Karuk Tribe of California

Council Meeting Minutes

October 25, 2007

Orleans, California

The meeting was called to order at 5:06 PM by Leaf Hillman, Vice Chairman.

Leaf Hillman opened the meeting with a prayer.

Roll Call

Present

Arch Super, Chairman – late 6:00 PM

Leaf Hillman, Vice Chairman

Leeon Hillman, Treasurer

Roy Arwood, Member

Florence Conrad, Member

Sonny Davis, Member

Alvis Johnson, Member

Absent

Florrine Super, Secretary

Robert Goodwin, Member

Quorum is established.

Approval of the Agenda for October 25, 2007

Leeon Hillman moved and Florence Conrad seconded to approve the Agenda for October 25, 2007.  5 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

Approval of the Minutes for September 27, 2007

Florence Conrad moved and Leeon Hillman seconded to approve the Minutes for September 27, 2007.  5 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

1)  Shirley Preston

Shirley was present to address the Council and present a short video to them.  Her daughter, Lauren, has been invited to attend the 32^nd Annual American Indian Film Festival.  She is requesting support to attend.  The School District will cover mileage and will pay her for the time; she is requesting that the per diem be covered by the Tribe in the amount of $410.  The video that Lauren prepared was played for the audience.

Florence Conrad moved and Leeon Hillman seconded to approve the request for $410.  5 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

Leaf states there will be another Karuk Film at the Festival being presented as well.

2)  Susan Corum

She is present on behalf of many Tribal Members, employees, and community members who are seeking Tribal Council assistance with childcare in their community.  She would like to schedule a meeting with the Council so that they can discuss funding to develop a childcare facility in the Orleans/Somes Bar area.  There are many staff members who are having trouble continuing to work their full time positions and community members who are unable to accept employment with the Tribe because there is no childcare.  They are not certain what level of assistance or even what type of assistance they would need but realize they need help.  Holly Hensher and Molli White can be contacts for further discussion on this topic.  The Fisheries office used to be Head Start and is up to code for use involving children if they could relocate that department.

The suggestion is that a meeting be coordinated with Florence Conrad, Dion Wood, Grant Writing Staff, and these individuals to discuss possibilities and what the options might be and what type of funding could be available.  The goal would be that the Center pay for itself once established.

3)  Old Business

None at this time.

4)  April Attebury, Tribal Court

April was present to distribute her activity update for the Tribal Court.

Her only action item is out of state travel to attend a mandatory meeting in Washington, DC, November 13-16, 2007 for her program; the funding will be covered through the grant which is funded by the US Department of Justice.  It is the kickoff meeting for the Tribal Youth Program New Grantee Orientation Meeting – Building Brighter Futures in Indian Country.

Florence Conrad moved and Roy Arwood seconded to approve travel to Washington, DC for April Attebury.  5 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

She states there was a successful reunification this month as well as a guardian placement with a grandparent.  She has transitioned to her new schedule now.

Florence Conrad moved and Alvis Johnson seconded to approve April’s report.  5 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

5)  Jim Berry, KCDC

Written report only, not present; it included the Head Start and Computer Center updates as well.

Florence Conrad moved and Leeon Hillman seconded to approve Jim’s report.  5 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

6)  Hector Garcia, Self Governance

Hector was present to address the Council.  He states his most important announcement is a meeting with Carl Artman in Sacramento on Monday at 10:30 AM to discuss the fee-to-trust applications and the dam removals as well as the Probate Code and its verbal approval with no written confirmation.

Bob, Roy, and Arch will attend along with Carrie.  The Council requests that Scott Quinn attend as well as Hector cannot be there since he will be in Wisconsin with Sonny Davis.  Leaf and Alvis will be on travel for Housing and Florence and Leeon will be remaining in town.  The Council also requests that Craig attend if he is available to address the River issues.  There is a consortium meeting that day as well.  Leaf suggests that the position paper he is taking to Wisconsin be presented as it is appropriate for this meeting as well.  They have been told they will only have thirty minutes but if they engage him, he will often discuss issues longer.

**He states he distributed information received from Danny Jordan from the Hoopa Tribe stating they will support the Tribe in obtaining Fishing Rights.  Leaf states that email needs to be forwarded to Craig.

