Harding went about firing all the professionals. The nationally recognized lobbyists and experts in environmental, Indian, gaming, and intergovernmental law were all fired. That left us vulnerable and definitely rudderless when it came to dealing with the Carceri decision in particular. The Trifecta was clueless about the case that could have been addressed early on and remedied by these professionals. Hopes for our casino ended with that incredible misstep. We would have had our own sovereignty casino. We would not need a state license to have gaming. They didn’t care about land in trust and establishing a real government and tribal court. They just wanted to get paid.
Then they started firing tribal members with expertise and bullying the Elders. They fired the Elders too and finally ran them off the tribal council grounds when they demanded financial statements and records. Aaron created his famous “Elders Council” made up of his family members under 62 years of age. They never had more than 5 members who wore bomber jacket to identify themselves. Tribal members ignored them and recently they were disbanded. So now they busy themselves disrupting the Elders meetings with their boisterous defense of “Aaron’s Crappy Compact” and such.
The Truth about Middleboro
The Middleboro deal fell apart for two reasons. Cedric would not sign the agreement to continue the financial relationship with the investors, but he wanted them to keep paying $330 K a month without explanation of expenditures. After all, there was no more professional staff to pay, he fired them all. He abandoned the intergovernmental agreement with the Town of Middleboro. The collapse of the deal had nothing to do with Glenn Marshall and everything to do with vengeance and poor business acumen. The deal was 99% complete with the tedious environmental and ancient land ties validated for land in trust. The beautiful land site exceeded 530 acres ( for $6 m). The $225 m commitment to the town was for the mandatory infrastructure (expansion of roads, emergency, police & fire services to accommodate thousands of new people) payments required with all high impact developments such as a resort casino. It was broken up into installments over 20 years. More importantly, the Tribe partnered in a good faith effort with the state to complete highway 44.The investors got 6% of the net profits, tribal members got a decent initial installment that increased, and Middleboro got the benefits of a real resort casino. Oh yeah….we got a reservation in Mashpee and Middleboro and true sovereignty. Course you will recall Cedric let that LIT application languish and be rejected last January.
Cedric, Aaron, Mark and Tah Tah kept paying themselves these huge salaries with no job descriptions, just titles. When they got into office, they ran through about $2 m in 6 months on God knows what. By May of 2009 the investors stopped paying. They stopped paying themselves for a few months and Mark Harding brought the Genting deal to the table. It was the ultimate desperation play to keep a salary for themselves and their family members. During a recession and with their ignorance of Carceri, the Cromwellians signed away our future on a deal with Genting that benefited them only.
The 17% interest on the loan is staggering. Twelve lawyers making huge money on impossible ventures. Nothing has panned out for this administration. Raynham, Fall River (millions lost on land designated for the Bio Tech by the state), Plymouth, and finally Taunton. Taunton. 40 acres that are buildable. No hope of getting land into trust, no expert to do the ancient ties to Taunton (because we have none), a blank environmental evaluation ( takes years). The compact was so bad the Department of Interior questioned whose side Aaron Tobey was on. Between 20%– 25% goes to each of these entities; the state, the town and Genting, leaving tribal members nothing and enough to give the Cromwellians a check for getting us into the mess. It’s clear Genting is gonzo by the deadline they set of May…some sources say sooner. It‘s not soon enough.
But it’s also clear that state lawmakers and the Gaming Commission are weary of the incompetence and have no faith in Cedric’s ability to get this done. They want timelines and plan to bid this out. And the Cromwellians have to face the Feds about all those unaccounted for millions. Last we knew, Cedric, Aaron and Cheryl Frye Cromwell were still under active federal subpoenas “continued indefinitely”. So Brooke Scannell can write all the columns she wants for Cedric, saying everything’s just grand. People, we were better off 40 years ago.
A moron knows Middleboro was an immensely better deal for the Tribe than Taunton. You have to be crazy to even dream of building a resort casino in Taunton on 40 acres. Ahemmm.
