Karuk Tribe of
Council Meeting Minutes
July 24, 2008
Happy Camp,
The meeting was called to order at 5:04 PM by Florrine
Super, Secretary.
Roll Call
Present:
Florrine Super, Secretary
Leeon Hillman, Treasurer
Roy Arwood, Member
Sonny Davis, Member
Alvis Johnson, Member
Robert Goodwin, Member
Absent:
Arch Super, Chairman –
excused, on travel
Leaf Hillman, Vice Chairman –
excused, on travel
Quorum is established.
The mission statement was read aloud by
Approval of the Agenda for July 24, 2008
Leeon Hillman moved and
Alvis Johnson seconded to approve the Agenda for July 24, 2008. 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
1) Approval of
the Minutes for June 26, 2008
Sonny
2) Old Business
None at this time.
3) Paula
McCarthy, People’s Center
Paula is present to request
that an additional door handle be purchased for the Basket Room at the People’s
Center with a handle rather than a knob.
The cost is about $300 but it must be paid for from discretionary for
that facility. She thought that both
doors were being done but only one was completed.
Alvis Johnson moved and
Roy Arwood seconded to approve the purchase of the door handle. 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
She also requested that this
fall after the willows are gathered at the Ranch, if they can have a crew cut
them down and burn the piles in that area to clean it out they would really
appreciate it.
Consensus: To have the Maintenance Crew, Tribal CCC’s,
or Fire Crew work on burning at the Ranch when they have concluded their Fall
gathering.
4) Babbie
Peterson, Senior Nutrition
5) Robert &
Claudia Le Houillier & Mike Lomascola, Community Members
Mike Lomascola was present to
address the Tribal Council regarding an idea that Roger had about a Senior
Citizen apartment complex that could be constructed. He has been working with Roger and Claudia
for about eight months on planning a development that they would like to title
the
What they are requesting from
the Tribal Council is permission to post the proposed blueprints and a survey
form in the Senior Nutrition Site for feedback from the Elders. They are currently in the marketing and
feasibility stage to determine if there is interest from the community. If they can obtain HUD financing then the
Elders would be eligible for low income assistance on their monthly rent.
Consensus: To allow him to post the information at the
Happy Camp Senior Nutrition Center for about 30-45 days.
5a) Flo Lopez
Flo is present to announce
that she is now a certified Red Cross CPR Instructor to teach the classes for
adults, youth, and children in Happy Camp.
She is currently working to contact David and determine where the
equipment is at that used to be housed there.
Dion asked if she will hold the classes once each month on a regular
schedule like David used to; she states she has not worked that out yet. After she teaches this class for one year,
then she can move on and begin teaching police and medical professionals.
6) Jim Berry,
KCDC
Not present, he attended a
meeting in Yreka this afternoon; written report only.
Roy Arwood moved and
Robert Goodwin seconded to approve Jim’s report. 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
7) Hector
Garcia, Self Governance
Written report only, not
present. Laura states that Carrie was
unable to make it this evening due to a family illness.
8) April
Attebury, Tribal Court
April was present to review
her written report;
She distributed the draft
Children and Family Code for their review; part of the implementation of the
Title IV-E is revising this document.
Stephanie’s comments were included with the document; she and the Judge
agree with her comments/revisions. She
would like to schedule a meeting to go through the document with them to ensure
everyone is comfortable with the content.
Some of the changes are not apparent through tracking in the document so
they will have to go through it together.
Bob asked how long it would take; she would like to go through it
section by section with Stephanie via telephone and Judge Henry; she suggests
at least 2 hours. Bob asked how soon
after approvals do they anticipate receiving any funding. April states she is going on Martha’s
timeline of starting October 1, 2008.
August 14, 2008 at 1pm was
set for this task at the Headway building prior to the Health Board Meeting.
April distributed the Karuk
Tribal CASA Program Standards and states there will be a meeting on August 7,
2008 from 9am to 11am in Yreka to go over this information.
Jennifer states that
Alvis Johnson moved and
Robert Goodwin seconded to approve April’s report. 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
9) Jennifer
Goodwin, Education
Jennifer was present to
review her written report.
She states she has been
extremely busy with students requesting assistance with financial aid
paperwork, college applications, research assistance, etc. She states she continues to send out
applications daily even with the deadline so close. She believes that this year there will be a
very high number of students going into higher education which is good news. She has been passing information along to
students on other scholarships that are available as well.
