1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE 8 COMANCHE BUSINESS COMMITTEE 9 MONTHLY MEETING 10 AUGUST 1, 2009, 10:05 A.M. 11 COMANCHE NATION COMPLEX 12 LAWTON, OKLAHOMA 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 __________________________________________________ REPORTED BY: KELLY STOABS, CSR 23 DODSON REPORTING & ASSOCIATES 435 NORTH WALKER, SUITE 102 24 OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA 73102 (405) 235-1828 ~ (405) 235-1266 (FAX) 25 dcri@coxinet.net 2 1 A P P E A R A N C E S 2 3 COMANCHE NATION BUSINESS COMMITTEE MEMBERS: 4 Michael Burgess, Chairman 5 Richard Henson, Vice-Chairman 6 Robert Tippeconnie, Secretary-Treasurer 7 Clyde R. Narcomey, Committeeman #4 8 LEGAL COUNSEL: 9 William Norman, James Burson 10 Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker 11 12 13 * * * * * * 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 INDEX OF PROCEEDINGS 2 PAGE 3 Meeting called to order at 10:05 a.m. 4 4 Diabetes Awareness Program performs skit. 5 5 Mr. Burgess reports on his travel to 7 Washington, D.C. 6 Meeting rescheduled to August 19th 26 7 for lack of quorum. 8 Native Health Group presentation. 47 9 Dr. Yeagley presents idea of media 64 institute/technical institute. 10 Mr. Codopony addresses coordinating 86 11 defense of lawsuit. 12 Mr. Norman addresses forensic audit. 89 13 Mr. Norman addresses why Hobbs, 89 Straus is involved in lawsuit. 14 Presentation given by Premiere Power. 94 15 Bonita Paddyaker taking donations 124 16 for Chrystal Lambert family after house burned down. 17 General Council meeting set for 126 18 September 19th, 2009. 19 CBC meeting set for August 15th, 2009. 128 20 Meeting concluded at 12:32 p.m. 128 21 Reporter's Certificate. 129 22 Secretary's Certificate. 130 23 24 25 * * * * * * 4 1 (Meeting called to order at 2 10:05 a.m.) 3 MR. BURGESS: Good morning. Good 4 morning, everybody. As all of you know, Tribal 5 members know that our meetings are generally 6 called to order at 10:00. And at the moment, we 7 know of two members that are occupied. We thought 8 we would have a quorum with Mr. Asepermy not 9 telling us if he was going to be gone or not. 10 We'll go until 10:15 to see if we can reach a 11 quorum. But at that time, if we don't have a 12 quorum by 10:15, we'll have to call the meeting 13 off. But we will stay for those who have come to 14 give information and share thoughts or anything 15 about what we've got to do. In the meantime, we 16 don't want to go beyond 12:00. 17 So those of you who would like to 18 sit, get drinks, get soda, any of our people who 19 are diabetics and you need something, it's over 20 there. I want to say thank you to Marilyn. We 21 appreciate you setting that out for our Elders and 22 those of us who are diabetic and didn't eat 23 breakfast. For your information I had breakfast 24 at 4:30 a.m. 25 So I appreciate your indulgence, 5 1 bearing with us to see if we do get another member 2 to make a quorum. But in the meantime, we're 3 going to invite Marilyn up with one of her staff 4 members up. We're going to discuss something 5 about fitness. We'll go ahead and turn the floor 6 over to you at this time, and everybody give her 7 your attention, please, while I get some coffee. 8 MS. FIGUEROA: Good morning, 9 everybody. How is everybody feeling? I'm Marilyn 10 Figueroa with the Diabetes Awareness Program here 11 with Comanche Nation. We are going to do a little 12 skit. We have a project that we're working on 13 called Workout Warriors, Fighting Against 14 Diabetes. So we'll go ahead and start with that 15 and then I'll explain. 16 MR. FLORES: Hello. My name is 17 Martin. As you can see, I am one of the 18 overweight Native Americans here and I have type 19 II diabetes. Okay? I'm just going to do a little 20 skit here about a day in the life of me and maybe 21 transforming with Workout Warriors. So here I 22 go. 23 (Skit performed.) 24 MR. NELSON: Folks, what this means 25 is we don't like diabetes, and we don't like the 6 1 diabetes name. Are we destined to have diabetes? 2 No. George Tahdooahnippah, "Comanche Boy," how 3 are we? 19 and 0? 4 MR. TAHDOOAHNIPPAH: 19 and 0. A lot 5 of people know me as a boxer, as a fighter, but 6 now I'm working for the Diabetes Department and 7 we've got a new fight. It's our health. It is 8 all of us, all of us to get better. We've got a 9 battle within. So we'd like to welcome everybody 10 to join, come down, call Diabetes. We're going to 11 do health screenings. It's a five-week program. 12 There's incentives to workout. And if you've got 13 any questions, just give us a call at the Diabetes 14 Program. We have fliers going around right now. 15 The program starts August 17th, it's open to all 16 Native Americans, and hopefully everybody here can 17 join. 18 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Did you get 19 showers in there yet? 20 MR. TAHDOOAHNIPPAH: We're working on 21 it. Starting right now as Comanche people, we'd 22 like to lead the way for everybody. Of all the 23 tribes, we want to be on top. So everyone, if 24 you'll participate. Even our CBC members, you 25 know, they can lead by example, get moving, trying 7 1 to eat right. We're all learning. No one's going 2 to be perfect. I battle health, I battle weight, 3 I battle trying not to drink sodas, eating chips. 4 And it's going to be hard, but, you know, it's for 5 everybody. And I'm here to devote my time and try 6 and help my people, whatever I can do. 7 MR. NELSON: Are we destined to be 8 diabetics? No. 9 MR. NIEDO: Come join our team. 10 MR. NELSON: As a matter of fact, 11 when you call, "Anti-diabetes. Can we help you?" 12 MR. BURGESS: Well, thank you very 13 much Anti-diabetes team. I guess I'll have to 14 join the team here, lay off the cookies and fry 15 bread. But, you know, it's sacrilegious for an 16 Indian to go to a powwow and not have fry bread. 17 You've got to have your cholesterol up if you're 18 going to gourd dance. That's the only thing I 19 remember. 20 The last meeting we had, we had 21 approved my travel to Washington, D.C. And I 22 don't recall if it was Phyllis or Debbie had asked 23 if I was going to make a report. 24 We went through the technical 25 discussions of asking the Tribal Council to 8 1 approve travel the way it says in the 2 constitution. And I brought up the fact that our 3 constitution was created in 1967. The majority of 4 our people were living at home. Now in the state 5 of Oklahoma I believe there's around 6,000 6 registered Comanches living in the state. Living 7 in the five county, seven county area, there's 8 approximately 4,500, maybe 5,000 of all ages. 9 So we really followed the American 10 dream, but that dream was based on what Comanches 11 did. We came out of the mountains and went all 12 over the place. We have stories of our people who 13 went to California and he came back. And along 14 the way he said he spoke Numunu to everybody that 15 was there. He's talking about running into even 16 the Hopi, Paiutes, Wolopis, and over in 17 California, Monos, Southern Paiute, Northern 18 Paiute. So our language group is very big. So 19 now that we are a larger tribe with 14,000 -- 20 approximately 14,600 people, and half of them live 21 in state and the other half out of state. We've 22 got a large group of people. 23 Now, coming back to my report. I do 24 have a report here, it's in writing. I've given 25 it to the CBC members. I only have a few copies, 9 1 if somebody wanted to understand it. 2 I made a visit to the Indian Health 3 Service. Almost got a visit with the new Indian 4 Health Service Director, Roubideaux. But I'm not 5 French, so I've heard it so many different ways. 6 That's a big name among our northern relatives, 7 the Ojib, the Chippewas, and then the Lacotas. 8 So we met with her assistant, 9 Kathleen Annette. She was Acting Deputy Director 10 of Field Operations, and so she sat in. And I 11 relayed to her our concern about the Indian 12 Hospital, our Indian Hospital here, informing them 13 that it's the only Indian Hospital in the state of 14 Oklahoma that's managed by Indian Health Service. 15 It's going to be very soon. I say that because 16 the Claremore Indian Hospital is going to be 17 compacted very shortly. I believe it's the 18 Cherokee that are going to take it over. 19 And so with the movement of the Ada, 20 the Indian Hospital in Ada, the one in Claremore, 21 the Pawnee Indian Hospital will be changed to a 22 clinic, and Clinton and Weatherford have an Indian 23 clinic now, there is no Indian Health Service 24 Hospital other than the one we have here in 25 Lawton. 10 1 And in our discussions with 2 Dr. Chappabitty, Dr. Edwin Chappabitty, who's 3 recently retired from IHS, it's going to take 4 approximately $25 to $30 million annually to 5 manage the Indian Hospital. And so there is no 6 tribe on this side of the state that has that 7 amount of money to compact the hospitals and to 8 assume the medical liability that it brings. So 9 that was my discussion to IHS. 10 Sitting at IHS, I think there was 11 about 12 of them, 12 folks who represented that 12 whole area from their -- all the way from Oklahoma 13 City staff who were on the telephone; Dr. David 14 Meeks, who is the -- Kevin Meeks, excuse me, who 15 is the area director. And one of our own people, 16 Max Tsoodle, was there. Sitting there with him 17 was our good friend Mike Mahsetky. A lot of you 18 know the name. He's been there quite a while. 19 And then another young lady, she's out of the 20 Roach family. She was there representing 21 management. 