1 1 2 3 4 5 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE 6 COMANCHE TRIBAL 7 GENERAL COUNCIL MEETING 8 APRIL 16, 2011, 1:35 P.M. 9 COMANCHE NATION COMPLEX 10 LAWTON, OKLAHOMA 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 ________________________________________________ 22 REPORTED BY: KELLY STOABS, CSR DODSON COURT REPORTING & LEGAL VIDEO, INC. 23 435 NORTH WALKER AVENUE, SUITE 102 OKLAHOMA CITY, OK 73102 24 405/235-1828 OFFICE ~ 405/235-1266 FAX 877/681-2119 TOLL FREE 25 dcri@coxinet.net ~ www.dodsonreporting.net 2 1 A P P E A R A N C E S 2 3 COMANCHE NATION COMANCHE COMMITTEE MEMBERS: 4 Richard "Bunky" Henson, Vice-Chairman Robert Tippeconnie, Secretary-Treasurer 5 Ronald Red Elk, Committeeman #1 Darrell Kosechequetah, Committeeman #3 6 Clyde R. Narcomey, Committeeman #4 7 8 LEGAL COUNSEL: 9 Kirke Kickingbird, William Nelson, James Burson, John Plata, Klint Cowan 10 Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker 11 12 13 * * * * * * 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 (Meeting called to order at 2 1:35 p.m.) 3 MR. HENSON: I am now calling the 4 meeting to order. Videl, would you give us the 5 invocation, please? 6 MR. YACKESHI: Let's bow for a word 7 of prayer. 8 (Invocation.) 9 MR. HENSON: Thank you, Videl. 10 Before we get started, Clyde wants to say 11 something to everybody. 12 MR. NARCOMEY: For the people that 13 don't know who I am, my name is Clyde Narcomey. 14 I've served on the business committee for the past 15 six years. I'm proud to have served the Comanche 16 tribe. I know we done a lot of things since I've 17 been on board. I wish we could have got a whole 18 of lot more things done, but we didn't. I'm 19 really proud to have served with the elder group. 20 I've been the liaison for the past three years for 21 them, and we got a lot of things done, remodeling 22 the elders center. 23 Since '04, we put in a resolution to 24 build this rest home, assisted living. I remember 25 2004, on this floor right here, I'm the one that 4 1 introduced this resolution and we're just now 2 getting closer and closer to getting it done. 3 I know a lot of people worry about 4 the per cap. 2004, I was approached by a group to 5 plan the per cap. Where's all the money going 6 from these casinos? So they asked me to run for 7 committeeman, and my platform was to let everybody 8 share. Because before that, no one got a dime. 9 In 2005, we submitted a Revenue Allocation Plan to 10 the BIA in Anadarko. I was one of -- I was one of 11 the only CBC members that went up there with our 12 lawyers. I'm not promoting the lawyers, I'm 13 saying I went there. We went up there and took 14 Betty Tippeconnie and led it off. I sat there for 15 maybe a month-and-a-half, and I don't know how 16 many times I called up there to get him to sign 17 that. Because once they signed it, then it would 18 have to go to the BIA at Washington, D.C. to get 19 final approval. 20 Now, if anybody has seen the Revenue 21 Allocation Plan, there's a date on there that it's 22 stamped. It was stamped December the 29th, 2005. 23 When I was up there in D.C., I can't think of the 24 big shot's name up there that has to sign that. I 25 think his name was Rospisky or something like 5 1 this. But I called him up at least three times a 2 week telling him how bad our Comanche people 3 needed the per cap because we have people that 4 don't have no homes. During wintertime, we're 5 always hearing we need propane, we need gas, we 6 need this and we need that. So I knew that that's 7 what I was called to do, and that's what I've 8 tried to do. 9 What a lot of people don't know, it 10 was signed on December 29th. If it was signed 11 January -- if it was signed January the 1st, 2006, 12 you would not have got your per cap for 2005, even 13 though it was up there. Even though it was up 14 there, you wouldn't have got it in 2005. So I 15 hope I go down in history as being one of the 16 people that wasn't like Lonnie Emmahoola who works 17 up there, but I don't know if he's here or not. 18 He told me, he said if it wasn't for us, Comanches 19 wouldn't have gotten a per cap in 2005. I hope I 20 go down in history as being remembered for that. 21 Now, another thing I'd like to say, 22 I'd like for everybody to know the committee, this 23 committee and our past committee, we don't agree 24 on a lot of things. Now we're going to be -- when 25 we talk about the budget, there's three things 6 1 here on this budget that I don't agree with and I 2 want everybody to know what they are. The first 3 one is the college. We give them $1.8 million a 4 year. If you times that by 5, you get what, $10 5 million? For what? We're not even accredited. 6 We're just throwing our money away. That's all 7 we're doing. 8 I seen a commercial on TV yesterday, 9 the president was on TV. She said it would be a 10 crying shame to not get funded. I tell you people 11 what a crying shame is. It's a crying shame that 12 we've been supporting, giving them money, 1.8 13 million a year for the past five years. That's a 14 crying shame. 15 The next one is economic 16 development. We give them a million dollars a 17 year. What have they brought back to you, 18 people? Not a dime. I've been against the group 19 since '06. They have nothing to show for the 20 businesses they're running. They're barely 21 keeping their head above water. We should not 22 support them. This young lady that's walking up 23 here now had three -- in 2005, where the water 24 park is, right next to the water park they were 25 selling beer there, right next to where y'all 7 1 probably got your grandkids and your kids there 2 playing. 3 MS. NELSON: That was Comanche 4 Nation -- 5 MR. NARCOMEY: There we go. They 6 were selling beer. No beer license, no permit. 7 MR. HENSON: Delphine, sit down. 8 MR. NARCOMEY: Now, at the water 9 park, people were drinking beer going up that 10 way. All right, now that's 2005. We didn't hear 11 a thing about it, the committee didn't hear a 12 thing about it. Then in 2008, they did the same 13 thing, same thing, sold beer without permission on 14 trust land. I turned them in. I turned them in. 15 What did we do? They went and confiscated the 16 beer, brought it up here to the police station. 17 The economic board -- the liquor board fined them 18 on two counts, selling beer without license on 19 trust land, $1,000 apiece. What did our economic 20 development board do? They paid her $2,000 fine 21 with that money that you guys approved a line item 22 on. It comes out of our money. Now, that's just 23 kind of a deal I'm not for at all. 24 Another thing I'm against is the 25 Comanche Nation Enterprises. Now, we give them a 8 1 million a year. I think -- 2 MR. HENSON: Excuse me, Clyde. 3 MR. NARCOMEY: They made $26,000. 4 How much come back to us? Not 26 cents. Anyway, 5 I just wanted to get that off my chest and let 6 everybody know that it's y'all's money. It's 7 y'all's money. And I really do appreciate y'all 8 letting me serve each and every one of you for the 9 past six years. I hope our committee here let's 10 everybody speak because this is y'all's meeting. 11 This is y'all's meeting. It's not our meeting, 12 it's y'all's meeting. We meet, you know, if y'all 13 want to speak, I hope they let y'all speak. Thank 14 you very much for your time. 15 MR. HENSON: What we're going to do 16 now, I want to remind you, there are some handouts 17 back there, anything concerning the budget, what 18 Clyde was talking about, and everybody will have 19 their chance to vote on the budget. The 20 constitution says we will present that to you and 21 it's going to be on the agenda, Number 6. Right 22 now, I'm going to open the floor for nominations 23 for chairman, and I will be the one to close the 24 nominations. We don't need anything from the 25 floor saying we close it. We want to -- 9 1 MS. HENDRIX: Excuse me. I had my 2 hand up. I want to make a resolution or motion 3 before you start this. It's our meeting. I just 4 want to bring this up, okay, and then you can go 5 on with the election. I just have a motion. 6 MR. HENSON: Go ahead. Three 7 minutes, no more than three. 8 MS. HENDRIX: Comanche Nation is 9 federally recognized by the constitution, approved 10 by the Secretary of Interior, and ratified 11 November 9th, 1966, last amended 2002. 12 Whereas, the Tribal Council, Section 13 7, subject to the approval of Secretary of 14 Interior or its authorized representative, where 15 applicable, the authority of the Comanche Tribal 16 Council shall include and be inclusive with 17 respect to the following: To change, modify, 18 alter, or revoke (inaudible); and 19 Now, therefore, be it resolved that 20 the Comanche Nation Constitution has no provisions 21 and has never practiced any action to remove 22 individual members of the Comanche Nation; and 23 Therefore be it resolved, the 24 Comanche Nation Constitution, Article V, Section 25 7, the Tribal Council is the ultimate authority 10 1 to change, modify, alter or revoke; and 2 Therefore, be it known on this date 3 anyone who has been disenrolled will be placed 4 back on the tribal roll; and 5 Therefore be it resolved, no tribal 6 member shall ever be disenrolled again except by 7 the authority of the Tribal Council in accordance 8 with the Comanche Nation Constitution. 9 MR. HENSON: Thank you. Now the 10 floor is open for nominations for chairman. 11 MS. HENDRIX: It's been seconded. 12 MR. HENSON: I'm sorry, you're out of 13 order. We have an agenda to follow. What we're 14 going to do, we're going to follow the agenda. 15 MS. HENDRIX: There's a motion item 16 on the floor. 17 MR. HENSON: I will now open the 18 floor or nominations. I am going to have an 19 orderly meeting. We're going to follow the agenda 20 very strictly. When the time comes for you to 21 say, you will have your say, but right now this is 22 the agenda. The floor is open now for nominations 23 for chairman. We're fixing to take nominations. 24 You all signed in. I'm going to ask if you make a 25 nomination, please show your ID that you did sign 11 1 in and say the name very loud and clearly so we 2 can record that. If you second the nomination, 3 also please say your name very clearly so we can 4 record it. All that has to be recorded. 5 All right. Please show your bracelet 6 or your ID when you make a nomination. Other than 7 that, if you're a board member or if you're an 8 employee of the tribe, please understand that you 9 have three days to withdraw from that nomination 10 or take the appropriate action. So, nominations 11 are open. 12 MR. REDELK: Ron RedElk nominates 13 Barbara Goodin for chairman. 14 MR. HENSON: These are nominations 15 for chairman. 16 MS. PEAVY: P-E-A-V-Y. I nominate 17 Johnny Wauqua for tribal chairman. 18 MS. NOWELL: Carlotta Harjo Nowell. 19 I nominate Eleanor McDaniels for chairman. 20 MS. TOAHTY: Second. Victoria 21 Toahty, I second it. 22 MR. NARCOMEY: My name is Clyde 23 Narcomey. 24 MR. HENSON: Seconds are not 25 required. This is nominations open for chairman. 12 1 MR. NARCOMEY: My name is Clyde 2 Narcomey. I nominate Eddie Ahdosy for chairman of 3 Comanche Tribe. Please stand, Eddie. 4 MS. BRYAN: My name is Judy Bryan. I 5 would like to nominate Jacquetta McClung for 6 chairman. 7 MR. ATCHAVIT: I'm Robert Atchavit 8 and I nominate Dan Bigbee, Jr. for chairman. 9 Thank you very much. 10 MS. SOLOMON: My name is Virginia 11 Solomon, and I nominate Bunky Henson for 12 chairman. 13 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: My name is 14 Scott (inaudible) I nominate Roderick Whitewolf 15 for chairman. 16 MR. HENSON: The constitution says if 17 I accept it, and it also says on there if I stay 18 on there if I fill the office. 19 I've been just informed by the 20 attorneys that we have, and I've read this and I 21 heard you. These books are up front. It contains 22 the constitution in it. And if you read it, it 23 says that if I am nominated for chairman, since I 24 hold a vice-chairman position, then I have to 25 resign my position. But when I resign that 13 1 position, it's supposed to be when someone else 2 fills that position. So I can still chair this 3 meeting. No, I'm sorry. Roderick, if you read 4 the constitution, you'll find out. 5 Anyway, what I'm saying is, I am 6 going to accept the nomination for chairman. Now, 7 what that means is the second one that we're going 8 to nominate is the vacant chair for vice-chair, 9 because I will resign when the position is 10 filled. Is there any other nomination for 11 chairman? The floor is closed for nominations for 12 chairman. 13 Now it's open for vice-chairman. Any 14 nominations for vice-chair? 15 MR. PLATA: Any nominations for vice- 16 chairman? 17 MS. NOWELL: Carlotta Harjo Nowell, I 18 nominate myself. 19 MR. TEHAUNO: Vernon Tehauno. I 20 nominate Debbie Hendrix for the position of vice- 21 chairman. Thank you. 22 MR. WAHNEE: Ron Wahnee. I want to 23 nominate Edward Eschiti to the office of vice- 24 chairman. He's already served as a commissioner 25 for the housing authority. 14 1 MS. SOLOMON: My name is Victoria 2 Solomon. You might remember when I came up and 3 questioned Wallace Coffey and what he was doing. 4 I would like to nominate myself for this position. 5 MS. BRYAN: My name is Judy Bryan. I 6 would like to nominate Jerome Tahhahwah for vice 7 chair. 8 MR. HENSON: Any more nominations for 9 vice-chair? The floor is closed for vice-chair. 10 The next one is secretary/treasurer. 11 The floor is open for nominations for secretary/ 12 treasurer. 13 MS. ATTOCKNIE: My name is Phyllis 14 Attocknie and I would like to nominate Mr. Charles 15 Wells. 16 MR. ASEPERMY: My name is Lanny 17 Asepermy and I would like to nominate for 18 secretary/treasurer Mr. John David Wahnee. 19 MR. OWENS: My name is William Owens, 20 and I would like to nominate Robert Tippeconnie 21 for secretary/treasurer. 22 MR. PLATA: Any more nominations for 23 secretary/treasurer? 24 MR. HENSON: Is there any other 25 nomination for secretary/treasurer? Okay. That 15 1 is closed. The next one, Committeeman Number 2, 2 nominations are open. 3 MS. PEAVY: Maria Peavy. I nominate 4 Charles Ikner for position number 2. 5 MR. WELLS: Committeeman Number 2 -- 6 my name is Charles Wells. I nominate Yonevea 7 Terry. 8 MR. HENSON: Is there any other 9 nominations? Going once, going twice. 10 Nominations closed. 11 We will now open it up for 12 Committeeman Number 3. Nominations are open for 13 Committeeman Number 3. 14 MR. ASEPERMY: My name is Lanny 15 Asepermy and I nominate for Committeeman Number 3 16 Darrell Kosechequetah. 