Meetings & Information




*****************************
****************************************************
MUST READ:
GET THE FACTS!






Showing posts with label Rep. William Keating [D-MA]. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rep. William Keating [D-MA]. Show all posts

Saturday, July 25, 2020

Spending bill includes protections for Mashpee tribe




Middleboro Remembers: Regulators want briefing on Mashpee ...



DID YOU EVER NOTICE THAT REP. BILL KEATING NEVER SEEMS TO FIGURE OUT WHERE HIS DISTRICT IS AND NEVER VISITS? 

DID YOU EVER NOTICE THAT IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM, REP. BILL KEATING'S OFFICE NEVER CALLS YOU BACK?

DID YOU EVER NOTICE THAT IF YOU SEND AN EMAIL SEEKING A RESPONSE, YOU NEVER HEAR FROM REP. BILL KEATING? 


DURING THE LAST FEW ELECTIONS, REP. BILL KEATING WAS THE ANNOINTED DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR NO GOOD REASON...IT CERTAINLY HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH HIS PERFORMANCE?  

YET HERE HE IS..... 

ALONG WITH CONGRESSMAN JOE KENNEDY EVEN THOUGH IS THIS EVEN WITHIN HIS DISTRICT OR SIMPLY BECAUSE HE RUNNING FOR SENATOR EVEN THOUGH KENNEDY HASN'T REPRESENTED ANY OTHER DISTRICT IN THE COMMONWEALTH WHEN SIGNIFICANT ISSUES EXIST? 

WHAT'S WITH THE CURRENT FEDERAL GRAND JURY? WHO'S ASKING? 

GENUFLECTING FOR VOTES!

Why Do Catholics Do That? – Page 3 – St. Matthias Catholic Parish


AND NO ONE ASKS ABOUT GENTING AND IF THESE MATTERS WERE EVER ADDRESSED: 


Genting was the Gambling Investor supporting the Mashpee Wampanoag lifestyle.

Genting Connected to Islamic Extremists? [THIS ARTICLE APPEARED FOR A SINGLE DAY, THE SITE WAS HACKED & WHEN IT WAS RESTORED, THIS ARTICLE HAD BEEN REMOVED. NOT TO WORRY, HACKERS! COPIES HAVE BEEN PRESERVED ON OTHER COMPUTERS.]

The money rush is on. A shady, but well-heeled Asian casino gambling giant swoops into town, buys an outdated office facility and valuable underlying real estate from the Miami Herald and launches a multi-million dollar campaign to approve non-Indian casino gambling in Florida and put a license on the former Miami Herald tract.

Kuala Lumpur-based Genting has multinational operations in tourism, resorts, gambling, plantations, power generation, and oil and gas. Genting’s market capitalization value, or net worth, reached $46 billion at the end of last year — making it one of Malaysia’s largest companies.

The Miami Herald suspends their normally skeptical eye, conducts no due-diligence on their new Chinese friends from Malaysia and their newspaper becomes a public relations machine for a client they don’t even really know.

Every glad-handing semi-corrupt politician in Miami-Dade and the City of Miami with their hand out will be jumping on the Genting gravy train. Genting is a target for every con-man lobbyist/political consultant/PR man which Miami-Dade County abounds with.

Recently a group of “Community Leaders” were flown to South East Asia including visits to Genting casinos in Malaysia and Singapore. Genting refuses to disclose the names of “Community Leaders” – including elected officials – who were flown to South East Asia in a private luxury jet and wined and dined at 5-Star resorts reserved for high-rollers in the Asian gaming world.

World Resorts Genting, also known as Genting Highlands, opened in 1965 and is the company’s flagship resort in Malaysia. The resort features Malaysia’s only land-based casino, six hotels, three theme parks, a convention center, and numerous restaurants and nightclubs, among other attractions.