**He states there was a motion made at the KCDC Meeting regarding a Bio-Mass Facility Project being proposed by Eric Hoffman to purchase an electric generation plant that will burn fuels through an agreement with the US Forest Service.  He was directed to work with the Forest Service to develop agreements that will make this happen.  He is interested in the full Council’s direction before he moves forward on this project.  Bob had stated he should speak to Stacey Smith about an agreement where the Tribe would obtain funding for fuels reduction.

Leaf states he is uncertain what action KCDC took but they cannot direct his work as they are not his Supervisor; the Council is.  His assumption is that KCDC requested he begin exploring possibilities and requesting assistance from him to look into that project.  He does feel it is premature for Hector to pursue any agreements or conversations with outside agencies at this point.  He states that makes him feel much better now that he knows.  Leaf states it does not require any immediate action at this time, just research if requested.

He states Ken Reinfeld sent a letter recently regarding a request to sit on the Welfare Assistance Advisory Board through BIA; Carrie is interested in serving in this capacity.  Lisa Aubrey is the director of that Program and the invitation is a result the letter that Lisa and Erin wrote to him about the SWEEP program being terminated and his interest in working with the Tribe because their location is so unique and different from other Tribes.  Ken wants to ensure Tribal representation on this Board.  The Tribal Council can appoint who that person will be; others can attend the meetings as well.

Leaf states that Erin should be involved in this process as she supervises this program for the Tribe; he would feel comfortable appointing Carrie to attend as well as long as the Director is involved.

He also updated them on the meeting Tuesday with Sami.  Carrie, Alvis, and Arch also attended.  They were present to review the challenge that was prepared for their census numbers.  Sami felt it would be more beneficial to supply them with updated Census numbers that will support their increase request.  He left an original with Leaf regarding what they discussed and the results and feels it will make changes in the grant amount that Sami was pursuing.

He states that the Regional Director position in Sacramento is being pursued by two individuals; Gail Risling and Amy Dutsche.  In the past there has been a problem with lack of Tribal consultation regarding who is selected for this position.  Council would like him to prepare a letter indicating that Tribal Consultation is needed on this matter; it can be reviewed Wednesday for approval.

Florence Conrad moved and Leeon Hillman seconded to approve Hector’s report.  5 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

Arch Super arrived at 6:00 PM.

7)  Dave Wrobleski

Dave was present to review his written report.

He has one action item which is a request to purchase computer equipment from HP in the amount of $5,746.27 through the NAGPRA Grant.  It includes a computer, scanner, printer, and necessary software.

He states there will be a Cultural Resource Management planning meeting on November 8, 2007 at 1 PM.  They will begin discussing details on how this will all work for the programs at that time.

He states there are two Karuk baskets on e-bay for sale at this time and he is not sure what the Tribal policy is on purchases such as that.  The auctions close in three days.

Leaf Hillman moved and Florence Conrad seconded to approve the HP purchase in the amount of $5,746.27.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

Leeon Hillman moved and Leaf Hillman seconded to approve Dave’s report.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

8)  Lisa Aubrey, LIAP

Written report only, not present; she is on travel.

Florence Conrad moved and Alvis Johnson seconded to approve Lisa’s report.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

9)  Dion Wood, TERO

Written report only, not present; he is on travel.

He has one action item which is approval for travel for himself and two commissioners to the Annual National TERO Legal Conference in Las Vegas, December 5-7, 2007.

Roy Arwood moved and Leaf Hillman moved to approve travel for Dion Wood only.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

Roy Arwood moved and Florence Conrad seconded to approve Dion’s report.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

10)  Jennifer Goodwin, Education

Written only, not present.  They requested the reports not be in fonts that are hard to read, Erin states she will speak to her.

Leaf Hillman moved and Leeon Hillman seconded to approve Jennifer’s report.  5 haa, 1 puuhara (Florence Conrad), 0 pupitihara.

11)  Erin Hillman, Administrative Programs

Erin was present to review her written report.

She states that BIA has sent the applications for this year’s HIP funds and they are accepting applications and Lisa and Juna will be distributing applications next week; they are now going to start evaluating the applicant’s sites to determine if they are affordable before submitting the application to BIA for the home and then going over budget on the project.  The applications are due on November 30, 2007 to BIA.

They are out to bid in Orleans again, tomorrow they will have the second bid opening to see if they receive any that are within their budget.

