Karuk Tribe of
Council Meeting Minutes
May 22, 2008
The meeting was called to order at 5:01 PM by Leaf
Hillman, Vice Chairman.
Roll Call (1 minute)
Present
Leaf Hillman, Vice Chairman
Florrine Super, Secretary
Leeon Hillman, Treasurer
Roy Arwood, Member
Alvis Johnson, Member
Sonny Davis, Member
Robert Goodwin, Member
Absent
Arch Super, Chairman, excused
Quorum is present.
Sonny
Approval of the Agenda for May 22, 2008 (1 minute)
Robert Goodwin moved and
Florrine Super seconded to approve the Agenda for May 22, 2008. 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
1) Approval of
the Minutes for April 24, 2008 (1 minute)
Florrine Super moved and
Alvis Johnson seconded to approve the Minutes for April 24, 2008. 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
2) Old Business
None at this time.
3) Guests
No additional guests.
4) Lessie
Aubrey (10 minutes)
Lessie is requesting approval
of the State Indian Health Grant; it reflects a deduction due to State budget
cuts. The amount to be funded is
$186,000. It is due to be submitted to
the State for re-funding. Resolution
08-R-063 has been assigned to the grant and it has been reviewed by Laura
Mayton and Erin Hillman. This is the
funding for ceremonies and the remainder is for medical and dental supplies and
lab fees and a portion of salary expenses.
Robert Goodwin moved and
Florrine Super seconded to approve Resolution 08-R-063 for submission of the
State Indian Health Grant. 7 haa, 0
puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
Lessie updated them regarding
the Susanville lawsuit and billing of Indian beneficiaries. She states that IHS was not giving them the
correct information; they stated that the lawsuit only affected Susanville but
that was not true the lawsuit should be applied to all Tribes as precedent;
Laura states it cost Susanville $180,000 to fight the case, all Tribes cannot
afford to pay to fight the same fight.
IHS was attempting to consider the scheduled meeting a “consultation”
but the Tribes realized what was going on and refused to speak to them and insisted
that a meeting must be scheduled with two months notice and informational
packets be distributed to the Tribes prior to that meeting.
Once the meeting is set Council
Members will need to attend to advocate that the decision to bill should be
left up to the Tribes. Laura attended
the meeting along with her. Laura states
that the Tribes requested that IHS not consider that meeting a consultation but
that a future meeting be scheduled where Tribal Leaders are invited. Laura states that in Congress there are some
representatives who want to mandate that Tribes charge a co-pay for services to
Indian patients; the Tribes do not agree with that, they feel the decision
should be left up to the Tribes and not be dictated by anyone else. She thanked the Susanville Chairman for
standing up and requesting the Tribal caucus prior to anyone speaking as IHS
had court reporters there and tried to trick them into providing information that
could be used against them.
5) Susan Gehr
(11 minutes)
She was present to review her
written report; she does not have any action items. She distributed the closing report for the
NCIDC mini grant that she received.
She updated them on the tasks
of the grant and what she completed through that project to improve the
dictionary. She states the dictionary
holds about 7,000 entries; over 500 were corrected during the project and they
have a plan for future updates to prepare a Second Edition of the Dictionary.
Susan states that she
recently completed a digital media course and she created a one minute video
about a Karuk word. She states her son
watches
Robert Goodwin moved and Leeon
Hillman seconded to approve Susan’s report.
7 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
6) Earl Crosby
(1 minute)
Not present, written report
only.
Roy Arwood moved and
7) Scott Quinn
(2 minutes)
Scott is not present, written
report only. He and Arch are in
Florrine Super moved and
Alvis Johnson seconded to approve Scott’s report. 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
8) Jennifer
Goodwin (17 minutes)
Jennifer was present to
review her written report.
She would like to move her
first action item to closed session; her second action item needs to be tabled
due to the fact that she did not finish the research. She states that she has researched some
giveaway items for the
She states she has been
working on updating the Education webpage.
She plans to add additional information that can be helpful to the
students on that site in addition to the Tribal information included on that
site. She brought the applications with
her for anyone interested in filling one out or taking one for a family member.
