Karuk Tribe
Council Meeting Minutes
November 19, 2009
Election Committee Announcement
Michael Thom, Chairman of the
Election Committee announced that they have counted the ballots and finalized
the November 3, 2009 Election with Charron Sonny Davis elected for the Yreka District. The Orleans District Representative has been deemed
ineligible; therefore, they will hold a Special Election for that district by
March 31, 2010. Roy Arwood was asked if
he could remain in his seat as Member at Large until which time the Orleans
District Representative is elected, he states he will do that.
Sonny
The meeting was called to order at 5:04pm by Arch
Super, Chairman.
Roll Call
Present
Arch Super, Chairman
Florrine Super, Secretary
Leeon Hillman, Treasurer
Roy Arwood, Member
Sonny Davis, Member
Alvis Johnson, Member
Verna Reece, Member
Quorum is established.
Verna Reece read the mission statement aloud.
Approval of the Agenda for November 19, 2009
Florrine Super moved and
Leeon Hillman seconded to approve the Agenda for November 19, 2009. 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
1) Approval of
the Minutes for October 22, 2009
2) Old Business
None at this time.
3) Craig Tucker
Craig was present to give an
update and address the Council and audience regarding the status and schedule
for the Klamath Hydropower Agreement and the KBRA. The final draft was released September 30,
2009. They are going through the KBRA to
ensure it is consistent with the Hydropower Agreement. He expects that updates to the document will
not be substantive to drastically change the content. He expects to have a signing ceremony on in
the very near future. Upon signing, they
will move into the next phase which is legislation to finalize the
agreements. He suggests that they
consider making a decision on December 17, 2009 if they will sign the
agreement.
He further believes that
there should be some clarifications released regarding
4) Judge Charles
Henry
Judge Henry was present to
address the Council. He states they have
received a long awaited invitation in their mail today. At the Walking on Common Grounds Conference
he met with Anne Gilmore of the California State Courts along with some other
Tribal Judges and they had a brainstorming session to discuss steps that can be
taken to cooperate and collaborate with State Courts to receive greater
recognition of the
4a) Youth Leadership
Council
The members of the Youth
Council present introduced themselves to the audience to speak about their
5) Earl Crosby
Earl was present to review
the DNR report.
He distributed a request for
a proposal to be submitted to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)
for fisheries restoration in the amount of $100,000 to work on the Seiad Creek
Channel Restoration and Habitat Enhancement, Phase I. This will be for planning only; the next
phase will be actual implementation.
Resolution 09-R-149 was assigned.
He has no additional action
items. Earl gave an overview regarding
the activities that DNR is working on for those members of the audience who may
not be familiar with their projects.
6) Scott Quinn
Scott states he did not
submit his written report last week as he was on travel he distributed it to
the Council.
He went over the contents of
the report and what he has been working on in his department. He brought three documents with him for
signature tonight that have been previously approved.
He states that Tommy Day Jr.
has been working with them in their department as a volunteer doing clearing
work. They re-advertised for the Lead
Roads Maintenance Worker position and have received one application from a
qualified Tribal Member so far which looks very promising.
He has been researching
potential land purchases in both
Verna Reece moved and
Sonny
7) Ruth Rouvier
Ruth is present to review her
written report. The word of the month is
chanchaaf (foam on the river). It has an
additional meaning describing the bright light reflecting off the water.
She has a couple of action
items. The first is Contract 10-C-025
with Roy Arwood for $1,320 for Language Apprentice Services. The second is Agreement 10-A-013 with Mark
Oliver to use his recording equipment for the project with the youth, the value
of the equipment is about $450 if it is damaged.
Leeon Hillman moved and
Florrine Super seconded to approve Agreement 10-A-013 with Mark Oliver to use
his recording equipment. 7 haa, 0
puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
Leeon Hillman moved and
Florrine Super seconded to approve Contract 10-C-025 with Roy Arwood and
waiving policy allowing a Council Member to be a Contractor. 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
He states they will likely
have a seventh team for the Master Apprentice project through CSD funds. They have found both a speaker and an
apprentice in the
The Language Restoration
Committee Meeting will be in
She will be coming to Yreka
on Tuesdays to be present prior to the culture classes to speak with
members. However, she has a meeting in
Hoopa on December 1 to discuss the credentialing program recently approved to
become language teachers and she wants to be a part of developing the
assessment tool that will be used to determine if an individual is qualified to
teach the language so she will miss that Tuesday. She invited Council Members to attend if they
are available; she also plans to take Emilio Tripp with her.
She heard that the
Florrine Super moved and
Leeon Hillman seconded to approve Ruth’s report. 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
8) Robert
Attebery
He announced that they
received their award letter for the LIHEAP program which is the second largest
ever which is fantastic for their program.
