Turtle Talk

From the Leelanau Enterprise:

The Tribal Election process appears to have gone sideways – again.

Officials of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians were slated to certify results of the May 21 Regular Election today and administer oaths to newly elected or re-elected members of the Tribal Council tomorrow.

Both of those events have been postponed, however, while the tribal Election Board sorts through a series of challenges filed by four tribal members, including Tribal Councilor Derek Bailey, who ran for the Tribal Chairman’s seat against incumbent Robert Kewaygoshkum.

Unofficial results of the race, released last week, indicate that Bailey lost to Kewaygoshkum, 233-210. However, in an election challenge filed on Friday, Bailey asserted that results of the election were inaccurate. Bailey also challenged the “integrity of the outcome.”

Bailey and several other tribal members said that voting machines at a Benzie County polling place – one of three voting sites for the election – did not work. In addition, Bailey and others said that the election board sent an email to tribal employees just 22 hours prior to the election addressing allegations that Bailey had violated tribal election rules by using a computer at work to monitor his election campaign website and had “wasted a lot of time while at his desk in the GTB government offices.”

Bailey called the email “slanderous,” and noted that its release – less than a day before the election – gave him no time to respond. Bailey asserted, too, that the Election Board’s practice of routinely sending election-related emails to government and casino employees discriminates against tribal voters who do not work for the tribe or have email. The email in question contained the Election Board’s response to an allegation against Bailey that was filed following the April 9 Primary Election election by tribal member Ruth Anderson and incumbent Tribal Councilor Sandra Witherspoon, who was running for re-election.

The April 9 Primary Election narrowed a field of 20 candidates for three Tribal Council seats to six, and three candidates for the Tribal Chairman’s seat to two. Unofficial results of the May 21 Regular Election indicate that incumbent Tribal Councilor David Arroyo took first place, with Witherspoon second and challenger Brian Napont third. All three were to be sworn in tomorrow along with the Tribal Chairman – an event now on hold until further notice. The Tribal Council has six members and one chairman, all of whom serve staggered four-year terms.

Two years ago, Napont along with Tribal Chairman candidate Thurlow “Sam” McClellan were at the center of an election dispute that took more than a year to settle. This year, McClellan lost his bid to unseat Kewaykoshkum in the April 9 Primary. In 2006, both McClellan and Napont were among the top vote-getters in the tribal Primary Election but were left off the Regular election ballot as a result of allegations that they violated election rules, followed by a series of bitter Tribal Election Board and Tribal Court hearings. Months of delays and challenges in Tribal Court led to the abrupt resignation of Tribal Court chief judge Katherine Scotta, followed by the delayed swearing-in of three Tribal Councilors in January 2007.

Since then, the Election Board has adopted a new set of rules, and tribal members have circulated petitions calling for an amendment to the Tribal Constitution that will allow tribal members to vote for Tribal Judges as well as members of the Election Board and other tribal government offices Currently, members of the Tribal Judiciary as well as the Election Board are appointed by members of the Tribal Council.

“My election challenge is a direct result of actions taken by the Election Board,” Bailey said. “I have no confidence that I will get an unbiased hearing from the Election Board, so I will be filing a complaint of impropriety against the Election Board in Tribal Court ,” Bailey said.

“My hope and prayer is that one day there will be a fair and equitable election process for the tribe,” Bailey said. “In fact, there have been serious problems in the last several Tribal Election cycles. Whether it’s in 2008 or 2018, tribal members need to know that their elections are free and fair,” Bailey said.

Bailey was elected to the Tribal Council in 2004. He holds a Master of Social Work degree from Grand Valley State University and is a Ph.D. candidate with years of experience as a social worker and substance abuse counselor. He and his wife have four children, with a fifth due next month.

Positions on the Tribal Council pay around $60,000 per year. Bailey gave up his bid for a second term on the Tribal Council to run for the Tribal Chairman’s seat.

Kewaygoshkum is serving in his second term as Tribal Chairman. He did not return a reporter’s phone call or respond to an email request for comment on this story.

Tribal member Jamie Barrientoz, a Bailey supporter and a former Tribal Councilor, said he was disappointed in how the Election Board has handled disputes in elections.

“Derek (Bailey) and Bob (Kewaygoshkum) were so close in the election and the actions of the Election Board were so questionable, that some action needs to be taken,” Barrientoz said. “Like many tribal members, I would be in support of a proposal that would result in members of the Election Board being put in place by voters rather than by the incumbent Tribal Chairman and members of the Tribal Council.”

The Tribal Council controls a $57 million annual government budget – the largest government operation in Leelanau County. Members of the Tribal Council also serve as the board of the tribe’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC). Through the Leelanau Sands Casino and related enterprises, tribal EDC is the largest single employer in Leelanau County. Including its Turtle Creek Casino in Grand Traverse County, the Tribal Council controls annual EDC revenues of some $116 million and is one of the largest employers in northwest Lower Michigan.