Chris has been working on the Yreka Administration Building which needs to be completed by October 31, 2007 to be in compliance with the grant so Housing can get moved in.

She recently attended a meeting in Sacramento to re-establish the Tribal Specialist Committee Membership for the Karuk Tribe; no one attended from the Tribe last year and the goal is to develop a better working relationship between the Department of Homeland Security/Office of Emergency Services and Tribes.  She received information and another meeting will be held in February she believes.

She will be going to Klamath for a Yurok presentation for emergency planning stakeholders; Sandi was going to attend but will not return from her current travel until Sunday.

She has a couple of action items; the first is an agreement with Healtherapy to continue to rent Ishkayish Ranch for the Horse Program.  Everything remains the same as previous agreements and the number is 08-A-002 at $75 per day to use the Ranch; they plan to increase their usage but will be suspending use during the Winter months.

Leaf Hillman moved and Roy Arwood seconded to approve Agreement 08-A-002 with Healtherapy.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

Her next action item is an agreement for Head Start to work with three Americorp volunteers in the amount of $10,855 through surplus salary funds in the program November 5, 2007-May 23, 2008.  The MOU number is 08-M-001.  Head Start has approved this expense.

Leaf Hillman moved and Florence Conrad seconded to approve MOU 08-M-001 with Americorp.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

Leaf Hillman moved and Florence Conrad seconded to approve Erin’s report.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

12)  Sami Difuntorum, KTHA

Written report only, not present

Florence Conrad moved and Alvis Johnson seconded to approve Sami’s report.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

13)  Laura Mayton, CFO

Laura was present to review her written report.

She distributed additional information to them regarding travel guidelines; this was requested by them to clear up questions that arise regarding travel so that all staff and Council Members know how things work.  She will request final approval at the Wednesday meeting before sending it out in case they have questions.

Her second item is regarding vehicle incidents as there have been many accidents lately and she will begin giving this to them monthly.

Her last item is a travel report from Michael Thom from the CRIHB meeting he attended in Jackson.

She states that she has not found a concrete change to the rules and regulations for the Indirect Cost Pool regarding charging 50% of Council travel to that fund; so they will continue to charge it there; if it is disallowed, it will have to be shifted to discretionary.

She has followed up on the property tax exemption that Scott pointed out to her at the last meeting.  She has found that they are not eligible for the exemption and becoming a 501(c)3 to avoid the taxes would then not allow them to put properties into Trust, so they will have to continue paying the property taxes on parcels until they are in Trust.

She states that she is going to be preparing a discretionary spending report and will be distributing it to them at the Wednesday meeting so they can discuss it at length and discuss their future obligations for the coming fiscal year.

She states in six months the funding that they received from Housing that pay a portion of the Chairman and Vice Chairman’s salary will be depleted.  At that point they will have to either split them 50% Indirect, 25% IHS, 25% BIA or request additional funding from KTHA.  She states they do not have to decide now but will have to discuss it.

She states that on the Tribal Loan summary they had inquired about initiating collections on the outstanding loans; Suzanna Hardenburger will check into this and then get back to her.  Another request was to add columns to the loan reports indicating the date of the last payment and whether or not the individual is an employee.

Leaf Hillman moved and Leeon Hillman seconded to approve Laura’s report.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

14)  Scott Quinn, Land/Transportation

Written only, not present.

Leaf Hillman moved and Leeon Hillman seconded to approve Scott’s report.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

15)  Sandi Tripp, DNR

A written report was distributed for their review.  Earl was present to present the report.

He presented an action item for $150,000 from BIA to fund the Fish Lake Complex watershed projects for next year; May 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008.  Resolution 07-R-150 was assigned to the proposal.

Leaf Hillman moved and Florence Conrad seconded to approve Resolution 07-R-150.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

Florence Conrad moved and Sonny Davis seconded to approve the DNR report.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara

16)  Susan Gehr, Language

Written report only, not present.

Florence Conrad moved and Leaf Hillman seconded to approve Susan’s report.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

17)  Hester Dillon, Grants

Hester was present to review the written report.

She has one action item which is a request to approve the costs for the FCC application public notice in the amount of $538.36 which will come from discretionary.