22 And so they heard this discussion 23 from me, your Chairman. And I was the only 24 Chairman that could make the trip. And I 25 explained to them that the other tribes, the five 11 1 tribes here out of Anadarko and two tribes out of 2 El Reno Area Office, making seven, with the Fort 3 Sill Apache, that's eight tribes, and we have 4 these two organizations. Used to be the Seven 5 Tribes' Consortium, now it's the Eight Tribes', and 6 then with the tribes that are on the health board 7 here at the Indian Health Service. And my 8 attending that meeting and then going to the Eight 9 Tribes' meeting, expressing to them and explaining 10 to them that my people were going to allow me to 11 go, and thankfully y'all did. 12 And I went up there and told IHS that 13 while I'm speaking on behalf of the Comanches, 14 there are other tribes who had this big concern 15 about the Indian Hospital. We didn't want it 16 closed, we don't want it to be converted to an 17 outpatient clinic, and that no matter what they 18 hear on statistics, the majority of our Indian 19 people cannot go to the hospital at Fort Sill Army 20 Base. The majority of our people who are not 21 receiving Medicare/Medicaid or have private 22 insurance are not going to be seen very often by 23 any of the two hospitals in Lawton. 24 So for them to hear stories that 25 there's three hospitals available for our Indian 12 1 people to go to, if they turn this into a clinic, 2 is very erroneous, wrong. It's a lie, and you 3 know that. 4 Because those of you who are under 5 contract health care, do you get the proper care 6 you need? Do you get the emergency service you 7 need? And always, if you're not a Priority 1 8 under contract health care, you will be denied 9 assistance, because there's not enough money for 10 that. 11 I brought these issues forward, laid 12 them on the table with IHS. And going away from 13 that meeting, they promised that Ms. Roubideaux 14 will be here in Oklahoma City on August 18th, 19th 15 and 20th for what's called a Direct Service Tribes 16 Conference, so we'll be in attendance there and 17 all of our board members will be going. We have a 18 meeting next week with the Indian Health Board 19 here and I'll give this report to them as well. 20 And as far as anybody at that table 21 knew, because there'd been so many changes, I'm 22 the first tribal leader or chairperson who's 23 knocked on their door and kicked it open, or 24 whatever I did, to walk in and tell them the 25 situation. And they were surprised to hear the 13 1 area office say this: Well, we have a master plan 2 to reinvigorate the hospital, to redevelop the 3 hospital. 4 So I'm sitting there, and I made a 5 phone call to two other tribal leaders and they 6 said they'd never heard of a master plan. No one 7 knew that there was a master plan in Oklahoma City 8 to keep our hospital a hospital. So finally this 9 information came out because somebody went to D.C. 10 to tell them, hey, we got a problem here. And 11 your Comanche people were the ones who said to do 12 that, so thank you very much. 13 Now IHS is very curious, now 14 Dr. Meeks, Kevin Meeks, from our area office is 15 now going to be at our next meeting. He's been in 16 office for over a year and has not made one 17 meeting to this health board, has not come down 18 and said anything to them about a master plan, 19 what we want to see, what we need, what our people 20 desire, what it is our concerns are, what medical 21 coverage we need. 22 So ladies and gentlemen, the area 23 office is now starting to bounce around about what 24 are they going to do for the Indian Hospital. 25 Because our Indian people are standing up saying 14 1 we want the hospital, we don't want a clinic. 2 So that's the basis of my report. I 3 tried to keep it brief. It's two pages. 4 Yes, Roderick? Thank you. 5 MR. WHITEWOLF: Mr. Chairman, when 6 they talk about $25, $30 million for the western 7 side, and you said Seven Tribes', Eight Tribes', 8 what did you mean by Eight Tribes'? Now I 9 understand it's Caddo, Delaware, Kiowa, Comanche, 10 Apache, Fort Sill Apache. And what's the other 11 one? 12 MR. BURGESS: Cheyenne Arapaho. 13 They're part of that Seven Tribes' Consortium now. 14 Sometime in between the time the last I knew or 15 whatever, they counted themselves as the Cheyenne 16 and Arapaho, as we say C&A. 17 MR. WHITEWOLF: That's never been 18 until now. But, listen, we've got IHS, which IHS 19 says that we're supposed to service anyone that 20 comes in, including Cherokees, Choctaws, 21 Chickasaws and all those. You know, these people 22 don't contribute. 23 Now, you know, IHS has been our 24 downfall to this point. Well, or else -- either 25 IHS/Hickory Starr. You know, he's been the most 15 1 destructive, I thought. The last said was the 2 worst, but Hickory Starr to this day has been the 3 worst director we've ever had, because he's 4 wrecked our hospital. 5 You know, you can go there and that 6 doesn't mean you're going to get seen. If you're 7 not dying then your priority is very low. And, 8 you know, I think this -- I'm glad you went to see 9 about it, and I hope the other tribes, I hope they 10 get on their horses and get concerned. You know, 11 up until now, you go to the Indian Hospital when 12 the boards meet and they never have a quorum. 13 MR. BURGESS: Right. That's been, I 14 guess, one of their issues. And if I can respond 15 a little bit. When I went to the Seven Tribes' 16 meeting, that's when they said we're now Eight 17 Tribes', so I'm walking into something that's been 18 changed, whenever it was changed. They had 19 bylaws. I don't know if they're going to 20 incorporate or become a true organization. So 21 that's what I walked into. But they all -- four 22 of them said we're behind you. Leslie Standing 23 with the Wichitas said, "If I could go, but I'm 24 going to support what you say you're doing, 25 because we need that hospital." 16 1 And the influx of people, and we 2 brought this up, and Dr. Chappabitty is more or 3 less our expert. We don't pay him anything, but 4 he's volunteering to help us with this issue. He 5 is stating that, yes, a lot of people are coming 6 from out of state, out of our service area, and I 7 brought that point to the table, too. There needs 8 to be better coordination than we've got because 9 the people who this hospital is serving, it's over 10 inundated. There's too many people from outside 11 the service area who come in. So bringing that to 12 them. 13 And I guess sometime, five years, 14 seven years, I don't know how long it's been 15 before any tribal leader went there. Because 16 we've always been told we've got to go to the area 17 office, area office. And in my way of thinking, 18 because we've been going to the ares office for 19 five or 10 years, we've been going to the wrong 20 place. 21 MR. WHITEWOLF: There's too much 22 interest in gaming money. They don't have time to 23 seem to help -- 24 MR. BURGESS: My only interest in 25 gaming moneys is let people play more. I can't 17 1 play, so I don't even play anymore. 2 MR. WHITEWOLF: That's not what 3 I meant. 4 MR. BURGESS: Well, I know what you 5 mean. And that's what we're trying to get them to 6 hurry up and get that renovation done, hurry up 7 and get back on line. They've got things to do 8 that our people depend on. 9 MR. SAPCUT: You keep saying Indian 10 Health Service. Is it classified as a Public 11 Health Service, also? 12 MR. BURGESS: Yes, it is, as far as 13 I'm told. 14 MR. SAPCUT: Why two names? 15 MR. BURGESS: It's Public Health 16 Service Hospital. That was done when it was -- 17 back in the '60s or '70s when they went from -- 18 MR. SAPCUT: So any race can go in 19 there, then? 20 MR. BURGESS: That's what they say. 21 MR. SAPCUT: I've seen all kind of 22 races go in there. 23 MR. BURGESS: But it does have to be 24 a dire emergency for them to be seen. 25 MR. WHITEWOLF: From what I 18 1 understand, the hospital back then got in trouble 2 and they went to IHS to bail us out money-wise. 3 MR. BURGESS: That's what I 4 understand was happening. 5 MR. SAPCUT: They still see anybody 6 off the street, it seems like. They just take 7 people off the street since it's Public Health 8 Service. 9 MR. BURGESS: It is. And then I 10 brought up the point that our people, because of 11 their cultural awareness, the need of the doctors, 12 that we desire to have -- that we're looking, we 13 desire to have American Indian doctors. We want 14 Indian doctors who understand the cultural 15 sensitivity to someone touching your body, someone 16 female or male helping you. 17 And not to be just -- some of you 18 have an HMO. Those of you who have gone to HMO, 19 the doctor who is available sees you, no matter 20 what your pain or record is. And our Indian 21 folks, we're hearing that they don't want that. 22 They want that doctor who knows their conditions, 23 knows their medications, knows them personally, 24 that they're comfortable with. So the new system 25 they're having is like an HMO. Whatever doctor is 19 1 available, you go see them, no matter who it is. 2 MR. SAPCUT: Now, if you don't go to 3 the hospital after so many years, they put your 4 records away or put them in storage or something, 5 because that's what happened to me. I don't think 6 they have any records on me now, unless they've 7 made -- because last time I went down and looked 8 for my records, they couldn't find them. I had to 9 start over. 10 MR. BURGESS: Really? No, they 11 shouldn't have done that. Because after 24 years, 12 they still had my records at Pawnee Indian Health 13 Clinic when I went in there. 