17 MR. HENSON: Nominations are open for 18 Committeeman Number 3. Any other nominations? 19 MS. BRYAN: My name is Judy Bryan. I 20 would like to nominate Rita Coosewoon for 21 committeeman. 22 MR. GRIFFEN: She declined. 23 MR. HENSON: She declined that 24 position. 25 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: My name is 16 1 (inaudible). I'd like to nominate Travis 2 Chibitty. 3 MR. HENSON: Rita, do you decline? 4 MS. COOSEWOON: I decline. 5 MR. HENSON: Rita Coosewoon declines 6 for Committeeman Number 3. Are there any more 7 nominations? Any other nominations? Then we will 8 close the Committeeman Number 3 for any other 9 nominations. 10 MS. GILES: I'm Beth Giles and I 11 nominate Ted Coosewoon. 12 MR. HENSON: Is that for Committeeman 13 Number 3? Any other nominations? Okay. 14 Nominations are officially closed. 15 Committeeman Number 4 are now open. 16 MS. MCDANIEL: Eleanor McDaniel. I 17 nominate Vernon Tehauno, Jr. 18 MR. OWENS: William Owens. I 19 nominate Robert Komacheet. 20 MR. HENSON: Any other nominations 21 for Committeeman Number 4? One more time. Any 22 other nominations for Committeeman Number 4? 23 Okay. The nominations are closed. 24 The next one on the list is tribal 25 administrator position. Nominations are now open 17 1 for tribal administrator. 2 MS. PEAVY: Maria Peavey, I nominate 3 William Owens, Willie Dog, for tribal 4 administrator. 5 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: My name is 6 (inaudible) and I nominate Candace Tabinaka. 7 MR. WHITEWOLF: My name is Roderick 8 Whitewolf and I nominate William Nelson. 9 MS. BRYAN: My name is Judy Bryan and 10 I nominate Blue Pahdocony. 11 MR. HENSON: Is there any other 12 nominations? Nominations are still open for 13 tribal administrator. Any other nominations? One 14 more time. One, two, three, gone. The 15 nominations have been done. We are now going to 16 have lawyer presentations. 17 MR. ASEPERMY: What about the 18 election board nominees? 19 MR. HENSON: I'm sorry? 20 MR. ASEPERMY: The election board. 21 MR. HENSON: I'm sorry, the election 22 board for committee members from Cache and Walters 23 has not been put on the agenda, which is a 24 mistake, so we'll open that up. We'll have Cache 25 for nominations for the election board. 18 1 MR. PLATA: It's Lawton and Walters 2 positions. 3 MS. NOWELL: Point of order, 4 Mr. Chairman. Do we not also have to accept 5 nominations for chairman? Mr. Wells has an 6 advantage over the other candidates, I believe, in 7 that he is continuing to hold this position. I'm 8 asking, Mr. Chairman, does not Mr. Wells have to 9 step down? We went through this last year and we 10 saw what happened then. It is an unfair 11 advantage. 12 MR. HENSON: The chair recognizes 13 nominations for the Cache position. 14 MR. ASEPERMY: Is it Lawton and 15 Walters? 16 MR. HENSON: I'm sorry, Lawton and 17 Walters. Lawton. 18 MR. ASEPERMY: My name is Lanny 19 Asepermy. For the Lawton Election Board, I 20 nominate George RedElk. 21 MR. HENSON: Any other nominations 22 for Lawton? One more time. I just woke up. 23 MR. WHITEWOLF: I nominate Scott 24 (inaudible.) 25 MR. HENSON: Any other nominations 19 1 for the election board Lawton position? 2 MR. PARKER: Jerry Parker. I 3 nominate Mary Wade. 4 MR. HENSON: Any other nominations? 5 One more time? Nominations are closed on the 6 Lawton -- I'm sorry, come on up. 7 MS. JOST: My name is Anita Jost and 8 I nominate Rosemary Chibitty. 9 MR. HENSON: Any other nominations? 10 MR. PLATA: One thing. If we want to 11 nominate someone for the Lawton position, they 12 have to actually be a resident of Lawton, 13 Oklahoma. If they're not a resident of Lawton, 14 Oklahoma, they may be disqualified. They will not 15 be able to run for that position. It just has an 16 issue that it's going to be Walters nomination for 17 the election board. Now, if you nominate someone 18 that lives outside of Walters, they will be 19 automatically disqualified for that position. So 20 it has to be someone that lives in Walters. 21 MS. ATTOCKNIE: Not only make the 22 nominations to nominate someone. 23 MR. PLATA: Yes, to make the 24 nomination, and the next nomination has to be from 25 Walters. That's just to keep it legal and 20 1 appropriate the way it's supposed to be by the 2 ordinance. 3 MR. HENSON: Any other nominations? 4 Nominations are closed. So right now what we'll 5 do is go back to the tribal administrator 6 position. Oh, I'm sorry, Walters. Nominations 7 are now open for the election board for the 8 Walters position. 9 MR. PLATA: This is for the Walters 10 position. Whoever you nominate must be a resident 11 of Walters. Whoever makes the nomination should 12 be a resident of Walters. 13 MS. PEAVY: Yes, I am from Walters. 14 Maria Peavey. I nominate (inaudible), who is from 15 Walters. 16 MR. HENSON: Any other nominations 17 for the Walters position? Going once. 18 Mr. Norman, Mrs. Donna Martinez, can she run 19 again? Donna, can she run again? 20 MR. NELSON: I'll Willie Nelson and I 21 nominate Donna. She's done a great job. 22 MR. HENSON: Any other nominations? 23 This is for Walters. 24 MR. PLATA: Anybody from Walters want 25 to make a nomination for the Walters Election 21 1 Board position? 2 MR. HENSON: Going twice. 3 Nominations are closed. Now we are going back to 4 tribal administrator. We will have everybody 5 vote, and I'll turn it over to the Election Board 6 now and they will tell you exactly what you need 7 to do. 8 MR. PLATA: Anyone that is nominated 9 for the vice-chair position, please come to the 10 front and take the microphone. Anyone that's been 11 elected for tribal administrator, come up here and 12 you've got five minutes to talk. 13 MS. TABINAKA: My name is Candace 14 Tabinaka. I've been here before and run for 15 tribal administrator. I handed out these copies 16 that I hope a lot of people have received. It 17 gives an idea of what I plan to do if nominated 18 tribal administrator. I am a criminologist by 19 trade. I graduated from Sam Houston State 20 University with a Master of Art in Criminology and 21 Criminal Justice. 22 I know the problems that our nation 23 is having, and I'm here to try to help resolve and 24 solve them. I love each and every one of my 25 people. Even those that don't get along with me, 22 1 I still love you, and that's what we're here for. 2 We're not to pit one against another. That's not 3 how it should have ever been, but in the first 4 paragraph that shows why, for you to read it. 5 There's also education problem. I 6 believe our education problem is extremely serious 7 at this point. We've got to do something to 8 continue our education. The monies don't need to 9 be cut. We need special tutoring for some of our 10 children and some of our young adults to continue 11 education. We need new scholarships out there so 12 that they can get them and continue their 13 education. 14 I've heard complaints about the 15 casinos. I know the TA didn't have anything to do 16 with it, but I'd like to have an oversight 17 committee that would have something to do with it 18 to make sure that it's fair and that someone 19 doesn't get the (inaudible) our backs. 20 Male domination of leaders, I wanted 21 to address this. That's why this is on 22 (inaudible.) See behind me? They're all men. 23 I'd like to see some female power up here. 24 Females that can address problems, females that 25 figure out what is wrong and then put a plan into 23 1 action and complete it. 2 Tribal police. I would love our 3 tribal police not to be bound by politics. Let 4 them do their job. As a criminologist, I know 5 what they go through, I know what they've been 6 through, and I know what they need. 7 Social Services. We are way behind 8 on Social Services. I see other tribes that have 9 excellent Social Services. I'm not saying ours is 10 horrible yet, but it needs to improve. 11 Grant writing. There needs to be a 12 grant writing committee based on everybody 13 (inaudible.) Not trying to dominate it. We also 14 need departments, heads of departments to learn 15 how to write grants so that they can go to the 16 grant writing committee and get special help for 17 those grants that they don't know how to do. 18 Everyone needs to learn how to write a grant to 19 make our nation continue to succeed and progress. 20 We've got professional and ethical 21 problems that I talk about. Each department from 22 top to bottom should learn to be professional and 23 ethical in their duties and constantly receive 24 professional and ethical education. It should be 25 mandatory for everyone. If you don't know how to 24 1 speak to someone, then don't speak at all if you 2 can't be nice. 3 Per capita checks. I have a problem 4 with that when I hear about all these millions and 5 billions of dollars being made to certain 6 organizations and (inaudible.) But then our per 7 capita checks are cut. I want our per capita 8 checks to be where they should be for our people. 9 Elder pay. I'm a little troubled by 10 this elder pay. I'd like to increase it so that 11 our elders can live with dignity and live stronger 12 and survive longer. I think the age needs to be 13 changed. The elder center also needs to be 14 addressed. 15 CBC members, family court, judges and 16 lawyers pay. Look, I'm looking for volunteers 17 here that is paramount within these departments. 18 I know they work hard for their education, but not 19 all of it needs to go there. It needs to go to 20 our people. 21 The Indian Hospital and medication. 22 For some time I've heard that the Indian Hospital 23 is horrible, that it doesn't treat our people 24 right. When we go in, some of us never go out. 25 Recently there's been a question concerning the 25 1 quality of medication given. Some of the 2 medication may be old and lead to an early demise 3 of our people, which would then be considered a 4 natural death. No investigation. However, I'm 5 starting one right now. Scientists are working on 6 it right now. 7 Thank you. I've run out of time. 8 MR. OWENS: I'll make this short and 9 sweet. My name is William Owens. I'd just like 10 to say a few things. I currently am in the acting 11 position of tribal administrator. It's been a 12 learning experience for me, but I'd like to say 13 I'm proud. It's your vote. You vote whatever way 14 you want to vote. 15 But first I want to say it's been an 16 honor and privilege to serve you this past year, 17 an honor to serve the tribal members, and working 18 with this business committee. If you elect me, I 19 will work with you still as seamless as possible 20 in the future. I look forward to it. And work 21 with the directors in getting service out to the 22 tribal members, because it's you guys out there 23 that make -- well, you know, most all of it and 24 what have you. I just want to (inaudible) and I 25 appreciate your vote. Thank you. 26 1 MR. NELSON: (Spoken in Comanche 2 language.) I'm Willie Nelson. Comanche people, 3 my family and I, my sons, my wife and I, we passed 4 out a flier to a lot of people today. You know 5 what? That was like a Massacre at Wounded Knee 6 that happened to the tribal administrator this 7 year. Guess what? It's over. It's history. We 8 have lost in my absence. We have lost in my 9 absence opportunities. I was supposed to meat 10 with the owner of Nike Corporation, Phil Knight. 11 We were going to go with the Nike Corporation to 12 work out Warriors Concept. Wallace, he was going 13 to promise us a fitness center. Lost 14 opportunity. 15 Also, my good friends Phyllis 16 Attocknie and Arlene Kemp, they went and met with 17 the Cherokee for home health care, which could 18 have helped out our caregivers program and it 19 could have helped out our CHRs. Phyllis was going 20 to do it. It's a lost opportunity. 21 I had set up a tribal administrator 22 consortium for 10 and 15 other nations. We were 23 going to come together collectively so, as a 24 tribe, we could save one-third to one-quarter of 25 all purchases. It's a lost opportunity. 27 1 The thing is this, people: Today, 2 Comanche Nation will chose and hire an 3 administrator. We've been doing this for 20 4 years. We've done this for 20 years. The general 5 council is in assembly. You are the supreme 6 authority of everything under the Comanche Nation 7 name. How many believe that? How many believe 8 that? I believe that. You hired an 9 administrator. You should have had a general 10 council on my behalf this year. You know what? 11 Sour grapes. It's in the past. I threw it down. 12 Leave it alone. Leave it alone. 13 But remember when I was the tribal 14 administrator, we saved million of dollars. We 15 did get close to getting off high risk. I wish we 16 were at closing of the high risk items, but we're 17 still not. We're still not. 18 You should not come to your tribe 19 being fearful of what family you belong to, what 20 -- who you know. This is not a social club here. 21 This is your complex. When you come here, you 22 should be cleaned up, fixed up, and back on the 23 road knowing you were serviced. 24 I have to be remiss. I might overrun 25 this time. I got a call Thursday night. I'm at 28 1 my home. It is a tribal member from out of 2 state. Her services were denied. Her children 3 will probably be taken away from her. Why? Why? 4 Why was her complex closed at 12 o'clock 5 yesterday? Why? No lights? I don't know. When 6 we don't have the lights, we have sun. 7 The thing is this: Employees, you 8 are no -- no, Willie's going to come back and fire 9 everybody. No, I never fired anybody. The thing 10 is this, people: I was ordered to fire people, 11 so -- 12 Can I tell you one thing? One thing 13 I got to tell you. You are the supreme authority, 14 the tribal council hired is, is, is your hire. 15 God bless you. (Spoken in Comanche language.) 16 MR. HENSON: Do we have anyone else 17 who would like to say anything? 18 MR. TAHHAHWAH: Good afternoon, 19 Comanches. 20 If you notice the candidate for -- if 21 you notice the candidates of all of these 22 positions, a lot of them are kin. And we have in 23 our constitution, our policies, that forbid 24 nepotism to hold those offices. What I'd like to 25 propose is to have that nepotism section deleted 29 1 from our constitution, because every one of us 2 here are related one way or the other. But I just 3 wanted to let you know we need to work on this. 4 MR. PLATA: All right. How many of 5 y'all were here for the recall election? Raise 6 your hands. All right, all right. Y'all know how 7 the process works. 