Leaf Hillman moved and Alvis Johnson seconded to approve the request in the amount of $538.36.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

Hester states the engineer believes that the work will come in under budget at this point based on the information which is good news for the radio station project.

Florence Conrad moved and Leaf Hillman seconded to approve Hester’s report.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

18)  Fred Burcell, Construction/Maintenance/Automotive

Written report only, not present.

Leaf Hillman moved and Sonny Davis seconded to approve Fred’s report.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

19)  Sara Spence, Human Resources

Sara was present to review her written report.

Sara states that BIA is changing the process for submitting fingerprint background checks and they are transferring that service to an outside contractor which will greatly speed the turnaround time for results being received.  In order to sign up for the new service there must be policies and procedures in place as well as an Adjudicating Official.  Training is being offered in Seattle, December 4-7, 2007 for this purpose and she requested approval to attend.  They have indicated that the employee responsible for the background checks is the one who should attend.

Florence Conrad moved and Leaf Hillman seconded to approve travel for Sara Spence to Seattle, WA, December 4-7, 2007.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

She inquired if the Tribal Council would consider granting the employees Administrative Leave on December 24, 2007 as the holiday falls on Tuesday this year.

Leaf Hillman moved and Florence Conrad seconded to approve December 24, 2007 as Administrative Leave.  5 haa, 1 puuhara (Alvis Johnson), 0 pupitihara.

Leaf Hillman moved and Leeon Hillman seconded to approve Sara’s report.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

20)  Requests

None at this time.

21)  Phone Votes

×           Approval of Resolution 07-R-139 for ICW; passed.

×           Approval of Resolution 07-R-138 for ICW; passed.

×           Approval of Resolution 07-R-140 for ICW; passed.

×           Approval of loan to Tribal Member in the amount of $420, payments of $25 per month to repay; passed.

×           Approval to purchase Canon Image Runner 3570 copier in the amount of $9,851 from Ishpook Leasing for HC Community Health Clinic; passed.

×           Approval of Resolution 07-R-130 for Head Start Abbreviation Grant; passed.

×           Approval to purchase two monitor heaters from Cross Petroleum; passed.

22)  Informational

None at this time.

23)  Committee Reports

None at this time.

Closed session from 7:31 PM to 9:20 PM

Consensus:  To discuss the HCHS issues at the Wednesday meeting and review a draft offer letter from Stephanie at that time.

Consensus:  To proceed with the Constitution revisions after the Election is over.

Florence Conrad moved and Leaf Hillman seconded to approve Agreement 08-A-003 with Employee #1379.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

Roy Arwood moved and Alvis Johnson seconded to approve a payment plan for Tribal Member #3200 to allow eligibility for LIAP assistance.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

Consensus:  Lisa Aubrey will represent the Tribe on the Welfare Assistance Committee and Carrie Davis may attend as well for Self Governance.

Leaf Hillman moved and Florence Conrad seconded to approve a loan for Tribal Member #2917 in the amount of $340 to be repaid at the rate of $25 per month.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

Leaf Hillman moved and Florence Conrad seconded to approve travel for Barbara Norman 10/29/2007 to Sacramento for ICWA training.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

Consensus:  Josephine Peters’ book may be printed but the Tribe will not associate their name with the book.

Consensus:  To deny the request from Tribal Member #846.

Consensus:  To deny the assistance request from Tribal Member #2113.

Leaf Hillman moved and Alvis Johnson seconded to approve the COLA and increase request for KCDC employee.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

Consensus:  To forward the complaint regarding the Housing unit to the Operations Manager.

Consensus:  To send a letter to the Committee for the Panamnik Building in Orleans to inquire what the Tribe could help with on that project.

Consensus:  To send an email to Fred Burcell regarding the HVAC system at the Panamnik Center.

Consensus:  To modify the payment schedule for Tribal Member #538 to be $100/month from Health Board Stipends.

Consensus:  To donate Shirts for Flu Shot volunteers from the museum gift shop.

Florence Conrad moved and Sonny Davis seconded to approve the purchase of eight copies of Two Peoples, One Place book.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

Leaf Hillman moved and Roy Arwood seconded to approve $2,000 for DVD publication from discretionary.  6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

Next Meeting Date:  November 29, 2007 at 5 PM in Yreka.

Meeting adjourned at 9:25 PM.

Recording Secretary, Sara Spence