Karuk Tribe of
Council Meeting Minutes
November 29, 2007
The meeting was called to order at 5:01 PM by Arch
Super, Chairman.
Roll Call
Present
Arch Super, Chairman
Leaf Hillman, Vice Chairman
Florrine Super, Secretary
Leeon Hillman, Treasurer
Roy Arwood, Member
Sonny Davis, Member
Robert Goodwin, Member
Alvis Johnson, Member
Quorum is established.
The mission statement of the Karuk Tribe was read
aloud by Robert Goodwin, Member.
Approval of the Agenda for November 29, 2007
Robert Goodwin moved and
Alvis Johnson seconded to approve the Agenda for November 29, 2007. 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0
pupitihara.
1) Approval of
the Minutes for October 25, 2007
Florrine states that the prayer at the last meeting
was nice; she would like to see them do that again.
2) Roberta
Grant
Not present.
3) Susan Gehr,
Language
Susan was present, her
written report was included; she states she has no action items for this
evening. Arch asked how the Language
Class is coming along. She states the
online class will start in mid-January and registration will start in a couple
of weeks. She states the last class went
well and they have incorporated the feedback from that first group into this
class.
Robert Goodwin moved and
Leaf Hillman seconded to approve Susan’s report. 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0
pupitihara.
4) Sandi Tripp,
Natural Resources
Not present, written report
only; no action items.
Leaf states he needs a date
for next week to review the final settlement document which will take several
hours. He suggests Monday, December 3,
2007 at 1 PM in Happy Camp. Sonny,
Alvis, Robert (maybe), Arch, Leaf, and
Leaf Hillman moved and
Leeon Hillman seconded to approve Sandi’s report. 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0
pupitihara.
5) Scott Quinn,
Land-Transportation
Not present, no report, he
will be present Wednesday.
6) Dave
Wrobleski, People’s Center
Not present, written report
only; no action items.
Florrine Super moved and
Leeon Hillman seconded to approve Dave’s report. 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0
pupitihara.
7) Lisa Aubrey,
LIAP
Not present, on her way.
8) Dion Wood,
TERO
Not present, on his way.
9) Jennifer
Goodwin, Education
Not present, on her way.
10) Sami
Difuntorum, Housing
Ann was present to review the
written report which was included. She
requested approval of the Annual Performance Report which was distributed last
week, it has a deadline, however, she is unsure what
the deadline is. They state it will be
approved on Wednesday so they have further time to review the document for
feedback.
She states the Land
Acquisition Contract should be received tomorrow and it will be forwarded as
soon as it is received. Sami will be out
on travel all next week.
Robert Goodwin moved and
Leaf Hillman seconded to approve the Housing report. 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 1
pupitihara (Alvis Johnson).
11) Laura
Mayton, CFO
Written
report only, on travel this week.
Robert Goodwin moved and
Leaf Hillman seconded to approve the $850 for repairs to Vehicle #111 from
discretionary. 8 haa,
0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
11a) Lisa
Aubrey
Lisa arrived to distribute
and review her written report. She
states she has no action items. She
states there is funding available for her programs; it is income eligible so
applicants must apply. Mary Kelly asked
if they are receiving assistance from CAIR are they eligible for her program
also, she states yes if they are income eligible. Arch suggests she send a flyer to the offices
telling members what is available and how to apply for her program.
Leaf Hillman moved and
Florrine Super seconded to approve Lisa’s report. 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0
pupitihara.
11b) Dion Wood
Dion arrived and distributed
his report.
He states he has been
receiving a lot of calls for AVT funding and childcare. He states that AVT is a program that has a
shortfall for providing assistance. He
is also looking for ways to help Tribal Members who are coming out of
incarceration with the transition.
He requests that the Council
approve renewing Dave Nelson and Cecilia Arwood’s
terms on the TERO Commission as they are expiring. They have been working well with the
group. Arch asked about advertising for
letters of intent first. Dion states
that he does not know if it is required.