She states she has been
working closely with the
Bob asked about the ROP
teachers who are not credentialed teachers but have enough expertise to teach
classes, can that work? She states that is what they are trying to achieve for
the program, allowing the Tribes to credential them for themselves. Susan states that
She states that today she met
with Judith Jensen, a professor, who is doing work in the River schools and has
developed a curriculum relating to water rights and the salmon issues that the
communities are facing. She is seeking
to teach a class on this subject in the high school sophomore classes. She states the meeting was very interesting
and she is hopeful it will move forward as a science class. She states they met with the HC High School
principal and it seemed like it may be going somewhere so that it will be
accepted curriculum. She states they did
a pilot project last year and Yreka is included for next year. She states the curriculum is well developed
and incorporates everyone’s viewpoints it is not one-sided information. Leaf states he is aware of this and she has
been working on it for about ten years.
She states there are two
school age students taking advantage of descendent tutoring and she receives
very good feedback on that service, their test scores are getting higher and
one student raised their letter grade as well.
She states the necklace class
has thirty one completed necklaces on display in the People’s Center and
encourages them to go look at those.
Leeon states that he noticed
in the minutes that she has requested information from Hector and Florrine from
the meeting they attended in DC to be presented to the Education Committee; has
that happened yet. She states that
Hector indicated he would be attending the next Education Committee meeting to
update them. She also states they are
still fighting for the JOM funding and doing whatever they can to secure that
funding for the kids. Florrine states
she will attend the next meeting with Hector also. The next meeting is July 8, 2008 at 2:30 PM
in Happy Camp.
Sonny
9) Lisa Aubrey
(1 minute)
Written report only, on
travel.
Roy Arwood moved and Alvis
Johnson seconded to approve Lisa’s report.
7 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
10) Erin
Hillman (12 minutes)
She has a correction; under
contracts there were awards not listed, she accidentally included the
information from last month and read the correct information aloud.
She distributed Contract
08-C-038 for approval with Kapel Construction not to exceed $5,000 for the snow
removal project which is an activity that requires a contract. They have started the project; there is a lot
of snow up there to be removed this year so they do not know for sure how long
it will take.
Roy Arwood moved and Sonny
Erin states that she has a
list of additional emergency preparedness kits to be distributed in Yreka and
the
Robert Goodwin moved and
She states that the
Sonny asked about the water
projects and what they can do to help the members who are currently without
water. She states they want to research
how they can link those homes into the Meadows/Indian Creek system; Sonny
states he has also been researching development of springs on the property as
well.
Robert Goodwin moved and
Alvis Johnson seconded to approve
11) Rick Hill
(9 minutes)
Rick was present to review
his written report. He has one action
item to request approval on which is a grant proposal to seek funding from Rural
Housing and Economic Development for a modular office facility for the KCDC
staff; Sue Burcell has written this grant and the amount is $300,000 over the
course of three years. Resolution
08-R-062 has been assigned to the grant.
Laura and Erin have reviewed the grant.
Robert Goodwin moved and
Roy Arwood seconded to approve Resolution 08-R-062. 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
He states that was his only
action item. He states Hester worked on
the SAMHSA Grant diligently and they hope that will be funded. The HRSA renewal is approaching and she will
begin working on that project next. He
states that they conducted the necessary survey in Happy Camp to pursue the
funding through ICDBG for expansion of the Happy Camp facilities. He hopes it is successful. He states they have been approached to use
the Tribe’s Hazard Mitigation Plan for training other Tribes and wanted to know
what Council’s feelings are about that; they state that they feel that is fine.
He states that the grant he
worked on to fund youth camps in the marbles with Ron Reed has been funded and
they are very excited about that. He has
also been working on the Yreka Smoke Shop Project. They will be doing a site visit to the property
in the near future.
Consensus: To allow FEMA to use the Tribe’s Hazard
Mitigation Plan for training purposes.
Roy Arwood moved and Sonny
12) Dion Wood
(10 minutes)
Dion distributed his report
to the Council.
He updated the Council
regarding the TANF progress. He states
the state sent a couple of questions today and they have forwarded the
questions to
He states he just attended
the national childcare/TANF conference.
