Screenshot of Monday’s special Hoopa Valley Tribal Council meeting.
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Following nearly five hours of testimony and deliberation, the Hoopa Valley Tribal Council on Monday voted to remove Chair Joe Davis from his position as chair, citing allegations of gross negligence and neglect of duty. The council voted 5-1, with Councilmember Daniel Jordan casting the lone dissenting vote.
Joe Davis | Image via Hoopa Valley Tribe
The tribal council’s push to remove Davis from his position has sparked outrage across social media in recent weeks. Members of the Hoopa Valley Tribe filled tribal council chambers on Monday morning to defend Davis and call for reconciliation among councilmembers, to no avail.
The tribal council previously voted to suspend Davis from his position at the beginning of January, pending an investigation into a potential conflict of interest concerning the Hoopa Development Fund (HDF). On Feb. 13, the tribal council issued five charges against Davis, including failure to supervise tribal staff and departments of the Tribe, repeated failure to follow tribal council directives and policies, failure to maintain the Tribe’s website, and repeated failure to disclose potential conflicts of interest despite advice from legal counsel. On Feb. 16, the council voted to suspend Davis and begin formal removal proceedings.
One week later, on Feb. 23, Davis filed for an injunction in Hoopa Valley Tribal Court, alleging that the council’s action to suspend him and restrict his communications with tribal staff violate the tribe’s constitution. Judge Pro Tem Joseph Wiseman ruled in Davis’ favor and determined that the tribal council “violated the law” and “acted outside the scope of their authority in suspending [Davis] from his duties as chairman,” according to the 15-page decision.
“Petitioner [Davis] does not claim the removal process is unconstitutional, rather he claims the tribal council members did not follow the constitutional removal process and disciplined him beyond their authority,” the decision states. “For the foregoing reasons, the Court finds that Petitioner [Davis] was denied due process, and he has sufficiently shown he will suffer irreparable harm if the scheduled removal hearing … proceeds.”
Speaking during Monday’s special tribal council meeting, Davis’ legal representative, Wendy Ferris-George, former tribal court judge pro tem, accused the tribal council of slandering Davis’ reputation and causing “irreparable harm to not only him but the Hupa community,” she said. “Chairman Davis comes before you today, not to fight or cause dissension, but rather to clear his name from the misstated, misleading and unfounded accusations he has been charged with.”
The “unfounded accusations” Ferris-George referred to center around an alleged conflict of interest that occurred in May of 2023, when Davis and his wife, Kayla Davis, submitted a $50,000 loan application to the HDF. After his wife applied for the loan, Davis contacted Tom Schlosser, the Tribe’s legal counsel, to ask about the legality of the loan application. Schlosser advised Davis to recuse himself from oversight of the department, not knowing that the loan application had already been approved by the department.
However, Davis and his wife decided not to accept the loan, nor did they provide any follow-up documentation, including a formal business plan, for the loan application.
Schlosser argued that Davis’ action violated the Tribe’s Constitution, citing Title 8, “Once elected, each council member shall report to the tribal council and election board any situation that may create a conflict while in office.”
“The chairman did not report to the tribal council a situation that may create a conflict of interest while in office,” Schlosser said during Monday’s meeting. “He did not report that an application was submitted on his behalf for a business loan from the program that he supervised. He continued to supervise the program and the director who vouched that all the supporting documentation was in his application, even though it wasn’t. The chairman did not report to the tribal council that the HDF board approved this loan.”
Speaking to the charges of gross negligence and neglect of duty, Schlosser said Davis had signed three “intermediate/long-term” loans for the HDF board without consulting the rest of the tribal council after he was advised to recuse himself from oversight of the department.
Davis admitted that he had made a mistake by signing the loans, but said, “I don’t feel that it’s something that warrants removal.”
“My mistake was when they came to me, I did not double-check the policy to make sure that I was within my right to sign it, because I am in my right to sign off on short-term loans, but not ‘intermediate’ as per the policy that you provided to me,” Davis said. “I’ll live up to that – it was a mistake.”
