June 21, 2023. The two Removal Petitions that were submitted to recall Kimberly Hampton, Unit 4 Director at the June 6th's Board of Directors Meeting were reviewed by the Tribal Board followed by the vote to toss out the recall during the June 20th meeting.
One of the reasons given that stopped the recall petitions from moving forward were accusations that the Election Committee Attorney illegally obtained a subpoena for financial records from Allied Printing from a Judge in a Michigan State Court located in Genesee County without authorization from the Tribe to request those records. It was disclosed that the Election Committee Attorney was acting on a request made by the Election Committee but missing was the explanation of why the Election Committee asked for a subpoena or why the Judge agreed to grant it. The Board indicated they will be filing complaints with the Courts and the Michigan State Bar against the Election Committee’s Attorney for seeking the subpoena requested by the Election Committee however because the Election Committee is an independent committee designed to protect our elections it appears it will be hard to prove that this attorney was doing anything improper.
Another issue discussed was the validity of the petitions signatures and validity of the name of the person listed as the person that actually gathered the signatures, made in passing by Board Members. No proof those accusations were true was provided prior to the vote.
Kimberly Hampton stated she has provided proof that the accusation of the election fraud based on the alleged election fund contributions of over $250 paid to Allied Printing by others on her behalf was one mistake made by the printer when they accidentally charged Aaron Payment's credit card for the printing order for her election mailers. She stated she provided the Election Committee with all the requested documents needed to verify that she followed the election rules including the letter from the printer.
Kimberly claims she along with her family and friends endure relentless harassment from those that oppose her being on the Tribal Board, with the recall efforts being the latest form of harassment.
Anger from the crowd was expressed when the Tribal Board refused to allow the Organizers of the recall efforts time to answer the allegations made against them prior to the vote. When Tribal Members expressed their anger at the Tribal Boards Vote to refuse to send the recall petitions to an independently conducted hearing for review they were removed from the meeting as "Disorderly".
Earlier in the meeting a resolution was passed that is designed to stop disorderly Tribal Members from attending Tribal Board Meetings. If the Board asks that you are removed from a meeting because of your conduct you may be banned from attending Board Meetings for 30 days. The second offense results in 60-Day Suspension. The third offense provides a 90-Day Suspension.
We expect both of those votes will be challenged in Tribal Court and that Organizers will expand their recall efforts.
