Tribal News in Perspective: 2024 Update, Top Government Official Rehired After Corruption Scandal. This is a fact-based editorial on Shoalwater Bay Tribal News based on documents, interviews, and evidence.
In 2023 Mike Rogers received a second chance as Tribal Administrator after a 2019 Council-influenced resignation following one of the most traumatic administration corruption scandals in recent Shoalwater Bay history. In this way, a few years after the scandal subsided Tribal Council rehired Rogers; mainly due to the influence of family and a good friend on Council without the accountability precautions that such a move would seem to require on behalf of the tribal citizenry.
The question is open if his second administration will mirror the first. What is important is that the Tribal Administrator was given a fresh chance to achieve positive change, and the story is yet to be fully written in the aftermath. Unfortunately, the trend up to this point is very suggestive that a second chance has resulted in another chance for continuing along similar lines as before. For instance, in early 2024 during tribal elections free speech protections guaranteed by the Indian Civil Rights Act were placed at risk. A new ordinance and a aggressive tribal resolution was adopted and advocated for by Mike Rogers and his administration.
2121 Tribal Election Loss.
About one year plus after Tribal Council prompted Mike Roger’s resignation, the former Tribal Administrator set his sights on entering tribal politics. At the end of 2020, after Council member Dennis Julnes vacated the Member-at-Large position about ten weeks before the end of his term, Mike Rogers put in for the newly opened Council position. Un-dissuaded by Council’s refusal to appoint him, Rogers ran for Vice-chair in his 2021 bid, losing to the Council Treasurer.
Central Problem of Approach: Difficulty Adapting to the Reservation’s Political, Cultural, and the Workplace Environment.
In Mike Rogers’ time at Shoalwater Bay as the Tribal Administrator he showed a pattern of behavior that was sometimes dismissive, mistrustful, or uncertain about Tribal Leadership and native ways of operating. As this article will explore, at times Rogers was seemingly uncommitted to tribal policy, law, traditions, and Constitutional directives. These uneven qualities were often combined with a reactive conflict-driven and controlling management style that rubbed many tribal members the wrong way.
In contrast, Mike Rogers portrayed his management style and what he had accomplished at Shoalwater Bay in very positive terms. In Rogers’ estimation one of his greatest accomplishments at Shoalwater Bay was workplace environment improvements, claiming that he had used, as Rogers wrote in his resignation letter, “my extensive experience and skills in positive and effective conflict resolution in workplace issues creating an attitude of teamwork.”
In the same January 8, 2019 resignation letter, also later published in the tribe’s newsletter, Mike Rogers wrote that he, “Paid strict adherence to Human Resources hiring practice to ensure fair hiring practice in the tribal workplace.”
An upper level manager and tribal member passed a paper out at 2019 Winter General Council going over the Mike Rogers’ resignation letter, addressing each assertion. Under the bulleted point about building teamwork and conflict resolution, she wrote:
“Very soon, after he began working here he replaced many of our qualified and experienced experts, who had worked here for years with inexperienced friends and/or relatives. Some of those experts were our Project Manager, our Self Governance person, our Grant Writer our IT Director, our Health Director, our Housing Director, our Education Director. He discontinued having monthly Directors (department Heads) meetings and would not allow Directors and/or staff to attend Council meetings to give their expert information to tribal Council.”
Sidestepping Shoalwater Bay Police and Workplace Regulations.
The Shoalwater Bay Police Department uses a separate set of Regulations apart from policies and procedures that are used in the workplace handbook for most tribal employees. Significantly, according to Police Regulations, Mike Rogers and HR were required to inform Tribal Council about serious internal Police Department allegations.
These policy statements are found in Shoalwater Bay Tribal Police Department Regulations, 6.07.08 specifically. Police regulations and policy require that the administration document the allegations and inform the tribe’s governing body, something the administration did not follow. In this case, Tribal Council was not notified about the negative workplace environment within the police department until much later. Council was also not informed about how the tribal administration addressed a whistleblower complaint by a Shoalwater Bay officer, including initiating an unauthorized United States investigation into an internal Shoalwater Bay Tribal Police matter.
Later, when asked to explain why they did not follow the police regulations, the administration claimed they chose one set of policies over the other; choosing instead to ignore regulations specific to the Police Department and employ only the policies and procedures designed for regular employees.
Documented evidence from the Washington State Internal Affairs archive directly contradicts the Shoalwater Bay administration’s assertions that they chose one set of policies over the other. In opposition to their stated position, throughout the investigation, the administration used police regulations 6.07.08 when it suited their purposes.
When the whistleblower complaint was made Police Regulations require that preliminary steps be taken to address the problem before initiating a full investigation by the Tribal Administrator. “The first step,” as Police Regulations require, “an employee alleging a violation of this policy should discuss the problem with either the offending party or the immediate supervisor in order to reach a rapid solution.” The process was designed to avoid potential misunderstandings or communication problems; also to make sure the offending employee is aware that their behavior is perceived as humiliating, insulting, or discriminatory.