8 To make things not so crowded, we are 9 going to vote section by section. So whenever 10 it's your turn to vote, what we're going to do is, 11 if you're in these front sections, you'll work 12 your way back to the first table, make a left, and 13 you'll go by the election board table and pick up 14 your ballot. Then you will come to the next table 15 where our election services are set up to have 16 your bracelets scanned. After you have your 17 bracelet scanned, you need to go to the machine 18 and vote, and then come back to your seat. And we 19 will do it section by section, starting this side, 20 and we'll work our way across so that everyone's 21 not crowded and a lot of confuse. 22 So what we're going to do is, if 23 you're ready to vote for tribal administrator, you 24 have to remember this, also. The names of these 25 candidates are not going to be on the ballot. You 30 1 have to understand what I'm saying. Please 2 listen. On the ballot will be the numbers 1, 2, 3 3, 4. Those are the numbers that are going to be 4 on there. The names that you see on here 5 correspond to that number. So if you were voting 6 for a particular candidate, you'd have to vote for 7 that number. So remember the names won't be on 8 the ballots, but the numbers will. So make sure 9 you look at the screen and you know who you're 10 voting for before you go up there to get your 11 ballot. 12 So if we're ready to vote, we'll go 13 with this section first. Please make your way up 14 the side, make your first left, and go to the 15 table to get your ballot. 16 (Vote taken.) 17 MR. HENSON: We'll call the meeting 18 back to order. Right now we're going to have the 19 presentations of the attorneys. Fredericks, 20 Peebles & Morgan, LLP. I might warn y'all, these 21 are the attorneys. They've got 10 minutes, so 22 listen real close. Ten minutes is not a long time 23 for an attorney. 24 MR. PATTERSON: Good afternoon. My 25 name is Jeremy Patterson. I am a member of the 31 1 Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and a partner of 2 Fredericks, Peebles & Morgan. And I'm joined here 3 today with my colleague, Martha King, who is a 4 partner in our office, and Thomasina Real Bird, 5 and also joining us is our former employee, 6 Campbell. They're going to make a few opening 7 remarks. 8 MS. KING: Good afternoon. I'm 9 Martha King. I'm an Alaskan Native of Northwest 10 Alaska. I'm really pleased to be here today to 11 talk about the general council services that we 12 can provide. Jeremy, Mr. Patterson, is going to 13 go through a detailed slide presentation of all 14 the services we offer. And I encourage you to 15 really listen to that, because we (inaudible) you 16 don't absorb it and have to take it forward. 17 Thank you. 18 MS. REAL BIRD: General Council and 19 Tribal Council, thank you for having us today. 20 We're honored to present to you. As Mr. Patterson 21 said, I'm Thomasina Real Bird, and I'm Ihanktonwan 22 Nakota and Sicangu Lakota, and enrolled member of 23 the Yankton Sioux Tribe. I'm an associate in our 24 Colorado office of Fredericks, Peebles & Morgan. 25 I practice in the areas of constitutional 32 1 interpretation, code drafting, ordinance drafting, 2 administrative appeals, and IBA , and regional 3 director of BIA, and I invite you to listen to our 4 short presentation from Mr. Patterson. Thank you. 5 MR. PATTERSON: We want to thank the 6 members of the nation for giving us the 7 opportunity to present today. A little bit about 8 our firm, Fredericks, Peebles & Morgan is a 9 specialized law firm specializing in Indian law. 10 We only represent tribes. We don't represent 11 (inaudible) Indian Country. We strictly represent 12 tribes, tribal nations, tribal enterprises. And 13 the focus of our practice is really to present a 14 service, a unique service to the members of the 15 tribe, government agencies and communities, while 16 maintaining cultural sensitivity. And our focus 17 is really fostering (inaudible) sovereignty, self- 18 sufficiency and self-governance of our clients. 19 Coming from Indian Country, most of 20 our attorneys, or many of our attorneys in our 21 offices are from tribal nations, and most of our 22 attorneys in our Colorado office, where we're 23 based out of, are members of tribal nations. And 24 coming from Indian communities, we have deep 25 respect for the needs and unique sovereignty and 33 1 traditional values of tribal communities. And in 2 our service to our clients, we represent their 3 interest with the utmost integrity and ethical 4 consideration for that end. 5 We're basically a nationwide, full- 6 service law firm that services Indian Country and 7 tribal clients, and our primary focus is on Indian 8 law. We've got 38 attorneys in eight office, 9 making us one of the largest, or, I think, even 10 the largest Indian law firm in the United States 11 that practices Indian law. 12 And our core legal strategies is 13 simply tribal law for tribal solutions. And what 14 that means is that we try to (inaudible) tribal 15 law to create tribally-oriented solutions. This 16 strategy emphasizes development of tribal 17 solutions throughout the nation, throughout tribal 18 communities, to accomplish their goals to the 19 benefit of the community. We represent tribes 20 throughout the United States in connection with 21 tribal governments, tribal municipal code 22 development, corporate code development, business 23 entity formation, tribal economic diversification 24 and strategic planning, including consideration of 25 the various jurisdictions and aptitudes that are 34 1 unique and specific to tribal nations. 2 The next slide indicates some of our 3 office locations. We're based out of the Colorado 4 office. We also have an office in California, 5 South Dakota, North Dakota and Michigan, as well 6 as Omaha. And our Washington, D.C. office is 7 staffed by three attorneys. We recently hired 8 Rollie Wilson, who some of you may know. He's the 9 senior counsel for the Energy Affairs Committee 10 with Senator Dorgan, and he's now come on as a 11 partner in our D.C. office. 12 The next slide indicates our past and 13 present client locations, which are mostly 14 throughout the Western United States. We 15 represent and serve as general counsel for the Ute 16 Indian Tribe, we represent the Shoshone Tribe, 17 Wind River in energy development. And here in 18 Oklahoma we work for the Osage Tax Commission, as 19 well as the Cheyenne Arapaho Tribe, representing 20 the governor, executive grants, and also the 21 Muscogee (Creek) Nation. 22 Our firm attorneys have been involved 23 in all aspects of federal Indian law and tribal 24 law, so we've successfully represented our clients 25 in litigation matters and transactions (inaudible) 35 1 which covered a broad range of issues. 2 And this next slide outlines some of 3 those. I won't go into detail in all of the 4 practice areas, but in a nutshell, we work on 5 energy development, environmental land lease and 6 negotiations, historic preservation. We develop 7 business regulations, financial plans for 8 investment. We've got clients on Wall Street as 9 well as to both Indian and non-Indian bankers and 10 financial advisors and investment firms. And we 11 work a lot on constitutional revisions, making 12 (inaudible). We look at the codes, and dealing 13 with internal tribal governance matters. 14 This slide outlines some of our 15 specific practice areas. You can see there's a 16 wide, dynamic range of activities that we're 17 involved in. Some of our benefits that our 18 clients have through our representation really 19 focus on the advice of our attorneys in making 20 these decisions to a (inaudible) nation and its 21 members to making solemn decisions that are 22 consistent with their culture and with their 23 history. And to make these kinds of decisions, 24 it's essential that we have attorneys that will 25 provide the necessary expertise and have the 36 1 connections to make economic development and other 2 benefits of the nation. 3 And that's where we can come in, 4 because we have a very dynamic practice and a 5 large number of attorneys that focus in these 6 areas throughout the United States. So if there's 7 an area that we don't have specific expertise in, 8 somebody in our office throughout the United 9 States does have that expertise, and we can rely 10 upon that to make decisions to assist the nation 11 in representing their interests. 12 Essentially, our proposal focuses on 13 these areas and draws upon this expertise and 14 background and history to assist and to advance 15 your sovereignty and protect your interest in 16 development of projects, and with economic 17 development, and with litigation. 18 And we have a core team in place that 19 we try to focus just on the interest of one 20 tribe. That core team is essentially comprised of 21 members in our Colorado office who are outlined 22 here. And they're available to assist the nation 23 in developing projects and working on issues that 24 are important to you as a people. 25 And each tribe is different. Each 37 1 tribe has its own interests, has its own issues 2 that need to be addressed. So what we try to do 3 is we try to focus our core team so that they're 4 able to advance and really hone in on the things 5 that are important to you as a nation. 6 And so in summary, I'd like to say 7 that we greatly appreciate the opportunity to 8 present here today. We're honored to come before 9 the members of the Comanche Nation, and we believe 10 that we can provide certain services and expertise 11 that we have to offer. We can provide quality 12 services to the Comanche Nation and members of 13 this nation. 14 Any questions? 15 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Do y'all have 16 an office here? 17 MR. PATTERSON: We don't currently 18 have an office in Oklahoma, but we are affiliated 19 with (inaudible) who's a member of the Oklahoma 20 Bar, and he's based out of Oklahoma City. And we 21 service a number of tribes. The Cheyenne Arapaho 22 Tribe is our main client in Oklahoma. We're 23 typically down here on a weekly basis or every 24 other week. 25 Also, we have some extra brochures 38 1 that outline our firm and the services we provide. 2 MR. HENSON: Your time is up. Sorry. 3 MR. PATTERSON: Thank you. 4 MR. HENSON: Okay. The next one is 5 Crow & Dunlevy. (Inaudible) the first 6 presentation, because he was only like five 7 seconds over 10 minutes. You keep within the 8 time, you get a standing ovation. Thank you. 9 MR. ECHO-HAWK: Good afternoon, 10 Comanche people. My name is Walter Echo-Hawk, and 11 I'm a member of the Pawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. 12 Thank you. I see there are Pawnees here. Thank 13 you. I am very pleased and honored to be in 14 Comanche Country among the Lords of the Plains. 15 I'm here with my associate, my law 16 partner, Mr. Michael McBride. I'm very proud to 17 be here representing the Crow & Dunlevy law firm 18 in Oklahoma. This law firm is the oldest -- among 19 the oldest and largest law firms here in the Great 20 State of Oklahoma. We have almost 120 attorneys. 21 And what I'd like do is just briefly 22 tell you a little bit about myself and then 23 introduce you to Michael McBride, who is the chair 24 of our Indian law practice group. And we're here 25 today, we want to be Comanche Nation's attorneys. 39 1 And I think that between Michael and myself, we 2 bring 56 years of federal Indian law experience. 3 Myself, I worked as a staff attorney 4 with the Native American Rights Fund for 36 years 5 before returning home here to Oklahoma and joining 6 the Crow & Dunlevy law firm. During that time I 7 had the privilege and honor of representing many 8 of our Indian tribes across the country in areas 9 of federal Indian law, including litigation and 10 treaty rights, water rights, land return rights, 11 religious freedom, repatriation rights, and other 12 significant issues during the modern era. Federal 13 Indian law, our Indian tribes across the nation, 14 you know, they're very dramatic nation building 15 advances. 16 So during that period, you know, I 17 really came to know and enjoy many members of the 18 Great Comanche Nation. I have some relatives 19 among the Comanches. And I come to find out that 20 if you can't be a Comanche Indian, the next best 21 thing is to be their attorney. And I would love 22 to be one of your Eagle Warriors for the Comanche 23 Nation and work with your business committee. 24 And at this time I'd like to -- it 25 gives me great pleasure to introduce to you 40 1 Mr. Michael McBride. He is a very premiere 2 attorney here in the state of Oklahoma. He is one 3 of the leading practitioners in the field of 4 federal Indian law. He's been an attorney for 18 5 years. He's focused on federal Indian law from 6 the very beginning in law school. 7 And in that period, he's litigated 8 cases (inaudible) all the way through their 9 conclusion. He's represented Indian tribal 10 governments, over 16 in his career. Very 11 experienced in giving sound legal advice on the 12 day-to-day operations of tribal government in the 13 field of federal Indian law, and also in the area 14 of gaming. He's represented four of our Oklahoma 15 federal Indian commissions (inaudible.) 16 For his leadership in the field of 17 federal Indian law, he has received national and 18 international recognition as an Indian law 19 attorney. And here in the state of Oklahoma, he 20 was chair of the Oklahoma State Bar Association 21 Indian law section. On the national level he was 22 chair for the federal bar association Indian law 23 section, as well. So he's got that national 24 leadership and we're very proud to practice law 25 with him. 41 1 I'd like to turn this over at this 2 time to him so that he can explain some of the 3 services and the depth of our law firm. I think 4 that most of our modern Indian nations today find 5 ourselves in uncharted territory, you know, with 6 the rapid nation building and masses, the rise of 7 our modern Indian nations. You know, we have 8 needs today not only in the area of federal Indian 9 law, but brand new sets of issues in the 21st 10 Century. And this law firm has, I think, 115 or 11 120 attorneys with expertise in all these other 12 areas. And I think -- we're a full-service law 13 firm that can meet the needs of the modern-day 14 Comanche Nation. 15 So with that, I'd like to turn this 16 over to Michael McBride. Thank you for your 17 attention. 