Resorts World Sentosa, which opened last year in Singapore, features one of the world’s most expensive casinos, six hotels, a Universal Studios theme park and a Marine Life Park, among other features. The Florida Delegation visited both, reportedly racking up more than $790,000 worth of hotel, restaurant, spa and entertainment costs in both 5-Star resorts.

Genting has retained a team of slick lobbyists including Jonathan Kilman, with the law firm of Foley & Lardner. Kilman’s partner, Chris Kise, is under investigation for erasing email records generated during Governor Rick Scott’s Inauguration. The missing emails are thought to contain correspondence exposing the business dealings of Kise and Scott’s political adviser Enu Mainigi. Scott has ordered the FDLE review. Kise insists the emails were erased accidently. Foley and Lardner’s influence in the Governor’s office is not likely to be strong in 2012.


Before it’s over, expect that Genting, their lobbyists, and other retainers, will lavish the Republican Party of Florida and other selected party redistricting vehicles with millions of dollars. They’ll even buy Governor Rick Scott a golden toilet seat for the Governors mansion is he wants!

Genting, the Asian casino giant, does not hold a casino gaming license in any U.S. jurisdiction that has serious regulation. New York State requires relatively little scrutiny in the contract Genting has with the State of New York to operate slot machines at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Genting made millions of dollars as the money-men behind two controversial Indian Casino gaming developments in the Eastern United States. In both cases, Genting operations were directed by G. Michael Brown, a former New Jersey Attorney General who was later charged with embezzlement and cocaine use in the Seneca Tribal Court.

Brown was charged with putting various mistresses on the casino payroll and using casino funds to pay for luxury condominiums, imported sports cars and expensive jewelry for them. Brown famously drove a 4-door sedan owned by the Seneca Tribe through the picture window of a Niagara Falls resident while driving drunk.

Genting was the financier of the Seneca Niagara Casino Hotel in Niagara Falls, New York. Genting charged the tribe an exorbitant 28 percent interest rate, potentially in violation of the Indian Gaming Regulations under the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Genting also stayed in the deal for almost 15 years when they were legally limited to five. Seneca Tribal Council members have testified that armed Chinese thugs showed up to collect Genting’s money when tribal lawyers pointed out that Genting was violating the law.
All of this became known to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, which held hearings and launched an investigation into corruption in the Indian gaming industry in the United States. But what the Senate Committee found out about Genting was even more disturbing: an apparent pattern of multi-million dollar payments to Islamic extremist organizations in Malaysia who most definitely are not friends of the United States of America.

U.S. Senate Special Committee records regarding Genting and their financing of multiple Islamic-based organizations in Malaysia are classified. Some U.S. Senator needs to launch an investigation to determine whether Genting has relationships that would make their holding a casino license in Miami (a money machine) inappropriate. U.S. Senate staff investigators should get a firm understanding of Genting’s questionable relationships in Malaysia and China.

Genting executives told Senate investigators at the time that the millions of dollars funneled to various Islamic extremist organizations known to finance jihad were made under direst and viewed as a cost of doing business for a Chinese businessman in heavily Islam-run Malaysia. Investigators had reason to be skeptical when photos of K.T. Lim and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il surfaced. The Senate investigators also obtained photos of Lim socializing with at least two Islamic figures wanted by the United States for terrorist activities.
Senate investigators were also interested in K.T. Lim’s relationship with Stanley Ho, the Asian casino magnate who has been identified as a member of the Chinese Triad, the Chinese crime organization, by the U.S. Justice Department and by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Ho has been denied a casino license in every jurisdiction except in Macau and North Korea. Genting has refused to address their business dealings with Ho and his company Shun Tak Holdings Ltd.

While the Miami Herald is telling us that Genting boss K.T. Lim is a brilliant businessman, he could be one of the largest funders of Islamic terrorist activity in Asia. Instead of giving press conferences to the Miami Herald, perhaps K.T. should be interrogated under subpoena by U.S. Senate lawyers.