14 MR. SAPCUT: They didn't have mine 15 one time. 16 MRS. WHITEWOLF: Mike, what they do, 17 if the records haven't been used, they gather them 18 all up and they send them to a federal records 19 center in Fort Worth, Texas. And then say a 20 person has stopped using the hospital and they 21 come back all of a sudden, they'll have to fill 22 out some information on a card and that record, 23 the original record is sent for. They can get 24 that record back and activate it. 25 MR. BURGESS: Probably that's what 20 1 they did for me at Pawnee when I walked in and 2 needed emergency service. 3 To conclude my report, I had a good 4 visit with Congressman Cole. 5 MR. WHITEWOLF: We know the hospital 6 as IHS, but I think the addition of PHS is what 7 allows all the other people to come in. 8 MR. BURGESS: That must be it. But I 9 told them that this hospital is here by treaty, 10 and that we want that treaty to be honored because 11 our people have no other services. If you have no 12 insurance, you have no services. You can only do 13 so much with preventive health care. But at some 14 point in time you'll get a flu, you get a cold, 15 you break a leg, something's going to happen, and 16 our Elders who fall or trip because of 17 infirmities. 18 We need to have that hospital as a 19 full-fledged hospital. That's the only way I know 20 how to say it, fully functioning. You know, 21 24-hour service. So that's what we're pushing 22 for. 23 And I've told them: Yes, the tribes 24 over here got casinos, but we don't make $30 25 million a year just for a hospital. We can't 21 1 afford it. There's no way in the world we can put 2 our money into that hospital and then get sued. 3 Any lawsuit that would come to us would break us, 4 you know. So we have to have that hospital 5 managed, operated, run by Indian Health Service 6 with Indian doctors, and with full-fledged 7 formulary, formulas that everybody needs, not just 8 what's 30 years old. And that's another issue 9 that's coming out, that a lot of the medications 10 are over 30 years old. 11 To conclude now, I got to visit with 12 Congressman Cole. He's real supportive of us. 13 And he's also encouraging the other tribes, let's 14 get active on this, because it needs to be done. 15 He understands that. And then Congressman Rahall, 16 his office has authored some new amendments to the 17 Indian Health Care Improvement Act. These 18 amendments are very supportive of what our Elders 19 have been talking about; putting an assisted 20 living center near the hospital and making them 21 eligible for Medicare/Medicaid payments. 22 Last meeting we heard Delphine Nelson 23 stand up and say that currently Medicare/Medicaid 24 wouldn't pay for Elders living in an assisted 25 living center unless it was actually a retirement 22 1 home. And the cost of a retirement home is just 2 as expensive as a hospital, because you've got to 3 pay for the doctors, you've got to have 24-hour 4 contracted medical care of some sort. So in order 5 to have that, you've got to have all this 6 liability insurance, you've got to pay the doctors 7 whatever it is they require, and all the nurses. 8 So if we were to locate this assisted 9 living center by the Indian Hospital, have a 10 contract of service with the Indian Health Service 11 Hospital and their doctors to provide that 24-hour 12 emergency and observation care, then we would have 13 an assisted living center. With this law Rahall 14 is sponsoring, that would receive recognition to 15 get Medicare/Medicaid services for any one of our 16 individuals in that hospital or that retirement 17 center. 18 And you're just across the fence from 19 the hospital. So we could create some kind of 20 walkway or some kind of a covered transport area, 21 concrete probably, for emergency vehicles going in 22 and out real quick. And that's what I'm 23 understanding the Elders were talking of. And for 24 us, the Tribe, that's the least expensive. If 25 we're to locate this facility anywhere else, you 23 1 need to talk about the cost for medical care and 2 coverage, you need to talk about if it's not 3 feasible under Rahall, this amendment doesn't 4 pass, then what are we going to do for 24-hour 5 medical care. That's three times as much as it's 6 going to cost us to build a facility, because 7 every doctor is going to need $5, $20 million in 8 insurance. And most generally, if it's our 9 facility, we're going to have to be insured as 10 well. 11 So ladies and gentlemen, our Elders, 12 those of you who are talking of a retirement home 13 not located to the Indian Service Hospital, you're 14 talking about another $5 to $10 million annually 15 in just insurance and contract health care. 16 That's ambulance, nurses and doctors who have to 17 be on site to take care of the 10, 15 or 24 people 18 that will be in this facility. And so those costs 19 are continuing to rise. We're finding out here at 20 the Tribe with the cost of medical care to our 21 employees. 22 So that's something you have to 23 really consider. Can the Tribe afford that? If 24 you say yes, then you're taking 20 to 25 million 25 out of the program side and just putting it in 24 1 medical coverage for the least number of people. 2 Think about that before it's insisted that we move 3 anywhere else. Because if we can knock on 4 Congress and get these people to support us, and 5 then we do build a retirement center next to the 6 hospital, we are not covered, we don't have to pay 7 all that cost for the doctors and the medical 8 insurance that's going to come. That's just my 9 thinking. I'm only one person. I'm not there 10 yet. 11 Hopefully I'll be fortunate enough I 12 won't have to go in one of these if I keep walking 13 and fighting diabetes. I fight it by starving 14 myself. 15 We're just discussing the next 16 meeting date, since we don't have a quorum. I'd 17 like for us to do it next Saturday on August 8th. 18 There's just four of us here, so we're going to 19 reestablish it to August 8th. I know many people 20 are saying it's Exposition, but we'll do our 21 best. Maybe we can even meet at 9 o'clock instead 22 of 10:00. 23 MR. WHITEWOLF: Don't you have a 24 period there where you've got to advertise another 25 meeting? Isn't there a nine-day period. 25 1 MR. BURGESS: We have to give notice. 2 MR. WHITEWOLF: Mike, this is kind of 3 a little period here I'd like to say something. 4 I'd like to -- I think we need to understand 5 there's another lawsuit going on, which it has our 6 attorneys embroiled in it. And I think it's time 7 that we need to have a General Council, because 8 we've got to discuss this. Because if we've got 9 attorneys that can't keep themselves out of legal 10 problems, then I think it's time for us to get 11 some new ones. 12 MR. BURGESS: Roderick, let's hold 13 that topic and then we'll come back to it. And, 14 Bev, did you have a topic on the previous 15 discussion of scheduling? 16 MS. ISAAC: Yeah. I was wondering 17 why Eddie was getting in his pickup and leaving, 18 and where is Lanny? Because these are important 19 meetings. You're just getting started. We need 20 to have these meetings and they're -- you know, 21 they took an oath to be here. 22 MR. BURGESS: Yes. 23 MS. ISAAC: So General Council sounds 24 like a good thing, because, I mean, we all need to 25 have a General Council. 26 1 MR. BURGESS: Okay. 2 MRS. HENDRIX: They played this 3 boycott game once before. 4 MR. NELSON: Mr. Chairman, if you 5 guys do not mind, we cannot establish business 6 without a quorum. Our constitution mandates 7 this. 8 But to follow up on what we were 9 talking about, IHS, could you guys allow 10 Mr. Tonemah, that traveled from Arizona, to speak 11 about the IHS situation that they kind of 12 conquered in New Mexico and Arizona? Is that 13 possible? 14 MR. BURGESS: Hang on. 15 MS. SHANGREAUX: Just a short 16 question. Are you going to meet at 9:00 or 10:00? 17 MR. BURGESS: We're just discussing 18 we're going to do that on the 15th now, because we 19 need that 10-day notice. 20 MS. AITSON: I understand that this 21 is very important to you guys, that you want to 22 not have a meeting until next week. But, you 23 know, look at the crowd that you have here. And a 24 lot of this the people have not heard. You know, 25 since we're just discussing things, why don't you 27 1 allow people to talk and voice their opinions for 2 these things, and that way some of these people 3 here can understand. 4 There's a lot of you here that don't 5 understand the enrollment situation, and that 6 needs to be brought out. Because in the past, 7 when Debbie has tried to explain herself a little 8 bit to people that didn't know, she was always 9 told to sit down, she couldn't talk. And I think 10 that's important that they hear what's going on. 11 Even if we can't do anything about it, at least 12 these people know that when General Council comes, 13 we're going to be able to do something. Thank 14 you. 15 MR. BURGESS: Yes, sir, Mr. Yeagley? 16 DR. YEAGLEY: Are we at any point 17 going to go by the agenda here or is it just sort 18 of up for grabs now? 19 MR. BURGESS: Well, it's not up for 20 grabs. In fact, since we have no quorum, we have 21 no official meeting. Ms. Aitson, the original 22 intent was that we would sit around and have 23 general discussion on issues or topics for about 24 an hour, because I know everybody's got some place 25 to go, and there's a lot of people who want to 28 1 speak out on some subjects. No decisions will be 2 made about anything, but if I'm the last one here 3 to hear you, then I'll sit here and hear you. 4 That's what you wanted me to do when you put me in 5 this office, and I thank you, and I'll do my 6 best. And as long as we're cordial to each other, 7 that's the main thing I want for us. That's what 8 I ask for. 9 MS. AITSON: I was just saying just 10 kind of talking around for those who have never 11 heard about it. 12 MS. CRAIG: Mr. Chairman, I have a 13 question. You know, I've attended most all the 14 meetings in the past. And it seems like every 15 time we have something important come on the 16 agenda, those few CBC members don't show up so 17 there's not a quorum. Now, these three that's not 18 here today, they were always in opposition to 19 everything. Now they're not here today again. 