When and where

1994, Hannahville. The Michigan Potawatomi Housing Authority (MPHA) was a five-member appointed corporate board. The tribe also had a separate, annually elected tribal housing board. I answered to both. I had been hired in the summer of 1989 as the temporary, part-time Executive Director of the MPHA for a new ten-unit low-income rental project, and I became the Tribal Council’s full-time Housing Director in 1992.

The problem

In 1994 we had to select the first potential tribal homeowners for a new housing project. The applicants included board members. The people choosing the recipients began choosing themselves.

Under federal regulations, I was the one responsible for carrying out whatever the board directed, and every decision had to rest on the evidence and the program’s protocols. When I asked the board whether they understood that, the chair told me, “That is what you are hired for.”

What we did

Before the vote, I warned the board about the potential conflicts. I presented all applicants, including board members, so the decision would rest on the evidence in front of them.

I held myself to the same standard. I was chosen chair of the elected housing board in the 1990 election. I was re-elected to the board in 1991, but in June I declined to continue as chair because of my conflict of interest as a housing employee. I served out my term and never ran for a housing board seat again.

What it became

Two of the five MPHA board members received homes anyway. Afterward, the chair let me know it was my job to explain the picks to the community.

The MPHA board and the casino board had many of the same members, so the same habits carried from one board to the other. It changed only when I told them plainly that I had to implement their directions whether I agreed with them or not. Once they understood that the decision, and the responsibility for it, was theirs, the meetings became more serious.

Lesson for boards today

When the people who decide who benefits can also be the ones who benefit, the benefit stops reaching the member it was meant for. Questions to ask your own board:

• Can a board member apply for a benefit the board awards? If so, do they step out of the decision?
• Is there a written conflict-of-interest rule, and who enforces it?
• Who explains the decision to the community, and who is accountable for it?

I was blown away that the people selecting homeowners for the program started selecting themselves.

From the book A System Built by Tribal Members, Chapter 7, “Getting the Quorum Vote.” Leroy Wandahsega II, Founder, Potawatomi Life. General education, not legal advice.