Karuk Tribe – Health Board Meeting
September 8, 2011 - Meeting Minutes
Meeting called to order at 3:03pm, by Arch Super, Chairman
Present:
Arch Super, Chairman
Michael Thom, Vice-Chairman
Florrine Super, Secretary/Treasurer
Dora Bernal, Member at Large
Florence Conrad, Member at Large
Wilverna “Verna” Reece, Member at Large
Alvis “Bud” Johnson, Member at Large
Charron “Sonny” Davis, Member at Large
Crispen McAllister, Member at Large
Absent:
None
Prayer was done by Sonny Davis, Member at Large and the Mission Statement was read aloud by Michael Thom, Vice-Chairman.
Agenda:
Florrine Super motioned and Dora Bernal seconded of approve the agenda with changes, 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
Minutes of August 11, 2011:
Dora Bernal motioned and Sonny Davis seconded to approve the minutes, 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 1 pupitihara (Florence Conrad).
Guests:
None at this time.
Old Business:
None at this time.
Director Reports:
1.) Daniel Pratt, TANF Director
Daniel is present to review his written report. He highlighted his report noting that they have 73 cases and 1 pending. For Cash-aid they are spending between $39,000 - $40,000 a month. There have been miscellaneous requests which had some pay out.
Dora, Bob and himself attended the ACF Conference in Washington DC and that was beneficial. He will take the information he provided regarding TANF to the upcoming ATNI Conference. Since he and Alphonso are a TANF Board, he is hoping to include information for the other Tribes to obtain a stronger voice.
ACF has had a change and lost their program director. They have hired a new program manager which is Julie Fong; this leaves the Karuk Tribe under Rick Weaver which is easy to get along with.
The transition of Directors will include Daniel following up regarding the Quartz Valley Tribe, to ensure that addition is fully known and understood.
Dora Bernal motioned and Verna Reece seconded to approve Daniel’s report, 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
Florence motioned and Michael seconded to approve travel for Florrine Super to the Region IX Meeting in San Francisco CA, 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 1 pupitihara (Florrine Super).
2.) Mike Edwards, Children and Family Services:
Mike is present to provide additions to his written report. He highlighted his report for the Board.
He noted that he thought he was going to have two action items; Copier agreement was formally approved and the MOU with CalWORKs is not prepared for presentation.
The Department has been very busy, even with being down one provider. There is an employee on leave that will return September 19, 2011.
He has spoke with Debra Bell and she has noted that the Tribe has been awarded the final award of the Title B funding. The ICW Committee will meet on September 20, 2011 at 10am. It is open to the community because Stephanie Dolan will be present to provide training on Title B and review what the process will be.
There is a case that is being transferred into Tribal Court. The County has appealed this, and he anticipates this to take a year for the County’s appeal process. He had hoped that this would be the first Title IVE case, but due to the appeal, it may not work so well.
He and Annie Smith have been discussing the growing elder population and he would like to research an Elders Grant to identify an Elders specific facility. He offered the Oak Knoll building as an option for use as the Tribe owns it. Dr. Burns asked if Mike is speaking of an assisted living facility. Mike and Dr. Burns began to discuss the ideas and Dr. Burns provided his insight of assisted living vs. a memory care facility.
He does have a concern on Tracy Lima’s report. There were a lot of no shows and cancellations but it is not known what the reason was. He is having his staff question the clients to determine what the reasons for the high number of cancellations.
Verna Reece motioned and Florrine Super seconded to approve Mike’s report, 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
3.) Vickie Walden, Dental Office Manager:
Vickie is not present, written report provided
Florrine Super motioned and Michael Thom seconded to approve Vickie’s report, 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
4.) Lessie Aubrey, EDHHS:
Lessie is not present. Suzanna took the opportunity to distribute her report to the Tribal Council as it was late and not attached to Lessie’s report. Suzanna noted her staffing changes to the Board. She then went on to note with the recent staff changes, she is filling in for the staff person in Yreka, ensuring they are staying caught up.
Mike announced that he has advertised for a part time position that will have experience in all areas and will be an on call position covering in the absence of staff. He then reported that there have been interviews.
Dora Bernal motioned and Sonny Davis seconded to approve Lessie’s report, 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
5.) Annie Smith, PHN
Annie is present to review her report with the Board. She did not include a separate report on her training and was unable to do that because she has had a lot of emergencies lately. She then went on to note that her training report will be on the Native American National Conference and she was very appreciative to attend it. She will provide a detailed report at a later time.
Three members of her staff are at emergency preparedness training and she is glad that they are all taking it. The river is a remote, rural location and the staff being trained will assist in the event of an emergency.
They have developed a diabetes team and they are working well together. The diabetic grant for the health program is up on September 30, 2011. She and Amy have reviewed the numbers and have found that the Tribe did very well, but that data will be double checked when Vickie returns.
FMC is having a health fair at the end of the month and they will be participating.
The PHN department will be completing a project with Head Start and they will be using diabetic funding to bring awareness to the children and their parents on childhood obesity and diabetes.
She has had five cases in the last month of clients that have onset dementia. She is concerned over this influx and she would like to spend some time reviewing options of a care facility.