He states there is still no
update for TANF, they have been told that the Feds are having a statistician
review the data and they are still waiting for the caseload numbers so that
they can get the program up and running.
He updated them on the
childcare concerns that have been brought forward by both the
Robert Goodwin moved and
Alvis Johnson seconded to approve Dion’s report. 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0
pupitihara.
11c) Jennifer
Goodwin
Jennifer was present to
distribute her written report for their review.
She states the JOM funding is still up in the air and she hopes that
Arch will be able to make some progress next week when he is in
She states the second week of
December there will be a meeting with the Hoopa and Yurok Education Programs to
identify potential funding sources that could be available to the Karuk Tribe. She is exploring some other funding that they
could potentially apply for if the schools do not and Hester is working with
her as well.
Robert asked what the
anticipated loss would be if JOM is not funding, the cut would be $48,000 to
the program which is the only funding they have for the higher education grants. She has some other issues she will discuss
with them in the near future. They have
the funding in the budget for this Fiscal Year, but there are no guarantees for
next Fiscal Year. She had hoped to hear
something at the Education Conference but did not.
She will conduct the letter
writing campaign again along with phone calls to push them to not cut the
funding as they did before. Robert N.
Goodwin states that the letter writing is successful; he wrote three letters
and received three responses. Bob asked
for a short breakdown that can be submitted along with a form letter that they
can send in regarding the impact of not receiving JOM funding. He can also get them out to the offices to get
them involved as well.
She states the trip to
Leaf suggests that they voice
their dissatisfaction to Feinstein’s office regarding her offer to support 50%
funding, that is simply not enough.
Hector provided some background on this issue and the Senator’s thoughts
on the budget cuts. He states that
Feinstein has shifted from full support for JOM to 50% and now others are
thinking the same thing. They are losing
ground and support rather than gaining support.
A lot of the changes in thinking are based on bad press regarding misuse
of funding and myths regarding Tribes and them not needing the funding. Leaf states that a fact sheet and information
similar to what she prepared last time may be helpful in this situation.
Alvis Johnson moved and
Sonny
11d)
Roberta Grant
She is present to request
assistance from the Tribe. Arch states
that will be handled in closed session.
11e) Harold
Peters
Harold was present to address
the Council regarding his frustrations with them and how difficult it has been
for him to receive assistance with his Water Rights in the Valley. He is upset with the Tribe and does not
understand why it is not easier for them to help the Members; he excused
himself from the meeting.
Arch states they have been
working with Harold for some time to help him and are doing the best they can,
he asked if anyone has any questions regarding Harold’s statements.
Bob continued by adding that they
have spoke to Harold several times, they have scheduled private meetings with
him to try and help him as much as they can but he does not provide them with
any facts to help his case, only opinions that they cannot take to another
level. The main problem is he is not on
12) Rick Hill,
Grant Writer
Rick is present to review the
written report.
Rick states that the HRSA
Grant has been awarded for over three million dollars for the next four
years. He states Hester worked very hard
on this. He states that the Strategic
Plan was discussed at the Management Team Meeting a couple of weeks ago. The Directors will do their own planning and
then the group will get back together in February to create an overall plan to
bring back to the Council.
He states he has one action
item which is approval to have the plan document printed for distribution to
interested individuals, with grant applications, etc. The cost to have the Strategic Plan printed
is $1,900 for 2,500 copies from Proforma in
Leaf Hillman moved and Roy
Arwood seconded to approve $1,900 for printing of the strategic plan from
discretionary. 8 haa,
0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
He states he met with Kari Norgaard and Dr. Carlson (pediatrician) and his wife last
week to pursue potential funding to do further studies on the traditional diet
and diabetes and its impact on the Tribe.
He has also spoken to Ron Reed and Dr. Burns regarding this.
He is also working on
researching a successful way to incorporate a stewardship project in the
Leaf Hillman moved and
Leeon Hillman seconded to approve Rick’s report. 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0
pupitihara.
