Tribal Council votes ‘no’ on amendments to SMGI Board selection process

By Danielle Harrison

Smoke Signals editor

Tribal Council voted against approving amendments to the Spirit Mountain Gaming Inc. articles of incorporation that would have put the board in charge of recruiting director candidates, reduced reserved Tribal Council member seats by one and increased non-Tribal Council seats by one, during its Wednesday, Sept. 11, meeting.

If approved, the amendments would have decreased specifically reserved Tribal Council seats from five to four and increased non-Tribal Council seats from six to seven. 

The vote was 4 in favor, with Vice Chair Chris Mercier, Kathleen George, Brenda Tuomi and Denise Harvey voting yes, and Matthew Haller, Lisa Leno, Jon A. George and newly elected Tonya Gleason-Shepek voting no.

Tribal Council Chair Cheryle A. Kennedy cast the tie-breaking vote, which is required when it is 4-4.

“We are not approving this resolution,” she said. “Maybe it needs to be reworked to better satisfaction…Thank you to all of those who worked on it.”

The proposed resolution had been added to the agenda for approval after a 5-3 recommendation at a Legislative Action Committee meeting the day prior. Kathleen George, then-Secretary Michael Cherry, Mercier, Tuomi and Harvey were in favor of the changes. Haller, Leno and Jon A. George were not.

Before the resolution failed to pass during the Tribal Council meeting, Kathleen George, who serves on the SMGI Board, explained the reasoning behind one of the proposed changes after a Tribal Elder spoke out against its approval.

“I certainly appreciate what you had to say about the 5-member representation from council and I think the board would be delighted if we could have five council members on there,” she said. “We just for several years have not had five who were interested in serving. This amendment doesn’t preclude that. It just allows that if Tribal Council members don’t want to serve, they can fill it with other people…I think we should move forward with the process underway. This was primarily to allow for flexibility, so we get enough board members.”

According to information shared in June Legislative Action Committee and Tribal Council meetings during a contested board appointment process, boards for Oregon Tribal casinos typically do the recruitment, appointing and replacing for their board members. The Grand Ronde Tribal Council took on the responsibility officially in 2018 from the SMGI Board.

Regardless of whether Tribal Council or the SMGI Board do the recruiting, council has the final decision on any board appointments.  

In other action, Tribal Council:

• Approved reappointing Kennedy as Tribal Council chairwoman and appointed Jon A. George as Tribal Council secretary;
• Approved a data sharing agreement with the Oregon Department of Education for a study update. The study tracks disparities in educational outcomes between Tribal students and their peers within the state’s public education system;
• Approved accepting a funding award of $298,495 from the US Forest Service Landscape Scale Restoration Program to implement ecological burning on seven conservation properties;
• Approved a memorandum of understanding with Indian Health Service for the Tribe’s Wind River Apartments phase 3 project. The Tribe secured up to $1 million in funding to cover the cost for constructing new water and sanitary mains to service the project;
• Approved amending an agreement with GBD Architects of Portland for up to $309,234 for its work on the master plan agreement for tumwata village in Oregon City;
• Approved amending a contract with David Evans and Associates of Salem for up to $864,352 for design services related to phase 1 infrastructure improvements at tumwata village;
• And approved enrolling one infant into the Tribe because they meet the enrollment requirements outlined in the Tribal Constitution and Enrollment Ordinance.

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