The Miami-Dade politicians who suck up Genting’s food, drink and accommodations and support Genting’s development will jump off of them like rats when they learn where a substantial portion of Genting’s profits in Florida may be going. Just because Genting has a lot of money doesn’t mean that they are suitable to operate casinos in the United States based on their associations and business practices.

Neither Governor Rick Scott, nor Senate President Mike Haridopolos will agree to casino gaming without a local county referendum. Perhaps Miami’s Cuban voters should decide whether they want to approve a casino for a foreign company who could be financing Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Nothing short of full disclosure of all the finances and holdings of Genting should be required under Florida casino regulation. If they deny ties to radical Islam only full disclosure will verify this claim, a protection the public requires.

New Jersey Casino Control law is considered the toughest in the country and is the model for casino regulation in the rest of the country. Nevada’s regulations are similar, but the process in that small state is “more political.” Florida’s casino regulation must not and cannot be lax. We need to know far, far more about Genting and their friends before they get a casino license in Florida.





Spending bill includes protections for Mashpee tribe



By Jessica Hill
Posted Jul 24, 2020

Amendment passed by House would bar federal interference over reservation.
WASHINGTON — The House passed a spending bill Friday that includes an amendment to protect the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and its reservation land.
The amendment approved as part of the measure, a package of four fiscal 2021 appropriations bills, will protect the tribe from “endless litigation” and will fully recognize its tribal lands without interference from the federal government, according to a statement from U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy III, D-Mass.
The Senate will consider its own version of the appropriations bill and then work with the House to resolve any differences.
The Interior Department announced in March that it would revoke the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s land-in-trust status, saying the department had no authority in the first place to put the land into trust in 2015. The tribe fought that, and in June a federal judge ordered that the department take a second look at the case and apply certain criteria that could help the tribe qualify for trust status.
“In recent months, the Trump administration has used the COVID-19 pandemic as cover to try to steal the Tribe’s land and define their people out of existence,” Kennedy said in the statement. “This amendment will put an immediate stop to those dangerous efforts.”
Kennedy and U.S. Rep. William Keating, whose congressional district includes the Cape and Islands, introduced the amendment with Reps. Deb Haaland and Lori Trahan. It will prohibit the Interior Department from using money to rescind the original September 2015 Record of Decision that took the tribe’s land into trust, revoke the proclamation recognizing the reservation lands of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe or to annul the determination that the lands are eligible for gaming pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

[Rep. Deb Haaland represents New Mexico's 1st Congressional District.]
“I want to thank Congressman Kennedy and Congressman Bill Keating along with the Mass. delegation for their unwavering support for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe,” Tribal Council Chairman Cedric Cromwell said. 
Cromwell said the lawmakers understand the tribe’s historical footprint, as it helped establish the country and helped the Pilgrims through their first harsh winters 400 years ago.
“We’re looking for justice around our tribe to ensure our homelands are stabilized so we can continue to prosper and move forward,” Cromwell said. “This amendment is one step closer to helping us keep the integrity and ensure that we have our homelands in Massachusetts. It’s pretty important.”
Kennedy and Keating had introduced the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act, which passed the House in 2019 and could help the tribe if the Interior Department decides to appeal Judge Paul Friedman’s June decision. That legislation, however, has been stalled in the Senate. Last month, Haaland and Kennedy introduced the Tribal Reservation Pandemic Protection Act to protect reservation lands, but that bill was referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
“The fact that the Tribe of the First Thanksgiving is fighting for federal, tribal recognition should astound everyone,” Keating said in a statement Friday. “This amendment will limit the Trump Administration’s constant efforts to undermine the Tribe’s rights. We all know that for the President, this is about his casino lobbyist friends, but for us and the Tribe, this is about people, their rights, their health, their education, and their livelihoods.”
“This measure ensures that no more nefarious activity from the administration around taking our tribe’s land away could happen,” Cromwell said. “This has to go to the Senate; the House passed this and that’s important.”