13) Erin
Hillman, Administrative Programs
She states that Timberworks
Co. from
She continues her involvement
with the other local Tribes on Emergency Preparedness and securing agreements
with
She states the results of the
California Department of Community Services and Development has completed their
desk review and there were no findings.
Her report also included the
information regarding the grant and contract reviews that have been done during
the past month.
April and Florrine state that
Kayla received a call that the Siskiyou County Mini-Grant was awarded at a
reduced level of $900 instead of $2,000.
Bob asked if there has been
any progress on the resubmission for the Happy Camp ICDBG Grant.
She states she spoke to Fred
this morning and he stated the Quartz Valley HIP Project has been signed off on
so the member can move into their home.
She thanked him and everyone else involved for their hard work.
Leaf Hillman moved and
Robert Goodwin seconded to approve
14) April Attebury,
Tribal Court
April was present to address
the Tribal Council and distribute her report for their information.
She states each year there is
a conference titled Beyond the Bench where each County takes a team with them
to discuss the issues the Courts are having in that area. In the past, she has attended and it has been
funded through program funds. This year
she does not have the funding and is requesting Council approval for funding to
allow her to attend, it is estimated to cost about $1,210. Kayla and Joe will attend as well with
program funding. She states that
attendance by Council would be good as well; the funding would have to be
discretionary as well.
Leaf Hillman moved and Florrine
Super seconded to approve travel for April Attebury to
She states with the new
Tribal Youth Program grant they received, she attended the orientation in
She states that during that
week she received notice from the State of
Leaf Hillman moved and
Leeon Hillman seconded to approve April’s report. 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0
pupitihara.
15) Jim Berry,
KCDC
Written
report only, not present; no action items. Florrine states that the Policy
Council member for Head Start is Jeana Thom not Rita
Thom, Sara will let Toni know.
Roy Arwood moved and
Florrine Super seconded to approve Jim’s report. 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 1
pupitihara.
16) Hector
Garcia, Self Governance
Hector was present to review
his written report. He included a
summary for the entire year of 2007.
He states that no one thought
this would be a very busy year but it was legislatively with many bills,
changes, appropriations, etc. He states
that he has also been receiving information from Directors regarding
legislation and deadlines that have come about which he greatly appreciates. He
reviewed that information with them and the audience. He will go over this in more detail
Wednesday.
He states that NIEA will have
a conference in February that will focus on saving JOM and other educational
programs such as Head Start and he would like to speak to
Robert Goodwin moved and
Alvis Johnson seconded to approve Hector’s report. 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0
pupitihara.
17) Fred
Burcell, Maintenance/Construction/Automotive
Arch states that Fred’s father
recently passed in a tragic accident. A
moment of silence was observed in his honor.
18) Sara
Spence, Human Resources
Sara was present to review
her written report; she has no action items at this time. She updated them that the Yreka Dentist has
been hired and will start December 3, 2007 and the KTHA Chief Finance Officer
position has been removed from advertisement due to budget constraints.
Florrine Super moved and
Roy Arwood seconded to approve Sara’s report.
8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
19) Requests
Arch states that everyone
needs to register to vote in the National Elections…if anyone is interested
they can contact a Council Member and they will help them with where to go.
They also gave a very brief
update on the Casino progress. They hope
for a successful outcome this time and will let everyone know as soon as they get
word either way.
20) Phone Votes
a) Procurement to
purchase monitor heater and 100 gallons of fuel in the amount of $2,308.99 from Renner Petroleum from discretionary. Passed.
b) Out of state
travel for Carrie Davis and Lisa Aubrey to Albuquerque, NM, November 15, 2007 for the Tribal/BIA Welfare Assistance
Advisory Workgroup. Passed.
c) Out of state travel for Erin Hillman to
d) Loan for to
Tribal Member in the amount of $450 for septic service. Passed.
e) Resolution
07-R-151 for submission of a proposal to Siskiyou Community Services Council in
the amount of $2,000.
f) Resolution
07-R-149 for submission of a proposal in the amount of $9,000 in support of receiving funding for travel and
legal costs to support the Tribe’s efforts for a final basin/Pacificorp settlement
agreement. Passed.