20 And that brings to my mind why are they doing 21 this? If their Comanche people and the meeting is 22 not so important to them, let's get a recall on 23 them. We're good about doing that. 24 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I want to say this 25 for Mr. Darrell Kosechequetah. Unfortunately, 29 1 August 1st, they always have a family reunion, and 2 he felt bad because, you know, he's been a part of 3 that, their family. And they meet in the Tulsa 4 area, so he was away because of that reason. Last 5 year he stayed because he just came in, he felt it 6 was fitting, but his family does it at this time 7 every year, this kind of Saturday, so that's the 8 reason that he's away. The others, I don't know. 9 I can't speak for them. But Darrell asked me to 10 express that. 11 MR. WHITEWOLF: No one forced him to 12 become a committee member. He's got an 13 obligation. He took an oath of office. 14 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We're his 15 family, too. 16 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I can't -- I'm just 17 expressing. 18 MR. BURGESS: For those of you who 19 don't know it, Mr. Mahseet is contracted -- he is 20 volunteering to serve as your auctioneer across 21 the way. Well, I thought he was being of service 22 to that auction. 23 MS. CRAIG: I have another question 24 to ask while we're talking about Mr. Mahseet. Is 25 he being paid for the radio program that he's on 30 1 or is it just strictly volunteer? 2 MR. BURGESS: From my knowledge, the 3 radio program is being sponsored by -- is it 4 Economic Development? 5 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Gaming. 6 MR. BURGESS: By gaming? Okay. And 7 they pay for the cost of that. And I'm not aware 8 that he's receiving any payment. Do you want me 9 to write that down? 10 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Write it down. 11 MS. CRAIG: The reason I ask is 12 because there's sometimes that he isn't there, but 13 you listen to the program and he's on there. So 14 to me, what is more important, the Indian program 15 or the CBC meeting? Because he's got people 16 helping him and they can carry on just as well as 17 he can. 18 MR. BURGESS: Okay. You're right. 19 Mr. Yeagley, hang on. Mrs. Hendrix has the floor 20 first and then you, then we'll go over to the 21 company, Willie. Mr. Tonemah, you said, is here 22 to discuss IHS areas. Deborah, go ahead. 23 MRS. HENDRIX: Since this is just 24 going to be a discussion, since we do have 25 Mr. Tippeconnie here, I would like to ask him some 31 1 questions that he could answer without being in a 2 quorum. Because as Secretary/Treasurer of the 3 people, he should be able to answer those 4 questions at any time. 5 And I'd like to ask him, who is 6 paying for Wallace and Jenice and Ron RedElk right 7 now, their attorneys? Because they are no 8 longer -- or have been on the CBC. I'd like to 9 know who is footing the bill for them. Are the 10 people still paying for them? If so, then I want 11 my legal fees paid. 12 MR. BURGESS: Are you referring to 13 the lawsuit that is -- 14 MRS. HENDRIX: Supreme Court. 15 MR. BURGESS: As I understand it, 16 we've told them before they have to give us a 17 detailed report. And those individuals who are 18 off now, my understanding is that they have to 19 find their own counsel, so I'm not sure if that's 20 been done by them or not. 21 MRS. HENDRIX: I also have that 22 resolution for you where -- there is a resolution 23 where they are supposed to give you a detailed 24 report of their expenditures. 25 MR. BURGESS: That comes in, yes. 32 1 There's a report over in the office. I don't get 2 to review it because I'm not -- I don't have a 3 history of it, so the TA has been the one 4 designated to review that and give it back to us. 5 MRS. HENDRIX: I think, you know, 6 when Jenice left, all of those -- they were paying 7 for it then, that should be recouped money. And 8 since Wallace and Ron RedElk are gone, those 9 moneys should be recouped since they've left. 10 Either that or give me the money they've paid them 11 during that time to pay for my legal fees. 12 MR. BURGESS: All right, thank you. 13 DR. YEAGLEY: Well, look, I want to 14 take advantage of the fact that people are here. 15 This is about the fifth time I've tried to present 16 a proposal publicly, and it's going on a year- 17 and-a-half now. I'm not asking for a vote on 18 anything, I don't need a quorum, I just need the 19 ears of the people. I'd like other people that 20 are here to know what the circumstances are as 21 well, so I hope that that can happen before this 22 is over. 23 MR. BURGESS: Is that on this? Hang 24 on. We'll come back to you. 25 Mr. Bread, were you discussing on the 33 1 previous topic of Deborah Hendrix? 2 MR. BREAD: Yes. 3 MR. BURGESS: We'll do that and then 4 we'll come back over here to the health group. 5 MR. BREAD: The constitution says the 6 General Council will hire an attorney to represent 7 the Tribe. If the Tribe is not listed as a 8 defendant, they have to furnish their own 9 attorneys. 10 MR. BURGESS: Okay. 11 MR. BREAD: And I understand she's 12 not against the Tribe, it's certain individuals, 13 so they should get their own attorneys. We should 14 not pay for that. If it don't state the Tribe as 15 a defendant, we're not liable for their attorney. 16 MRS. HENDRIX: And Mr. Tippeconnie, 17 how far over the budget are we on paying the 18 attorneys? Since you're the Secretary/Treasurer, 19 I'm sure you can answer that question. 20 MR. TIPPECONNIE: The attorney fees, 21 you know, we have normal fees which are through 22 programs and activities. Like ICW, you know, they 23 pay child support for them. 24 MR. WHITEWOLF: What's the budget for 25 them? 34 1 MRS. HENDRIX: What's the budget? 2 How far over the budget are they? 3 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I can't say 4 specifically, and I don't want to. 5 MRS. HENDRIX: Why do you not want 6 to? We hired you to tell us those things. 7 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I did not bring the 8 packet. I want to cite correct figures. 9 MRS. HENDRIX: Give us an estimate. 10 People need to know these things. 11 MR. TIPPECONNIE: It's near $200,000. 12 MRS. HENDRIX: Over budget? 13 MR. BURGESS: No, the budget -- 14 MRS. HENDRIX: I know what the budget 15 is. How far over are they, an estimate? 16 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I think it's near 17 that as well. 18 MRS. HENDRIX: Where is this money 19 coming from since we pay them over budget? 20 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Well, the money we 21 have to then look for to see where we can cover 22 that, yes. 23 MRS. HENDRIX: That's what I'm saying 24 we need to recoup from those people. We need to 25 recoup from all of them, actually, because I 35 1 didn't sue the Tribe, so they didn't need to 2 represent any of them. In fact, I sued their 3 firm. 4 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I hear your 5 comments. 6 MRS. HENDRIX: Okay. 7 MR. BURGESS: All right. 8 MR. BREAD: One more thing. 9 MR. BURGESS: Last thing, Mr. Bread, 10 and then we'll move over to Mr. Tonemah. 11 MR. BREAD: Why are there attorneys 12 at every meeting? If we don't have any legal 13 issue, why do we need them? We pay them, what, 14 $200 or $300 an hour? If we need any legal 15 advice, call them. That's what they're there 16 for. If they need to be here, well, then bring 17 them here, but they don't need to be here for 18 nothing that doesn't need a legal advice. Why are 19 they here getting paid? 20 MRS. HENDRIX: I know you said that 21 was the last comment, but I have to bring up some 22 subject that I had said before. When y'all were 23 all elected, if you don't know the constitution 24 word for word, chapter for chapter, then you 25 didn't need to be up here. We don't need 36 1 attorneys coming in and telling us what our 2 constitution says. That's why we elected y'all. 3 Y'all make the decision. They don't, you do. And 4 so their opinion shouldn't count, but yours, 5 because you were elected by us. Because you're 6 Comanche people and you know our laws. 7 MR. BURGESS: Thank you, Deb. Thank 8 you. 9 MS. MASON: I have a problem with 10 Debbie speaking up because she's not even a Tribal 11 member. This meeting is for Comanches. Until 12 she's declared a Comanche, then we don't need to 13 hear from her. 14 MR. BURGESS: Thank you. 15 MRS. HENDRIX: Mike, let me speak to 16 that. Okay? What does that say? 17 MR. BURGESS: It's on letterhead from 18 the United States Department of the Interior. It 19 states: "To whom it may concern: This is to 20 certify that the records of this office show that 21 Phillip Jesse Hendrix, III, is of 5/8 degree 22 Indian blood from the Comanche/Caddo tribes. Date 23 of birth, 12-23-1986. He/She is further certified 24 to be an enrolled member of the Comanche Tribe and 25 an Indian as defined by the Secretary of the 37 1 Interior, Tribal Roll Number 11319, by act of June 2 2nd, 1924." In parenthesis it states, "43 Statute 3 Number 253. All Indians born within the 4 territorial limits of the United States are 5 declared to be citizens of the United States." 