Tribal Council OKs 2015 operating budget

Tribal Council approved the 2015 calendar year budget during its Wednesday, Dec. 17, meeting.

The preliminary budget was sent to Tribal members in the November Tilixam Wawa and the membership was briefed about its content during the Nov. 2 General Council meeting by Finance Officer Chris Leno.

Tribal members had until Dec. 7 to submit written comments on the proposed budget.

In other action, Tribal Council:

• Approved a purchase-and-sale agreement for acquisition of the Rattlesnake 3 property. The Tribe has entered into an agreement to pursue the acquisition of an additional 172 acres adjacent to the Rattlesnake Butte property, which is managed for conservation of wildlife in Lane County. If successful, the purchase would be 100 percent funded by the Willamette Mitigation Program operated by the Bonneville Power Administration and will bring the total to 269 acres of Tribal conservation land ownership near Eugene;
• Appointed David Harrelson as the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer;
• Amended the Tribe’s Retirement Plan to only allow two pre-retirement in-service distributions from fully vested accounts for participants who have reached the age of 59.5 per calendar year;
• Approved an agreement not to exceed $382,752 with Advanced Security for security services for the Tribal campus and Tribal Housing Authority in 2015;
• Adopted the amended Tribal Government Operations Trust Fund policy;
• And approved the enrollment of six people, including one infant, into the Tribe.