21)
Informational Items
One thank you note was
included from Hospice for doing a notary for a patient who was in need of that
service at their home, Sara Spence and Arch Super visited the patient to make
sure their last wishes were documented and they appreciated that service as
well as all of the support and donations from the Tribe.
22) Committee
Reports
None at
this time.
Closed Session from 7:58 PM to 11:57 PM
Robert Goodwin moved and
Sonny
Directive: For Anna Myers to research the request
presented by Tribal Member #1600 and report back Wednesday.
Directive: For Davey Davis to
repair/replace steps at Tribal Member #1032’s home in
Request for assistance for
Tribal Member #1895 tabled to Wednesday for approval.
Robert Goodwin moved and
Florrine Super seconded to approve a lodging voucher for Tribal Member #1445,
December 1-14, 2007 and have them contact Mike Edwards regarding assistance
locating a rental. 7
haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
Results: Leaf will research the concerns brought
forward by Tribal Member #3738 regarding her son’s housing application.
Request for assistance for
Tribal Member #2724 tabled to Wednesday for approval.
Roy Arwood excused himself at 9:01 PM.
Housing concerns were
heard from Tribal Member #516; Ann Escobar was asked to come in to clarify
several items and provide a response to the most pressing question. Council states that Housing needs to pay very
close attention to issues such as those raised by this Member and continue with
their processes to ensure Tenant Complaints are handled and resolved.
Roy Arwood returned to the meeting at 9:27 PM.
Leaf Hillman moved and
Robert Goodwin seconded to accept the recommendation to remove CASA from State
Court case. 8 haa, 0
puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
Leaf Hillman moved and Florrine
Super seconded to approve up to $800 for paternity testing if allowed in ICWA
Case. 8 haa, 0
puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
Leaf Hillman moved and
Robert Goodwin seconded to order peace-making with Tribal Member #531 and #1900
to assist them to reach a civil relationship that is beneficial for the
workplace and co-workers. They are further
directed to comply with the plan that is issued.
Leaf Hillman moved and
Sonny
Consensus: To pay for lab coat from HC Clinic uniform
allowance line item.
Robert Goodwin moved and Roy Arwood seconded
to donate $100 in merchandise from People’s Center Gift Shop toward HCES 8th
Grade Bingo on 12/8/2007. 7 haa, 0 puuhara 1 pupitihara (
Consensus: To deny the request from Tribal Member #2846.
Leaf Hillman moved and
Robert Goodwin seconded to approve a loan for Tribal Member #2053 in the amount
of $400 to be repaid $50/week with payments to start January 11, 2008. 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 1
pupitihara (
The request for assistance
from Tribal Member #3319 will be tabled to Wednesday.
Directive: For Directors who consistently fail to submit
Council reports on time to begin adhering to the same schedule as the other
Directors for submission so that the Council has time to review them before the
meeting.
Directive: For Directors to remember the requirement to
be present or send a representative to Council Meetings so that their
department is represented at the meeting.
Directive: For Natural Resources to prepare official
comments in response to the Sale and Disposal of National Forest System Timber;
Special Forest Products and Forest Botanical Products that appeared in the
Federal Register on October 22, 2007, page 59496. Comments must be submitted by December 21,
2007. They want to know what has been compiled
up until now on this issue.
Leaf requested guidance
from Council on Waiting List Reviews; the Council would like some guidelines
that include the following provisions: Any
Tribal Council Member can request a waiting list review by submitting the request
to the Waiting List Technician; the Waiting List Technician must schedule an
appointment within a set amount of business hours of the request, that is reasonable.
Meeting adjourned at 11:59 PM.
Next Meeting Date:
December 27, 2007 at 3 PM
in Happy Camp.
Recording Secretary, Sara Spence