6 MRS. HENDRIX: His says the same, 7 only it says Angie Annette. Yours says the same, 8 only it says my name. This was done in September 9 of '08. This was six months after the 10 disenrollment. And I told you then, the only one 11 that can take us off the roll is the Secretary of 12 Interior. 13 Wallace just sat up here and used his 14 mouth and said we're taking you off the roll and 15 denied us the services up here. That's all he 16 did. He just denied us services up here. But we 17 are on the Comanche roll. We were never taken 18 off. 19 I got a per cap in 1952. I've got 20 that documentation. I got the per cap in 1967 as 21 a Comanche. I'm on the base roll. You can't be 22 taken off the base roll except by the Secretary of 23 Interior. So Wallace never took us off. He told 24 all of you he took us off, he told the paper he 25 took us off, but he never did. He took us off the 38 1 roll over here, but that doesn't mean anything. 2 We're still Comanches on the Comanche roll. 3 And the KCAs, we were originally on 4 the KCA's in 1952. That's when we got the KCA per 5 cap. And that C in KCA doesn't stand for Caddo. 6 I've also got all the documentation from the 7 Caddo, which I said some of our CBC -- there's the 8 base roll that the Bureau sent them showing that 9 I'm on the base roll. The Caddos sent them 10 showing I had never ever been on there, and then 11 that's when Donna Wahnee writes a resolution that 12 it had been proven I was on the Caddo roll. 13 And then I get a statement that the 14 Caddos won't communicate with them anymore. Well, 15 I talked to Shirley Gouge, who they say is my 16 relative but isn't. It's Johnny's sister. The 17 last time I checked, I wasn't kin to Johnny. But, 18 anyway, she said, "I had to quit talking to Donna. 19 I had told her so many times on the phone you have 20 never been on the Caddo roll." 21 And on the kids, all their paperwork 22 from Charles Carter and Zena Anderson are in 23 here. It shows that they were properly done. It 24 also -- I also even have their enrollment signed 25 by Wallace Coffey. And here is their coding sheet 39 1 to the Anadarko stating -- showing that they were 2 coded in in the Anadarko office as a Comanche. So 3 they cannot be taken off now except by the 4 Secretary of Interior. 5 So that's why I am asking -- I was 6 going to come today and ask that -- the chairman 7 himself doesn't need a quorum. I also have the 8 minutes held by the meeting on the 29th where 9 everybody came for their hearing. And Wallace 10 made the statement then that the CBC did it so it 11 would be up to the CBC to change it. 12 I also have heard from an attorney 13 that knows attorneys, knows law -- you can keep 14 those. And he also stated that our constitution 15 didn't recognize anything, and so that all that 16 needed to be done was those resolutions 17 rescinded. But actually since the Bureau had 18 already made the actions taken void, the Chairman 19 can go with the Bureau's declaration that the 20 whole actions that were taken are void and void 21 everything yourself because you're the chairman. 22 We do not need a General Council because the 23 General Council was not called for disenrollment. 24 They were not asked. 25 MR. BURGESS: Is this Terry? What is 40 1 his name? 2 MRS. HENDRIX: Bruner. 3 MR. BURGESS: He's made this 4 statement 5 MR. WHITEWOLF: It's not in the 6 constitution. There's nothing to support the 7 action in the constitution. 8 MRS. HENDRIX: That's what he said. 9 I'm in Supreme Court right now. It's been 10 distributed to all the justices. 11 MR. WHITEWOLF: But that's against 12 individual actions. 13 MRS. HENDRIX: Individuals, I didn't 14 sue the Tribe. But that's because I wouldn't go 15 that far if I wasn't on the roll. And I knew I 16 was on the roll and I knew I was there rightfully 17 and my children were on there rightfully. 18 MR. NARCOMEY: Mr. Chairman, I'll 19 make one statement on her behalf here. When the 20 CBC voted on that, it was a 5 to 1 vote. Five of 21 the committeemen voted to take her off. Me, Clyde 22 Narcomey, voted to keep her on. Let everybody 23 know that I voted no, to keep her on, because she 24 has been a Tribal member since the early '70s. 25 MR. BURGESS: That's when the new 41 1 roll was established anyway. 2 MRS. HENDRIX: The KCA, I was on the 3 KCA before that. 4 MR. BURGESS: I know it's a very hot 5 topic and you haven't even gotten this far to 6 express all this to the community. 7 MRS. HENDRIX: Right. And that's why 8 I'm asking why can't you just -- since it was 9 already declared invalid by the Bureau meeting, 10 everything -- 11 MR. BURGESS: Then I haven't seen 12 that documentation. Before I do anything else 13 that's not illegal, I want to see all that 14 documentation and I want to talk to Terry Bruner 15 and see their interpretation. 16 MRS. HENDRIX: I've got the letter. 17 MR. BURGESS: I'll have to schedule a 18 visit with him and have him explain their 19 statements, their legal situation, and then our 20 constitution. 21 MRS. HENDRIX: And when they took me 22 off the roll, Tippeconnie and Ron were -- the 23 Bureau said are illegally in there. Anything they 24 signed, if I win in Supreme Court, voids 25 everything. 42 1 MR. WHITEWOLF: That's what I've 2 always thought, that Tippeconnie is sitting on the 3 board illegally. 4 MRS. HENDRIX: Yes. And that's 5 exactly what the Bureau said, that it would void 6 everything he's done since he's been in office 7 because it was done illegally. They took me off 8 the roll, or said they were taking me off the roll 9 illegally. They also denied me to run for office, 10 because I was Comanche, and they also denied me 11 the right to vote. 12 MR. BURGESS: Okay. I'm hearing 13 you. I hear you. 14 MRS. HENDRIX: So that would wipe out 15 all the disenrollments after mine if -- 16 MR. BURGESS: I want to go to the 17 mule's mouth and listen. 18 MRS. HENDRIX: And he'll tell you. 19 MR. BURGESS: Oh, I know. One last 20 time and then we want to get this other 21 information. 22 MS. MASON: I want to know why we're 23 listening to this. This is personal. We've got 24 other things that people want to hear and know 25 about instead of listening to that crap. 43 1 MR. BURGESS: I'm sorry. Let's 2 not -- 3 MRS. HENDRIX: Would you think it was 4 crap if you were disenrolled? 5 MR. BURGESS: Let's not go there. 6 And the reason is, she has children that are 7 affected more so than herself. 8 MS. MASON: Her children are on the 9 roll. 10 MR. BURGESS: One thing, Benal, that 11 I've asked myself is, if she's disenrolled and her 12 brothers have the same mother and father, what 13 happened to them? And nothing happened to them. 14 So that's -- I'm on the outside. I didn't make 15 these meetings and that's just my observations. 16 And so as I said, I'm going to go to the mule up 17 there in Anadarko and ask and see what they can 18 show me that's a legal standpoint and then bring 19 it back to y'all. That's my job to do. 20 And, Tom, I know you want to speak, 21 but we've got other issues and things we want to 22 go to. We're already discussing the possibility 23 of what Mr. Roderick here said of a General 24 Council. We're looking at calendar dates, okay? 25 And so now I would like to go into this topic here 44 1 on the Indian Health Service with Mr. Nelson, our 2 visitors, whomever. 3 Please identify yourself. We are 4 going to keep record, ladies and gentlemen. Even 5 though there's no meeting, this is an open session 6 with all of you here. We're going to ask you to 7 state your name and the topic, if you can, and 8 then go into that, if you can. 9 MR. TONEMAH: Back when I was in my 10 30s I was in Albuquerque at a conference. 11 Good morning. My name is David 12 Tonemah, member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma. 13 Please don't hold that against me. My grandma is 14 Rowena Asenap, my grandfather was Harry Tonemah. 15 I'm from Phoenix, Arizona. And I'm here to talk 16 to you about what we do. 17 And if I may just kind of go back to 18 that joke I was going to tell you to kind of 19 lighten things up. An older Navajo man was 20 standing next to me. He was in his 60s. He 21 introduced himself. He said, "I'm Navaho. What 22 tribe are you? 23 I said, "I'm Kiowa Comanche from 24 Oklahoma." 25 He said, "Comanche, huh?" 45 1 I said, "Yeah." 2 He said, "They're tough." 3 I said, "Yeah." 4 He said, "Let's go outside." 5 I said, "Let's go. It's go time." 6 But I'm here to talk to you about my 7 company. And part of what Mr. Nelson had 8 mentioned is some of the things that we do and 9 some of the experience that we've had as an 10 organization is working with tribes and taking 11 over operation of IHS-operated facilities. And we 12 have seen huge success. 13 And one of my favorite stories to 14 talk to you about is the Alaskan Native Medical 15 Center. I don't know if you guys are familiar 16 with Alaskan Native Medical Center, but it's 17 located in Anchorage. And the Consortium of 18 Tribes have taken over the operation of that 19 facility. And at the time they were -- they took 20 it over, it was operated about eight years ago, it 21 was under IHS operation, they were generating 22 about $65 million in revenue. $65 million in 23 revenue. Eight years later, under tribal 24 operation, $165 million. Expanded services, 25 decreased disparities within their communities. 46 1 So here's an example of a tribally-operated 2 facility that has had success under tribal 3 operation. 4 And I heard earlier about your 5 conversation about the Lawton Indian clinic. 6 We've worked with tribes. In fact, we're working 7 with a tribe right now that's going to 638 their 8 facility. Interestingly, within Indian Country, 9 638 has become a verb. We're going to 638 10 something, we're going to 638 this facility, this 11 clinic. 