He is working his way through
the applications rather rapidly. He is
working with Fred to review two contractors who have submitted to do the HIP
project work for replacing a Tribal Member’s home in Happy Camp. He also notified the bidders that there will
be a second home replacement and that the details for both will be similar
since they are nearly on the same property so they may be able to get both done
by the same contractor.
He does not have much to add,
but would like to know if they have any question so that he can respond to
them.
He requested a date to hold the
next LIAP Meeting. He suggested December
9, 2009 at 1:30pm for their next meeting, it will work for everyone.
Florrine Super moved and
Alvis Johnson seconded to approve Robert’s report. 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
Florrine Super excused herself at 7:06pm.
9) Helene
Rouvier
She was present to review her
written report; she introduced herself as the new People’s Center
Coordinator. She updated them on what
she has been working on.
She states Saturday, November
21, 2009 at 12pm will be the first People’s Center Museum Advisory Board
Meeting which has not met in quite some time.
She is encouraging feedback from the membership on what they would like
to see in that Center. She also needs a
lot of help gathering cultural and historical information on the Karuk Tribe. She is working on grant funding to support
the Center and move forward.
10) Dion Wood
Dion was present to review
his written report. He distributed an
updated report to them.
He states they met to discuss
upcoming cultural monitor training for the programs. They hope to have a draft policy in the near
future as well. It will be a three day
training. They will be working on a
policy for using monitors as well.
He received the feedback from
the CTER technical assistant on the Workforce Protection Act which will
basically be a stronger TERO Ordinance to protect employees through Tribal Law. He will review this with the TERO Commission
before bringing it back to the Council.
He states the CTER Legal
Update will be held December 9-11, 2009; he and one TERO Commissioner will
attend, he needs to know which Council Member will attend.
He states the TERO Commission
has been working on policies to model their loan system after the Tribal
Council’s system. They are also drafting
a policy for how to request assistance from that department as well.
He was approached to see if
they are interested in pursuing a Tribal Civilian Community Corps for the Karuk
Tribe, there is startup funding but the goal is that it needs to be self
sustaining in the future and be carried financially by the Tribe. They would like him to gather some additional
information and discuss that with Laura Mayton.
He has received his funding
for the new Childcare fiscal year. They
have only received a portion of their budget until the federal budget is
finalized. He has received feedback from
He went over the childcare
networking he has been doing on the local, state, and national levels. Patti Brown is working on this with him as
well. He included information on the upcoming
meetings. They made progress at the NCAI
Meeting and the National Indian Child Care Association (NICCA) is planning a
trip to DC in January to educate policy makers on reauthorizing and increase
the CCDF budget with larger Tribal set-asides.
He will need approval to travel to DC the week of January 11, 2010.
Roy Arwood moved and
Florence Conrad seconded to approve travel to Washington, DC the week of
January 11, 2010 for Dion Wood. 6 haa, 0
puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
Verna Reece moved and
Alvis Johnson seconded to approve Dion’s report. 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
10a) George
Jennings
George was present on behalf
of Siskiyou Biomass Research Group to work on developing a project in
Arch states that several
staff members have met with them and would like to go over what they have
discussed to date. The soonest they can
schedule it would be January. He will
send them several dates to choose from and Arch will get those to the Council.
11) Hester
Dillon
Hester was present to review
the Grant Writer’s report.
She received an email from
Lessie that their HRSA Year Three funding has been approved which supports the
health and behavioral health departments primarily.
She states that several
meetings have been taking place to pursue grant funding in the near future with
deadlines between now and January 13.
Two should be ready for the December Council Meeting and they will
likely need a phone vote in January for the last one due to the meeting/holiday
schedules. The grants will be to EPA for
air monitoring equipment that can be transported, EPA environmental justice to
power the
She has some information
regarding the radio project and the cost for a relay would be about $14,000 per
year transmitting Hoopa’s channel through Happy Camp. They would still need to construct the
transmitter sites in
If they wanted to have input
into the programming, Joe Orosco has stated that would be possible from time to
time in addition to emergency messages that needed to be broadcast. They can broadcast via a laptop and
microphone as well to avoid some of the staffing costs once they construct a
site as well. She will put together a
memo with all of this information for them and if they have any questions that
come up they can send those to her as well.
They would like to know how much has been put into this project so far.
Harold Peters Sr. feels that
a radio station in Happy Camp and
12) Laura
Mayton
She was present to review her
written report.