Verna Reece motioned and Sonny Davis seconded to approve Annie’s report, 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
6.) Vickie Simmons, Clinical Operations Administrator
Vickie is not present, but Patti is present to follow up on the policy approvals as action items.
Dora Bernal motioned and Crispen McAllister seconded to approve all policies as attached to Vickie’s report (02-000-045, 02-000-047, 02-001-050, 03-001-130, 04-000-155, 04-001-165, 04-001-170, 04-001-171, 04-001-172, 04-003-185 and 04-006-200), 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
There is an ACQI Meeting next Wednesday. Patti then went on to note that the health program is preparing for accreditation.
Michael Thom motioned and Crispen McAllister seconded to approve Vickie’s report, 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
7.) Chad Tiraterra, RPMS:
Chad is present to review his report and seek approval of one action item. It is an agreement, 11-A-080, with Dentrix. It will include onsite training as well.
Verna inquired about the reports that show a minus notation in Chad’s report. Chad noted that the reports are run month to month to provide a comparison to each month. The visit count for individual categories is reported from the RPMS system. The visit count will fluctuate month to month, based on provider cancellations, meetings, days off, or seeing less patients. The report provides that information to the Council. There are in depth reports but he provides the overview snapshot monthly.
Dora Bernal motioned and Michael Thom seconded to approve agreement 11-A-080, 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
Verna Reece motioned and Florrine Super seconded to approve Chad’s report, 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
8.) Eric Cutright, IT Director:
Eric is present to provide his report to the Council. He then provided information to the Board regarding the recent notification that the Tribe has been awarded a broadband grant in the amount of $1.4million dollars. He has three years to complete this project but he is hoping to have it complete in two years.
Eric then sought approval of contract 11-C-083-A regarding an additional $744 to purchase a performance and payment bond. The staff did not include it in the scope of work, and this will provide for insurance so that the Tribe may seek financial recovery if there is damage to the building in Yreka.
Florence Conrad motioned and Crispen McAllister seconded to approve Addendum (1) to contract 11-C-083, 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
Eric then noted that Orleans had six weeks of terrible phone service. He called Verizon every day and they have identified the problem. The equipment replacement took place after a power outage and service is improving daily. Florence noted that the staff in Orleans deals with several issues, dire issues daily, and the computer systems and phone being down produces the worst employee moral possible. The staff is just trying to do their jobs. Eric is aware of the frustrations and works on the issues with connectivity daily.
Eric then went on to discuss phone line changes that he previously discussed with the Board. He and Chris have identified thousands of dollars of savings, but he would like to change some of the Tribes numbers. If the Tribe keeps the main number then there will be a monthly fee but some of the other lines can be changed to produce savings. Eric then noted that without changing majority of the Tribes phone numbers then there isn’t as high of a savings. Arch asked that Eric discuss this with the Management Team to determine if this will be supported or not. He noted that not every number has to be changed but to have roughly 90% savings this would be good.
Verna Reece motioned and Florrine Super seconded to approve Eric’s report, 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
Closed Session:
Consensus: to table compensation discussion regarding employee # 5021 and #7168 until a later date.
Consensus: for the EDHHS to discuss reported comments with employee # 0033 to ensure professionalism is demonstrated and to not participate in causing undue stress at the office.
Consensus: for the EDHHS to address in writing the lack of communication and responsibility to supervisors from employee #2966.
Consensus: to accept explanation of employee # 0943 and # 1976 salary range.
Consensus: for employee #1647 to produce documentation regarding the reported statement that the Council removed eligibility for #DJ, #IJ, and MJ at Thursday’s Planning Meeting.
Dora Bernal motioned and Verna Reece seconded to approve changing the emblem for the month of October for Cancer Awareness, 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
Florence motioned and Sonny seconded to approve travel for Florrine to the CRIHB Personnel meeting, September 16, 2011 in Sacramento CA, 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 1 pupitihara (Florrine Super).
Dora Bernal motioned and Michael Thom seconded to approve out of state travel for Florrine to the HR Conference with Sara and Crispen October 24-28, 2011 in AZ, 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 1 pupitihara (Florrine Super).
Florence Conrad motioned and Crispen McAllister seconded to approve resolution 11-R-103 authorizing Amicus brief and allow Craig’s program to pay for the $200-$300 filing costs, 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 1 pupitihara (Verna Reece).
Florrine Super motioned and Dora Bernal seconded to approve travel for Florence and Michael to the NCTCC, September 21, 2011 in Klamath, 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 2 pupitihara (Michael and Florence).
Dora Bernal motioned and Florence Conrad seconded to approve travel for Michael and Crispen to the Seventh Generation Event, October 14, 2011, 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 2 pupitihara (Crispen and Michael).
Consensus: to ask employee #4847 to present Junction Elementary School’s request.
Informational: comments and behavior during a recent interview conducted brought discussion to the Tribal Council.
Consensus: for the letter drafted by the Chairman to be delivered to employee #6868.
Next Meeting: October 13, 2011 at 3pm in Happy Camp CA
Crispen McAllister motioned and Dora Bernal seconded to adjourn at 5:05 pm, 8 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
Respectfully Submitted,
________________________________
Arch Super, Chairman
Recording Secretary, Barbara Snider