Karuk Tribe

Council Meeting Minutes

July 23, 2009

Orleans

 

The meeting was called to order at 5:03 PM by Leeon Hillman, Treasurer.

 

Roll Call

Present

Leeon Hillman, Treasurer

Florence Conrad, Member

Sonny Davis, Member

Alvis Johnson, Member

Verna Reece, Member

 

Absent

Arch Super, Chairman

Florrine Super, Secretary

Roy Arwood, Member

 

Quorum is established.

 

The mission statement was read aloud by Verna Reece.

 

Approval of the Agenda for July 23, 2009

 

Alvis Johnson moved and Sonny Davis seconded to approve the Agenda for July 23, 2009.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

Approval of the Minutes for June 25, 2009

 

Consensus:  To table the minutes to Thursday, there were no hard copies in the packets.

 

1)  April Attebury

Written report only, not present.

 

Florence Conrad moved and Alvis Johnson seconded to approve April’s report.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

2)  Patti Brown

Patti is present on behalf of the Head Start Program; Jim is not present, his written report and financials were included in the packets.

 

She would like to request their approval of a funding application for increased Head Start base funding to increase their service to the children to a full 5 days per week.

 

Resolution 09-R-104 was distributed authorizing the submission of a request for a permanent base funding increase allocation from the Office of Head Start, Health and Human Services 2009-ACF-OHS-CI-0097 in the amount of $36,161.

 

It was approved by the KCDC Board and reviewed by Erin and Laura.

 

Florence Conrad moved and Verna Reece seconded to approve Resolution 09-R-104.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

She states they received today the ARRA COLA and quality dollars they requested.

 

Verna Reece moved and Florence Conrad seconded to approve the KCDC Report.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

Leeon asked if Bob could let the Council know what loans are available through KCLF to be offered to low income Tribal Members.  Bob states that they are issuing loans of $500 or less to Tribal Members right now for emergency needs.  If the individual receives and repays their loan, they can also receive an additional $500 loan and the loan is reported on their credit report which can help them.  They can be used for any emergency purpose.  The payments are very low but the interest rate is high but he is unsure exactly what it is.  Laura states the whole purpose was to be competitive not a predatory lender; Bob states it is comparable to what they charge at payday advance locations.  Laura states that if the interest is 10% or less, it would be better than the Tribe for the members.

 

3)  Jennifer Goodwin

Her written report was included for approval.

 

Alvis Johnson moved and Sonny Davis seconded to approve Jennifer’s report.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

4)  Dion Wood

Dion was present to review his written report with the Council.

 

He states today he was approached by an individual from the Siskiyou Historical Society recruiting the Tribe to be a part of their county-wide brochure they are putting together.  The brochure will include all museums in Siskiyou County and they want to list the People’s Center.  The cost would be $100 per museum; each location would receive about 700 brochures to distribute.  He would like to know if they are interested in doing this.  Holly and Erin suggest that the Advisory Board review this for input.

 

He states they have expended about 75% of their grant; they will likely have a rollover at the end of September.  He states he submitted the updated plan and he expects acceptance and an award letter in October for future funding.

 

Florence asked if the services are for Tribal Members only, not descendents.  He states yes, they must be a Tribal Member living in their service area.

 

He states he is getting ready for the Reunion this year and has lots of great supplies to put in the children’s book bags that will be decorated and designed by them.  He has plenty of volunteers to work with him, Head Start will be helping.

 

Kindergarten Camp will be August 17-21, 2009 in Happy Camp.

 

He had proposed implementing toy libraries in the communities with the ARRA funding that was awarded, he has not gotten feedback from the Council regarding this and if he doesn’t hear anything, he will begin working on that.  Verna asked how it would work.  He states that expensive toys that kids enjoy playing with but that the family can’t afford to purchase would be signed out like a book.  If it is destroyed they would be responsible for it.  The County already has one in Siskiyou County and they are just expanding on that for the Tribal kids.  They will be in the Head Start Centers.

 

He distributed a copy of the State memorandum that was distributed to all agencies encouraging them to work with the Tribal agencies in their areas.  That will be a great help for referrals and building their relationships.

 

He is working on developing a child and adult food program like they have for Head Start to be reimbursed for the meals, it is a large bureaucracy however and he is moving ahead on that.

