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Source: Mashpee tribe members thwart expulsion hearing
By Tanner SteningPosted Mar 20, 2019
MASHPEE — An expulsion hearing Tuesday for Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council member Carlton Hendricks Jr. descended into chaos as tribe members confronted their leaders for attempting to take the matter into executive session, according to sources present during the meeting.
Tribal council met in its chambers at the tribe’s government center at 5:30 p.m. to address a complaint lodged by Treasurer Gordon Harris against Hendricks for improper conduct. Hendricks was also accused of inciting a riot and breaking rules of decorum, which includes prohibited behavior and improper conduct — charges he dismissed as “frivolous and baseless.”
After a roll call vote to move the meeting into executive session passed, the tribe members gathered inside the chambers refused to leave, the sources said. There were between 30 and 40 tribe members inside the room at the time.
“We stood our ground,” one member said.
Others said they saw the move against Hendricks, who was recently re-elected to the council, as antithetical to the tribe’s democratic process. Hendricks retained his seat in February’s annual election, receiving 232 votes.
“They’re taking away our vote,” another member said.
Sources said nearly 70 tribe members watched the meeting from inside the building’s gymnasium on a livestream feed.
“People were crying,” a tribe member said of the atmosphere inside the meeting room. “It was very emotional.”
Council Chairman Cedric Cromwell did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment. Tribal council meetings are generally closed to non-tribe members.
Sources said Cromwell listened to tribe members’ grievances and, after nearly two hours, he adjourned the meeting.
Conflicts between tribe members can be resolved through a peacemaking process by the tribal judiciary, called the peacemakers court. Members questioned leadership over why they didn’t pursue the peacemaking channel, sources said.
While public information about special meetings is typically scant, the tribe’s website notes that Thursday’s meeting will include three executive session items to deal with “council member issues.” Councilman Brian Weeden, Secretary Ann Marie Askew and Councilwoman Edwina Johnson-Graham are also named in the meeting notice. An emergency tribal council meetings was scheduled for Wednesday night that also included an executive session for a personnel matter, according to the website.
Sources previously told the Times that council members Hendricks, Aaron Tobey Jr. and Rita Gonsalves were facing expulsion.
Gonsalves is charged with a breach of executive session, though the specifics are unclear; her hearing is scheduled for Thursday, according to sources with knowledge of the meetings.
Charges against Tobey arose after he sent a letter to tribal council members March 2 after a council vote to deny the resignation of its vice chairwoman, Jessie “Little Doe” Baird, who relinquished her seat Jan. 25, according to emails Tobey provided to the Times. The council’s reasons for the denial were not clear.
In his letter, Tobey says he presented a motion for reconsideration of Baird’s resignation, citing a provision in the tribe’s constitution stating that council seats be deemed automatically vacant “upon death, resignation or conviction of a major crime.” Tobey said Cromwell denied the motion. He alleges Baird is guilty of malfeasance for remaining in power after tendering her resignation, and the council is guilty of nonfeasance for denying her departure.
The three council members accused of wrongdoing can be expelled by seven votes from other members under the categories of malfeasance, or “wrongful conduct,” and nonfeasance, or “nonperformance,” according to the tribal constitution.
Tobey and Hendricks both allege the effort to remove them from power is retaliation.
Hendricks said he believes the leadership is retaliating against him for questioning the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Gaming Authority’s spending, a five-member board overseeing the tribe’s proposed $1 billion casino-resort in Taunton. As of January 2017, the gaming authority had accumulated more than $375 million in debt, according to a recently published 2016 audit, which referred to the oversight board as a “discretely presented component” of the tribe.
Overall tribal debt is in excess of $500 million, Hendricks said previously. Tribe members and critics of Cromwell, who is president of the gaming authority, have long questioned the administration’s gaming-related spending.
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