Tribal Council OKs June 12 per capita date

By Dean Rhodes

Smoke Signals editor

Tribal Council approved a per capita date of Friday, June 12, during its Wednesday, May 20, meeting.

The per capita payment will be the first processed in-house by the Tribe’s Finance and Member Services departments.

Tribal Controller Linda Hanna said the move to in-house processing will save the Tribe about $85,000 annually.

In other action, Tribal Council:

•        Approved an application for a state domestic violence grant that will bring the Tribe $10,000 a year in grant funding and $10,000 a year in federal pass-through money during the biennium, for a total of $40,000;
•        Held a first reading on amendments to the General Committee and Special Event Board Ordinance that would allow committees and special event boards to make donations if authorized by Tribal Council;
•        Approved the Tribe’s application to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for a Tribal Homeland Security grant. The three-year grant would be for $301,535 and pay for staff time, emergency training and exercises, a vehicle, and communications and emergency equipment and supplies;
•        Approved an amendment to the Tribe’s retirement plan that would include the forest technician job as an eligible employee under the plan;
•        And approved the Right of Way Logging Unit sale to Round Valley LLC. The sale will harvest approximately 258,000 board feet and bring in about $83,154 in revenue.

Also included in the May 20 Tribal Council packet was a board directive approving monthly instead of quarterly meetings for the Grand Ronde Food & Fuel Co. Board of Directors and an authorization to proceed that directed the Natural Resources Department to develop, in conjunction with Legal, emergency amendments to the Fish and Wildlife Ordinance to provide for implementation and enforcement of the Tribal Wildlife Management Plan.

Tribal Council member Jon A. George and Land and Culture employees Bobby Mercier and Brian Krehbiel led a group of Tribal youth in the cultural drumming and singing to open the meeting.

The meeting, in its entirety, can be viewed on the Tribal website, www.grandronde.org, under the News tab and then click on the Video link.