There have been 21 summer youth workers in the offices this summer, it has been a challenge to keep them busy but it has been successful with getting the kids training and getting help for the staff as well.  Erin states Veronique Sanchez has been great; Laura states that Danny is very helpful as well.

 

He states the TERO Commission had dedicated $2,500 for raffle prizes for the Reunion and he will be purchasing those in the near future.

 

He states he has been attending the construction meetings at Housing and that has been helpful for communication.  He has been collaborating with many different programs on services that can be provided and making sure that the people who need services are getting to the right places.  He states he is working on putting together a Construction Monitor Training.  They are working on their TERO polices and procedures as well.

 

The TERO Commission has voted to raise the TERO Tax fee to 2%; he is not requesting approval at this time but would like to discuss that at an upcoming meeting.  It would increase costs to programs because vendors raise their rates based on the higher fee. 

 

Verna Reece moved and Alvis Johnson seconded to approve Dion’s report.  4 haa, 0 pupitihara.  0 puuhara.

 

5)  Sami Difuntorum

A written report was included in the packets.

 

Verna as the newly appointed Housing Committee Liaison distributed an updated listing of the Committee Members and their term beginning and ending dates.  She states that when the Housing Ordinance was revised to extend the terms from 2 years to 4 years, it was assumed that the term lengths for those members would be updated.  That is not clear at this point so she is requesting that they extend them to match the four year term lengths.  They will discuss it Thursday when the remaining Council Members are present.

 

Alvis Johnson moved and Sonny Davis seconded to approve Sami’s report.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

6)  Ruth Rouvier

Ruth was present to review her written report.

 

She requested approval of Contract 09-C-072 with Roy Arwood to serve as an apprentice to Alvis Johnson’s Team.  This was the only application received.  It has been reviewed for approval.  They would have to waive the policy exclusion for Roy to be a contractor and also Council Member.  She has estimated how many hours he will work because she does not have the final invoice from Alvis’ last team member.

Florence Conrad moved and Sonny Davis seconded to waive policy and approve Contract 09-C-072 with Roy Arwood.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

She states they have had training in Yreka, and everyone seems very energized and excited about spreading the knowledge they are gaining.  She states that all of the reviews have been very positive.

 

She states that AICLS has offered 10 scholarships to the Language is Life Conference which will be held September 5-6, 2009 in Davis.  She is also seeking grant funds to cover these expenses for teams to attend.  Their final training will be held September 26-27, 2009 in either Happy Camp or Yreka.

 

She states Tamara Alexander is her assistant this summer and has been doing great.  She is teaching four youth language classes each week with high participation rates.  She also works with the Youth Leadership Group as well.

 

She will have a speakers circle at the Reunion either on Saturday or maybe Sunday morning around breakfast time.

 

The phrase of the month in her report is Faat ikupaveenahiti (what are you up to)?  Tamara selected it and Sonny translated it to “what are you doing”?

 

Florence Conrad moved and Verna Reece seconded to approve Ruth’s report.  4 haa, 0 puuhar,a 0 pupitihara.

 

7a)  Jennifer Goodwin

Jennifer was running late; she has one action item in her report that she will be moving to closed session.  She asked if they have any questions about her report.  She has just been getting everything ready for her departure.  They approved her report before she arrived.

 

7)  Robert Attebery

Robert’s written report was included for review and approval.

 

Alvis Johnson moved and Florence Conrad seconded to approve Robert’s report.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

8)  Rick Hill

Rick was present to review the written report for the grant writers.

 

He distributed draft plans for the new clinic building they are working on submitting for.  This would be located on the property at the Old Highway.  It is a very interesting design with three buildings all connected together on a narrow footprint for a multi-level facility.  It would include medical, dental, behavioral health, and all health administration offices.  It would include wellness/physical fitness facilities as well.  The project is estimated to be about 5-6 million dollars and is due August 6, 2009.  They will be bringing this to them for approval via phone vote as there are no meetings that week.  This is a preliminary design only to go with the proposal; the final design would be done after the award is received.  There will be an elevator designed into the building, even though you can enter it from either level since it will be on a hill.  Verna suggests there be more storage incorporated into the design for the staff as well.

 

The written report states that the HRSA CIP funding for $386,815 has been received for implementation of the IT Data Center in Happy Camp and expansion of medical records storage in Yreka.

