Mohegan Tribal Council member Mark Brown was defeated for a seventh term during secret ballot elections on August 25 ending nearly a quarter century in office. He was defeated by a newcomer to tribal politics.
There’s some speculation that Brown’s defeat owes to the fact that his brother, Tribal Chairman Kevin Brown, resigned as chairman and councilor in February for “personal” reasons. Some feel that he may have been the subject of an ethics probe since there was no indication that he intended to resign before that.
When asked about the connection, Brown commented, “I don’t know. I do think people look at us as individuals…. Politics have changed, on every level. It used to be you shook hands, you talked to people. Social media’s now a tool to throw people off course.”
Brown was first elected in 1995. He became tribal chairman in 2000, holding that position until 2005. When he first joined the council he kept his job as a part-time police officer for several years. Today that kind of double role is unheard of.
He played an important role of the Mohegans’ development of the Mohegan Sun Casino, with the Mashantucket Pequots’ Foxwoods as an example to emulate.
In an interview with the New London Day, Brown recalled, “The dynamics of that first group was the best. It was an amazing time. Everything was changing, every day. It was an extreme learning curve.”
He added, “We ‘Moheganized’ things. We hired the best, people like Bill Velardo and Mitchell Etess, and they came in and said, ‘This is how we do it in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.’ … ‘But we live here,’ we’d say. ‘We know what people’s expectations are …’” One of those Mohegan ways of doing things was to treat employees like family and listen to them. “We’re not like a typical business. We’re going to be here forever,” he said.
Because of that difference, when the casino celebrated its 20th anniversary, about 2,400 employees had been with the casino since it launched. So far, no Mohegan employees have joined a labor union.
During his tenure, Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment has opened the Mohegan Sun Pocono in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, has a management contract in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and will soon launch an integrated resort in Incheon, South Korea, while seeking gaming licenses in Japan and Greece.
Even so, under assault from more competition, the Mohegan tribe’s strategy is not so much to expand but to survive. Or as Brown told the Day, “It’s not so much about growth as stability.”