12 So I have been in Indian health for 13 about 25 years now. I went to Oklahoma Baptist 14 University in Shawnee, got a degree in health care 15 administration and got my master's degree in 16 business administration, have worked all over the 17 nation with tribes in improving health care. I've 18 worked for IHS, I've worked for a tribally- 19 operated facility, and I've worked for an urban 20 Indian health program. So I've accomplished the 21 Indian health trifecta, what I refer to as the 22 Indian health trifecta. 23 So the point of what I'm -- as we've 24 worked throughout the nation, I've seen IHS- 25 operated hospitals, I've seen facilities where 47 1 it's taking three to six months to get a well 2 woman examine. And I say to myself, that's not 3 access to care. 4 Did you know that as American Indians 5 we have the lowest incidence of cancer but the 6 highest mortality rates because of issues about 7 access to care? Did you know there are some 8 tribes out there that for dental appointments, if 9 you're not the first one to get in line, you got 10 to the come back the next day for your dental 11 care. You're all familiar. You've heard these 12 stories. 13 We're working with tribes and 14 improving the way health care is provided to our 15 native people. We gave up too much to get the 16 kind of resources that we're getting now, land, 17 resources received for health care education, and 18 housing. So our organization is committed to 19 improving health care in Indian Country. 20 The reason I'm standing before you 21 today is we have created a company called Native 22 Health Group. And Native Health Group is an 23 employee benefits organization located in 24 Phoenix. And Native Health Group works with 25 tribes, tribal organizations, anybody who does 48 1 business with native people, in providing 2 benefits. 3 But I prefer to refer to creating 4 access to health care. We create access to health 5 care through benefits. The reason I say it that 6 way is, if it's taking you three to six months to 7 get a well woman exam, or two months to get a 8 regular doctor's appointment, through employee 9 benefits you'd able to access care. 10 Now through employee benefits you're 11 also able to provide income to your IHS or 12 tribally-operated facility, because IHS and 13 tribally-operated facilities can bill and collect 14 from your ultimate resource and generate revenue 15 and expand services and pay people. 16 Now, from what I understand, the 17 Tribe here provides benefits that are fully 18 insured. Now fully-insured benefits are 19 basically -- not to get too -- I don't want to get 20 too technical, but there's fully-insured and self- 21 insured. When a tribe is fully insured, that 22 means all of their premiums are going to 23 BlueCross, BlueShield or Principal, and they're 24 paying out -- they're assuming all the risk. And 25 IHS is able to bill and collect from a tribally 49 1 self-insured plan. 2 If a tribe is self-insured, that 3 means they're assuming the risk. The premiums are 4 going to the tribe. They create a situation where 5 they can generate reserves and they pay out from 6 their tribally -- the tribe assumes the risk. And 7 there are ways to mitigate this. Now, IHS cannot 8 bill and collect from a tribally self-insured 9 plan. It's against the law to collect from them. 10 Title 25 prevents that. But once you create a 11 tribally-operated facility, there are ways that 12 you can create revenue through your facility 13 through your tribal self-insured plan. 14 Does that make sense to everybody? I 15 see some head nods. Okay. 16 So here, I just want to kind of give 17 a brief overview of what we do and how we do it, 18 and some of our experiences that we had in working 19 with tribes. But please understand that we have 20 experience in working with this kind of 21 situation. 22 And there are tribes out there, 23 you've seen them, that are able to take over 24 operation of their facilities and do well and 25 prosper, and create access to care, generate 50 1 revenue, expand services, and provide -- generate 2 the type of money they need to get doctors and 3 nurses. They've also created opportunities for 4 tribal members, through a workforce development, 5 to come in, get them prepared, go to school. Come 6 in, work in their own tribally-operated 7 facilities. 8 What I found really interesting in 9 one of the tribes that we're working with, when 10 the council got together and they were going to 11 consider 638ing that facility, one of the reasons 12 they wanted to do it was customer service. 13 Something as simple as customer service. We want 14 to be treated with a smile. We want our people to 15 feel like they're welcome here. We want the eye 16 contact, we want the smile. I see head nods. 17 That's important. 18 When you 638 a facility and take it 19 over, it becomes -- it's not -- under IHS it's 20 theirs, under tribally-operated it's yours. 21 You're customer owners now. You own that. You 22 have a stake in how well that organization does. 23 So there's more ownership in it, there's a bigger 24 desire to see it succeed. 25 Now, in an ideal word, IHS would 51 1 fully fund that program, but they don't. It's not 2 fully fund. So when you check in at the front 3 desk and they ask you do you have Medicaid or 4 Medicare, do you have private insurance, there's a 5 reason for that; it's underfunded. Everybody 6 knows that. It's probably about 60 percent funded 7 at what it should be. But when you think about 8 the private sector, and think about in the private 9 sector they start with nothing and are able to 10 create a situation where they are generating money 11 and program costs. So we've seen success. We've 12 been part of that success. 13 And I'll wrap up there. I don't want 14 to take too much of your time. I appreciate the 15 opportunity, and I'm humbled to be here and 16 blessed to have the opportunity to speak to you 17 today. I appreciate all of your attention for the 18 short period of time. We'll be in contact with 19 the Tribe. If you guys need to get ahold of us 20 somehow, please go through Mr. Tippeconnie or 21 Mr. Nelson if you need to get ahold of me, if you 22 have any questions. 23 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I just want to 24 mention to you that I think we had that program 25 before in the older Indian Hospital. And until it 52 1 became the IHS now, and that's when everybody took 2 over and we don't get taken care of like we used 3 to. I think we had that, but it's been years 4 ago. I was one of the first to go there. I have 5 a low number there, 804. I remember. 6 MR. TONEMAH: I thank you for your 7 time. 8 MR. BURGESS: Who are you with? 9 MR. TONEMAH: Native Health Group. 10 We actually have some information we're going to 11 provide you with. 12 MR. BURGESS: Thank you very much. 13 MR. TONEMAH: Thank you. 14 MS. NELSON: Are you talking about 15 638ing the hospital or are you talking about a 16 self-insurance policy for the Tribe? 17 MR. TONEMAH: I'm talking about a 18 comprehensive look at the way health services are 19 provided to Comanche Nation. I'm talking about 20 638ing a facility. I'm talking about how do your 21 638, your facility, interact with your benefit 22 plan. I'm talking about an overall look at how 23 services are provided. 24 MS. NELSON: Are you talking about 25 creating another health facility or are you 53 1 talking about tying in with the Indian Hospital 2 with a Comanche plan? 3 MR. TONEMAH: Tying in. 4 MS. NELSON: Under a self-insurance 5 plan? 6 MR. TONEMAH: We have experience 7 developing self-insured plans for tribal 8 employees. We also have experience developing 9 solutions for tribal members. There are some 10 communities out there that provide commercial 11 benefits to tribal members. We have a particular 12 expertise in that. There are a lot of what we 13 refer to as advisors or brokers. Maybe brokers is 14 a better way to understand it. They don't have 15 experience in community members. They're used to 16 that employee/employer relationship as opposed to 17 a community member-type of relationship. 18 But I guess kind of what I was 19 talking about was a comprehensive look at the way 20 health services are provided to American Indians. 21 Now, one of the questions that came 22 up earlier, if I may speak, Mr. Chairman, 23 providing services to all American Indians. Even 24 under 638, please understand, because you're 25 taking money from IHS, you're technically required 54 1 to provide service to all American Indians. 2 But if you create a situation, if you 3 create a situation where you're not limiting 4 access, you don't have to -- it's not taking you 5 months to access care through a 638-operated 6 facility, it's a moot issue because everybody has 7 access. Everybody's getting services. You don't 8 have to wait three to six months. You don't have 9 to stand in line. It's not I'm going to pack my 10 lunch today because I'm going to the clinic and I 11 know I'm going to be there eight hours. Yeah, you 12 guys are laughing, but you know it's true. You 13 know it's true. I'm packing my lunch because I'm 14 going to the clinic today. I have an appointment 15 at 8 o'clock. 16 MS. ISAAC: The Elders were 17 volunteers at the Lawton Indian Hospital. We saw 18 a lot of things happening. We, as volunteers, 19 just want to help so much. But, I mean, how do 20 you make it faster and better and all that? 21 MR. TONEMAH: Those are good points. 22 How do you make a health system better, stronger, 23 faster? And there are ways to do that. 24 MS. AITSON: And are you kin to 25 Darrell Tonemah? 