She has one action item for
closed session to discuss with the Council.
Jennifer updated them on her activities over the past month and what she
has been working on in her department.
She states there are some
things going on at the
Leeon Hillman moved and
Sonny
10)
Lisa was present to review
her written report. She states she has
no action items for their approval.
Florrine asked if they have
rescheduled the LIAP Meeting; Lisa states that she would like to have a date
set right away, she also has phone votes to be done for assistance. Times are getting hard for everyone economically
and she is doing whatever she can to help.
Bob asked if she has been working and speaking with Daniel Pratt
regarding the TANF Program and how that can overlap and work with her program and
services she provides once it gets started.
A TANF Planning Meeting will
be held in the near future now that they are approaching a final number to move
forward to determine how to best help the membership and not duplicate any
services and ensure their resources are spread around as much as possible. After Dion speaks to them tonight they can
schedule the meeting between staff and Council to go over this information.
Leeon Hillman moved and
Robert Goodwin seconded to approve Lisa’s report. 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
11) Erin
Hillman, Administrative Programs
She requested approval of a
grant proposal to the Siskiyou Modoc Action Agency to offset costs for
increased prices for fuel, supplies, and food for the Senior Nutrition Program
in the amount of $15,000. Babbie could
not be here this evening to present the grant.
Resolution 08-R-083 was included with the proposal for approval.
She distributed a summary on
the actions taken in response to the public health threat that was declared a
state of emergency by the Tribe on July 16, 2008. She is the Incident Commander along with
Florence Conrad as Co-Incident Commander.
The Tribe approved the purchase of 20 air purifiers, only 8 were able to
be purchased that were in stock. Since
that time 20 have been purchased and distributed; they will be returned after
the incident is over for future use.
Sara continues to distribute the fire information updates to ensure that
all staff are aware of the fire status and what to expect. Several clean air stations have been
implemented with facility size filters provided by NCIDC. KTHA has purchased ten air purifiers to be
distributed to KTHA Housing Elders.
There is a criterion for who receives the air purifiers as recommended
by the medical providers. She forwarded
their Resolution declaring a state of emergency to the required officials and
was subsequently invited to a meeting in
Her written report includes
updates on the other projects she continues to work on and monitor.
They predict the building in
Orleans will be done in mid to late August and hope to host the Council Meeting in September in that new facility. She has attended several meetings with OES
and ICS on the local fires. She states
she met with the Head Start Staff in Yreka to evaluate that facility and they
will be working on that.
Robert Goodwin moved and
Sonny
12) Rick Hill/Hester
Dillon, Grant Writers
Written report only, not
present, Rick is on travel; Hester is in
Robert Goodwin moved and
13) Dion Wood,
TERO
Dion was present to review
his written report. He submitted
additional data to them regarding his action items and updates to his
report. He will report on TANF in closed
session; they have been offered a number they can decide on at this point.
The childcare funding is up
slightly for the coming fiscal year. He
included the minutes for the Tribal/State Workgroup he has been participating in. His budget is 71% expended, there have been
savings due to school being out for the summer.
Funding will carry the program through the end of the fiscal year at
this point.
He requested approval to pay
$988.81 to Eaglesun Systems, Inc. for the travel costs due for the on site
training they received on the TAS software.
The cost will be coded ½ to Childcare and ½ to TERO as it serves both
programs and they received training on both modules.
Robert Goodwin moved and
Dion states the Business Plan
for the Smoke Shop was approved and they continue to move forward on that
project with an anticipated start date of September 1, 2008. He hopes to present procurement for the
trailer at next week’s Wednesday Meeting.
The positions were posted today to begin recruitment and they close on
August 8, 2008.
He states they have had great
success with the vending machine at Administration and have been requested to
install a soda vending machine at Headway as well. The cost of the machine is $2,579.99 to be
purchased from TERO funds from Costco.