Saturday, October 26, 2019

Regulators want briefing on Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s casino status



Image result for REEL WAMPS



ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

REEL WAMPS

WAMPALEAKS

GLADYS KRAVITZ

carverchick

Regulators want briefing on Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s casino status


By Colin A. Young / State House News Service
Posted Oct 24,2019


Gaming Commission appears in no hurry to act on Region C license.
BOSTON — Gaming regulators want to know the exact status of federal litigation around the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s quest to secure land in trust before making a decision about the state’s third casino license, although Gaming Commission members appeared in no rush Thursday to begin accepting applications for a Southeastern Massachusetts casino.
The state commission agreed to have its executive director and legal team work up a comprehensive briefing on the ongoing legal wrangling over the decision to grant the tribe land in trust, which was approved by the Obama administration but overturned and thrown into doubt by the Trump administration. The tribe planned to build its $1 billion First Light Resort and Casino on tribal land in Taunton, a project that would have a significant impact on the state’s commercial casino industry.
“The commission’s staff, our legal department, have been following the status of the federal legislation and litigation that relates particularly to the complicated tribal matter ... I think it’s probably a good time to actually update us more formally through a memorandum. It’s very complicated,” Chairwoman Cathy Judd-Stein said. “I do think probably that needs to be formalized, because it’s an important part of the overall Region C evaluation and discussion.”
The uncertainty of Region C — the commission’s name for Bristol, Plymouth, Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket counties — has been an issue for years. In 2016, when it appeared a tribal casino in Taunton was likely, regulators rejected a proposal for a commercial casino in Brockton. A federal judge’s ruling later that year nullified the decision to grant the Wampanoag a 320-acre reservation on which the tribe planned to construct a resort casino, and President Donald Trump’s administration last year officially reversed the Obama-era declaration.
Since then, the tribe’s efforts to secure its land-in-trust status have been tied up in federal court. U.S. Rep. William Keating, who represents Mashpee, has pushed legislation that would use the power of Congress to reaffirm the 2015 decision by the Interior Department to take land into trust for the tribe, though Trump has opposed it.
On Thursday, Sen. Marc Pacheco told the commission he has been trying to get clarity on where things stand with the tribe’s legal battles and the congressional efforts to address its concerns.
“I made a call before I came over to try to figure out what was happening at the federal level, and my sources tell me we probably won’t know too much until the end of the year,” Pacheco said.
Pacheco, who lives in and represents the city where the tribe hopes to build its casino, said he supports the commission’s plan to gather more information before making a decision one way or the other.
“I’m here to ask the commission to continue with your thoughtful deliberation about everything that is going on and to not make a decision, even though it may be in our best interest, because it’s within your jurisdiction under existing law to go out for a commercial casino if the commission chooses to,” he said. “If I know that there is absolutely no way that a Native American casino can come to be in Region C, I’d be one of the first people here to urge you to do so. But if that uncertainty still looms out there at any level, it will have a significant effect on those that even bid.”
The concern, as expressed by Pacheco and others, is that commercial casino operators might not be willing to invest the minimum $500 million in a project that would have to compete with a nearby tribal casino. If the Gaming Commission opts to go ahead with licensing a commercial casino in Region C and the tribe is allowed to open its own casino under federal law, Massachusetts would receive no tax revenue from the tribal casino.
Although the commission took no formal vote related to Region C, the decision to seek more information suggested it is in no hurry to make a ruling on the one remaining casino license.
Commissioner Enrique Zuniga stressed that it will be crucial for the commission to conduct its own economic analysis of the Region C market, noting that the two resort casinos that already have opened in other regions of the state are coming up short of their own revenue projections.
“I currently feel no sense of urgency ... if we have not seen the levels that the applicants themselves predicted, because they did predict certain revenues from year one and they’re not currently seeing those revenues,” Zuniga said. “I would rather, frankly, see how it goes, do more analysis and understand better how they’re competing in the market. It’s early, in my opinion.”
A spokeswoman for the Mashpee tribe did not respond to a request for comment Thursday night.


