Council appoints Julie Fahey to SMCF trustees board

By Danielle Harrison

Smoke Signals assistant editor/staff writer

Tribal Council appointed state Rep. Julie Fahey to the Spirit Mountain Community Fund Board of Trustees at its Wednesday, March 22, meeting.

Fahey will join the eight-member board that oversees Spirit Mountain Community Fund, which is the philanthropic arm of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. She is filling an open position that was held by former state Rep. Karin Power.

The board also includes Tribal Council members Michael Cherry, Denise Harvey and Brenda Tuomi, Spirit Mountain Casino Assistant Chief Executive Officer Camille Mercier, Lazenby & Associates owner Chip Lazenby, Clackamas County Commissioner Martha Schrader and former state Sen. Arnie Roblan.

According to her state Legislature biography, Fahey represents House District 14, which includes West Eugene and Veneta. She was first elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 2016 and was selected to serve as House majority leader in 2022.

Her areas of focus as a legislator include housing affordability, living wage jobs, worker protections and improving education. Fahey currently serves as chair of the committee on rules and is a member of the committee on housing.

“Representative Fahey will be a great addition to the board,” Tribal Council member Kathleen George said during the Tuesday, March 21, Legislative Action Committee meeting. “She is a wonderful leader and from Eugene, so she represents a different set of interested people outside of the Portland area. There's a lot of nonprofits in Portland, but there are also needs in the rest of the state.”

Tribal Council also set the agenda for the 11 a.m. Sunday, April 2, General Council meeting that will be held at the Lane Community College Longhouse as well as be accessible on the Zoom teleconferencing application. The program report will be about drug awareness, concentrating on the proliferation of fentanyl in the community.

In other action, Tribal Council:

• Approved the first supplemental budget of 2023 for $782,000 to purchase the Black property in Grand Ronde. No other information about the property was released by the Tribe;
• And enrolled three infants into the Tribe because they meet the enrollment requirements outlined in the Tribal Constitution and Enrollment Ordinance.

Also included in the March 22 Tribal Council packet was an authorization to proceed that allocated the 2021 and 2022 Pepsi Sponsorship funds in the amount of $100,000 to Veterans Powwow ($33,300) and the Contest Powwow ($66,700).

To watch the entire meeting, visit the Tribal government’s website at www.grandronde.org and click on the Government tab and then Videos.