Reel Wamps

Beginning May 1, enrolled Tribal members will be able to go online or fill out a paper application to receive the disbursements from the American Rescue Plan Act.  Allocations of $750 for youth up to 17and $1,750 for adults 18 and over. The only no vote was Councilman David Weeden.

An Interesting discussion was the report of statehouse lobbying efforts by the  Hickey firm. The firm gets a flat fee of $12,500 a month which is a good deal for the Tribe. Because hourly billing is brutal. But most who know the process know that lobbyists rarely bill hourly.  Nonetheless, we were raped by Genting law firms under the Cromwell administration so thankfully we are not going through that nightmare.  Hickey has been working for 6 months. Their report was about sports betting and how we’re ” doing really well” with that.  The marijuana opportunity, likewise.  Aboriginal fishing rights were a little more detailed but there was no discussion of a means of enforcement of punishment for harassing and assaulting Natives while lawfully fishing. Councilman Aaron Tobey found a number of areas where the Mashpee Wampanoag were excluded and had been excluded from participating in projects (for 5 years)  where we would receive major benefits.

So the lobbyist opened his presentation with the statement that he knew the Council was “unfamiliar” with the legislative process. That was telling, but also dangerous because there’s always someone in the room who is familiar. He praised Councilman David Weeden for finding “15” instances where the Mashpee Wampanoag or Native Americans were not mentioned in legislation….an intern could have done that in10 minutes. Left out were the tangibles. Where is the legislation or the amendments? Who are the sponsors in the House and the Senate? Where is the legislation in the committee process in the House and Senate ( some bills have 3-4 committee references which is a killer). Is your amendment attached to a bunch of bills? When is it coming to the floor for a vote? Which reading is it on… Who’s trying to kill your bills? When is the conference committee if needed? Which council member or staff is tracking the progress of everything? And there are many more things to watch. When you don’t know…it’s a boon for the lobbyist who tell you, this will take longer than we thought.

Don’t worry about the activity report attached to the invoice if you don’t understand what the hell is going on.

By the way, getting on calls with senators is an old trick. That’s what lobbyists do.  They let you chat it up with a Senator or Rep but how long are you on the hook before you realize ain’t nothing happening? Another thing, they dumped the #3 rated congressional lobbying firm in the country with 120 lobbyists because they said they were not delivering.  Well, no one told the people what to do.  Course Genting was in charge.  They are in charge again…in DC.  Genting. In 12 years they never got our land in trust.  They got us nothing. Geting is not our friend. The $850m debt looms waiting to gobble up anything we would make on the lucrative sports betting unless things change.

If you don’t know what to ask, it sounds glorious.

But Councilman Carlton Hendrick, Jr.asked the question. “How long is this going to take?” He got no answer. They hired Hickey for another 6 months.

Some good news was the CDC is incorporated..again. The Tribe can get down to business.

Lotta movement on the Council agenda. That’s a good thing.

So Alex Rodriquez (and a Black lady) showed up at the government center in a black suburban and headed to the second floor of the Tribal Council government center today probably to see his friend David Greendeer the Tribal Administrator. Or maybe  to meet with others…we don’t know…so we are not going to spread  “misinformation.”  Rodriguez, a consultant who brokers tribal businesses, was central to the controversy over the Tribal 8a effort put forward by Greendeer at the council meeting in early March. Essentially, Super 8a status establishes contract preferences for businesses owned by a tribe. It’s a lucrative game because big businesses can partner with tribal-owned businesses and oftentimes get gargantuan no-bid contracts.  Of course, if you’re a broker like Rodriquez, it’s a cash cow. But it’s like being an insurance agent.  You have to keep getting new clients.

Anyway, the  Council agreed to “allow Greendeer to accept 8A contracts on behalf of the tribe.” They met Friday and discussed the Super8a. Greendeer was explaining it. He’s worried about ” misinformation.” So Winnie questioned the TA asking why he and Alex originally said they would put up the $200 K for the 8a but when the Tribe got “all this money” all of a sudden we are paying Alex $200 k. The TA said that there would be no payout of the budget on anything without Council authorization. That’s what he said  but we don’t wanna spread any “misinformation.” Of course, that was an appropriation in the budget for the CDC.  Nelson, a Council member and a member of the CDC said he did not ask for that. So you may be wondering why the mysterious Alex showed up. We are too.  They probably think the coast is clear, maybe not.

Message to Alex, we are not yahoos ripe for the taking.  But we don’t want to spread any “misinformation.”

More importantly, the comptroller is helping to pull together a real budget for Council review very soon. Let’s see what is in the plan. Sorry, we dropped the ball about Comptroller John who has been on board for two or three weeks.  The poor guy was already having difficulty with Marie which comes as no surprise.

The most important thing to many tribal members is financial assistance from federal funds.VC Carlton Hendricks, Jr increased the total payout ESTIMATE for ages 0-17 $750, 18 + $1,750 TO BE FINALIZED AFTER COUNCIL REVIEW OF THE BUDGET balance.