55 1 MR. TONEMAH: That is my brother 2 Darrell sitting right there. I'm sorry, I didn't 3 introduce my business associates. This is my 4 brother Darrell Tonemah who you guys are probably 5 familiar with. My other business partner -- 6 I didn't mean to cause a stir so much 7 as I wanted to let the community know that there 8 are solutions out there and ways to improve the 9 way health care is provided to our people. And as 10 I said, we gave up way too much for the type of 11 system that we have now, but there are ways to 12 improve it. I see a lot of head nods. You're 13 going to make me get on a soap box, but I'm 14 excited about the opportunity. 15 And we had come here actually with a 16 proposal to the Board. We would like to be your 17 benefits advisors. We have some solutions. But 18 that's for another time. For now I just want to 19 introduce ourselves. 20 MR. NELSON: Mr. Chairman? 21 Mr. Tonemah, the work they did in New Mexico, they 22 brought all the tribes, be it Hopi, Navajo, 23 different tribes, almost like a consortium. We 24 have 39 tribes in Oklahoma. We have to empower 25 that. 56 1 Like Mike said, I did not notice, but 2 in our last CBC meeting -- well, it was a gaming 3 meeting. What is it, Mike? The only Indian 4 Hospital that will be available in, what, a year, 5 is in Lawton. Everybody's gone to what 6 Mr. Tonemah said, a 638 clinic. You can name 7 them. And of course, there's one in Anadarko. 8 The Kickapoos got one, outstanding. Chickasaws 9 got a great hospital coming up. Iowas, as small 10 as they are, 500 members, got their own clinic. 11 Third-party billing means money back 12 to our Nation. Third-party billing, remember that 13 term, because I don't want to stick around and for 14 us to watch our Indian Hospital go down. You 15 know, we've got 100 percent health care, casino 16 employees, Mr. Codopony is here, and the employees 17 here at the Tribe, 100 percent health care. But 18 our own Indian Hospital is not in the network with 19 the health care. So that money's really not going 20 back to them. It just doesn't make any sense. 21 Anyway, Mr. Tonemah -- 22 MR. BURGESS: Thank you, Mr. Nelson. 23 And thank you Native Health Solutions, was it? 24 MR. TONEMAH: Native Health Group. 25 MR. BURGESS: Native Health Group. 57 1 Thank you very much. Delores, I see you. Is it 2 on this same tonic? 3 MS. AITSON: Yes, it is. When you 4 have Medicare they ask you if you have a primary 5 doctor. And I have a primary doctor at the Indian 6 Hospital because I'm a heart patient and all other 7 things. And when you go to the hospital, they 8 just -- when you walk in, they send you to just 9 anybody. And who do we go to to ratify that? 10 Because I don't like seeing another doctor, 11 another doctor. They don't know your case, they 12 don't know what's going on. 13 They say, "Well, what's wrong with 14 you?" Well, if I knew what was wrong with me, 15 would I be there? You know, why are you asking 16 me? 17 And then I had got in a car accident 18 two weeks ago, me and my grandchildren. We went 19 to Memorial. And I wanted them to be checked 20 immediately, because I didn't know, you know, how 21 they were hurt or, you know, what was going on. 22 And before they even waited on us they asked us if 23 we were referred by the Indian Hospital. And I 24 said, "No, we came on our own." 25 And they said, "Do you have 58 1 Medicare?" You know without even checking us 2 right out, check us over and make sure we're not 3 hurt and then ask for the insurance, you know, 4 which we did have insurance anyway. So I don't 5 know who to go to for all these questions like 6 this, but something needs to be done about our -- 7 you know, at our hospital. I know Wallace was on 8 that panel, that board, but he didn't do 9 anything. He said he did, but -- 10 MR. BURGESS: All right. Thank you. 11 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I worked at 12 the Indian Hospital for 35 years. One of the 13 things that I noticed, we had this Health Advisory 14 Board, and it's one of the most powerful boards 15 there is. If we could just get our committeemen 16 to go and you can get anything you want. But they 17 don't all show up. It's only maybe one or two 18 that will go. 19 MR. BURGESS: That's my 20 understanding. It's kind of been an issue. The 21 first meeting we went to -- 22 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: That's a very 23 powerful board. You can just clean that hospital 24 up in two or three months. 25 MR. HENSON: Are you talking about 59 1 the advisory board or are you talking about the 2 board? 3 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Health 4 Advisory Board. 5 MR. HENSON: That's with Dr. Rhodes? 6 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: At the Indian 7 Hospital. That's a very powerful board. 8 MRS. HENDRIX: Since they changed it 9 to your -- you don't get to see the same doctor 10 anymore. I had one doctor that ordered some 11 tests, and when I went back they wanted me to see 12 somebody else. And then that doctor wanted to 13 know, well, why were these tests ordered. And it 14 makes it real confusing. And then they change 15 your medicine. And then the next time you go and 16 you see a different doctor, well, why are you 17 taking this? And then they take you off of it. 18 And that really needs to be changed. 19 They say everything's in the computer, you can 20 read it. But once you get established with a 21 doctor and they know you personally, they know 22 your health without having -- and it takes less 23 time. 24 MR. BURGESS: And they know what meds 25 interact. 60 1 MRS. HENDRIX: Right. And what the 2 tests were for. 3 MR. BURGESS: Mr. Yeagley. Sir, you 4 have the floor. Come up here. 5 DR. YEAGLEY: I have to clarify some 6 certain things here about the proposition that I 7 intended to make, because already I have perceived 8 and I heard just this morning there's a lot of 9 misconceptions about this proposal that Nick and 10 I, David Yeagley, are trying to make to the 11 people. 12 I've been trying to make it for a 13 year-and-a-half now. It concerns a new way of 14 managing the talent that's in this Tribe. It 15 concerns an organized way of funneling our talent, 16 all of our different kinds of talents into one 17 institution. 18 And I originally was going to present 19 it completely separate as something that hasn't 20 been done before in the Tribe in the way we're 21 proposing it. However, the issue now is there are 22 people that perceive this as some kind of attack 23 on the college. Our original proposal had nothing 24 to do with the college. People are working 25 against this proposal before it's even been made. 61 1 I heard Ed Mahseet talk in the 2 bathroom 10 minutes before I came in here. He was 3 here. He was talking about what he's doing at the 4 college, which is nothing more than the idea that 5 I've been proposing for a year-and-a-half. So I'm 6 thinking, well, I see that people are picking up 7 on these ideas. I think that's great. I'd like 8 to see all of these happen. But it's the way that 9 it's organized and the way that it's managed is 10 what's going to make a difference of whether or 11 not it works. 12 Now, everybody knows that the college 13 is one of those top priorities on the budget, over 14 a million dollars every year. This time it's 15 almost 2 million, 1.8 million. 16 And we need to realize something 17 here. It's not a college. It's nowhere near a 18 college. This term "college" means something out 19 there in the real word. What we've got over here 20 is in no way related to what the word college 21 means. The people need to realize that we're 22 pumping all kinds of money into that. We're 23 nowhere near being a college and never have been. 24 Okay. 25 Now, we're submitting these ideas 62 1 that you have on that handout. Something more 2 along the lines of a technical institute that 3 trains our young people or anybody who wants to 4 train to get a certificate of qualification to 5 perform a certain kind of job. A technical 6 institute is not comparable to a college in terms 7 of the standard that you have to meet in order to 8 be a college. 9 I have to say it. You might as well 10 -- the people might as well get it straight in 11 their heads. This is not -- we do not have a 12 college. It's a different term. It should not be 13 called that because that implies -- that implies 14 fraud, is what that implies. 15 MR. PEKAH: I thought you weren't 16 going to attack the college. 17 DR. YEAGLEY: You need to call it 18 something else. The reason I'm making an issue is 19 because they're taking our ideas and plugging them 20 in already, which I think is great. Like I said, 21 my whole idea was to present ideas and let the 22 people do whatever the heck they want with them. 23 That's my personal idea. It's like you're a 24 hunter, you go out and make a kill. You bring in 25 the meat and the women say we don't like that, it 63 1 stinks, and you go out and hunt something else. 2 That's my personal attitude. 3 But I just want the people to be 4 aware of the fact that we -- the concept of what a 5 college is in terms of state standards, in terms 6 of accreditation, we're nowhere near that. 7 MR. PEKAH: Yes, we are. 8 DR. YEAGLEY: People have said that 9 for eight years. 10 MS. TAPTOE: August 12th we're going 11 for an interview. If we do well, we will be 12 accredited. 13 DR. YEAGLEY: Excuse me, I've got the 14 floor right now. I've been trying to present this 15 to the people for a year-and-a-half. 16 MR. SAPCUT: What people? 