18 MR. MCBRIDE: Thank you all. And 19 thank you Comanche Nation Citizens for the 20 opportunity to be on your agenda and make a 21 presentation today. We're very grateful. 22 I'm a fourth generation Oklahoman, 23 and I grew up in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. I went 24 to the University of Oklahoma Law School, and 25 Trinity University before that. As Walter said, 42 1 despite my young looks, I've been practicing for 2 18 years. 3 I've practiced in federal courts, 4 tribal courts and state courts, and I've had a 5 number of victories to report. We know our way 6 around the courts. 7 I've been a justice on the Pawnee 8 Nation Supreme Court for the past eight years and 9 I've been a tribal judge for the past 16 years. 10 Walter and I both serve on the Pawnee Nation 11 Supreme Court together. We're very knowledgeable 12 in how to resolve disputes, but we're also very 13 good at litigating cases and winning cases when we 14 need to. 15 Crow & Dunlevy, as Walter said, is 16 one of Oklahoma's oldest and largest law firms. 17 We have three offices. Our mothership is in 18 Oklahoma City. We have over 80 lawyers there. We 19 have about 25 lawyers in Tulsa, and we have 20 another office in Norman, Oklahoma. 21 The nice lady in the second row a 22 little bit ago ask asked me, well, why don't you 23 have an office in Lawton. I'd like to have an 24 office in Lawton. And we do have a recent merger 25 with Day, Edwards law firm, a corporate and 43 1 banking law firm, and we've taken on their 2 litigators and banking lawyers. We have a very 3 strong depth and breadth in that area. 4 We have a very strong practice in 5 federal Indian law. We have an Indian law gaming 6 practice group that's 12 lawyers deep with experts 7 in lots of different areas. 8 We hire the best and brightest 9 lawyers available. We hire the best graduates in 10 law schools, as well as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, 11 and other top institutions in the United States. 12 I have personally written about 40 articles on 13 federal Indian law in gaming, and that's what I 14 live and breath. That's what I've focused on ever 15 since I graduated from law school, and that's what 16 I like to do. 17 Something else I can tell you about 18 myself personally is I'm a marathon runner. I run 19 half marathons, and that's something I like to do 20 in my free time when I'm not practicing Indian 21 law. 22 And we would very much like the 23 opportunity to represent the Comanche Nation. I 24 can tell you that we have the latest technology in 25 front of you. We utilize video technology and the 44 1 latest software. We hold conferences with our 2 clients through video conferencing. That could be 3 an alternative to save the Comanche Nation money 4 on certain matters so we don't overstaff lawyers 5 driving down the turnpike to constantly meet. 6 We work very efficiently. We believe 7 in transparent tribal government. And as legal 8 advisors, we know that our role is to provide 9 legal advice. And we always try to give the best 10 recommendations possible, but we also give the 11 full (inaudible) of documents so the tribal 12 members can make the best informed decisions. 13 It would be very nice to be your 14 lawyers. I'd be happy to answer any questions 15 anyone might have. 16 MR. HENSON: You're a full partner of 17 that firm? 18 MR. ECHO-HAWK: I am of counsel to 19 the Crow & Dunlevy law firm. If we were to become 20 lawyers for the Comanche Nation, I would be 21 utilized when we go to court on your behalf as a 22 litigator, and also I would be used by Michael to, 23 you know, help him on some of the bigger issues 24 and advocacy matters outside the court as well. 25 And we would be handling the day-to-day legal 45 1 advice for the government, using the 12 members of 2 the Indian practice firm for backup, as well as 3 the other 120, 110 lawyers that may be needed on 4 particular issues. 5 MR. WHITEWOLF: One more question. 6 Hypothetical: If tribal members had a problem 7 with the CBC, would you represent the -- and it 8 came to a court case, who would you represent? 9 MR. MCBRIDE: We would represent the 10 nation. And the nation has a constitution, and it 11 provides for a clear role for who the organization 12 is and who the client is. 13 MR. WHITEWOLF: Does that mean the 14 tribal member or does that mean the CBC? 15 MR. HENSON: Roderick, I think all 16 the people out here -- 17 MR. WHITEWOLF: Let him talk. 18 MR. HENSON: Excuse me. All the 19 attorneys that are up here represent the tribe, 20 not individuals. 21 MR. WHITEWOLF: I'm not asking you, 22 Bunky. 23 MR. HENSON: I'm telling you. 24 MR. WHITEWOLF: Could I get an 25 answer? 46 1 MR. HENSON: One question from the 2 floor (inaudible) take that question from the 3 floor. 4 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Inaudible.) 5 MR. MCBRIDE: She said that she would 6 like whoever has a question to please speak into 7 the microphone or for the speaker to repeat the 8 question so that everybody in the audience can 9 hear. 10 Thank you for the opportunity to 11 speak. 12 MR. PLATA: In order to keep it fair, 13 the election board has to make sure that everybody 14 gets the same time, so each firm will have 10 15 minutes and no more, whether it be for questions 16 or not. So just to keep it fair, each firm has 10 17 minutes. 18 MR. PITCHLYNN: My name is Gary 19 Pitchlynn with Pitchlynn & Williams. We would 20 very much like to be the lawyers for Comanche 21 Nation again. I actually had my first experience 22 with the nation about 30 years ago. Did some work 23 on behalf of (inaudible) some problems in HUD 24 penalizing you and not allowing you to have more 25 funding or more construction money. They brought 47 1 me down to run project (inaudible) which we did. 2 Can you hear me better now? Okay. 3 I'm sorry. 4 In addition to that with the housing 5 authority about 30 years ago I also did some 6 gaming work for the nation in the '90s, and then 7 again a little after 2000. So working with 8 Comanche Nation is something that I have had some 9 experience with but enjoyed. I think we had some 10 success in the things that we did for the nation. 11 Let me share with you a little bit 12 about the firm. I've been practicing Federal 13 Indian law for 33 years. Our offices are in 14 Norman and Tulsa. Principal offices are in 15 Norman. We have engaged in everything from health 16 to housing. I teach a gaming law course at the 17 University of Oklahoma School of law. I've been 18 involved in gaming for 22, 23 years. The very 19 first gaming management agreement that was 20 approved by the National Indian Gaming Commission 21 was one that I worked on on behalf of the Cheyenne 22 Arapaho Tribe back in the early '90s. We have a 23 great experience in pretty much all those areas. 24 Practicing Indian law these days is 25 not what it was 30 years ago. With the income 48 1 from gaming and other business opportunities, 2 right now are really like corporations. You have 3 so many different things going on that you can't 4 simply have lawyers that do Indian law. You also 5 have to do Indian law with that standard of 6 business and litigation. 7 As I previously said, we negotiate 8 all manner of contracts from gaming entities to 9 lease agreements to real estate agreements. We've 10 been involved in pretty much all facets of the 11 area of Federal Indian law that the tribes become 12 involved in from time to time. 13 But our relationship with our tribal 14 clients has always been based upon an as-needed 15 basis. If we're your tribal attorney, you're only 16 going to see us when you call and tell us to be 17 there. You're not going to see us at every 18 meeting that takes place when two or more 19 Comanches are gathered. We don't want to use your 20 money or your time, or our time, needlessly. 21 We are licensed to practice and we 22 practice regularly before all the state courts, 23 all the federal courts in this state, 10th 24 Circuit, and at the U.S. Supreme Court. 25 The early cases that were filed in 49 1 the early '90s, the first case that was filed 2 against the State of Oklahoma for failing to 3 negotiate in good faith with the tribes, I filed 4 on behalf of the Tonkawa Tribe in '92. We won 5 that case at Circuit Court. We're pending in 6 conference at the U.S. Supreme Court. So they 7 decided (inaudible.) They kind of slapped us all 8 and said we could (inaudible.) 9 More and more recent projects we've 10 worked on remind me of importance of this nation. 11 I was hired to do some litigation for the Osage 12 about 10 years ago. But in 2004, they had an act 13 passed by Congress that allowed them to go back 14 for the first time in about 100 years to decide 15 what their form of government was going to be. 16 They started a process of public meetings and 17 gained input from the tribal members, which led to 18 a referendum to approve the constitution with the 19 Osage Nation in the spring of 2006 that was 20 followed about 90 days later with the election of 21 the Congress and a new constitutional office. I 22 was engaged by their government reform committee 23 to guide them through that process, which resulted 24 in that constitution and those new officers and 25 new Congress. 50 1 I've said enough. I'm probably 2 talking too fast, but in 10 minutes you have to 3 say a lot quickly. I'm going to turn it over to 4 my partner, Joe Williams. Thank you very much. 5 MR. WILLIAMS: Can everybody hear 6 me? My name is Joseph Williams. I'm a full-blood 7 member of the Mississippi Choctaw Tribe. In the 8 back corner back there we have some pamphlets that 9 we brought with us to kind of outline some more of 10 what our firm is about and who we are. We're not 11 a big firm. We only have a few associates in our 12 Norman office. I run the Tulsa office, and I'm 13 also managing attorney for the firm. And we work 14 with different tribes. We coordinate our Norman 15 and Tulsa office with -- for tribal clients. 16 To follow up what Gary said, our 17 focus has been on tribal works working for 18 individual tribal members. We are licensed in 19 tribal courts, federal courts, state courts. 20 We've been involved in all facets of Indian law 21 practice and work and lobby on behalf of tribes. 22 We're local and we provide local service to the 23 tribes in Oklahoma. We focus on Oklahoma issues 24 and issues that affect Oklahoma tribes 25 specifically. 51 1 Of course, we do keep up with what's 2 going on nationally. The national issues do 3 address and do affect Oklahoma tribes as well. 4 But we like to think that we're a close-nit firm. 5 We're small, but we're focused, and 6 we're there if you need to call us on a Friday 7 afternoon. We're not out golfing or out 8 unavailable. Our close, small practice allows us 9 to spend more time with our tribal clients and 10 provide services they need, whether it be on a 11 large or a small scale. 12 I hope you take time to look at our 13 pamphlet, look at our Website. If you have any 14 questions, our e-mail addresses are on the 15 pamphlets and our Website. And if you have any 16 specific questions today, we'll be happy to 17 address that. Thank you. 18 MR. PITCHLYNN: All right. I'm the 19 short guy. Our firm is (inaudible) as Joe told 20 you, he's a member of the Mississippi Band. 21 (Inaudible.) I'm from Quawpaws. (Inaudible.) 22 And pretty much 95 percent of our work is federal 23 Indian law, and (inaudible.) As I said, I've been 24 doing this for 33 years. (Inaudible) a whole lot 25 longer. Joe's been with me for 10 years. And 52 1 he's turned out to be a really, really good trial 2 lawyer. 3 We work hard. The lawyers talk about 4 winning and losing. I'll tell you right now, I've 5 lost some cases. If you have a lawsuit, we are 6 not afraid to lose a case, but we'll fight for you 7 for things that matter. Thank you very much. 8 MR. HENSON: Thank you very much. 9 That was done in eight minutes. 10 Olson, Allen & Rasmussen. 11 MS. ALLEN: Good afternoon. My name 12 is Susan Allen. I'm with Olson, Allen & 13 Rasmussen. You can probably guess I'm from 14 Minnesota, which is why the Olson, Rasmussen. I 15 work with a couple of Vikings. I am from the 16 Northern Plains. And it's been a while since I've 17 been down to the Southern Plains. I went to law 18 school at the University of New Mexico in the 19 early '90s. I enrolled in my mother's tribe, 20 which is (inaudible) and my father's from Pine 21 Ridge. 22 Although I didn't grow up there, I 23 spent every summer there. We -- because of my 24 father's job, we moved around to probably seven 25 different states by the time I was 13. I've lived 53 1 on numerous Indian reservations. And I think my 2 brother and I tried to count. By the time I was 3 in 8th grade, I went to probably 24 different 4 schools in about six different states. So I have 5 a broad range of experiences with many native 6 tribes and working in urban communities like Los 7 Angeles, Minneapolis, Phoenix with urban native 8 population. 9 We're probably the smallest law firm. 10 There are three of us, and we usually have one 11 associate and paralegal, and we like it that way. 12 We don't try to overreach. We usually have maybe 13 two general council contract clients so that we 14 can devote, you know, enough time to those 15 clients. And my partners, I have 13 or 14 years 16 of experience; Steven Olson, 16 years; and Jeff 17 Rasmussen, 20 years. And we've been doing -- 18 we've been practicing Indian law for that time in 19 the Midwest, Minnesota, Iowa, (inaudible). And we 20 represented some of the largest gaming enterprises 21 in Minnesota, and we have had very long-term 22 relationships with our clients averaging 12 to 14 23 years. 24 So it's important -- what's important 25 to us is building a relationship with -- with our 54 1 clients. And we devote our time to that. We get 2 to know you and you get to know us. And it's -- 3 went we don't -- we're a little bit different. We 4 don't have a lot of associates, so we devote most 5 of our time to tribal issues. We don't create a 6 bunch of billables for experienced associates. We 7 have a reputation of being highly efficient and 8 cost effective. And we are all about helping you 9 learn how to administer some of your own issues, 10 like developing best practices, developing 11 protocols for handling information, developing a 12 contract administration program where you can have 13 trainers come in and train you, develop forms. 