He states that the purchase
of the scooter for the Tribal Reunion exceeded the $2,000 threshold and the amount
was $2,292.00 from Good Times Motor Sports in
His last action is travel for
Dolores Voyles to
Florence Conrad moved and
Sonny Davis seconded to approve travel for Dolores Voyles to Tulalip, WA,
August 24-28, 2008 for the National TERO Convention. 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
His last item is that Monday
he was invited to be a guest on a radio show for culture in childcare interview;
he did a one hour interview on Wednesday that was aired on Native American
Radio from
Roy Arwood moved and Leeon
Hillman seconded to approve Dion’s report.
6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
14) Dave
Wrobleski, People’s Center
Dave was present to review
his written report.
His first item is to
reschedule the visit to the
He states the museum
assessment was conducted by Jack Thompson; a written report will be coming in
the very near future. They have
recommended that the center be evaluated by an electrician, remove the rock bed
due to spiders, replace the freezer in the basket room with one that will
obtain a low enough temperature (-30 degrees), and have the golden eagle tested
for arsenic.
Tobacco sales continue to be positive. He again requests that they increase the
clerk’s position to full time or offer her a salary increase. They would like to discuss that in closed
session since it is related to personnel.
October 10-11, 2008 will be the
dates for the Fall Basketweaver’s gathering this year.
He would like to discuss his
contract in closed session.
He would also like to
schedule a field trip for three days to
They state they will address
his requests at the Wednesday Meeting.
Robert Goodwin moved and
Florrine Super seconded to approve Dave’s report. 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
15) Laura
Mayton, CFO
Laura was present to review
her written report.
She states she received a
telephone call earlier this week from the Indirect Cost Center stating that
they have approved charging 50% of Council costs to Indirect each year going
forward, no timekeeping reports, no further annual approvals. She states that having Robert and Leaf at the
meeting was crucial because it showed their commitment and dedication to
working on Tribal projects. A follow up
report was also submitted; she thanked Sara and Barbara for helping her with
that project and getting it submitted.
Not every Tribe receives this benefit; they all have to fight their own
battle on this issue.
She states that although cost
saving strategies have been implemented there will still be a shortfall in the
Indirect Cost Pool that must be supplemented by discretionary. Due to the projects that the Fire Crew is
working on and their early employment, that will continue to stretch the
discretionary dollars as well. They are
working with BIA to express to them how important it is to obtain reimbursement
for the payments made to the Fire Crew in a timely manner to avoid financial
issues for the Tribe. The Chipper Crew
should be a faster reimbursement due to the direct contract with the Forest
Service. She will let them know
Wednesday if there is anything the Tribe can do to help move this issue along
with BIA.
Tobacco sales continue to be
lucrative for the Center. Her rough
calculation of gross profit does not include operating expenses; only the sales
less the cost of the cigarettes for a profit of $10,484. She reminds them that sales in Yreka need to
average $700 per day to cover their costs and break even and then profit to
replenish their initial investment.
She states she attended Title
IV-E Training in
She has begun working on
budgets for FY 2009 and meeting with Directors on individual budgets as well as
the FY 2009 Indirect Cost Proposal.
Roy Arwood moved and
Robert Goodwin seconded to approve Laura’s report. 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
16) Sami
Difuntorum, KTHA
Sami was present to review
her written report. She has no action
items.
She states the home grant
program continues; the Bennett home cannot be painted until the fires clear
out. The Donahue home is completed, the
lease issue has been resolved and Dennis has moved in. The
Shivshaneen continues to move
forward, Graham, Salstrom, and Orleans Bar also continue to move forward. The Evans property offer has been made and
the Seller has ordered an appraisal prior to submitting their counter-offer. The environmental prices are also varied and
they hope to wrap that purchase up soon.
The eco-grid driveways in
Yreka are moving forward. The solar
parking lot lights are scheduled to be delivered for Happy Camp on August 1st. The
The Renewable Energy Project was
not successfully earmarked; however, they have been advised to apply through a
grant process which is hopeful. There is
a small chance to get budget language included in the appropriations bill at
Conference possibly.
The quarterly NAIHC Board of
Directors meeting is scheduled to take place in August in
She reminded them that the one
site advocacy training will be held on Monday and Tuesday regarding the
appropriations process, how to get funding, how to maintain funding and get
more.
17) Susan Gehr,
Language
Susan was present to review
her written report. She does not have
any action items this month.
She thanked Laura, Erin,
Sara, and the Council for ensuring that the additional documents needed for the
ANA Grant were submitted while she was away from the office. She states usually when they ask for
additional information such as that, it means they are going to get funded but
she has not heard as of yet.
