Chief calls recall vote on vice chief and councillor

An election to recall Passamaquoddy Vice Chief Vera Francis of Sipayik and tribal councillor Madonna Soctomah has been called for Saturday, March 26, by Chief Fred Moore III. Voting will be held at the youth and recreation building from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. However, whether a vote to recall the tribal officials will have any legal standing is not clear, since the chief has been suspended from his administrative duties by the tribal council since last October. The wrangling by tribal officials has caused much division and turmoil at Pleasant Point for more than a year.
Petitions to recall Francis and Soctomah had been submitted in November but were determined to not have a sufficient number of valid signatures, according to the tribal clerk's certification of the petitions. One of the reasons that some signatures were ruled invalid is because the signer had not voted in the last Pleasant Point gubernatorial election. A legal opinion from tribal government attorney Craig Francis that was sought in December 2014 when another petition to recall Francis was presented states that if an individual is not on the approved voters' list and did not vote in the last gubernatorial election, their signature should be declared ineligible. According to the constitution of the Sipayik members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, a recall petition must be signed "by at least 50% of the number of persons voting at the last Pleasant Point gubernatorial election."
Moore says he has obtained opinions from three attorneys stating that the petitions need only be signed by the percentage of eligible voters and not necessarily by people who voted in the last gubernatorial election. He also believes that Craig Francis is in a position of conflict of interest, since he represents the tribal government.
Another conflict of interest that he points to concerns the decision by Vera Francis and four councillors, including Madonna Soctomah, not to proceed with the hearing on the recall election and the election itself. He argues that Francis and Soctomah should have recused themselves from the discussion and vote, at which point there would not have been a quorum for the meeting. According to the constitution, the chief and council shall not vote on matters in which they have a direct personal interest, including appointment to tribal offices.
Concerning the previous petition that was submitted in December 2014 to recall Vera Francis and the later petition to recall tribal councillor Mary Creighton, Moore says that Craig Francis' opinion about valid signatures "was never the determining factor" on whether the petitions had a sufficient number of signatures. However, the 2014 petition to recall Francis had 199 signatures, but 80 reportedly were declared invalid because the person did not vote in the 2014 gubernatorial election.
Moore also maintains that the issue about the number of valid signatures on the November recall petitions to recall Francis and Soctomah could have been considered by the Pleasant Point tribal court, but four Pleasant Point councillors and the vice chief "have refused to attend a joint tribal council meeting to give the court the authority to hear the matter. Due process is being denied to tribal members, and the constitution is being violated," he says.
Moore alleges that tribal government employees are being threatened with dismissal over the matter and are being threatened with arrest if they contact any tribal officials. "It's an enormously stressful situation within the reservation."
"I have pursued every legal means offered me under the constitution and the joint council bylaws to have the matter addressed," says Moore. "I have no choice but to call the recall election."
Moore maintains that signs that have been posted about the recall election have been torn down, although more have then been put back up.
Neither Vice Chief Francis nor tribal councillor Soctomah could be reached for comment.
At the recall election, a person will be appointed to act as the election clerk to monitor the election, and that person will appoint assistants to help with the process. Those who are eligible to vote will be allowed to cast secret ballots, and the results will be sent to Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).
BIA has been briefed on the actions by the council and vice chief, Moore says. Although the federal agency is not being asked to intervene in the political matter, Moore says that the agency "can monitor the situation." Also, BIA has oversight authority over programs under its management and also over law enforcement. "BIA has been told about the violations of civil rights laws by elected officials," he says, and has been asked not to engage in such violations through programs under its management. "I've asked them to tell the police not to continue denying tribal members their civil rights," he says. "I'm not asking BIA to intervene. We're trying to settle it internally first with the recall election."
Last October, Moore was indefinitely suspended from his administrative duties and responsibilities as tribal chief by a majority of the tribal council, three weeks after he had suspended Vice Chief Francis from her executive duties and responsibilities because she had been summonsed for three misdemeanor offenses that stemmed from a drunk driving charge against another tribal member. The councillors who voted to suspend Moore issued a statement that the vice chief's suspension had been executed without constitutional authority.