ICYMI FROM REEL WAMPS


Federal investigations stop everything


Cedric was not alone in selling us out. His Council cronies voted with him on every money transfer and bad deal ever made.
The tribe’s outside auditors had some bad news for the Council.  They were not able to complete their audit because of the federal grand jury investigation.  The current Treasurer, Gordon Harris, former treasurer Robbie Hendricks and according to our sources Cromwell business partner and former treasurer Mark Harding have all been subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury and it has possession of tribal  financial records. The auditors do not have access to those documents. And the auditors querries got a donut from the feds
IT GOT WORSE
That tricky Gaming Commission.  It was a dumping ground for millions of dollars each month.  NO ONE EVER KNEW WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT MONEY or How it was spent.
So now the bill comes due. The auditors couldn’t get much intell out of the feds…actually nothing.  But they

Yvonne, 30 years a council member never used her education or experience to help. Her silence was lethal as ever. Slithering into her hiding place like an eel.
know about these things.  There’s a clause in the financial agreement with the investors that says that if there’s  “bad faith” actions (and the auditor put it like this) :
” I’m not saying it happened, but let’s just say someone  in the gaming commission took between $100,000 and $1m….then the tribal assets are at risk.”
That means what land we own etc. would go to Genting for payment. A drop in the bucket compared to what we owe them. Cedric and his ouncil Cronies knew about the fine print so why didn’t the tribal attorneys or any of them tell us? Well, they had to keep getting that money…at any cost.
So now we’re in a really bad place.  Reel Wamps has to confess that pounding on Cedric Cromwell was not
enough.  He didn’t create this horror show alone.  He had a lot of help from the Council cronies. A really sorry lot. Jess$e Big Doe and  Mark(ie) Poo Harding leading the parade.  The ancestors are spinning in their graves. Everything Cedric did came with their vote of approval.  Their complicity was tantamount to their participating in the felony murder of the Tribe.  Just because you didn’t pull the trigger does not absolve the guilt. You must  have proof that you tried to stop the crime. They were cowards all the way.  They should be held accountable.
If we know the feds do too.









Friday, March 22, 2019

House may fast-track Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe bill


FOR A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE, CHECK  OUT: 