He states that he will be researching other alternatives for counting
the children in the program to increase the childcare grant amount. He states the next couple of years’ budgets
will be tight and they need to be prepared for that.
He states the People’s Center
tobacco sales are moving forward in Happy Camp; they are finally at a point
where the revenues are sustaining the Clerk that works in that Center which has
never happened before, it has been under-funded for seven years. That is quite an accomplishment; he encourages
them to consider Dave’s request to expand the hours to Mondays. He would like to have a public hearing in
August regarding the Yreka project to gather input into that project.
He states he has been working
with Byron McLane to provide Adult Education Tutoring services with TERO funds.
He states he is working with
Joyce Jones on the Summer Youth program; TERO is not sponsoring a crew this
year. He has been working with April
Attebury on a project for Yreka and she needs assistance from the Council. The request is for $3,900 to fund summer
youth workers in the Court program in Yreka as a Summer Tribal Youth Program
Advisory Board.
TERO has authorized funding
for raffle prizes for this year’s
He states the Tribal
Assistance Software has been installed in the TERO Office and is up and
running; they have purchased the core module, the TERO module, and the
Childcare module. There are many, many
other programs that can link in and TANF will be linked in as well.
Roy Arwood moved and
Robert Goodwin seconded to approve Dion’s report. 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
13) Dave
Wrobleski (14 minutes)
Dave was present to review
his written report with the Council. He
states they are averaging 15 individuals in the Men’s Cultural Class. They held the Basketweaver’s Gathering which
was a great success. They continue to
move toward online sales and hope to have it up soon. He suggests the Council expand hours at the
Shop to include Mondays. It is suggested
that he and Sharon have alternating dates off to accommodate that so they are
open on Mondays. They do need to update
the sign out front with the current hours as well. He does state they will need to close for
lunch or have someone cover that one hour on the day when only one of them
would be there; they suggest they close for lunch other than 12 to 1 on those
days. He states that he did a sales
study of 200 purchases of tobacco at the shop just to see how it turned out and
60% were tribal.
He states he attended the
NAGPRA training in
He states he received an
email from Barbara Snider requesting a letter of support for the Museum of the
First People of California which will be Native American owned and operated,
located in Santa Clarita and focused on
He states he previously
requested that the $2,489 earned from their archeological survey be obligated
toward the Basketweaver’s Gathering. He
distributed a copy of the expenses for the event and they are requesting that
the revenue be obligated to that line item.
Laura asked what the profit
was after they paid for the employee to do the survey; he states that $2,489 was
the amount of profit earned on the contract.
He states the contract amount was $2,800. He states he will get all necessary
documentation to them so they can make a decision.
He states he promised Paula
and Verna that he would ask for new doorknobs for the People’s Center; they
would like handles rather than knobs.
They suggest he speak to Maintenance to obtain a cost for them to make a
decision.
He states that the Tribe has
received a list from the
14) Laura
Mayton (7 minutes)
Laura was present to review
her written report with the Council.
She updated them regarding
the audit report and states she has been told that it is complete and they
should receive it next week which is ahead of schedule and great news.
She states that the tobacco
sales in Happy Camp have been controversial; however, it has allowed them to
sustain the Clerk position. They have
sold over $5,000 in tobacco for a gross profit of $2,000 before paying for the
Clerk who works in the Gift Shop. She
cautioned them on the project for Yreka and advised them they need to sell over
$700 in product each day to break even, not accounting for any overhead
costs. She suggests other products being
sold as well to cover their costs and overhead.
She states she has received a
higher number than usual of Tribal vehicles being utilized after hours and for
personal use, on the weekends, at individuals homes, etc. She knows there are cases with Tribal authorization
but she believes that there may be other instances taking place. She would like a memo distributed to staff
reminding them that personal use is strictly prohibited without prior approval
by an Executive Council Member or vote of the entire Tribal Council. They agree that a reminder needs to be sent
out to all staff.