14 So one of the areas that I specialize 15 in is tax. I've been one of the few Native 16 Americans in the country that has an advanced law 17 degree in federal taxation. And in May of '99 I 18 received an advanced law degree in federal 19 taxation in (inaudible.) And so we have worked on 20 a number of federal, tribal and internal tribal 21 tax issues. 22 So that's everything from dealing 23 with the IRS to dealing with very complex deferred 24 tax compensation plans, to negotiating tax 25 agreements to representing tax commissions and 55 1 setting up or drafting tax legislation. 2 Litigation, we've practiced in many courts, tribal 3 courts, federal courts, state courts. We've had 4 some (inaudible) in the 8th Circuit over the 5 years, some precedence-setting cases. We've 6 litigated just about in every area, very 7 experienced in trial litigation. 8 This is our basic sort of principals 9 or philosophy of providing general council 10 service. First one is proactive. The second one 11 is to facilitate the creation of legal 12 infrastructure that protects you, and that is so 13 crucial. I mean, making sure that you -- you 14 know, that you need help to identify areas where 15 there may need to be some either, you know, 16 strengthened or reorganized, for example. You 17 know, we often go in and help tribes setting up 18 tribal courts, drafting law, whether it's Indian 19 housing, health care, environmental. 20 And then we had talked a little bit 21 about the contract administration. We work for 22 some very large gaming corporations in Minnesota, 23 and one of our clients was averaging like 10 24 contracts a day. And so we helped them set up a 25 process where we review every single contract that 56 1 came through, every vendor, every software, every 2 contract, and did it in a very cost-effective 3 way. 4 Employment issues to improve best 5 practices, that's something -- again, developing 6 protocols, whether it's it in your personnel, your 7 HR department, marketing, risk management. We do 8 a lot of training and development materials to 9 implement best practices. 10 This is some of the cases that we are 11 talking about. We presented the release of the 12 tribal audit in Minnesota. Our client was the 13 only client that suited -- brought action in 14 federal court to stop the state from releasing a 15 tribal audit. The tribal audits are required to 16 be provided to the state under the gaming 17 compact. And for a long time (inaudible) 18 confidential, and that is until a newspaper asked 19 for access to those. So (inaudible) our client in 20 Minnesota was tantamount. Ours went to the state 21 court and asked their audit to be confidential. 22 Our client was the only client that did not have 23 the audit released. 24 (Inaudible) Reviewing contracts, we 25 are very creative in that area. We've had major 57 1 finance deals and major construction contracts 2 where we used escrow agreements, arbitration 3 without waiver. We're very, very creative and we 4 -- you know, we worked on plaintiffs' deals where 5 there's different levels of sophistication. So 6 sometimes we've had to create new documents 7 because there wasn't any existing documents that 8 were appropriate for a transaction. (Inaudible.) 9 first federal (inaudible) tribal court 10 jurisdiction (inaudible.) 11 (Inaudible) where nonunion came onto 12 the Muscogee reservation and they committed 13 torts. They tried to overtake the tribal office. 14 They were basically armed mercenaries. So tried 15 the tribe sued them. They won a $1.2 million 16 judgement. They appealed to the court, and the 17 court -- federal court upheld tribal court's 18 determination, because it was factual 19 determination that the non Indians conduct 20 threatened the health and welfare and safety of 21 the tribe. That was an important victory there. 22 Similarly, another case, (inaudible,) 23 the tribal court determined that the (inaudible,) 24 and the federal court deferred to the tribal 25 court's determination. 58 1 Any questions or comments? 2 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I have a 3 question. When it comes to a tribe's, any 4 tribe -- 5 MR. HENSON: Your name? 6 MS. TABINAKA: Candace Tabinaka. 7 When it comes to any tribe, if there is a problem 8 against the public health system, which with we 9 call our Indian Hospital, what do you do in the 10 case of that? If your people want to take on the 11 Indian hospital, what would your attorney, your 12 attorneys' office do in order to assist the tribal 13 administrator? 14 MS. ALLEN: Well, just start. First 15 of all, we're doing federal government 16 (inaudible.) 17 MR. HENSON: The next person up is 18 going to be McAfee & Taft. Do we have any 19 representatives from McAfee & Taft? Going once, 20 twice. No McAfee & Taft. The next one is going 21 to be Tilden McCoy, LLC. Do we have a Tilden 22 McCoy? Going once, going twice. They're gone. 23 Dana Deere? Is Dana here? Dana? Dana Deere? 24 Going once, going twice gone. How about Hobbs, 25 Straus? Do they have any representatives? 59 1 For y'all's information, these have 2 been our representatives for the last few years. 3 It looks like they brought the army in. 4 MR. NORMAN: Good afternoon. We will 5 try to be brief. 6 My name is William Norman, and I'm 7 the managing partner of the Oklahoma office of 8 Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker. Colleagues with me 9 are Jim Burson, Kirke Kickingbird, John Plata, 10 Comanche Tribal member, and Klint Cowan here on 11 the computer. 12 I'd like to briefly run through this 13 presentation for you. We'd like to emphasize a 14 few things about Hobbs, Straus. We have a strong 15 foundation. Our partners that formed our firm 16 have over 50 years apiece of practice in Indian 17 Country. They've been on the cutting edge of 18 Indian law. They were called the Indian claims 19 way back in the '50s and '60s. (Inaudible) like 20 the Self-Determination Act. 21 Jerry Straus was responsible for the 22 first return of the Tribal Sacred Site as far as 23 back as 1970. Charley Hobbs is responsible for 24 the Mitchell Decision. It was the first case in 25 which the United States was found liable for money 60 1 damages for violating the trust responsibility to 2 a tribe. 3 As the other firms you've seen, we're 4 involved in every area of Indian law. We're 5 involved in education, environment, gaming, health 6 care, housing, self-determination, self- 7 governance, taxation, the defense of tribal 8 sovereignty, just to name a few. 9 We are a national firm with a local 10 practice. We know Oklahoma. The attorneys here 11 were Ed. We understand the Oklahoma judicial 12 system and the executive branch and the 13 legislative branch. We can effectively represent 14 you there. 15 We also know Washington, D.C. John 16 Plata's in our D.C. office. We have a host of 17 attorneys there. They monitor (inaudible) on a 18 daily basis. They monitor what's going on with 19 the Department of Interior and other top officials 20 on a daily basis. And that's to protect Comanche 21 Nation's interest both there and here. 22 We also have a clear purpose. 23 (Inaudible) to promote and defend tribal rights. 24 That's it. It's purposeful for us. (Inaudible.) 25 local Indians. We have an undivided loyalty to 61 1 protecting those tribal interests. You will not 2 see us representing clients with anti-Indian 3 interests. So you won't see us representing 4 banks, you won't see us representing oil 5 companies, you won't see us representing insurance 6 companies and big management groups. Those folks 7 seek to undermine tribal sovereignty on a daily 8 basis. (Inaudible.) We're dedicated. We're 9 dedicated to Comanche. 10 Over the past few years we've held 11 13 free legal clinics with Comanche Tribal members 12 to prepare wills for your people and to answer a 13 number of other questions. We've served hundreds 14 of Comanche Tribal members (inaudible.) We've 15 also donated regularly and been a regular sponsor 16 of the Comanche Nation Fair, Comanche Powwow. 17 We've been involved in Comanche Angel Tree at 18 Christmastime. When you've experienced floods and 19 ice storms, we've donated to you to help with the 20 recovery and relief effort. 21 I think most importantly, though, 22 we're proven. We're proven nationally. And as 23 you can see from the badge here on the screen, the 24 U.S. News & World Report has identified us as a 25 top-tier firm in Indian law. 62 1 In addition to that, though, we're 2 proven here, right here. In 1999, when government 3 lawyers were taking away Comanche land and giving 4 it to someone else, the tribal council hired 5 Hobbs, Straus and we went to work. We sued the 6 United States and we attained a reversal of that 7 policy that those government lawyers passed. 8 A few years later when you were 9 facing hundreds of millions of dollars in 10 litigation against you, and other lawyers had 11 negotiated those deals and other lawyers had 12 represented you in court and they lost, Hobbs, 13 Straus cleaned those messes up for you and we 14 saved you hundreds of millions of dollars. 15 When the NIGC threatened few years 16 ago to clamp down on Class II, which was your 17 bread and butter as a gaming tribe, Hobbs, Straus 18 pushed back. We convinced the NIGC to withdraw 19 regulations, we negotiated a compact with Comanche 20 Nation. That compact immediately helped cut your 21 costs by 10 percent in terms of the payments to 22 vendors. It also preserved Comanche Tribal 23 sovereignty with respect to regulating your 24 gaming. 25 Unlike contracts in other states, 63 1 Comanche did not give away its sovereign authority 2 to regulate its own gaming. The bottom line, you 3 were able to expand the types of games that you 4 could offer, making more money available for 5 services and programs and for your per capita 6 payment. 7 A few years ago when oil companies 8 said that they were not going to pay Comanche 9 Tribal taxes, we went to work with your tribal 10 administrator, and $3 million and counting back 11 taxes by oil and gas companies as a result of our 12 efforts. 13 A few years ago when the IRS fined 14 this tribe $12.6 million, we appealed those fines. 15 You ended up only having to pay $2.4 million. 16 That's a $10.5 million reduction. That's $700 for 17 every Comanche Tribal member. When tribal lawyers 18 a couple of years ago sued the Comanche Nation 19 with some slip and fall cases at the casinos, we 20 fought that. We removed those cases to federal 21 court, and we got the federal court to dismiss 22 those cases. 23 In addition to that, we went after 24 the State of Oklahoma, and we obtained an 25 injunction against the state courts of Oklahoma 64 1 preventing them from exercising jurisdiction over 2 those types of cases in the future. 3 And I think the thing that we are 4 most proud of, if I could just say it personally, 5 is the opportunity that we had to work with your 6 leaders and your elders when Fort Sill attempted 7 to build an industrial park at the base of the 8 Medicine Bluffs. We fought to protect your 9 cultural values. It's a one-of-a-kind case across 10 the nation. We attained a federal court order 11 stopping the construction. We attained an 12 agreement to protect that site. 13 These are just a few examples. There 14 are dozens more that we've talked to you about 15 that we have won on your behalf. So in a few 16 minutes when you get ready to vote for who you 17 want as your tribal attorney, remember we stopped 18 the United States from taking Comanche lands, we 19 cleaned up those messes, we preserved Class II 20 gaming for you, we secured a favorable gaming 21 compact to increase your revenues, we forced oil 22 companies to pay more than $3 million to you, we 23 reduced the IRS fines by $10.5 million, we've 24 stopped the state courts from asserting 25 jurisdiction (inaudible) jurisdiction, we 65 1 protected Medicine Bluffs. When you faced big 2 challenges over the last decade that we have 3 worked for you as your tribal attorneys, we've 4 been there and we've helped you overcome it. Do 5 not trust the protection of your sovereignty to 6 anyone but Hobbs, Straus. 7 And I'd like to have Mr. Plata speak 8 to you. 9 MR. PLATA: I'm John Plata. I'm 10 Comanche. 11 You know, I just want to express that 12 this firm, every day when I go to work and I see 13 guys like Charley Hobbs and Jerry Straus, who are 14 well into their 70s, and some into their 80s, they 15 come into work every day with the same passion 16 they came to work with when they were younger. 17 It's very encouraging to a young attorney like 18 myself, even though I have a lot of gray hair. 19 So, you know, that's something that I can feel 20 good about as Comanche. That even though I'm in 21 D.C., these guys do great work and have great 22 passion for what they do, and I feel comfortable 23 having them handle the business of my tribe. 24 You know, and, also, in the tribe we 25 know you. I know you, you're my family. And 66 1 there's some things that I've done even in my 2 job. Just a couple of things come to mind 3 immediately. When me and Harry Tahsequah rode out 4 to East Texas to make sure that a Tahmahkera boy 5 wouldn't have to cut his hair. That's something I 6 feel good about. Drafting a will for Videl 7 Tabinaka when he's sitting there asking to help 8 him out in his last days. That's something that 9 really makes me feel good. So I ask you for your 10 support and thank you. 11 MR. WELLS: Mr. Vice-Chairman, are 12 they going to answer any questions, do Q & A? 13 MR. HENSON: Their time is up. Go 14 ahead, Ron. 15 MR. REDELK: In the parade of 16 (inaudible) today, I kind of feel responsible for 17 it. Several months ago I brought this motion up 18 before the CBC. It's been several years since 19 we've had a presentation of law firms to provide 20 legal services for Comanche Nation. And since 21 this gathering does the hiring, I felt like we 22 needed to have this type of presentation. Now, it 23 has been brought to my attention that there are 24 some lawyers present today that have not been 25 allowed to submit an application. And what I 67 1 would like to do is make a motion. 2 At this point, I'll read it. We, the 3 Comanche Tribal Council, in assembly, do move that 4 all attorneys present today will have an 5 opportunity to present their reasons of why the 6 Tribal Council needs to hire them this day. 7 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I second that, 8 sir. 9 MR. HENSON: That's kind of out of 10 order right now. We'll talk about it later. 