Tribal Council OKs contract to build Procurement/Information Services building

By Dean Rhodes

Smoke Signals editor

The Tribal campus soon will have a new building.

During its Wednesday, Aug. 28 meeting, Tribal Council approved a design and build construction contract with Haworth Inc. of McMinnville to design and build the Procurement and Information Services Office building.

Two proposals to construct the building were received and after interviews were conducted, Haworth was selected.

The Tribe will pay Haworth $148,000 to design the building and the approved budget to construct it is $2.4 million.

Both Procurement and Information Services are growing departments within the Finance Office.

“The Tribe determined it to be important and efficient to combine the departments into a new facility that can be constructed to accommodate offices, work spaces, shipping and receiving, and storage,” says a staff report.

The site of the 20,000-square-foot building has yet to be determined, said Public Works Director John Mercier.

Procurement staff currently work out of a portable building off Grand Ronde Road while the Information Services staff work out of a crowded office on the first floor of the Governance Center.

In other action, Tribal Council:

• Sent a proposed amendment to the Governmental Corporation Ordinance out for a first reading that will require, if adopted, that all Tribal entities provide their employees with the same cost-of-living adjustment awarded to governmental employees. In the last couple of years, Tribal government employees have received 2.5 percent COLAs in 2019 and 2018 and a 1.7 percent COLA in 2017;
• Approved an amendment extending the Tribe’s environmental services agreement with Industrial Economics, the Tribe’s technical consultant for the Portland Harbor cleanup, through Sept. 30, 2020;
• Authorized a grant application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for a $208,032 Indian Community Development Block Grant to help fund the design and construction of the Early Childhood Education addition;
• Approved the Tribe’s annual application for $118,845 in Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program funds from the Department of Health & Human Services to fund home energy assistance for lower income member households. Last year, the Tribe served 187 households with the monies;
• Agreed to extend an agreement with four other Tribes in compiling information on the loss of natural resources contaminated in the Portland Harbor area through Jan. 10, 2020;
• Appointed Benjamin Powley, Isabelle Grout, Madalyn Volz and Rihanna Many Hides to the Tribal Youth Council with terms expiring in March 2021;
• Approved the agenda for the 11a.m. Sunday, Sept. 8, General Council meeting, which will feature a report on Spirit Mountain Casino in the Tribal Community Center;
• And approved a memorandum of agreement with the Mid-Willamette Valley Council of Governments regarding a development council to form a Continuum of Care governance structure for the Marion and Polk counties region. The Tribe’s obligation would be $6,000 over two years.

Tribal Historic Preservation Office Manager Briece Edwards discussed the Governor’s Task Force on Cultural Items as the cultural presentation to open the meeting. The task force is asking state departments to examine their holdings for any items of cultural significance to Oregon’s nine federally recognized Tribes.

Also included in the Aug. 28 Tribal Council packet were approved authorizations to proceed that OK’d a $20,000 contribution to the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians to help hire an event planner for the 2020 National Congress of American Indians Conference, authorized the Tribal Attorney’s Office and Chief of Staff Stacia Hernandez to work with Tribal Council in exploring the establishment of a Constitutional Committee and authorized General Manager David Fullerton to approve Housing Drug Policy revisions and any future changes consistent with Tribal Council direction.

The entire meeting can be viewed by visiting the Tribal government’s website at www.grandronde.org and clicking on the Government tab and then Videos.