GladysKravitz

REEL WAMPS

carverchick

WAMPALEAKS 

House may fast-track Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe bill


By Tanner Stening
Posted Mar 18, 2019

MASHPEE — Under a suspension of the rules, the U.S. House of Representatives will look to fast-track a bill aimed at ending a legal challenge to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s reservation, according to sources close to the process.
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act could be taken up by lawmakers as early as Monday, the sources said. The bill was reintroduced in January by Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., after floundering in the previous legislative session.
Bills considered under a suspension of the rules require a two-thirds supermajority vote of lawmakers present for passage, are limited to 40 minutes of debate and cannot be amended on the House floor.
In a statement issued Monday, Keating expressed optimism about the process.
“I have been working with members across the aisle, with members in both parties on the committee of jurisdiction, and with Democratic leaders in charge of floor action,” Keating said. “I feel very positive about the bill’s progress toward a vote.”
The bill would end ongoing litigation challenging the Mashpee tribe’s reservation by reaffirming the land and barring any legal challenges to it in the future.
In 2016, a lawsuit brought by neighbors of the tribe’s proposed $1 billion casino in Taunton resulted in the Department of the Interior reversing a decision it made the year before to take 321 acres of land into trust on the tribe’s behalf.
A federal judge ruled that the secretary of Interior did not have the authority to take the land into trust because the tribe was not under federal jurisdiction at the time of the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934, and therefore did not qualify under a definition of “Indian” used by the Interior Department.
On Sept. 7, the agency reversed its finding, throwing the future of the tribe’s reservation into jeopardy — though it remains in trust until a final court order is issued. The tribe has since filed a lawsuit against the agency challenging that decision.
The move by House Democrats to put the bill on a fast track to passage comes amid increasing political turmoil among tribal leaders. This week, tribal council will vote to expel three of its members for a variety of complaints that stem from accountability concerns brought to light by the accused leaders. They claim the charges amount to retaliation.
Should the bill succeed in Congress and be signed into law, its passage couldn’t be more timely for the tribe, which is contending with a final installment of loan dollars from its financial backer, Genting Malaysia, according to one source familiar with the tribe’s finances.
Expenditures in 2018 left the tribe with $83,670 in its general fund, according to a statement of its expenses and revenue for the year obtained by the Times.
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell said in a statement that he applauds the “bipartisan effort to protect our reservation ... by moving our bill expeditiously through the House Committee of Natural Resources.”
“The honorable Congressman Keating has led this endeavor and told our story throughout the halls of Congress,” he said, thanking the committee leadership.
The possible House vote also comes after the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) — a sister tribe of the Mashpee tribe — declared its opposition to the legislation. In a letter sent to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission dated Jan. 22, Aquinnah Tribal Chairwoman Cheryl Andrews-Maltais said the bill’s passage would have a “very real potential to have a serious adverse effect” on her tribe’s ability to acquire additional land within the Wampanoag Nation’s ancestral territory.
The legislation is backed by Taunton and Mashpee. On Monday, Mashpee Town Manager Rodney Collins said he appreciates “all the efforts to move this bill along.”
“I am hopeful that the bill receives congressional approval, whether through the House or the Senate,” he said.
https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20190318/house-may-fast-track-mashpee-wampanoag-tribe-bill?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GHM_Daily_Newsletter_Cape_Cod_Times&utm_content=GTDT_CCT&utm_term=032019





Saturday, December 22, 2018

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s bill must wait until 2019



FOR A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE ALSO SEE: 

REEL WAMPS

WampaLeaks 

Gladys Kravitz

carverchick
TRUTH TO POWER



Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s bill must wait until 2019

By Tanner Stening
Posted Dec 21, 2018 

MASHPEE — Even if the federal government avoided a partial shutdown late Friday night, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is going to have to wait until the next congressional session to see if its reservation can successfully be secured by federal lawmakers.
An eleventh-hour effort to fold the Mashpee Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act — thought to be the tribe’s last hope of putting an end to litigation that has stymied its proposed resort-casino on reservation land in Taunton — into a funding measure intended to keep the government open fell short on Thursday, according to U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass. Keating introduced the legislation earlier this year.
Lawmakers had attempted to weave the language into a public land bill that appeared to be moving forward; but the effort ultimately failed, he said, as the urgency of dealing with the impending shutdown pared down the possibility for smaller bills to make it into the funding measure, called the continuing resolution. The resolution was in danger late Friday of not being passed in any case as lawmakers scrambled to make a deal with the president.
The tribe bill had already faced resistance from Rhode Island’s senators, as well as lawmakers from Connecticut, Keating said. The Rhode Island delegation quietly came out against the legislation earlier this year in an apparent effort to protect that state’s casino interests.
Cromwell did not respond to a question about how many layoffs would take place in tribal government or a request that he confirm the unemployment figure cited by Grijalva.

Related content






https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20181221/mashpee-wampanoag-tribes-bill-must-wait-until-2019



Tuesday, August 21, 2018

MASHPEE WAMPANOAG: Lawsuit challenges tribe-town pact

MUST READ: 


Image result for REEL WAMPS

REEL WAMPS



Lawsuit challenges tribe-town pact





Posted Aug 20, 2018 

Unilateral action to amend reservation bill called unconstitutional. 

MASHPEE — The former vice chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council is suing Chairman Cedric Cromwell and one of his attorneys in tribal court, questioning the constitutionality of a decision to amend legislation that would end a legal challenge to the tribe’s reservation, according to documents obtained by the Times. 