Davis said he did call HDF staff to ask why the loan applications were on his desk and was told that the loans were previously approved by HDF board members, but they didn’t have the authority to sign off.
“Not to pass the buck but, you know, they should have never brought that to me,” he said. “I assumed that they were telling me correctly that [I] can sign these, you know? I didn’t go out of my way to seek out the loans to go sign them, they brought him over to me. But that’s the one area where I will say today that out of all these charges I’m guilty.”
Davis’ wife took responsibility for some of the issues surrounding their loan application, largely chalking it up to miscommunication.
“Technically it was a team effort insofar as I would try and keep him informed with where it was at, but honestly, with him being as busy as he is with his job and being distracted by raising our kids … I’m sure some things fell through the cracks and there was miscommunication or confusion on where we were at in the process,” she said. “I know he was caught off guard when he heard that we were approved for the loan, so when he says he didn’t sign it really wasn’t dishonesty on his part. Embarrassingly, it was just miscommunication between the two of us. I truly apologize for the confusion that this may have caused, it was never my intention.”
Vice-Chair Everett Colegrove maintained that Davis should have informed the council of the loan application when he first applied.
About a dozen tribal members defended Davis’ actions during the public comment portion of the meeting, many of whom urged the council to look at the bigger picture and consider how the removal of the chairman would impact the Tribe’s membership. Speaking via Zoom, tribal member Daren Masten urged the council to reconsider Davis’ removal.
“I understand there needed to be an investigation … but I don’t really see anything that warrants a nuclear decision,” he said. “Were there mistakes made? Absolutely. Were they felonious? No. I think what we’re looking at here [are] infractions. … I think forgiveness is probably the most important word we need to think about right now. Let’s just move forward as a Tribe and put it behind us because we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Cassandra Chavez, the former financial institution director for the HDF, called the removal proceedings “ridiculous” and shamed the tribal council for airing out dirty laundry in the public rather than handling the matter behind closed doors. “I am embarrassed to be a part of the Tribe that puts this publicly out there like this,” she said. “Every single one of you sitting at that table: listen to your membership. This is not okay.”
Like several others, Hoopa resident Glenna Moore said the tribal council “jumped the gun” with removal proceedings. “I do not see [how] these charges against our chairman rise to the level of removal,” she said. “We don’t want to see you micromanaging our departments and our managers. We want to see you in Washington, DC, and in Sacramento fighting for our sovereign rights and everything that impacts this tribe.”
Moore also noted that the tribal council had withheld the findings of the investigation from Davis. A little later in the meeting, Councilmember Daniel Jordan asked Davis if he had received copies of the two reports, one prepared by financial consultant Wally Weaver and the other by attorney Amy Ann Taylor. Davis said he had requested a copy of each report but did not receive a response from the council.
“Ok, that’s a problem because they actually describe what the findings are from their investigation,” Jordan said. “I am disturbed that you did not get some version of the … reports because they’re very revealing about what they found, and if you don’t have that then you don’t know what you’re commenting on.”
Jordan said he had written a previous memo to the council in which he expressed concern that Davis’ Constitutional rights had been violated following his suspension from the council. “These Constitutional issues are of significant concern to me,” he said.
Before closing out the discussion, Davis asked the council once more to reconsider his removal and said he would be “willing to sit down and have a conversation to work these things out.”
The council went into executive session and about an hour later voted 5-1, with Councilmember Jordan dissenting and Vice-Chair Colegrove recused, to remove Davis from his position as chair.
The Tribe will hold a tribal council primary election on Tuesday, March 19. Two seats on the council will be contested. More information can be found at this link.
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DOCUMENT: Statement from Davis’ legal representative Wendy Ferris-George
RELATED: POLL! Do You Agree With the Hoopa Tribal Council’s Decision to Remove Chairman Joe Davis?
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