Harding
The mystery surrounding the tribal American Express cards evaporated for a tribal Elder today who spent 31/2 hours documenting the personal expenditures by tribal officers made on the tribal charge cards. It just became more outrageous the longer you looked.They all have their own tribal AMEX cards that tell different stories of abuse.
Darryl Frye was in the room guarding whatever and providing spin control justifying the gross over spending of his brother- in -law Cedric Cromwell. Darryl, in all his brilliance would make comments like, ” Ya know, Cedric’s gut a lot of meeting’s to go to.”
Oh yah …….like the meeting at the Mohegan Sun where his room was $500 and he leased a limo for $1,500 for a couple of days. Now anyone who has been to Mohegan Sun knows you can jog around the place and not break a sweat. Sooooooo, what do you need a limo for? Jenifer Lopez was there in concert, was he impressing her? Did he take her outside and show her the limo? Cause you know they had front row seats. Was he shuttling Darryl and the family back and forth to Foxwoods or MGM ? The records also showed thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars on the best hotel suites and the finest restaurants around the country. And all those gas fill ups $87, $95, over and over…that Escalade burns a lotta gas don’t it? And then he fills up all the family on the same day….rollin’ ain’t ya boy? Who says you make $130 k a year. You still act like a poor man who won the lottery and just can’t help himself. Of course Cedric said that the tribal members were not sophisticated enough to understand what he was doing, and how he has to represent as the Chairman, with the big tabs $2,500 here and $10,000 there, $10,000,000 here…and who knows how much it is ..who knows?
Enter Paula the Peters…who in true fashion blurts out the question: “What are you looking for?
Elder: ” You know what I’m looking for.”
PTP: “Lemme look at that.” She snatches the bill and then says,” Hah….these are porn movie charges…whose card is this ?”
Elder: “It’s Mark Hardings’ ”
There’s silence from PTP. More trouble with the man who would be Paula’s husband. Can you imagine ? The treasurer. Porn movies in black and white charged to the tribal AMEX. Lots of room service. In addition $200 green fees in Arizona, Detailing of that fancy truck of his, thousands of dollars in charges each month for fancy hotels, the Hard Rock, etc., etc., at hundreds of dollars a night. About $9,972.85 a month on average added to his $80k and all the tribal contracts. Just living large they say.
The main question is…How does any of this serve you, the tribal member? What benefits do you receive? Don’t laugh, tribal members get lots of benefits from their officers watching porn!
Why can’t they open the Pantry on a regular basis? Why can’t they shovel out the Elders? Why can’t they give the wood they promised? Why don’t they do anything for us, just the basic things ?
And the irrepressible Tah Tah who takes trips to Hawaii for a conference ? What conference does she need to go to in Hawaii? Right…and spend $700 on the Sheridan hotel in a few days and then added another room at the Ramada . Guess the whole family went. Who the hell knows? Pages and pages. Free wheeling and spending.
The worst part is the plane tickets weren’t included…those trips to Pago Pago. And who goes on the trips?
It just shows you how out of control things are with spending at the Tribal Council. Get this, Trish authorizes it, at least that’s what she said. Checks and balances.?With the previous administration you could not spend $15 without a receipt. These people spend your money with no intention of reimbursing you.
The charge cards are symbolic of a huge problem…. If the charge cards are bad, what do you think the big stuff looks like? Right, millions of dollars unaccounted for.
The bank statements are the key. The Elders have been asking for them for years. As usual, they know what to ask for.
There’s more to this story and all the back door deals of the tribal administrator. Another Lumbee who knows more than anyone. Retirement is in his future, because he can’t remember anything. Then he can travel around and remind everyone how big he is in Indian Country. Ya that sounds good.
