Tribal Council approves Public Safety Ordinance amendments

By Danielle Harrison and Nicole Montesano

Smoke Signals editor

Tribal Council approved amendments to the Public Safety Ordinance to help protect vulnerable adults at its Wednesday, April 2, meeting.

The unanimous vote came as part of a package vote on recommendations from the Legislative Action Committee.

The Public Safety Ordinance amendments include a mandatory reporting requirement for Tribal employees to report instances of Elder and vulnerable adult abuse, create a system for a Tribal board to issue emergency protective orders and placing civil penalties on those who commit abuse and fail to report abuse.

“This has been a project that’s been talked about for many, many years and I just want to thank Michael Cherry for when she was on council,” Tribal Council member Denise Harvey said during a Tuesday, March 25, Legislative Action Committee meeting. “She took this, ran with it and got it done. It was a lot of work and a lot of meetings and I just wanted to thank her because this has been a project that we’ve talked about for a long time and just never could get through (before).”

In other action, Tribal Council:

• Approved accepting a $25,000 grant from the Oregon Department of Agriculture for the Tribe’s Native Plant Nursery;
• Approved a memorandum of understanding between the Grand Ronde Tribe and the Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center of Portland;
• Approved a cooperative funding agreement of $138,550 between the Tribe and Bonneville Power Administration. The Tribe has had these annual agreements with BPA dating back to 2010;
• Approved a $5,000 Tribal credit card for Silviculture/Fire Protection Technician Maxwell Lynn and a $5,000 Tribal credit card for Nutrition Program Manager Kristy Lawson;
• Approved a resolution requesting an election on removing the Bureau of Indian Affairs from its elections. See sidebar for full story;
• And approved the enrollment of three infants into the Tribe because they meet the requirements under 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.