Aaron Tobey Jr. filed the action Monday, alleging the tribal council never got the chance to vote on a town-proposed amendment to the bill. The amendment adds language about a 2008 intergovernmental agreement between the town and the tribe. Tobey said there are still questions as to whether that agreement is legally enforceable. 

The federal legislation was introduced by U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., earlier this year, and a twin bill was introduced in the Senate. If passed, it would reaffirm the tribe’s reservation status and effectively bar future legal challenges to the land in federal court. 

Town lawyers worked out a deal with tribal attorneys to amend Keating’s bill to include language about the agreement after town officials said they worried about “legal ambiguities,” citing fears the tribe would reopen land claims that bitterly divided the two governments in 1976. 

The new language spells out a commitment that the tribe will not reopen those claims against the town. 

The suit alleges Cromwell and tribal attorney Rebekah Salguero were involved in negotiations with the town of Mashpee “to address issues with the federal process of placing land into trust” and “in adopting an amendment to legislation before the United States Congress without authority from the Tribal Council,” according to documents. 

Cromwell declined to comment on the suit through a spokesman Monday, and Salguero did not immediately respond to a call requesting comment. 

Section 2 of the tribe’s constitution states that the tribal council is empowered to, among other things, “negotiate and enter into contracts and agreements with tribal, foreign, federal, state and local governments, private persons and corporate entities.” 

In a letter addressed to Keating dated Aug. 21, Tobey asks the lawmaker to place the amendment in abeyance until the tribal council has a chance to vote on it. 

“Let me restate that to date, no such vote has occurred, and yet the matter is being represented on Capitol Hill as if it has tribal council approval,” Tobey writes. 

In 2008, then-council member Cromwell voted against the agreement before abstaining, documents show. Tobey, who was also a council member, voted against it. 

Should the legislation pass with the amended language, it would enshrine the town-tribe agreement in federal law, which Tobey says could jeopardize the tribe’s federal rights by fastening them to the terms of the agreement. 

“The proposed amendment makes the honey taste bitter,” Tobey said. 

Since losing a bid to unseat the chairman in last year’s election, Tobey has become a prominent critic of Cromwell, calling for more transparency of tribe finances and criticizing attempts to raise the salaries of council members, including Cromwell’s. 

Selectman Andrew Gottlieb, who did not respond to a request for comment Monday, said previously that he always viewed the agreement as “binding and enforceable.” 

“We think the agreed-upon language that we settled on with the tribe lawyers a couple weeks ago is in the town’s and the tribe’s best interest in that it preserves the tribe’s trust status and recognizes and reaffirms all prior agreements with the tribe,” he said last month. 

Gottlieb also said previously that the tribe’s legal counsel had represented to town attorneys that the tribal council agreed with the amendment. 

http://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20180820/lawsuit-challenges-tribe-town-pact

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe to vote on dwindling budget


Image result for MIDDLEBORO REMEMBERS MASHPEE WAMPANOAG WYNN





CHECK OUT REEL WAMPS


The Tribe purchased land owned by investors in Middleboro. 
Will that be included as another casino? 
Is the Tribe paying taxes on that land? 




Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe to vote on dwindling budget