11 Now, let me say this: I want to 12 congratulate you for how you've been acting out 13 there. It's very good. I've never shown any 14 disrespect for any of you, and I really don't 15 appreciate any disrespect from you. I know how 16 Roderick feels. Roderick's Roderick. Okay? 17 Now, at this time, I'd like to make 18 an announcement. 19 MR. REDELK: Mr. Chairman, there is a 20 motion on the floor with a second. 21 MR. HENSON: We're going to vote for 22 the lawyers. 23 I'm going to make an announcement, 24 though. The TA votes are in. Blue Pahdocony had 25 2.27 percent of the votes. Willie Nelson had 68 1 18.18 percent of the votes. Candace Reavis had 2 11.14 percent, and Will Owens got 68.39 percent. 3 Will Owens is your new tribal administrator. 4 At this point, I'll leave it up to 5 the election board so they can take a vote on the 6 attorneys. 7 (Vote taken.) 8 MR. HENSON: Now it's time to close 9 with the annual budget. Before we do that -- we 10 do have a quorum. Now we're going to go into the 11 proposed budget. But before we go into the 12 proposed budget, I want to say a few things. I do 13 not expect to hear anything from the floor on the 14 proposed budget. 15 The thing that the constitution said 16 was that we as the CBC present to the general 17 tribal council. Once we present it to the general 18 tribal council, if there is nothing on there or 19 something on there that you do not like, you will 20 have a chance to vote it off, because it's going 21 to go to a referendum vote by the whole Comanche 22 Nation. So if you have any idea about getting up 23 and changing the CBC proposed budget that we have 24 presented to you, we are presenting it to you as 25 per what the constitution says. And if you don't 69 1 like anything that's on there, what you can do is 2 you can vote it off or vote whatever you want. 3 MR. BURGESS: Question. You have on 4 here expo fair director. We've never had an expo 5 fair director. It's always been fair director. 6 Why wasn't that changed? At the last CBC meeting 7 it was brought up. Mr. Tippeconnie, you said it 8 would be changed. Why wasn't it changed? 9 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes. Excuse me, 10 Mike. That is correct. You do not have the 11 budget. There are a few glitches in here that we 12 need to pick up. And when we present it I want to 13 make those points, like on the expo. 14 MR. BURGESS: Are you doing that now? 15 MR. TIPPECONNIE: We will go down 16 when we present the budget. 17 MR. BURGESS: Well, he said to make 18 those statements now, so I did. 19 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Okay, thank you. 20 MR. WHITEWOLF: There's a couple of 21 things I'd like to ask. On the movie deal, that 22 wasn't on the budget that was disseminated to the 23 public a while back. What happened? Who changed 24 that? 25 MR. HENSON: Roderick, if you'll sit 70 1 down for a second, he'll explain that to you. It 2 is going to be explained. It's going to be 3 explained. 4 MR. WHITEWOLF: If you all changed 5 it -- 6 MR. HENSON: Just like he said, 7 there's a couple of glitches on there and he's 8 going to explain that when we go down through the 9 budget. That's one of them. 10 MR. TIPPECONNIE: One thing we want 11 to do, Mr. Whitewolf, is we want to put it up on 12 the screen. And your point that you're speaking 13 to will be brought up on the screen. The movie, 14 we'll bring that out on the screen. We'll speak 15 to it then, because it will not be on the budget. 16 MR. WHITEWOLF: Well, I was the one 17 that made the point at the CBC where this guy 18 asked for $500,000. Y'all didn't even talk about 19 it, unless y'all, you know, did your secret deal, 20 so I'm concerned that this budget is not legal. 21 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I appreciate what 22 you're saying. But on the movie, when we come to 23 that point, we'll see it is not on the budget. 24 MR. HENSON: Can we have the budget 25 put on the board there? What I'm going to do at 71 1 this time is I'm going to turn this over to Bob. 2 He's the secretary/treasurer. 3 MR. TIPPECONNIE: One thing I would 4 appreciate if you could pull up the vision and 5 mission statement. 6 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: What page is it 7 on? 8 MR. TIPPECONNIE: The vision and 9 mission statement is on Page 3. 10 MR. WHITEWOLF: Mr. Tippeconnie, 11 before you start, have you all worked on the 60 12 percent budget that the general council mandated 13 you all to work on? Why isn't that -- why should 14 this budget be at 60 percent? 15 MR. TIPPECONNIE: We have to work on 16 that which is approved. The approved Revenue 17 Allocation Plan is 40. Until we have a -- an 18 approval from the Secretary of the Interior, we 19 cannot present a 60 percent budget. 20 MR. WHITEWOLF: Well, the one I saw 21 didn't disqualify that request. It's just the 22 fact that y'all didn't present one. 23 MR. TIPPECONNIE: We have worked on 24 that budget. We're ready to propose the 60 25 percent budget when it's approved. 72 1 MR. WHITEWOLF: When are you going to 2 get it approved? 3 MR. TIPPECONNIE: The Secretary 4 approves it. 5 MR. WHITEWOLF: I understand that, 6 but the general council asked you to do that last 7 year. You're not getting it done. 8 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I appreciate your 9 concern, because we share that. We understand 10 that we have to work on that 60. We do have a 60 11 percent budget. We prepared one, but we can't 12 present it, because we have to present that which 13 is approved. 14 MR. WHITEWOLF: Why should we approve 15 this budget if you can't do what we said? I think 16 we need to -- we need to not approve this budget 17 until you get that 60 percent RAP finalized. 18 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Well, what likely 19 would occur -- I appreciate what you're saying. 20 The CBC understands that. But we have a 21 responsibility to only go forward with that which 22 is approved, and the only thing approved at this 23 point is the 40 percent. We cannot bring forward 24 a budget that's not approved. We have no 25 authority to do that. 73 1 One thing, I'll put it up there, if 2 you'll bear with me, Roderick. I want to go 3 through a few things. This is the Revenue 4 Allocation Plan, and I want to make a comment on 5 that, because I appreciate very much what you're 6 saying. I would like to present to you something 7 I trust we should be very proud of. You know, the 8 Comanche Nation has moved, I'd say, in very smart 9 ways in a number of years. 10 And I wished earlier that our 11 chairman of the meeting here would have called and 12 identified the former chairmen in the room. And I 13 still say, how many former chairmen are in the 14 room? Would you stand up? If you don't mind, 15 would you stand? I wish we would have done it 16 earlier, because many of these chairmen have done 17 many things for the good of the Numunu, for the 18 people. 19 We with the CBC continue with that 20 responsibility. We want to be fair, equitable, 21 honest, and sometimes in your eyes it may not 22 appear that way, but we try our very best. And 23 our heart is in it for the people. So when we 24 came forward with this vision, I think it's very 25 worthy to read this vision. When you read a 74 1 vision, that's where we all would like to see the 2 Comanche Nation go and be. So look at it as I 3 read it to you. 4 The vision of the Comanche Nation, 5 Lords of the Plains, is to be global leaders, 6 economically prosperous, self-sustaining, healthy, 7 educated, culturally and spiritually strong, fair 8 and equitable people. 9 When we write that vision, it's our 10 goal, the CBC, to say -- many people out there 11 composed this. We have a number of entities in 12 the nation. And they sat and they spent time 13 developing this vision. And this vision says to 14 us, and I hope especially to our young people, 15 this is what we want to be and this is what our 16 pursuits are. So when we go to budget (inaudible) 17 is to be here. And we would like to see this kept 18 in our mind from this moment on, that the Numunu, 19 the Comanche Nation, the Lords of the Plain, will 20 be here. 21 We also stated a mission. You can 22 see the mission is in your book, and I'd like to 23 read that. The mission of the Comanche Nation is 24 to promote and preserve the cultural, historic and 25 traditions of the Comanche people, and further 75 1 promote and encourage pursuits relevant to an 2 efficient governing body, a viable economic base, 3 and measures designated to enhance social and 4 cultural activities which will reflect our 5 heritage and assure the continued development and 6 success of the nation and its members. 7 A so budgets are built now, it will 8 be the responsibility of whomever is in the 9 governing body and all of you to foster, we trust, 10 this vision. I could imagine some day, you know, 11 we will have a house full of educated, prosperous 12 Comanche people. And more than that, as it says 13 in our vision, to be in our culture, to know our 14 culture, to understand our spirituality. 15 You know, Comanche people have always 16 been a spiritual person. And so we want to 17 continue the understanding that we do not 18 disconnect between our spirituality and our 19 government. And whatever we do is done from our 20 heart and we do it, I would say, although it's not 21 stated here, for our Tahapu. 22 We live responsibly as a people. So 23 I just want to say on the front end, we're moving, 24 then, when we develop budgets. We are not where 25 we want to be. We're not there. We're not as 76 1 prosperous as we want to be. When we talk about 2 prosperity, it's for each of you, not me setting 3 here. But we're part of you, each of us. We want 4 to be prosperous, to be educated, and to go on and 5 on in the terms of the vision. 6 Now I'd like us to go to a point of 7 understanding our responsibility as a business 8 committee to present to you a budget. We are 9 required by the constitution, the article of the 10 constitution, to present to you a budget, and 11 that's what we're doing. It's through the 12 responsibility of the CBC, with the understanding 13 of where we're going through this vision, to build 14 that budget. 15 The budget is constructed under the 16 term of a constitution, which you're all familiar 17 with, I pray, and also under portions of it, the 18 gaming makes revenue to the Revenue Allocation 19 Plan. Any time an Indian nation wishes to spend 20 money that comes from gaming, you know, we have 21 this responsibility. If we are to come up with a 22 per cap payment, we develop and have approved a 23 Revenue Allocation Plan. Under our present 24 Revenue Allocation Plan, we have percentages of 25 that for which we expend money. We have 25, 25, 77 1 10, and we have 40 for per capita payment. 2 So when you look at the budget, 3 you're going to see it's broken down. The gaming 4 dollars, only the gaming dollar, the net of 5 gaming, not the gross of net. Gross of gaming, 6 but the net. So whatever the net is, that's what 7 we construct the budget on. 8 The thing I might say, if you look at 9 that budget, if you turn to the budget page, and 10 that is Page 5. If you'd turn to Page 5, you'll 11 see on the top we have tax commission supplement. 12 The tax commission, I'd like to say very proudly, 13 and you should all be very proud of Comanche 14 Nation. The tax commission dollar is in the 15 bank. So when we work with the monies of the tax 16 commission, we don't have to project. It's in the 17 bank. So you can see where we fund things that 18 are proposed, if you yes or no to it -- you will 19 vote one that later line by line. 20 This money that's established for 21 gaming -- excuse me, tax commission expenditure is 22 in the bank. When you look at the other monies 23 here, you can see the 20 percent. It's in the 24 bank. But we don't -- that comes from another 25 source. It doesn't come from the source that we 78 1 have on hand. It comes from a source that's 2 established in the bank, protected by the Office 3 of the Special Trustee. So that's sitting there 4 because it was reserved by the Comanche people. 5 So it's sitting there. So we have a percentage 6 that you approved. And in this case, each of the 7 nations on the reservation here, Comanche, Kiowa 8 Apache must be that by law. Then it goes to the 9 KCA. It goes to them to use for those kind of 10 things that are necessary to administer the lands 11 and the properties of the Comanche, Kiowa and 12 Apache. 13 Okay. Now we move down to the gaming 14 budget. You see the gaming budget. It is the 15 one -- economic development. And economic 16 development is 25 percent. Maybe we can move this 17 up on the screen, too. On the budget, you can see 18 economic development. Economic development is 25 19 percent of the projected dollar. 20 And let me explain that. When you 21 look at that bottom line of this page where it 22 shows the budget, there's the dollar that we show 23 which comes from gaming, net gaming revenue. This 24 is a projection. It is not in the bank, and that 25 is a sad thing to say. I wish we had it in the 79 1 bank. The way we get this money is sitting with 2 gaming and determining what is the best forecast 3 of possible revenue by the end of the fiscal year, 4 and that's a 12-month year. 5 So we plan this budget. We began 6 planning budgets in December, November, January, 7 of a year. So we have to be outlooking projected 8 dollars that may materialize, may be earned by 9 gaming. And I might say gaming is doing better. 10 Their percentages are up, and we appreciate that. 11 Because you should appreciate it, because it 12 belongs to all of us. 13 On the gaming dollars, now, because 14 it is not in the bank, we sit with gaming and 15 establish a forecast that's the bottom line of the 16 total of the 25, 25, 10, and 40. That is the 17 figure we have to work on. What happens, then, on 18 gaming dollars, gaming submits to the Comanche 19 Nation monthly moneys to help us month by month 20 meet this expenditure. So we gain those monies as 21 they earn them. It would be very good if we could 22 have thought a years ago, maybe we can get there, 23 to put money away so we actually have money in the 24 bank, and we can say this budget is built on real 25 money. 