They will be pursuing funding to add a third wing to the Administration Complex in the amount of $605,000 to house Education, LIAP, and TANF offices all in the same location.

 

Alvis Johnson moved and Sonny Davis seconded to approve Rick’s report.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

8a)  Will Harling

He states that is has been advised that MKWC work with the Tribe and Forest Service to establish formal working relationships together.  He has been working toward that and forwarded the document to Bob for review.  He would like to formalize the process for notification when they will be doing work to avoid causing any conflicts and how they can work together on funding.  Bob has forwarded it to internal staff for review but is has not been looked at as of yet.  He does not seek approval tonight; he just wanted to bring them all a copy of it so that they can read through it.  He states it would be a good time for him to get feedback from them about how they are doing and what they think about their work.

 

The agreement contains no commitments from the Tribe; it is all things that they are committing to do.  He states that anything they have done that was not culturally sensitive or could have been done better, he wants to know about it so that they don’t have any issues like that in the future.  Florence states they will speak about it at their next staff meeting and then be able to get back to him with feedback after the Council discusses it further.

 

9)  Erin Hillman

Erin was present to review her written report with the Council; she had some handouts as well.

 

The CSD ARRA funding is being delayed since the State has not passed their budget yet.  They will receive a contract about two weeks after that is finalized.  Their funding has been secured.  She states there was a site visit from CSD to audit the program, everything sounded like it would be fine.

 

Clarence Barger will be meeting with Lessie, Dr. Burns, Kristen and her to go over the emergency response plan for the Tribe.  Kristen states that they will be going to another training next week for the clinics to be linked together for emergency preparedness.

 

She distributed Resolution 09-R-105 supporting local to local broadcasting in Humboldt County.  There is currently no requirement for satellite providers to include local networks for all customers, cable does, but satellite does not.  That is detrimental for emergency announcements in communities where there is no antenna reception and most customers have satellite.

 

Verna Reece moved and Florence Conrad seconded to approve Resolution 09-R-105.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

Her second action item is a grant proposal for Babbie for the Senior Nutrition Program in Happy Camp for $15,000 to support food costs for that program.  Resolution 09-R-107 has been assigned to the grant.

 

Verna Reece moved and Florence Conrad seconded to approve Resolution 09-R-107.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

Erin announced that Jennifer is leaving the Tribe to go back to school and she has prepared an appreciation plaque to be presented to her, she had hoped to embarrass her, but believes that Jennifer is “onto her” and avoiding the meeting since this will be her last one.  She read the plaque aloud for the audience.

 

Florence Conrad moved and Verna Reece seconded to approve Erin’s report.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

10)  Laura Mayton

Laura is present to review her written report.

 

Her first item is related to a recent purchase of rock for the Happy Camp parking lot project; she has an agreement to be approved obligating $50/load of the delivery fee to go to the Tribe to cover the Tribe’s portion of the work for delivery.  Agreement 09-A-031 has been assigned and it has been reviewed.

 

Florence Conrad moved and Verna Reece seconded to approve Agreement 09-A-031.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

Her second item is related to the Yreka Smoke Shop and how much time the Maintenance Crew spent developing that site and getting it started.  She asked Fred for an estimate of how much staff time was spent on that project; it would be valued at about $18,731.  She would like to have an addendum approved for the agreement with KCDC to repay that amount as well; it will not change their payments but will increase the amount of time for it to be paid in full.  This would address the potential audit issues as well and avoid obligation of discretionary dollars.  The original agreement is 09-A-028.

 

Florence Conrad moved and Verna Reece seconded to approve Addendum #1 to Agreement 09-A-028.  3 haa, 0 puuhara, 1 pupitihara (Alvis Johnson).

 

Her next item is related to the preparation of budgets for the upcoming fiscal year and scheduling a meeting with the Council for mid to late September since she will need time to meet with the directors.  Monday, September 21, 2009 at 4pm was scheduled with dinner.

 

She states that they will need to decide about Darrell Hostler soon since the payment has been invoiced.  They can discuss that Thursday.

 

Alvis Johnson moved and Sonny Davis seconded to approve Laura’s report.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

11)  Robert Goodwin

Bob was present to review his written report.

 

He only has one addition which was the Tribal Summit he attended this week in Chiloquin to discuss the KBRA, it was productive and Hoopa is now on board with the agreement, they also began the session to discuss fishing rights for the Tribe.