Although she does not condone
smoking or encourage it, she wants to make sure that they realize that tobacco
sales in Yreka have generated enough revenue to make KCDC independent from the
Tribe and support themselves. She
commended Dion on his work to get that project up and running as well as the
TANF program which he led the charge on implementing and she doesn’t believe he
has gotten the credit due him.
She states she has been
spending her time getting ready for the audit and will continue to do so before
they get here in January.
Verna Reece moved and Roy
Arwood seconded to approve Laura’s report.
6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
13) Sami
Difuntorum
She was present to review her
written report and go over the contents of the report.
She states they have obtained
permits for the Gerald Peters home grant project as well as a demolition
contract. She is hoping for Spring to be
moving forward. There are four grants
available for the home replacement program; however, they have no applicants who
qualify. Laura asked if there is a way
to advertise the program to people who may be qualified.
She states that the workgroup
continues to meet and discuss the renewable energy project. She will update them on that as new
information is available.
They are ready to move
forward with the KBC renovation project, however, they are waiting on the
permit from the County before they can move forward since that is still fee
land.
The ICDBG Formula continues
to evolve. The 11 Tribe MOA is
acceptable by HUD but not based on what they thought. They will be fine regardless because Bob was
able to get the BIA numbers modified.
She is waiting on a formal notice from the formula center.
They had five bid openings on
11/13 for the ARRA projects; they will have five more on Monday since there
were only single bidders on the projects.
She is trying to figure out a way to ensure they do not have to send any
dollars back. The projects include roof
replacements, HVAC unit replacements and potentially some appliance
replacements in Yreka. Harold asked how
much will be leftover; she states hopefully none since they have re-bid the
project and they will do additional projects with the additional dollars.
She reviewed the City of
She reviewed her and Verna’s
trip to DC where she was personally invited as a NAIHC Board Member to attend
the White House Tribal Nations Conference to represent Native American housing
and community development issues. She
was honored to attend the meeting as she has never been to one before.
She was able to gather
information on several potential projects for the Tribe and will be speaking to
Jim
She felt that the issues that
were discussed at the regional meetings prior to the national meeting with the
President did not fully get conveyed during their meeting with the cabinet
members. She was impressed that they
held the meeting and that the President understands how Tribes relate to the
Federal Government and that he seems truly committed to working with the
Tribes.
She commended Steve Mitchell
and Richard Black for their contributions to the Housing Authority and their
accomplishments. Steve is now a
certified Building Inspector and Richard is a General Contractor.
Teresa states that the recent
upgrades to the units with HVAC units and the solar water heaters were
explained to them as going to ease their electricity costs, however, their
bills have doubled since those were installed and she wants to know if that is
being addressed. Sami states this is the
first time she has heard about this, Teresa states that Maintenance has a list
of tenants who have been complaining. It
was also noted that the HVAC units replaced the monitor heaters so although
electric costs may have risen, there are no longer fuel costs for those
heaters.
14) Erin
Hillman
She distributed a draft
policy for Land Use Compliance to attempt to address some of the collaboration
and communication issues between the Tribe and the entities to ensure that land
is used for the intended purpose based on the funds utilized to purchase
property. This policy will provide a
guideline and flow for staff to follow to ensure that property is not jeopardized.
They are still waiting for news
back from HRSA on the proposed new clinic in Happy Camp. They have been told that the decision has
been made but no notifications issued yet and that an answer should arrive in
about two weeks. If this grant is
unsuccessful, they will continue to pursue IHS funds and potential
demonstration projects through the Healthcare Reform Act. They are also still waiting on an answer for
the HUD ICDBG grant for the third wing of the Administration Office.
She has been working on the
development of a program to assist unemployed, adult Tribal members who do not
qualify for TANF assistance through their LIAP program.
She is working on the RFP for
the Cultural Monitoring Training as well as closing out grants and filing
reports. This is crunch time for the
audit preparation and close out for the fiscal year. She encourages directors who have any costs
that need to be accrued prior to September 30, 2009 to submit those in the
immediate future.
She has two action
items. The first is a resolution to
accept funding from the Area Agency on Aging to assist with food costs for the
The second is an Agreement
with HealTherapy to continue their services at the Ranch in Happy Camp. It is a continuation of previous years’
agreements. The agreement number is 10-A-014
at a rate of $100 per day.
Verna asked what the CSD ARRA
dollars are being utilized for,
Verna Reece moved and
Alvis Johnson seconded to approve
15) Robert
Goodwin
He is present to review his
written report; he has had many trips lately with the Chairman and various
staff members.
He has no action items to add
to his report at this time.
16) April
Attebury
She was present to distribute
and review her written report. She went
over what her activities have been over the past month and what services her
department includes.
Bob states that there was a
representative from Harvard who has a program that works with youth who have
been incarcerated and would like to meet with her to discuss that since there
is funding available for that purpose.