By Tanner Stening
Posted May 18, 2018


MASHPEE — The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is facing a future with far fewer financial resources, at least temporarily, as it continues to fight to secure its reservation land and build a $1 billion casino, according to its proposed budget for fiscal year 2018.
The tribal council approved a budget on May 3 that includes a steep decline in loan dollars from Genting Malaysia — the development firm backing the tribe’s effort to build a casino in Taunton — deep cuts to tribal salaries, and sizeable rollbacks in most spending categories across all departments, according to a copy of the proposed budget obtained by the Times.
The document was distributed to tribe members earlier this week and the general membership is scheduled to vote on it Sunday, according to the tribe’s website and a source familiar with the tribe’s finances.
For the coming fiscal year, the tribe is receiving $5.4 million in loans from Genting, which is less than half of what it received for fiscal year 2017. That year, the tribe received $11,944,567, an increase of approximately $250,000 over fiscal year 2016.
According to Genting’s most recently quarterly report, the Malaysian-based casino group has invested roughly $388.3 million in promissory notes issued by the tribe, which carry fixed interest rates of 12 percent and 18 percent per year. In November, a robocall announcing a meeting for tribe members to address longstanding concerns about the tribe’s mounting debt claimed its debt had grown to $425 million and that services had been cut.
Neighbors of the proposed Taunton casino had sued the Interior Department in February 2016 seeking to overturn the agency’s decision to take land into trust. U.S District Court Judge William Young remanded that decision back to the federal agency, suggesting in a later ruling that an alternative approach might allow the Interior Department to take the land into trust. Since then, the agency has been considering whether the state of Massachusetts had exercised authority over the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe in a manner that could be viewed as a surrogate for the federal jurisdiction requirement under the Indian Reorganization Act.
Genting’s ability to recover its investment is “dependent on the outcome of the pending legal case and review by the relevant government authority,” according to the report.
There are significant cutbacks proposed to tribal employment. Tribal leaders will spend only $4,433,385 on salaries this year, down from $7,226,643 in fiscal year 2017. In 2016, the tribe spent $8,397,569 on salaries. As a result of that reduction, the tribe has had to lay off 31 members, according to a source with knowledge of the reductions, including both of its grant writers. The tribe employed roughly 100 members before the cutbacks, the source said.
The employees who were laid off received letters in December and January, informing them that “recent changes to the tribe’s funding source and litigation around potential gaming enterprise” were responsible for the layoffs.
Tribal council salaries will see an 11.5 percent reduction, with payouts for the 12 legislative personnel — including fringe benefits — totaling $938,206. That figure is down from roughly $1,060,468 in 2017.
But despite spending cutbacks, tribal leaders still enjoy a sizeable piece of overall spending on tribal salaries; their share of salaries across all departments has increased from 14.7 percent in 2017 to 21.2 percent, despite reductions in their annual pay.
Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell’s proposed salary, including fringe benefits, for the coming fiscal year is $181,794, down from $219,186 in 2017. Tribal Vice Chairwoman Jessie “Little Doe” Baird will be making $134,439, down from $160,269.
There are two council members who make considerably less than the other members. Rod Dias’ proposed salary for the coming fiscal year is listed at $1,200 and Carlton Hendricks’ salary is $11,800; under the proposed spending plan other council members would make between $84,255 and $103,566, fringe benefits included.
Critics within the tribe have repeatedly raised questions about the rising debt associated with planning and building the casino, and have criticized tribal leaders for taking home what they believe to be excessive paychecks.
After tribal land had been taken into trust in 2015, Cromwell saw his salary increase 42 percent from $125,453 to $178,200 in the span of three weeks. That spike was tied to a vote that sought to bring tribal council members in line with officers in other tribes and municipal governments.
In a statement emailed to the Times, Cromwell said the budget and its financing go through an exhaustive review and approval process through general membership votes and tribal council approvals.
“Tribal citizens then vote on the budget,” he said. “This year we are exploring ways to become more efficient in our operations and we are making some adjustments.”
Spending on legal fees and professional services has taken the greatest hit in the proposed budget. The tribe has allocated only $500,000 for legal spending in the coming fiscal year, which is down from $1,193,795; and spending to professional services will plummet from $3,989,495 in 2017 to $518,000, according to the proposed budget provided to the Times.
The decline in legal fees and lobbying efforts may be tied to a bill that was introduced in March that would end the ongoing legal challenge to the tribe’s efforts to secure its reservation land, consisting of 171 acres in Mashpee and 150 acres in Taunton where the tribe’s casino would be built.

Tribe concerned about proposed changes to bill