Reel Wamps

3 months to do the impossible

No we are not.  Can we just say that this is not a REPRIEVE granted by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.  It is in fact a death knell  for the Cedric Cromwell Administration payroll plan. The Taunton casino is dead because the Administration cannot complete the Land in Trust, and had no intentions of doings so.

Genting will stop paying in February, reportedly.

For us it is far worse.  It means we have to rebuild the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.  It means we can no longer elect leaders who want the power and the title without the responsibility of  governance and accountability to the members. We have to have leaders who work well with others.  We need team players and team leaders.  No more go it alone, or “my way or the highway.”

Pulling this Tribe together will require the dependable leadership of men and women.  Our people have to feel comfortable with our next leader.   They have to know that he or she is actually listening to them and will actually take their concerns seriously. We are in a bad place right now. We can’t afford to put anyone in charge who is dishonest about what’s at stake.

Politics is not only local, it’s social.  You have to know and  like your leaders and feel confident  that they  have stood up for you you all along and will fight for you in the future.

And, there is no way we can get back on our feet without ever single family participating on every level.  Every single family…together. The Tribal members have to remember that they make that decision.

Cedric Cromwell’s desperate efforts to keep his casino scam alive have become absurd.  Of course Reel Wamps has repeatedly  for told of the subsequent disaster that has played out.  For those few tribal members who wanted to keep this all a secret under the guise of  “handling our business internally” the Administrations incompetence has been hard to hide. Every gaming  expert, government official, and observer has said the Taunton casino was impossible.  But Cedric and his side kicks Mark Harding, and Aaron Tobey, have kept up the lies.

Not only has the Massachusetts Gaming Commission kicked our license to the curb (as planned), they made clear they’re not waiting around for some miracle from Cedric to get the LIT or prove we have a connection to Taunton (again, that we don’t).  All these actions are mandatory and have never been done. Anyway, the following opinion in South Coast Today sums up Cedric’s ridiculous propaganda.

Your View: Tribal chairman’s comments fly in face of the facts

By ALLIN FRAWLEY

Allin Frawley lives in Middleboro.

December 14, 2012 12:00 AM

As I read Cedric Cromwell’s letter (“Tribal casino will benefit everyone,” Dec. 11 Your View), I became very concerned with some of his statements. Not surprised, but very concerned. He seems to either not understand the process he is involved in or is deliberately misleading the public as to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s pursuit of a casino.

Mr. Cromwell states “we place great value in our legally protected right to conduct gaming in our ancestral homeland.” If he is referring to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, he is misquoting it. IGRA was enacted “to regulate the conduct of gaming on Indian lands.” Indian lands is defined as “all lands within the limits of any Indian reservation; and any lands title to which is either held in trust by the United States for the benefit of any Indian tribe or individual or held by any Indian tribe or individual subject to restrictions by the United States against alienation and over which an Indian tribe exercises governmental power.”

The Mashpee tribe has no such lands. Furthermore, the tribe lacks the ability to acquire those lands. (See the Supreme Court decision Carcieri vs. Salazar.)

If Mr. Cromwell is implying that his “ancestral home” is in Taunton, he might want to check again. Taunton is Pokanoket territory. The Mashpee tribe is, oddly enough, from Mashpee.

As far as Mr. Cromwell’s assertion that the tribe “plans on contracting with small business throughout the area for supplies, goods and services,” his plans change as often as the weather; this is the third casino site planned in less than five years! In both the Middleboro and Taunton intergovernmental agreements, local hiring and local purchasing is to be done “in good faith” and “provided the cost and quality is competitive with other sources.” In other words, no local preference.

Mr. Cromwell goes on to state the project is further along than any other project in the state. There is no state/tribal compact, and the first one was rejected. The land into trust application is incomplete and still not even listed in the federal register. This project cannot move forward until, at the very least, land into trust has been established (again, please refer to the Carceri decision).

Mr. Cromwell refers to mitigation funds that have been set aside and yet the tribe has not engaged in one

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.