Instead of operating according to Police Regulations, the administration under Mike Rogers cherry picked workplace and tribal police policy. This misinformation strategy allowed the administration to pivot away from Shoalwater Bay Police Regulations requiring that Tribal Council be immediately informed, including skirting the role that the Tribal Administrator was required to follow.
Council Kept in the Dark.
the Shoalwater Bay Tribe and a United States Investigative Unit. Mike Rogers and Tribal Council Attorney
Joel Penoyar were Representing the Tribe without Council Approval or Knowledge.
Council had been kept in the dark about the contract Tribal Administrator Mike Rogers made with Washington State investigative unit, something that was done under the legal advisory of Tribal Council Attorney Joel Penoyar. It was only at the tail end of the State contract, after Council received an internal complaint from the Shoalwater Bay Police Department, that tribal leaders became aware of the State contract with the Tribe.
The internal complaint was issued against Mike Rogers’ mishandling of the State investigation into the Shoalwater Bay Police Department. Press inquiries would follow beginning about two weeks after the internal compliant was made; coinciding roughly with the premature closing of the State investigation and the public availability of the records the United States had collected from the Shoalwater Bay Tribe.
Soon after receiving the complaint, Council contacted Rogers with instructions to provide an explanation at the next available Council meeting in three days time. Rogers immediately instructed HR to terminate a command-level police officer as a result, the person Rogers suspected of informing Council. Certainly in part as retaliation for the complaint to Council but also to set in motion a convincing back story for his actions. To make this happen Mike Rogers wrote State investigator James Riley that, “A complaint has been made to the council regarding how I handled the investigation . . . It appears the chief/or the Lt. have the council’s ear.”
After firing the police officer Rogers asked investigator James Riley to provide a convincing pretext for his actions. Riley wrote back about the unusual request because the investigation was incomplete. As Rogers explained, he urgently needed the materials before his meeting with Tribal Council for their Friday session. At such short notice Riley and his team collected as much of the materials as they were able, mainly recorded interviews of Shoalwater Bay police officers, some un-transcribed as of yet. Rogers admitted that he may not have a chance to listen to all the audio, “but I can say it was helpful in making the decision to terminate the Lt.”
after he fired a police officer and needed a quick after-the-fact pretext to do so.
Rogers was also made aware that the officer was already offered a command-level position in the Pacific County Sheriff’s office under the newly elected Sheriff Robin Souvenir, the former Chief of Police at Shoalwater Bay. Rogers cited two sources in the Pacific County Sheriff’s office for the new information, potentially making the firing more punitive than necessary. As it turned out the firing was later revoked, possibly due to legal concerns, and the officer was allowed to resign instead.
Within the public sphere the press began to investigate what had happened, and were directly alerted to the State investigation by a press letter calling attention on how to obtain the government records, allegedly, sent by an agent of the Scott Johnson campaign for Pacific County Sheriff. The person who leaked the information knew that a State government investigation was open for public discovery and could be used for political purposes. As for Council as a body, most tribal leadership found out what had happened through an internal whistleblower complaint from the Shoalwater Bay Police Department, shored up by local press inquiries and subsequent investigations, including that of shoalwaterbaytribe.com.
Rogers’ Administration Scandal Aftermath.
When Robin Souvenir won the election against Scott Johnson as Pacific County Sheriff, Johnson then applied for Chief of Police at Shoalwater Bay. Publicly the Shoalwater Bay administration claimed that the hiring process for the newly opened position would be done in an above-board manner and that it would not only be fair, but it would also be transparent and include several tribal community members.
Two prominent Council members were not convinced, both maintained a skeptical view about leaving the hiring process up to Mike Rogers, especially if he claimed a hands-off approach when it came to Scott Johnson, a longtime family friend and acquaintance. Despite a few dissenting voices, Council as a whole distanced themselves from seriously questioning the ethics or actions of Rogers during this period; his strong family ties on Council worked in his favor even after the Washington State investigation contract was brought to Council’s attention.
Instead, the voting majority remained convinced that Rogers was in the same boat as they were, and, as one Council member commented at the time, that it was the new Pacific County Sheriff Robin Souvenir who was the one responsible for the debacle; a course of events that opened the tribe up to invasive public disclosure about tribal members and employees, breached Constitutional safeguards, and resulted in one of the largest corruption scandals in modern Shoalwater Bay history. As publicly available government documents attest, it was not Robin Souvenir who hired a State investigative unit, but the administration under Mike Rogers.
When Scott Johnson lost the Sheriff’s election and applied to become the Chief of Police for the Shoalwater Bay Tribe, Rogers took steps to support Johnson in the newly opened position, including creating a blind committee that he headed, with the assistance of HR, a move that worked to keep the process secretive. Community members, for their part, were given the false impression that the choice of Chief of Police would be a fair and cooperative effort. Many were led to believe that the hiring was designed around tribal community input and direction under the control of an official non-biased hiring committee.