She states that the Language
Program Coordinator position is being advertised to identify an individual to
do the day to day project management for the next three year cycle of Language
funding. She will not continue in that
capacity, but will continue to work with the program as a consultant. It closes on August 22, 2008 and is
contingent on renewed funding for the program.
She states she was able to
give away about 60 dictionaries at the
Robert Goodwin excused himself at 8:08 PM.
Florrine encouraged her to
get the video that she presented on the website and distributed to the Head
Start centers for the kids to see as well.
Sonny
18) Earl Crosby,
DNR
Earl was present to review
his written report. He has several
action items for approval.
The first item is procurement
for the purchase of rock for their watershed project to be purchased from Hoopa
Rock in the amount of $25 per ton for the rock and $105 per hour for the
trucking. He anticipates a total of
$2,790 to fulfill the project needs.
He distributed Agreement
08-A-019 with Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation in the amount of
$280,000 to lease-to-purchase a D6 Tractor at the rate of $7,057.69 per month
through the Watershed Program.
He distributed Contract
08-C-054 with Kier Associates for Klamath River Nutrient Budget data management
services in the amount of $9,000.
19) Scott Quinn,
Land/Transportation
Not present, written report
only.
Roy Arwood moved and Sonny
20) Davey Davis,
Maintenance/Automotive
Not present, written report only.
Roy Arwood moved and
Robert Goodwin seconded to approve Davey’s report. 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
21) Fred
Burcell, Construction
Not present, written report
only.
Leeon Hillman moved and
Sonny
22) Sara Spence,
Human Resources
Sara was present to review
her written report. Her report only
contains one action item which is the change to the Substance Abuse and Control
section of the Personnel Policy based on the decision last month to remove
alcohol testing from the pre-employment urine screenings.
There was discussion
regarding the reasoning behind removing alcohol from the screening. It has been determined that urine is not a
reliable source for screening for alcohol; it remains in everyone’s system a
different amount of time depending on their liver function and often there are
false positives due to diabetes. It can
remain in some individuals system for up to two days and is a legal substance
while outside of the office. Alcohol
testing will still remain intact for reasonable suspicion testing if it is
suspected that the employee is under the influence while at work but at that
point it will be measured by breath or blood rather than urine.
Robert Goodwin moved and Leeon
Hillman seconded to approve the amendments to the Personnel Policy. 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
Roy Arwood moved and Sonny
23) Requests
None at this time.
24) Phone Votes
25)
Informational
The NCIDC Meeting minutes
were included for information.
26) Committee
Reports
None at this time.
Closed Session from 9:04 PM to 10:40 PM.
Directive: For the Maintenance Supervisor and Elder’s
Director to visit all identified Elder’s homes, review the work to be done,
obtain price estimates, and photos so that they can report back Wednesday on
this matter for a prioritization list to be compiles for the Tribal CCC Crew to
do the work when they come.
Consensus: For Tribal Member #1126 to consult with
Barbara Norman regarding the case and have her report back a recommendation at
the Wednesday meeting.
Consensus: For the Chairman to speak to Barbara Norman
and Dave Wrobleski next week regarding renewal of their contracts.
Robert Goodwin moved and
Leeon Hillman seconded to defer Tribal Member #2387’s debt for six months and
approve $272.50 to the Budget Inn for a one week rental voucher. 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
Leeon Hillman moved and
Robert Goodwin moved and
Leeon Hillman seconded to appoint Emma Lee Johnson to the Education Committee
contingent upon approval of her Supervisor.
6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
Consensus: To speak to Barbara
Consensus: For TANF Executive Director to request a TANF
Caseload number of 320 from the State; a Caseload number no less that 296 will
be acceptable to move forward with implementation of the program if
negotiations are not successful for the higher number.
Consensus: To consult with Stephanie Dolan regarding the
results of the Special Election and have a legal opinion available for the
Wednesday Meeting.
Tribal Member #677’s
request tabled to Wednesday.
Leeon Hillman moved and
Next Meeting Date:
August 28, 2008 at 5 PM in
Yreka.
Meeting adjourned at:
10:42 PM.
Submitted by,
______________________________________
Florrine Super, Secretary
Recording Secretary, Sara Spence