She states that because TANF
is not starting a soon as anticipated, their Indirect Cost Pool budget will be
very tight this year and she requests they scrutinize requests that will be
charged to that budget; it will be very difficult to cover their costs for this
year without any discretionary funding being used to supplement that budget. She states as soon as she knows Bob’s
schedule she will schedule the meeting with DOI regarding the restrictions
being placed on the Tribe for Indirect expenditures related to Council
expenses.
Another item is regarding an
invoice to Brass Knuckles regarding the cage fight that was held that they
never received payment for; she has not heard anything back on that.
She has items for closed
session as well.
15) Sami
Difuntorum (2 minutes)
Ann was present as Sami is
currently unavailable.
She would like to report on a
couple of projects she is currently working on for Housing. She is working with Rick Hill on a grant
opportunity. She states she assisted DNR
with their energy assessments and they also held a community meeting as well.
16) Davey Davis
(1 minute)
Not present, written report
was distributed.
Robert Goodwin moved and
Leeon Hillman seconded to approve Davey’s report. 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
17) Jim Berry
(6 minutes)
Jim was present to review his
written report.
He thanked everyone for
helping on the grant application for KCDC.
He states that the Head Start
Program recently went through a program review from federal officials. They did an in depth review of that program
and he would like to thank the Head Start Staff for their hard work on that
review and there appears to only be one item that will be addressed as an
outcome of the review. He states there
will be a Risk Management Review group put together and he will keep them up to
date on that topic.
He states the KCDC Audit went
through with no findings and he expects a full report in a couple of weeks.
He has been working with Rick
on the possibility of adding a card-lock system to the tobacco shop in the
Yreka community. Jim Burcell has some
information on that subject and is working with them as well.
He states they are
advertising for a KCDC Board member at this time. It closes on June 20, 2008.
They would like him to come
to the WEDNESDAY meeting to answer some questions they have on the financial
reports included in his report.
Robert Goodwin moved and
Leeon Hillman seconded to approve Jim’s report.
7 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
18) Hector Garcia
(6 minutes)
Written report only, not
present.
Consensus: To table Hector’s report to WEDNESDAY.
Carrie’s report included
updates to the Resolution Procedures which were minor changes regarding
employee’s titles that have changed and removing employee’s names and inserting
their titles only.
Robert Goodwin moved and Florence
Conrad moved to approve the changes to the Resolution Procedures, the template,
and the request form. 7 haa, 0 puuhara,
0 pupitihara.
19) April
Attebury (14 minutes)
April was present to review
her written report which was distributed.
She updated the community on her activities over the past month. She states she has been operating under a
reduced schedule. She has been working
with other programs and on other projects; she is also pursuing a youth program
for the Court as well. She states her
schedule is posted on the door with all of her contact information in case
someone needs to reach her. She asks
them not to get discouraged but to understand her limited schedule due to
funding constraints.
She states she has been
working on the CASA Program Grant to obtain funding through National CASA. She wants to expand the program in the
downriver communities in the next year through that grant. She still needs volunteers for Yreka as well
and has applications with her.
There are currently five
cases in
She attended the California
Tribal Courts Conference in
She explained her goals for a
Summer Youth Program for the
Bob states that in the past
the Council has funded positions similar to this, however, there are limited
resources and he encourages her to ensure equality between the communities and
work with all other resources that may be available to her. They would like to defer this to the
WEDNESDAY meeting where everyone can bring their information to the table for a
decision to be made on this subject. She
states she needs to be on the agenda before 11 AM so she can get back to Yreka.
Robert Goodwin moved and
Leeon Hillman seconded to approve April’s report. 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara.
20) Fred
Burcell (1 minute)
Written report only, not
present.
Robert Goodwin moved and
Florrine Super seconded to approve Fred’s report. 7 haa, 0 puu
21) Sara Spence
(10 minutes)
Sara was present to review
her written report; she has two action items regarding wording in the personnel
policy and on the employment application related to criminal background
checks. They have some questions about
the language and what is actually required to be asked of applicants. Sara states this is not time sensitive, there
are many different laws and regulations governing criminal histories for
employees who have contact with Indian children and she will get the
information together for them and bring it back at a later date.
Roy Arwood moved and Sonny
22) Requests
None at this time.
23) Phone Votes
24)
Informational
None at this time.