In an interview with Mike Rogers by a shoalwaterbaytribe.com representative, Rogers was adamant that the hiring process would be fair; going on to express unsolicited concern about current community “gossip” that he was going to make sure former Pacific County Sheriff Scott Johnson would become the next Shoalwater Bay Police Chief. This he said was not true because community members would be a fundamental part of the process. Rogers made it clear that his main concern overall was that the new Police Chief would not follow the “bad example” of Robin Souvenir, “who shows no respect or gratitude,” Rogers said, “for what the Tribe has done for him.”
As it turned out members of the hiring committee were hand-picked in a secretive way by the Shoalwater Bay administration and no one outside of their choices were given a chance to apply for committee positions, as a high-level administrative source who was on the original hiring committee divulged after expressing concern about the “hiring committee’s” secretive nature. In this way, the administration could ensure that a significant majority of the hiring committee would make a predictable choice. Wild cards could easily be outvoted or misinformed of the outcome.
Not content to leave the decision to chance, the hiring group was organized as a blind committee who did not meet face to face and primarily served to choose the top few candidates, leaving Rogers, who also placed himself on the committee with HR Jesse Smith, to organize the rest.
Just a matter of days before implementing a hiring decision for Chief of Police, Mike Rogers was pulled completely out of the equation. This happened because, like with the State contract, Rogers had failed to inform Council of a matter that required Council knowledge and approval. In this case, Rogers had hired the tribe’s law firm, Hobbs, Straus, Dean, and Walker, LLP, to defend him in tribal court for his part in the corruption scandal.
Mike Rogers Faces Tribal Court and Potential United States Federal Court Lawsuits.
Mike Rogers faced potential legal consequences for his part in the administration scandal and hired the tribe’s law firm to defend him in a tribal court civil case (paid for by the Tribe) without fully informing Tribal Council. Another move that was outside of the scope of his authority; the funding of legal actions, Constitutionally, are a Council prerogative. After Council was informed about Rogers’ continuing efforts to leave them out of the loop, Council called a special Monday morning session to consider whether Mike Rogers should continue as Tribal Administrator. The consensus did not go in his favor. On the following day, Tuesday, January 8, 2019, Rogers tendered his resignation. Two other Tribal officials who were allegedly involved with the Administration scandal would also face the potential of Federal Court action.
Scott Johnson Hiring Goes Awry.
Despite the change in administration leadership, the hiring process for Chief of Police would move swiftly forward under the interim Tribal Administrator and CFO Larry Kerns. On the Friday, January 11, 2019, Council meeting Kerns assured community members that they would get a chance to meet and greet the finalists for Chief of Police for the Shoalwater Bay Tribe. Kerns also assured tribal members that the administration would honor their commitments to include community input.
Few people at that time knew that Mike Rogers was not only on the hiring committee all along but remained intact, that is, until public outcry and claims of corrupt process changed the course of events. “I have talked with Council,” wrote Larry Kerns on Monday, January 14, 2019, “so we will be advertising in the community for someone to replace Mike Rogers in the hiring process for the Police Chief.”
On the same day that Council removed Rogers from the hiring committee HR Jesse Smith informed the tribal community on the Shoalwater Bay website that, “A hiring committee was being formed.” It was a misnomer that rang true to many because the process was so secretive few knew what was happening. Even many on the original committee were kept in the dark up until that point.
The Damage Done and Potential Future harm to the Shoalwater Bay Community.
All investigative documents, including the names of several tribal, workplace, and community members, were open to the public as per United States and State of Washington open information laws.
In addition to being unconstitutional, the move exposed many tribal employees and tribal community member’ private and confidential personal information, as these documents are publicly available at request. Added to the many instances of Mike Rogers’ misuse of his position for personal and political purposes, the misleading of Tribal Council, various instances of dishonest behavior, include the skirting of laws and policies designed to protect the Shoalwater Bay community. Reentering in a high-level position of power with a potential to retaliate against individuals and institutions that exposed him presents great concern.
A Call for Accountability from Tribal Council.
In line with the Shoalwater Bay Constitution, Tribal Council has an obligation to protect the health and welfare of the tribal community, to support tribal member rights and wellbeing. Specifically, the preamble to the Shoalwater Bay Constitution gives a mandate to General Council and Tribal Council, as it reads, to “promote the general welfare of our people and our descendants, protect the rights of the Tribe and of its members, and preserve our land base, culture and identity.”
Along with the leadership of our tribal business community and many others, significantly the elders group have stated publicly that the administration undermined the Shoalwater Bay tribe; placing the safety and wellbeing of our people at risk. For this reason and others covering news about Mike Rogers’ return to power at Shoalwater Bay in 2023 is crucial and in the public interest.
Shoalwater Bay Community. 