Tribe seeks to cut costs by combining services

Law enforcement, fire and emergency services for the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point are now all consolidated within a single department, as part of a cost-saving measure implemented earlier this year. The Sipayik Tribal Council decided at the beginning of the year to form the new Department of Public Safety as one way to reduce expenses. Facing a significant drop in revenue, the tribal government also has laid off approximately a quarter of its employees, and a new tribal manager has been hired to help find additional savings.

In January, the tribal council formed the new department and created a position of public safety director. The director oversees the police, fire, ambulance and warden services, which are all part of the new department. Ralph Dana was hired by the tribal council earlier this year as the public safety director. Dana, who was serving on the tribal council during the hiring process for the new position, resigned from the council after he was hired. He did not vote on the hiring, and councillor Fred Moore III says it would have been "foolish for him to resign without the appointment first."

A caucus to nominate candidates to fill the remainder of Dana's term, through September 2010, is scheduled to be held on April 16, with the special election tentatively set for April 20.

The tribal government no longer has either a police chief or a fire chief. Police Chief Joey Barnes had resigned effective January 2, and the tribal council then decided to convert the position into the public safety director position, Moore says. Concerning the council's decision, he says, "We needed to come up with a response to the administration's failure to provide adequate public safety and security on the reservation." He says the laying off of the police department's dispatchers in December and all of the game wardens was "a substantial failure to provide for the safety of the community." The dispatching service is now handled by the Washington County Regional Communications Center based in Machias.

"We owe it to the community to provide for those services," says Moore. He says the council wanted a new public safety director to make recommendations to the council for improving those services. The restoration of the dispatch service will come from a recommendation by the director and will be dependent on the tribe's ability to fund the positions.

"In tough economic times, business as usual is not sufficient," says Moore.

Concerning Fire Chief Maxwell "Chick" Barnes being laid off, tribal councillor Ed Bassett says the public safety director and tribal manager made the decision based on the funding available. If sufficient funding is found, a fire chief could be hired in the future, he says.

Bassett says the council decided in January to create the new department because the law enforcement budget had been reduced, and "we needed to consolidate" and manage the four services under one department.

At the same time, the council decided to reinstitute the tribal manager position. At a January 6 meeting, the tribal council had relieved Chief Rick Phillips-Doyle of his tribal government administrative duties, and both Doyle and Lt. Gov. Thomas Lewey no longer receive a salary. The council then created the position of tribal manager. Moore says the move was to ensure that the tribal government is operated like an efficiently and professionally run organization, which should result in savings.

Ken Poynter, who began work as the new tribal manager on March 23, oversees the day-to-day operations of the tribal government, sharing some duties with Doyle, who still serves as the tribe's chief. Poynter, who is from Pleasant Point, worked for about 14 years for the nonprofit Native American Fish and Wildlife Society, both in Colorado and Alaska, either on the board or as executive director. The society has 230 member tribes.

Tribal funds totally depleted

Along with administrative changes, the tribal government has laid off a significant number of employees, including nine full-time or part-time dispatchers. More than 25 people have been laid off from tribal government positions since December, out of some 100 employees, according to Bassett.

"Our intention is to prevent layoffs," Poynter says, adding that if the tribal government has sufficient funds those employees who have been laid off may be called back to work. "We're no different than other communities" affected by the economic recession, he says, except that the tribal government is more dependent on federal funds and has a lack of economic development. "We don't have the funds we used to have for programs, and we're looking at ways to best serve our community."

Many of those who were laid off are employees who were paid through tribal funds and not through funding from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. While federal funding to the tribe has not changed, tribal funds are "totally depleted," says Bassett, who adds, "The land claims era is over." The tribe's sale of Dragon Cement Company in Thomaston for about $80 million in 1988 had provided annual revenue for the Pleasant Point and Indian Township tribal governments, with annual payments of $800,000 to $1 million to each reservation. A lump sum payment of the remaining funds, though, was made several years ago, and now that funding is gone. The tribe is now getting approval to use BIA funding for certain areas that had been paid through tribal funds, including the wastewater treatment plant and trash collection.

Bassett says the tribal council has had to make value judgments about "where should this money be allocated to meet the needs of the community." Those decisions have been made since December, but he says that the process should have begun earlier.

Bassett does, though, suggest that there may be "light at the end of the tunnel" with some new economic development possibilities that would provide both revenue for the tribal government and jobs for tribal members. However, he declines to be more specific at this time.