80 1 So sometimes my colleagues here on 2 the CBC may laugh at me because I'm saying this 3 budget is a paper budget. It's just paper. What 4 we really want to see is this money in the bank. 5 As we go along, then, working with gaming, gaming 6 pays. They send to us monthly from all our four 7 facilities net dollars. And so those dollars come 8 in, and they've helped us work through the year 9 month by month to gain this final budget. So when 10 we build this budget with gaming, we attempt to be 11 conservative. We don't try to overreach or 12 overextend the dollar. Because once you do that, 13 you may have to cut back in a year and reduce 14 budgets. We had to go through that already in the 15 years past, or a couple of years. We had to 16 reduce budgets because we didn't get the revenue. 17 You can't spend money if you don't have money. 18 So we've had to reduce budgets in the 19 past. It's based on the fact that the income 20 wasn't coming in. Now we're attempting to do 21 that, as gaming is getting more aggressive about 22 efficiencies and being profitable. And I 23 compliment then that we have a little more extra 24 assurance when we sit down and come up with this 25 bottom line figure. 81 1 So what I was saying now, we have 2 this proposed 2012 budget, which is on the 40 3 percent RAP, that this is realistic. But, again, 4 it's never based on a monthly return to the nation 5 from gaming. 6 On the net, now -- I want us to go 7 back to the net. Excuse me, the RAP. On the RAP, 8 the CBC does not have to agree to move it to 60. 9 What we have to do is live with the existing 10 approved Revenue Allocation Plan, because the 11 Revenue Allocation Plan is approved for the 12 Comanche Nation budget (inaudible,) but it's 13 approved by the Secretary of Interior, not by the 14 nation. So the nation makes its request of the 15 Secretary to entertain a new RAP last year of 60 16 percent, so (inaudible.) And I have to say, we 17 did do a budget on 60 percent. 18 So if this directive (inaudible) if 19 that materializes and it is approved, then it's 20 our responsibility to move forward that. Now, I 21 would like to say that when we do go, that we do 22 it in a sense of fiscal responsibility. That's 23 how we spend. But also, to not be creating some 24 harm to activity or program of the nation. Well, 25 I apologize that in some respect that you wish you 82 1 had 60, but we cannot present 60. We have to 2 present the 40. 3 So going, then, on the RAP, remember 4 that's like law. You passed that we do. You 5 passed that we have a per cap. We are in the 6 process of attempting to -- some of you received a 7 letter that was returned to the nation asking 8 questions about assistance. We're working on 9 that, and we're trying to be expeditious on that 10 to get it written so that we know (inaudible) from 11 the Secretary, it's approved or not approved. So 12 I want to say we're doing that. 13 But now we want to present to you the 14 budget. In gaming -- excuse me. The tax 15 commission, you can see again, that money is in 16 the bank. So when we go down those line items, 17 you can see in the tax commission, if you turn 18 your pages, you can see -- you can see 19 explanations of each of the budgeted line items. 20 One thing I want to say, too -- a lot 21 of you don't know this. When we create this 22 budget, we begin it in the fall of this last year. 23 And we move towards the time that we had to put it 24 in the paper. We're required to print it, by the 25 constitution, a number of days in advance of this 83 1 meeting. We did that. But when we construct this 2 budget, we don't do it simply as a CBC alone. We 3 sit with the program directors, each of them come 4 forward and present to the CBC what they of 5 propose under some budget advice we give them. 6 The budget advice that we attempt to give is 7 somewhat threefold: Dollar amount, (inaudible,) 8 and net based upon probable projections of net of 9 gaming. 10 The other aspect of it is role 11 objectives. When we spend money, we should be 12 producing something with that expenditure. It 13 just isn't given to directors to simply spend it 14 frivolously. So when they come forward with their 15 best budget proposal, they need to have some 16 (inaudible.) And their budgets are simply line 17 items. Salaries, everything that they have to pay 18 for to do their jobs. 19 Okay. Like I said, it's not only 20 (inaudible,) it's what are you going to do with 21 it? So if you're EPA (inaudible,) social 22 services, how many people are you servicing? What 23 type of service are you serving? What are the 24 actions you're doing? 25 MR. NARCOMEY: Excuse me, 84 1 Mr. Secretary/Treasurer. I know you're trying to 2 kill time so we won't keep this budget, but let's 3 get on with this budget meeting. 4 MR. TIPPECONNIE: That's another 5 thing I want to -- I apologize -- 6 MR. NARCOMEY: (Inaudible) too much 7 time, and we will lose our quorum (inaudible) want 8 to do. 9 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I apologize if my 10 (inaudible). I'm not intentionally doing it. I 11 just want to give you information on how we 12 construct this, so we will go to the budget. 13 If you look at the tax commission 14 budget now, you can see the items. You can look 15 at the book on there (inaudible.) We go down 16 those items. Annual audit. And, again, you'll 17 vote for these line by line when you get the 18 ballot. We have to do an audit. That's 19 (inaudible.) We get competition on the audit. 20 Okay. We go down to the next one 21 here, bereavement assistance. (Inaudible) see 22 what bereavement assistance is on the next page, 23 if you turn to the next page. (Inaudible.) The 24 next line item, if you go all the way down 25 (inaudible) okay with it. You just go down and 85 1 see the figures. So these are all those in the 2 tax commission. 3 The chairman said, or Mr. Burgess has 4 asked that we not show, and I apologize for it 5 showing up here. There should not be an expo. 6 It's -- again, like I said, we had some glitches, 7 and I apologize. So that will not be in there. 8 MR. BURGESS: Correct it now. 9 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes, (inaudible) 10 right here on the budget, so it will be struck. 11 It will be struck. 12 MR. BURGESS: What's it going to say, 13 what words? 14 MR. TIPPECONNIE: It takes that off. 15 It takes the expo off. Comanche Fair director. 16 MR. BURGESS: Another correction, KCA 17 budget. You have it listed at $131,000. But when 18 you look to the back where KCA is, KCA has 19 requested, Darrell and Clyde can verify this, 20 $317,000. You've got another error on here. KCA 21 should not be 131,000. I believe it's 317,000. 22 That's KCA funds. That's another typo. You call 23 it that. But you need to correct that up there. 24 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes. Now, see, 25 (inaudible) I wasn't given that figure. 86 1 MR. BURGESS: It's in the book. 2 MR. TIPPECONNIE: (Inaudible) I 3 wasn't given early enough. (Inaudible) make those 4 corrections. So we will put that in when we 5 present (inaudible.) Yeah, we will put that in. 6 MR. TOM NARCOMEY: I'd like to make a 7 comment. The constitution, on Page 18 under the 8 business committee, the responsibilities and 9 authority, it says on I, the top of the page, 18, 10 the annual report. (Inaudible) business committee 11 by the tribal council, by appropriate resolution, 12 approve the tribal council (inaudible.) So the 13 council may direct additional duties to the CBC, 14 to change a budget item as long as it's within the 15 proposed budged or (inaudible.) 16 But anyway, Mr. Henson was wrong that 17 this budget is concrete. We do have authority to 18 make changes on it, according to the constitution. 19 Because there's things on here that are wrong 20 (inaudible) and changed, and we do it by council 21 resolution, because the constitution says that we 22 can. So Mr. Henson was wrong in saying that you 23 can't (inaudible) this budget. So if you don't 24 like something, bring it up and you can change it 25 MR. HENSON: (Inaudible.) 87 1 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Excuse me just a 2 minute. I want to be sure that we made the 3 correction on the KCA. Did we do that? Okay. 4 MR. WAUQUA: Mr. Tippeconnie, I have 5 a specific question for you. You're talking about 6 money in the bank. And you list here annual 7 audits (inaudible.) Is the Comanche Tribe in high 8 risk status? Yes or no? 9 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Comanche, yes. 10 MR. WAUQUA: Yes or no? 11 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes. 12 MR. WAUQUA: Why? 13 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Because in past 14 years, this is going way back, these numbers here, 15 we did not make (inaudible) we were not in 16 compliance. 17 MR. WAUQUA: It's your job to get 18 these corrected. That's why we elected you. 19 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes, and we are 20 about out of it. We have very few items that are 21 standing. 22 MR. WAUQUA: What happened to the 23 $225,000 that you had there in the office? 24 (Inaudible.) Where's the money? 25 MR. TIPPECONNIE: We did do the 88 1 audit, I want to say. (Inaudible) answering that 2 question. This was the first year that we just 3 completed that we had an audit done very quickly 4 after the year closed. The year closed September 5 last year. We had the audit in our hands the 6 first of the year. That is a first. And I want 7 to say, we worked hard on that. When I came in 8 here, we were four years behind. (Inaudible) we 9 got that audit. And it is a very good audit. And 10 it's because we've done a lot of hard work. And 11 that's a lot of people, not just me. A lot of the 12 people in this nation worked on it. 13 And on the noncompliance, the high 14 risk, we're almost out of that. We have worked 15 hard (inaudible) on noncompliance. We have not 16 been sitting on those items. 17 MS. SANDERS: Mr. Tippeconnie, I'd 18 like to know why (inaudible) Comanche Higher 19 Education $929,000. That needs to be given back 20 to the higher education for our kids to go to 21 college. It is hard for these kids that's wanting 22 to go to college. The parents cannot afford that. 23 And most institutions are going up again. I know 24 that for a fact, because my son is going 25 (inaudible.) And we need that money back. 89 1 And I tell you what, I'm not against 2 this movie. But we need to stop this movie for a 3 while, and let's wait until we get our 60 percent. 4 And then land. Why are y'all buying 5 land that we don't need when we got a bunch of 6 land out there? We've got open space for those 7 offices, these buildings. But we need to think 8 about our kids. We got kids out there that wants 9 to go to college that cannot afford it. And 10 everybody's wanting to know why are these kids 11 getting in trouble. We need to think about that. 12 And I want to raise our budgets for 13 college for another million dollars and make it 14 even. 15 (Applause) 16 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Well, let me get 17 back to the budget, because (Inaudible) simply I 18 don't want to forget the thought. (Inaudible.) 19 But let's go down, going down from KCA, we're 20 going down to economic development, if there's no 21 further question on the KCA. We corrected that, 22 (inaudible) KCA. 23 So now let's move to economic 24 development. So let's go down to economic 25 development. You can see how items are listed 90 1 here in economic development. Okay. One of the 2 items, I might say, was just raised, saying why 3 did we purchase land. You can see, yes, we have a 4 proposed amount in the matter of land acquisition. 5 It is economic, because and when you purchase 6 land, there are assets, first of all. They become 7 capital assets. They have a dollar value 8 (inaudible) for Comanche Nation. So there is a 9 value to land. And if you've been through any 10 land purchases (inaudible) the cost per acre of 11 land. 12 One thing that's happening, as an 13 example, in land acquisition, and the nation's 14 been looking at, is to start our (inaudible) for 15 economic reasons, but also for water. Water is 16 gold. And if you understand the value of water, 17 it is gold. That has economic tangible value. So 18 what the nation, the CBC, had wanted to do, to 19 say, yes, there's reasons we acquire land. So one 20 of them now is water. 21 (Inaudible) from Oklahoma. So that's 22 underway. So we -- I don't know if you know, too. 23 Lands are being bought out in the southern part of 24 our state by Texas, and they're buying it for 25 water. So that is an asset that we are looking 91 1 at, is these land acquisitions. (Inaudible.) 2 MS. SANDERS: Okay. Yeah, but why 3 are you buying land from these people that really 4 the reason they're selling it is because they need 5 money. They come talk to y'all, and y'all are 6 just buying it to help them out. And that's where 7 we're always getting stuck with this land. 8 MR. NARCOMEY: Let it be known, on 9 this land situation, when you go through the 10 records, probably 95 percent (inaudible,) and I'm 11 against it. The main thing is because we can 12 lease the water rights. We bought some land the 13 other day for $700,000. (Inaudible) lease money. 14 I think it was $1,500, $2,000 a month, or a year. 15 No, $6,000 a year. I said, well, that's good. It 16 will take about four years (inaudible.) Lease 17 money off of. And we bought, back in 2003 or 4, 18 (inaudible) for 3 million. It's still sitting 19 there. We ain't did nothing for them, you know. 20 So I'm against -- unless you got 21 potential. If it's got enough potential, if it's 22 got -- for homes to be built for Indian people, 23 Comanche people, (inaudible) yes. But not to just 24 be buying it. We can lease the water rights. 25 MR. TIPPECONNIE: We really can't. 92 1 What we have to do -- let me say something. 2 (Inaudible) and work on the budget here. But the 3 thing is, on water rights, don't lease them. The 4 water rights belong to the Comanche people, and we 5 must pursue that. And we will (inaudible) to 6 assure that we have the water rights. Don't lease 7 them only. And we have to say that we own a good 8 part of the water in the reservation of the KCA at 9 this time. 10 I want to move on the budget, because 11 we can be here forever. So let's go down to the 12 budget. We heard that -- we've heard that -- 13 MS. HENDRIX: Did she make a motion? 14 On the land, did she make a motion on that? 15 MR. TIPPECONNIE: No, no. 16 (Inaudible.) What I'm hearing is they're saying 17 they budget, they would like to see the budget 18 (inaudible.) But I'd like to go through these in 19 all the economic development real quickly. 