 

He states it was suggested by a fellow staff member that he not attend the meeting on August 4, 2009 in Alaska for the TBAC meeting in order to stay in town to meet with the Forest Service regarding Katimiin, he would be going back to Chiloquin for another KBRA meeting.  He can cancel the Alaska travel if they wish him to stay for the Forest Service meeting.  There will be a change fee but it can be applied to another trip.

 

Consensus:  For him to cancel his travel to Alaska and attend the Katimiin meeting.

 

Florence Conrad moved and Alvis Johnson seconded to approve Bob’s report.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

12)  Earl Crosby

Ramona is present on behalf of Earl to review the written report which was submitted.

 

Contract 09-C-059 with MKWC for the Mussel Study was again presented for approval.  It was presented on July 2, 2009 but not approved.  There were issues because there was a USFW grant and Americorp work to be done and how their tasks and hours break down.  MKWC is their employer and they will be paid through two sources (Americorp and USFW) for different tasks done at different times.  The funder is aware of the situation and has approved the budget modification.  The funding will be awarded to MKWC for the hours spent on the mussel study.  The amount of the Contract is $4,500.

 

Florence Conrad moved and Verna Reece seconded to approve Contract 09-C-059.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

Florence Conrad moved and Verna Reece seconded to approve DNR’s report.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

13)  Scott Quinn

Written report only, not present.

 

Florence Conrad moved and Alvis Johnson seconded to approve Scott’s report.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

14)  Fred Burcell

Written report only, not present.

 

Alvis Johnson moved and Sonny Davis seconded to approve Fred’s report.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

15)  TJ Day

TJ was present to report on his activities, he did not submit a written report.

 

They have been completing finish work on jobs such as the Smoke Shop, the Clinic façade in Yreka, shelving at Oak Knoll for files kept there and general maintenance work.  He thanked the Council for the newer vehicle, it has broke down a couple of times (it is under warranty) and was fixed by Ford.  He also thanked them for the summer youth workers.

He installed the water tank in the International to water the roads.

 

He has questions about the Reunion at the park; they have been working on the horseshoe pits and clearing for the fish cooking area.  He wondered if the tents will be necessary since the pavilion is there.  Sara will go look at the park with him and Fred to go over the layout.

 

Alvis Johnson moved and Sonny Davis seconded to approve TJ’s report.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

16)  Sara Spence

Written report only, no action items.

 

Florence Conrad moved and Sonny Davis seconded to approve Sara’s report.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

17)  Requests

None at this time.

 

18)  Phone Votes

a)      Approval of procurement and authorization to allow TANF to pay for a portion of the McBroom and Sons for packing services.  Passed.

b)      Approval of Agreement 09-A-029 between Siskiyou Telephone and the Karuk Tribe.  Passed.

c)      Approval entering into an agreement with Brass Knuckles Promotions.  Passed.

 

19)  Informational

None at this time.

 

20)  Committee Reports

The NCIDC Meeting Minutes were included for review.

 

Closed Session from 8:14pm to 9:13pm.

 

Alvis Johnson moved and Florence Conrad seconded to approve Resolution 09-R-101 removing one member.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

Florence Conrad moved and Alvis Johnson seconded to approve Resolution 09-R-102 enrolling nine members.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

Consensus:  To table the request from Employee #9798 to Thursday’s meeting for consideration.

 

Florence Conrad moved and Verna Reece seconded to approve the changes to the Education Program Grant Policy.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

Verna Reece moved and Alvis Johnson seconded to hire Tribal Member #3319 to fill in as the Education Program Coordinator while they continue to recruit for the Education Program Coordinator position.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

Consensus:  To pay Tribal Member #2115 for time spent on their pack test training.

 

Florence Conrad moved and Verna Reece seconded to approve 09-C-066 with Jeanette Quinn for $2,000 for the Stewardship Reporting Requirements.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

Florence Conrad moved and Alvis Johnson seconded to approve $200 toward Descendent #AGM’s request.  4 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.

 

Next Meeting Date:  August 27, 2009 at 5pm in Yreka.

 

Meeting adjourned at 9:14 pm.

 

Submitted by,

 

 

_____________________________

Leeon Hillman, Treasurer

 

Recording Secretary, Sara Spence