Tribal Council approves several credit card authorizations

By Danielle Harrison

Smoke Signals editor

Tribal Council approved three credit card authorizations and two increases at its Wednesday, Feb. 5, meeting.

Council approved credit cards with a $5,000 limit for Tribal Employment Rights Office Director Harris Reibach, $35,000 for Procurement Manager Nathan Rolston and $5,000 for the chinuk wawa skul (Tribal school).

Additionally, credit card limit increases were approved for Health & Wellness Department Operations Director Tresa Mercier from $1,000 to $5,000 and the Procurement Department from $5,000 to $10,000.

“We have 64 cards currently within the organization with more than 800 employees,” Finance Officer Chris Leno said at a Tuesday, Legislative Action Committee meeting. “Tribal Council has cards, most at the manager level have cards and there’s several in education, health and procurement. We are monitoring that and I don’t want the widespread utilization of cards. It is not to be used in place of a purchase order. These are utilized only (in the case of) someone who will not take a purchase order or if there’s not enough time for one, such as for firefighters and things like that. We do monitor use and we are paying attention.”   

In other action, Tribal Council:

• Approved a grant application for up to $5 million to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, for vocational rehabilitation services for Native Americans with disabilities;
• And approved a grant application for up to $100,000 to the Climate Smart Communities Initiative organization to help advance community-based climate resiliency efforts.

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