25) Committee
Reports
None at this time.
Closed session from 8:19 PM to 11:12 PM
Robert Goodwin moved and
Alvis Johnson seconded to accept the recommendation to re-appoint Joyce Jones
and Cecilia Arwood to the Education Committee and re-advertise for downriver
representation. 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 1
pupitihara (Roy Arwood). (5 minutes)
Consensus: To discuss the
possibility of the Indian Club doing detailing of the Tribal vehicles as a fund
raiser at a later date. (4 minutes)
Roy Arwood moved and Leeon
Hillman seconded to approve $300 for travel assistance to Tribal Member #2817
and Tribal Member #469 to attend the CIBA gathering in Lemoore, California;
$150 each from discretionary. 7 haa, 0
puuhara, 0 pupitihara. (5 minutes)
Directive: For Employee #0862 and Employee #1653 to
research circumstances surrounding Tribal Member #131’s request and determine
what needs to be done. If necessary, a
phone vote can be conducted tomorrow. (4 minutes)
Consensus: For CFO to bring numbers to them at the
WEDNESDAY meeting regarding salary expenses from discretionary for Cultural
Biologist. (4 minutes)
Consensus: For CFO to advise Tribal Member #6 that her
request can only be considered if they will cooperate with the Tribe’s request
for additional information regarding the financing terms. The Community Loan Fund Staff need to be
consulted regarding this as well. (15 minutes)
Robert Goodwin moved and
Leeon Hillman seconded to impose a stay on the eviction proceedings against
Tribal Member #1717 until the KTHA Housing Committee can further review the
situation. 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 0
pupitihara. (16 minutes)
Consensus: To approve CHS travel expenses for Tribal
Member #1717’s family for pre-op and surgery; it is not covered through CHS. (3
minutes)
Robert Goodwin excused himself at 9:18 PM.
Consensus: For Employee #1653 to determine if Tribal
Member #1766 truly has delinquent debt with KTOC; if not, to continue with
processing application for LIAP assistance based on eligibility guidelines. (6
minutes)
Robert Goodwin returned at 9:24 PM.
Florence Conrad moved and
Leeon Hillman seconded to uphold the CHS denial and approve payment of the $255
for Tribal Member #650’s pre-op appointment to be paid from Third Party; Member
will report back at June 12, 2008 Health Board Meeting. 7 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara. (15 minutes)
Consensus: For KTHA Security Coordinator to attend
Tribal Council/KTHA Committee Meeting on June 4, 2008 to discuss the future of
the security program. (27 minutes)
Robert Goodwin excused himself at 10:17 PM.
Consensus: To review request from Tribal Member #2265 at
the WEDNESDAY meeting. (16 minutes)
Consensus: To review the request from Tribal Member #3190
at the WEDNESDAY meeting. Pending order
at People’s Center and KTHA delinquent status need to be determined prior to
the meeting and reported back. (3 minutes)
Consensus: To request backup documentation for the
request from Tribal Member #2113 and review on WEDNESDAY. (3 minutes)
Roy Arwood moved and Leeon
Hillman seconded to approve assistance for Tribal Member #1666 in the amount of
$375 to have heating system evaluated for repairs by Siskiyou Plumbing. 6 haa, 0 puuhara, 0 pupitihara. (8 minutes)
Consensus: To refer the letter to patients back to EDHHS
for revisions prior to being sent out. (5 minutes)
Meeting scheduled with
Employee #1051 for Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 1 PM. (7 minutes)
Consensus: To deny the request from attorney to purchase
manual. (4 minutes)
Consensus: For NCIDC to work with both TERO Director and
Human Resources Manager on Summer Youth positions. (1 minute)
Alvis Johnson moved and
Roy Arwood moved and
Consensus: To review the request for a donation to Sober
Grad at the WEDNESDAY meeting; they
would like to know what have they done in the past. (2 minutes)
Next Meeting Date:
June 26, 2008 at 5 PM in Happy
Camp.
Meeting adjourned at 11:14 PM.
Submitted by,
___________________________
Leaf Hillman, Vice Chairman
Recording Secretary, Sara Spence