You know, the Council members, even the ones you don’t agree with are doing their best. They are trying to get along and doing a lot of clean-up.  It won’t hurt to call them or staff members and say thank you before complaining.  We are all relations.  No one cares about us but us ( especially the outsiders). Thank them for their work.  Maybe you can help.  It feels really good to help.

So lotta dangerous stuff happening.  Literally.

The Tribe put Elders first by giving them preferential access to the new homes. Now, it must be proactive by protecting them.

At tribal housing, there were two troubling incidents.

The Shooting.

Course nothing happened, no investigation by the Tribe or Mashpee Police Department.  The talk on the street was pretty hostile and the blame for inaction went to Kevin Frye…for his typical “do nothing say nothing response”. The lack of security in the community dominated by elders has been a long-standing concern. Nothing happens. Not Good.

Carbon monoxide leak This is another emergency that could have killed an elder. Poor plumbing, septic, and construction overall are the culprits. Another close call that should never have happened.

So the Tribal Council is aware of the shoddy work done by the Cromwell administration and is going through the homes assessing and repairing. The big task is finishing the remaining homes with the quality and care worthy of their occupants.

ICWA the silent beast.  Huge huge problems here that are consistent. We will not detail them because it only hurts the kids who are not being properly served.  We all know who they are and can blame no one but ourselves because it keeps on happening over and over. Again we have to be proactive before the worst happens.

Hail Hail the TA

More substance Mr. Greendeer. No more magic acts…. Ta-dah!

Ok, so David Greendeer has been here three months.  He finally had a staff meeting  Tuesday and it was different no doubt.  He also had a strategic planning meeting with the Council members the day before. Absent from that meeting was Rita Pocknett (on sick leave), Tah Tah ( she called in sick saying she had a headache) Winnie, and Yvonne (who was out of town). There isn’t much to report according to three sources. Other than the app that he wanted council members to plug into it was rather vague without much of a framework to fill in. The staff meeting appeared to be a last-minute thing.

We all know that a new TA would normally hold a staff meeting within a month of getting on board. It was ” ceremonial,” he said. During a presentation, he used the Ho Chunk language on flip cards. Ta daaah!

Lot of confused looks at that meeting.

He promised a more “formal” meeting soon. Sigh.

So as we said a month ago, the April 8 meeting will allow tribal members to talk about their priorities. In an all-day meeting, let’s hope the council has the agenda organized for discussion so we are talking about issues in some order.

We need to be proactive to avoid crisis.

We don’t have a budget, a comptroller, or land in trust. But as usual, we have a problem.  Last night the council acting as what’s called an 8A voted to hire Alex Rodriquez (not the baseball player) to help broker the tribe for contracts.  The effort began unraveling because all council members were not included in the decision to hire Rodriquez, a close business associate of the new TA, David Greendeer.  Now, that in itself is not unusual, professionals bring people on who they have a good working relationship for obvious reasons.  Trouble is the mysterious Rodriquez was never vetted nor were any of the usual hiring processes followed. His credentials, whatever they are, were never presented or validated.

Greendeer has done little to manage tribal operations during his 2 months on the job.

So…..the Tribe would pay Mr. Mist $200k to do what the CDC has been working on forever.. They are totally capable of doing 8A. Totally.

Greendeer’s presentation on the project last night was nonsensical and hard to follow.  Of course, Mr. Mist talked of the urgency of getting on board and missed opportunities. For you Mr. Mist. For You!

Councilwoman Rita Gonsalves raised a number of red flags. And thankfully her business and administrative experience made her challenge the lack of transparency.

Tah Tah Deja Vu is supposed to present a draft budget at the Sunday meeting….ahem.That’s after ten months of stalling, lying, going off on staff, colleagues, and producing nothing but pain and embarrassment to the Tribe.  So she will probably take 2 hours to review the audit we already know about.  And no one will stop her.The federal money is still on lockdown.

So the other problem is that the Sunday meeting is designed to allow Tribal members to raise questions and concerns.  And they have a lot of them. LIke why are we hiring people who don’t do anything.

Adding Insult to Injury

Genting paid a visit to the Tribe.  Talk about weird.  Ya.  The overseers checking in after 13 years of abuse!.  And they have the nerve to tour the Old Indian Church.  It’s like….blasphemous!

Genting was touring its casino properties around the country. So why were they pretending  to be interested in us?  It was so sad because WE AIN’T GOT A CASINO.

They made sure of it! So instead of putting on a show, (13 years later) why don’t they take all of us (Tribal members) out to that Duplicate Copy Cat Casino in Las Vegas, for a tour of the casino we built?

Little has changed, the lawyers, the PR, the emails you get, and the lobbyists are all controled by Genting. They do what they want to do, and they tell you what they want you to know.

More torture.