20 You can see without me (inaudible) 21 look at your page and look at the board. Economic 22 development includes a number of things. One 23 thing I'm going to say and then I'm going to leave 24 it with you. The movie is not in the budget. It 25 is out. We took it out, so if we show it up here 93 1 (inaudible) the movie is out. (Inaudible.) That 2 has been struck. That has been struck. 3 (Inaudible.) 4 So we can look now -- 5 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: So where is 6 that money going to? 7 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Well, okay. That 8 money (inaudible) 25 percent. You can't take it 9 from another category. You have to take it out of 10 the economic development category. If you go back 11 in. 12 One thing I would like to suggest to 13 you to think about, this is just my suggestion. 14 The CBC had nothing to say to it. When we have 15 some savings, like if you go down the budget and 16 there's some savings (inaudible) why don't those 17 go into the bank? Why do we have to spend it? 18 Why don't we save it? We don't save it. That's 19 just a point I made. 20 MRS. GALLEGOS: We tried that with 21 our Rainy Day Fund. Where's that at? 22 MR. TIPPECONNIE: (Inaudible) 23 safeguards are in place for our budget. 24 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: My question 25 for Mr. Kosechequetah, where do the smoke shops 94 1 fall in there? Because there's no line for smoke 2 shops. 3 MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: No, we don't have 4 a line item here for gaming or the others. That 5 smoke shop LLC is a new project. It's been 6 decided on to separate out smoke shop operations 7 from our gaming. It's done, it's set up, and we 8 will have reports coming to the people on the 9 Website fairly soon. It's a new feel, and it's 10 going to be a good opportunity for our people and 11 to make more money to make more ventures and to 12 bring more revenue. 13 There will be -- I'll give you this 14 at this point. There will be, just as we have tax 15 contributions from the tax commission, we'll also 16 have business contributions. And (inaudible) 17 business contribution box will say smoke shop LLC 18 and a contribution back to the tribe. At this 19 point, (inaudible) in our first year we're at 200 20 grand plus (inaudible) went back okay into the 21 nation. 22 MR. TIPPECONNIE: You know, we need 23 to move on the budget, as told here by my 24 colleague we need to move (inaudible) on. 25 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Okay, good. 95 1 (Inaudible) the area I want to talk about is the 2 tax commission, and it's the chairman's salary. I 3 notice it says 75,000. There's another addition 4 to the $75,000 the chairman was paid. But in all 5 fairness to this general council here, we didn't 6 have a vote on this last year, and it was $100,000 7 prior to changing this to $150,000. I'd like to 8 have the business committee consider putting a 9 line item at 100,000 to see if people would rather 10 prefer to have the chairman's salary at 100,000 11 rather than 150,000. 12 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Do you 13 understand what I'm saying? 14 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I understand what 15 was said. What you're saying is you prefer to 16 change and show this as 50,000. That's what 17 you're saying. 18 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Right. 19 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Let's move onto 20 economic development. I want to make sure we get 21 through and everybody -- 22 MRS. GALLEGOS: This is not economic 23 development. In '06 -- okay, you said that the 24 movie is projected for 250,000? 25 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes. 96 1 MRS. GALLEGOS: They're taking that 2 out of the budget? 3 MR. TIPPECONNIE: It's no longer in 4 the budget. 5 MRS. GALLEGOS: But in '06 there was 6 a resolution that was passed that any line item 7 that was not passed, that money goes into capital 8 improvement. You're saying the 50,000 is going to 9 go back into economic development, where that 10 resolution states any item goes back into capital 11 improvement. 12 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes, but there's a 13 line item that was not approved. Remember? 14 (Inaudible) it goes into capital improvement. 15 MRS. GALLEGOS: No, you didn't 16 approve it. You scratched it out. 17 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes, we scratched 18 it out. 19 MRS. GALLEGOS: (Inaudible) 250,000, 20 because you said you were going to put it back 21 into economic development. Theoretically it 22 should go into capital improvement. 23 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Well, the reason I 24 say economic development, that's where it was 25 taken from at this time. When you see the budget 97 1 that we propose, simply (inaudible) in some of 2 these places. They came from the existing line 3 items. 4 MRS. GALLEGOS: It doesn't matter 5 where it came from. I'm saying the resolution 6 states that if it's no it passed, which it wasn't, 7 that 250,000 needs to go back into capital 8 improvement. Capital improvement needs to go to 9 improvement or our existing facilities, not 10 individual homes or individual garages. 11 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I understand what 12 you're saying. I appreciate that, because that's 13 correct. We have that resolution to put into 14 capital improvement on the facilities your talking 15 about. So what -- let me clarify my head on this 16 one with you. What you're saying is keep it in 17 (inaudible.) We're saying -- 18 MRS. GALLEGOS: What I'm saying is 19 this is already disapproved. 20 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes, it's out. 21 MRS. GALLEGOS: Irregardless, it was 22 disapproved. 23 MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: It's not 24 disapproved. It's not being presented. There was 25 a -- 98 1 MRS. GALLEGOS: You presented it to 2 us in the book. 3 MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: No, it's been 4 removed, not disapproved. 5 MRS. GALLEGOS: You presented this to 6 us right here in the budget. 7 MR. TIPPECONNIE: We presented it 8 (inaudible) I told you from earlier it was left 9 out. 10 MRS. GALLEGOS: But this is not a 11 typo. It was never given. I received this and 12 it was in there and the money amount was changed 13 or a typo. This was never in there. 14 MR. TIPPECONNIE: It's not in there. 15 And they's why we're taking it, because it doesn't 16 belong. It doesn't belong in the budget. 17 MRS. GALLEGOS: Well, why was it put 18 on? 19 MR. TIPPECONNIE: When people come 20 forward to us and present something, it was 21 proposed many times, and it was even in the CBC 22 meeting ongoing. The CBC cannot approve that. 23 The people kept asking us to approve it. We 24 cannot approve it. The only way it can be 25 approved is all of you vote for it. So then it 99 1 was said maybe we should put it on there. If you 2 keep pressing us, we'll put it. Well, we're 3 uncomfortable with that, because we'd like to say 4 we prepared something, present it to you earlier, 5 you know, at the last moment. So it's struck, 6 it's out. 7 So those parties, we inform them if 8 they have something, they have to move it to other 9 places. The nation is not going to financially 10 support them. 11 MRS. GALLEGOS: All right. So you're 12 not going to put the (inaudible) down in capital 13 improvement? 14 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes. Let's move 15 on. The tribal council is everyone 18 and older. 16 So they're all -- they all need to vote on the 17 budget, not just those sitting here. All those 18 people that are 18 and older vote on the budget. 19 MR. HENSON: This was advertised by 20 the constitution, this whole meeting. There was a 21 time that we had to put things on the agenda if 22 you wanted it on the agenda. You were given 23 plenty of time to put it on the agenda. I intend 24 to run this meeting by the agenda, and that's what 25 the constitution calls for. All we're supposed to 100 1 do is present you with a budget that we have got, 2 that we made up, and you still have a right. It's 3 not taking any rights from you away at all. You 4 still have a right to vote on it however you want 5 to. But it's not just you in this gym. The 6 constitution says everybody. Every person that's 7 of voting age that's a Comanche votes on the 8 budget. And if you don't like what's on the 9 budget, you can vote against it. There's no right 10 taken away from you at all. Now, let's get on 11 with it. 12 MR. TOM NARCOMEY: Interpret that 13 Page 18, or tell the attorneys to interpret that 14 Page 18, that the council can do a resolution and 15 change the budget. 16 MR. HENSON: Excuse me. We need to 17 get on. We need to get on. (Inaudible.) 18 Mr. Narcomey, please, sit down. Please. Sit 19 down, please. (Inaudible.) 20 MR. TOM NARCOMEY: Well, I'd like to 21 make the motion to -- 22 MR. HENSON: The motion is out of 23 line at this time. What we're doing is we're 24 presenting the budget by the agenda. If you 25 wanted to get on the agenda, it was (inaudible) 101 1 you to get on. There was a deadline for it and 2 everybody or anybody could. You was not on the 3 agenda. 4 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: The 5 constitution says I have a right -- 6 MR. TOM NARCOMEY: The council has a 7 right to do a resolution. You can ask our 8 attorneys. Yeah, I want to make a motion. 9 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: There were 10 some changes that were just made by Mr. Burgess, 11 and it's okay for him to make it, but for anybody 12 else -- 13 MR. HENSON: There was no changes 14 made. There was mistakes on the budget. 15 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: The changes 16 that were made by Mr. Burgess just a few minutes 17 ago, and now you're telling us that nobody else 18 can make any changes. 19 MR. HENSON: What change did he 20 make? 21 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: KCA. 22 MR. TIPPECONNIE: We need a 23 correction. 24 MR. HENSON: It was a correction on 25 the budget. There was no changes on the budget. 102 1 Let's go on with the meeting. 2 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We're trying 3 to. 4 MR. HENSON: No more from the floor 5 at this time. Present the budget and that's it. 6 MR. TOM NARCOMEY: I'd like to have 7 an attorney interpret the constitution. 8 MR. HENSON: Officers? 9 We're going to present the budget at 10 this time. (Inaudible.) Everybody had a right to 11 get on the agenda. You did not do that. Or if 12 you want to call another meeting, get 200 to sign, 13 voters, and we will call another meeting. 14 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We have a 15 right to change anything on there if we want. 16 This is our opportunity once a year to take care 17 of things. 18 And I want to say something. I told 19 y'all in the CBC meeting, you put this movie on 20 here and Quanah Parker descendants, the vast 21 majority of them said no. Our people have other 22 needs. They need homes, they need roofs, they 23 need medication. It should have never been on 24 there. 25 MR. HENSON: Close that mike, 103 1 please. 2 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Go ahead, 3 close the mike. I can talk louder than the mike. 4 Take the mike, 'cause I can yell it. $250,000 5 dollars. Our people need medication, they need 6 homes. They don't need a movie. Don't put it on 7 there. That's a big typo. I make a motion that 8 we put that $250,000 to helping our elders with 9 something, with medication or assisted living. We 10 got elders that need help in their homes, cleaning 11 them, cooking. Put that 250,000 towards that. 12 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I want to say on 13 the movie, it's not. The movie is not. 14 MR. HENSON: Vern? 15 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I say we have 16 a recall on Bunky. 17 MR. HENSON: There was a series, a 18 lot of series of meetings with the people on the 19 budget that actually has a budget. The people 20 that work and that's got the budget, we all came 21 with them. The money that we had, we split up the 22 best we could, according to what they needed with 23 the budget, and that's how this budget came to 24 date. There is some mistakes on the budget, I'll 25 grant you that. But those mistakes are going to 104 1 be coming off, so we need to get on with it. 2 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: You're coming 3 off. 4 MR. HENSON: If she makes one more -- 5 officers, would you remove her, please? 6 (Inaudible) what you can get on the 7 agenda and ask for it in the constitution. 8 MR. NARCOMEY: Officers, leave 9 Eleanor alone. 10 MR. HENSON: I'm sorry. I was just 11 informed that we lost our quorum, so this meeting 12 is over. 13 (Meeting concluded at 5:32 p.m.) 14 15 16 * * * * * * 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 105 1 R E P O R T E R 'S C E R T I F I C A T E 2 3 STATE OF OKLAHOMA ) ) 4 COUNTY OF OKLAHOMA ) 5 I, Kelly Stoabs, Certified Shorthand 6 Reporter for the State of Oklahoma, certify that 7 the above and foregoing meeting transcribed by me 8 is a true and correct transcript of the meeting; 9 that the meeting was held on April 16, 2011, in 10 the State of Oklahoma; that I am not an attorney 11 for nor a relative of any said parties, or 12 otherwise interested in the event of said action. 13 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set 14 my hand and seal of office on this the 5th day of 15 May, 2011. 16 17 18 __________________________ 19 Kelly Stoabs Certified Shorthand Reporter 20 for the State of Oklahoma 21 22 23 24 25 106 1 S E C R E T A R Y ' S C E R T I F I C A T E 2 3 I, Robert Tippeconnie, Secretary- 4 Treasurer of Comanche Nation Business Committee, 5 certify that the above is a true and correct 6 transcript of a meeting of CBC Members held at 7 1:35 p.m. on April 16, 2011, and that the meeting 8 was duly called and held in all respects in 9 accordance with the charters and bylaws of the 10 Comanche Nation and that a quorum was present. 11 I further certify that the votes and 12 resolutions of the CBC Members of Comanche Nation 13 at the meeting are operative and in full force and 14 effect and have not been annulled or modified by 15 any vote or resolution passed or adopted by the 16 CBC since that meeting. 17 18 19 Signed:_________________________ Date:____________ Robert Tippeconnie 20 Secretary-Treasurer 21 22 23 24 25