Arch would like this shared with Mike Edwards as well. April states her program is focusing on
children in the
She has met with the
Leeon Hillman moved and
Sonny
Her second action item is
Contract 10-C-020 with Charles Henry not to exceed $13,500 for this fiscal
year’s services at the
Leeon Hillman moved and
Roy Arwood seconded to approve Contract 10-C-020. 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
She will leave a copy of her
close out report for
17) Jim Berry
Patty Brown is present to
review the written report.
There is one action item
which is an MOU between KCDC/Head Start and the TANF Program. Agreement 10-A-008 has been assigned. The need for this is to ensure that TANF
clients working in the Head Start Program meet their program guidelines to
ensure compliance. The KCDC Board made
changes at their last meeting; those have been incorporated and were approved
by Consensus. The Policy Council has
approved it as well, and the KCDC Board Meeting will be held Monday.
Roy Arwood moved and Leeon
Hillman seconded to approve Agreement 10-A-008. 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
Roy Arwood moved and Sonny
18) Fred
Burcell
Written report only, not
present, no action items.
Verna Reece moved and Alvis
Johnson seconded to approve Fred’s report. 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
19) TJ Day
Written report only, not
present, no action items.
Verna Reece moved and Leeon
Hillman seconded to approve TJ’s report.
6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
20) Sara Spence
Sara reviewed her written
report with the Council, there are no actions items.
She pointed their attention
to the CHP review conducted in October and the results of that visit regarding
the commercial vehicles and drivers of the Tribe.
Roy Arwood moved and Leeon
Hillman seconded to approve Sara’s report.
6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
21) Requests
None at this time.
22) Phone Votes
a.
Request approval
of contract 09-C-011 between the Karuk Tribe and Hazel Croy. Contract not to
exceed $100. Passed.
b.
Request approval
of contract 09-C-009 between the Karuk Tribe and Kayla Super. Contract not to
exceed $100. Passed.
c.
Request approval
of contract 09-C-010 between the Karuk Tribe and Rhonda Croy. Contract not to
exceed $100. Passed.
d.
Request approval
of contract 09-C-008 between the Karuk Tribe and Anthony Ballard, including
allowing employee to contract with the Tribe for separate services. Contract
not to exceed $100. Passed.
e.
Request approval
for out of state travel for
f.
Request approval
for out of state travel for Robert Goodwin and
23)
Informational
None at this time.
24) Committee
Reports
A letter was included from
the Klamath Siskiyou Arts Council regarding the MOA that was entered into for
the purposes of allowing them to construct an art center on the Tribe’s
property. They are formally withdrawing
from the MOA as they have identified an alternative site. They are thankful for the opportunity and
cooperation. They will be purchasing the
property across the street from the existing art center and will not require
the lease.
Sara states she will research
the MOA number for them so they can rescind it at the December Council Meeting.
Closed Session from 8:05 pm to 10:30pm
Consensus: Self Governance Coordinator will work with
Tribal Member #4084 regarding his matter and report back to Council.
Consensus: To review the request from Tribal Member #3539
at the Health Board Meeting.
Consensus: For staff to research assistance for Tribal
Member #2409 and initiate direct payment agreement from TANF to KTHA allowing
assistance from the LIAP program.
Leeon Hillman moved and
Alvis Johnson seconded to approve reimbursement to Tribal Member #538 in the
amount of $50. 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0
pupitihara.
Directive: To be issued to program directors advising that
the auditors will be here early and there will be NO excuses accepted for not
getting their budgets in order.
Consensus: For Tribal Member #390 to come back to them
in January 2010 regarding their request.
Consensus: For IT to unblock Tribal phone numbers so
they will show on caller id.
Consensus: For COS Yoga classes to be conducted in the
multi-purpose from on Mondays and Wednesdays from January 11-May 19, 2010.
Florence Conrad moved and Alvis
Johnson seconded to approve travel for Arch Super to Cabazon December 9-10,
2009. 4 haa, 1 puuhara (Roy Arwood), 1
pupitihara (Verna Reece).
Florence Conrad moved and Alvis
Johnson seconded to approve travel for Arch Super to the Annual CATG Meeting,
November 30, 2009 in Lemoore. 5 haa, 1
puuhara (Roy Arwood), 0 pupitihara.
Consensus: To have Finance collect costs of unauthorized
business dinner from Employees #0041, 1988, and 5541 less their per diem
deductions.
Next Meeting Date:
December 17, 2009 at 5pm in
Happy Camp.
Meeting adjourned at 10:31 pm.
Submitted by,
_______________________________
Arch Super, Chairman
Recording Secretary, Sara Spence