17 DR. YEAGLEY: Yes, the General 18 Council meeting. We got cut off at the end 19 because the whole thing was there was a different 20 topic that was more important, Tribal enrollment. 21 That was more important. 22 I presented it twice to the CBC. And 23 I was sent over to the -- to the Comanche 24 Enterprises and I was denied a hearing. David 25 Orme, he was not interested in it, says we don't 64 1 do that. He's all about construction, getting 2 contracts for people that are in construction. 3 And I had two investors from New York that were 4 here to see him. He didn't want to see anybody. 5 So all I can -- all I'm hoping for is to get the 6 right ideas out and get clarification on what 7 we're trying to do. 8 The original proposition for a media 9 institute, a technical institute is quite a 10 different thing than what the college is doing. 11 If the college wants to change over and be 12 something other than what it's been, I'm all for 13 that. 14 MR. BURGESS: Okay. David, thank you 15 very much. 16 DR. YEAGLEY: It's disappointing. 17 MR. BURGESS: I know you're 18 passionate. I understand what you're saying. And 19 a media institute is something that can be 20 incorporated under the college. 21 We have discussed with the college 22 their avenue of operation. The college knows that 23 they have some time lines and some deadlines to 24 meet. And if you want to go ahead, Gene, make it 25 short. 65 1 MR. PEKAH: I just want to say that 2 we do have a filmmaking certification we're 3 starting this fall. We've had a course in film 4 documentary for at least a year now, and we have 5 six annual film festivals. We're looking at 6 broadcasting. And we've done a PBS "We Shall 7 Remain" series on filmmaking. We're doing all the 8 things you're saying you're doing. We're in the 9 process. 10 DR. YEAGLEY: I understand that. 11 We're talking about accreditation here. You can 12 hold all the film festivals you want. That does 13 not put the college under -- 14 MR. BURGESS: David, let's don't get 15 into a hot topic here. It is a hot topic 16 already. Financially, the Tribe has a commitment 17 because the people voted that commitment in. But 18 the college also knows that they have a time line 19 that they're trying to meet and we've given them 20 the breathing room that they need. 21 Now, we do want the college to 22 succeed; however, the timing does not -- no, Lily 23 you wait. The timing is not enough. You know, 24 the people will have that say-so. 25 But, also, these media objectives and 66 1 activities that you propose, they're a good idea. 2 And if you can come to another meeting where we're 3 going to sit down and calmly discuss it, that 4 would be great. 5 And I know that everybody wants to 6 come to the CBC to get a decision done. And as 7 y'all know, we don't always have enough time to 8 get that done, so we've taken the tack that any 9 presentations of business or operational 10 procedures that require money, we want to hear it 11 first. Those that are selected or those that we 12 can do or feel that we want to follow through, 13 then we'll bring it to the CBC, so we're not 14 taking up all day of our people that have 15 something else on their agenda here. 16 So we're going to set a time and date 17 later on that we want to sit down and make a 18 presentation with us and with the college at the 19 table. Because they have the opportunity to get 20 accreditation, and they're on a fast track. We've 21 asked them get on that fast track. Because 22 everybody's saying we're spending too much money. 23 Now, I know y'all want to speak. Hang on. And 24 they're complying. They're doing their best right 25 now, David. I've only been here maybe 60 days and 67 1 they're jumping on it. Because they -- we came to 2 them and told them to get on it, don't just sit 3 back and wait. 4 DR. YEAGLEY: I'm glad to see it, I 5 truly am. 6 MR. BURGESS: Just to let you know, 7 we're trying to be on top of the ball, but the 8 ball rolls in five directions, so it's hard to 9 stay on top of it. 10 DR. YEAGLEY: I do think that the 11 definition of what it is legally and technically 12 is the secret of whether it's going to get -- and 13 what kind of accreditation it's going to get. 14 MR. BURGESS: You're right. And 15 we're trying to support that legal and technical 16 definition by giving it the breathing room it 17 needs and the support. I appreciate it. Thank 18 you very much. I know that you've been waiting a 19 long time, and I'm trying to help all those who 20 have been waiting and trying to get us. We just 21 can't do it all. 22 MR. NELSON: Mr. Chairman, I love 23 you, I respect you, you're my director, but I do 24 need to finalize the auction, guys, I do. 25 MR. BURGESS: Is it over with 68 1 already? 2 MR. NELSON: It's getting close, it's 3 getting close. 4 MR. BURGESS: All right. Don't 5 forget to come back. 6 MS. ISAAC: I think we need to 7 support the college in any way. I've been going 8 to the film festival the last four years and I've 9 never seen David Yeagley there. If he's so 10 supportive, he needs to come to the functions. 11 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Mike, you 12 know, when we -- everybody in this room believed 13 in you and we elected you to put you in that seat. 14 Okay. I know it's a big job, but what I'd like to 15 know is, when are we looking at a General 16 Council? We need that so bad. What we were 17 hoping was that after you got in there and you 18 looked around to see what just -- and then you 19 looked around to see what all was left on your 20 desk, that you had to clean up. 21 And then we're hearing all this talk 22 out here, the Tribe's broke, the Tribe's broke. 23 Now, when will you call the general election so 24 all the Comanche Tribe can hear once and for 25 all -- General Council? 69 1 MR. HENSON: Okay. Can I answer 2 that? Of all the stuff that we've been going 3 through and everything that's -- I don't want to 4 dwell on the past, but we are in trouble right 5 now. And we've been working on that since Mike 6 and I have been in office with the other CBC 7 members. We all seem to be heading the same 8 direction in trying to get this straightened up. 9 General Council meeting was one of 10 the first things on our agenda after we found out 11 all this stuff. We were talking about it, we 12 hadn't set a date on it. But right now, we're 13 looking at September the 19th as a General Council 14 meeting. That's about 40, 45 days. We still have 15 a little bit of work to do that we need to bring 16 to the General Council, so it's not -- we still 17 got a little bit of work. Let me just put it that 18 way. 19 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Well, I can 20 imagine that you have a lot of work you have left 21 to do. And, also, then will you tell us how many 22 lawsuits are -- the Comanche Tribe has? 23 MR. HENSON: Absolutely. You'll get 24 all that information. 25 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Then what 70 1 about all the wrongdoings? What about that 2 tourist center down there that was cleaned out? 3 What happened to that? Now, the person that they 4 were saying did all that used to not go to 5 powwows. Now, she's going to powwows, you see her 6 all over. Has that case been cleared up? And we 7 have another one at the museum that we turned over 8 to the Chief of Police, embezzlement, and 9 nothing's been done about that. 10 Now, these are wrongdoings. These 11 people can't just be -- Comanche Tribe has been 12 raped and robbed over again. And it's all swept 13 under the floor. Now, we need a point in there 14 where we can -- where y'all should stop that. 15 That's why we put y'all up there, to say 16 something, to tell us something. But all we hear 17 out here is gossip going on. We don't know. 18 MR. HENSON: Let me answer that very 19 seriously. I told everybody when I got in office, 20 if I found somebody doing a crime, they're going 21 to do the time. 22 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: That's right. 23 MR. HENSON: And I have not changed 24 on that at all. Mike's got the same idea, the 25 other council people have got the same idea. 71 1 We can't say anything about an 2 investigation going on or anything. There's a lot 3 of talk and a lot of rumors about everything, but 4 I've investigated several of them. And every time 5 I've gotten involved in some Tribal member saying 6 something, I go over and I find out it's not 7 true. 8 We, as Comanches, that live in this 9 area, we spread a lot of rumors. We hear a lot 10 rumors. And half of them we want to believe just 11 in our own mind, just like I did. But there is 12 some things that's going on right now that's going 13 to be straightened up. That's part of it. 14 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: You guys will 15 bring all that information to us at the next 16 General Council? 17 MR. HENSON: Well, some of that 18 information we can't give out right now because 19 it's going to hurt the investigation. What we're 20 looking into and what we're doing right now -- 21 we'll tell you about the ones we can. Okay? 22 That'd be more simple. 23 We want y'all to know, we want the 24 Tribe to know everything that we're doing and what 25 we're in and what we're doing. 72 1 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Okay. 2 MR. HENSON: Mike and I said that. 3 We're even setting up -- we're going to set up 4 some meetings where we can go out and talk at 5 different places to inform everybody what's going 6 on. 7 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Okay. The 8 most important one, with all this business with 9 the money missing, the money whatever, is that 10 going to hurt our per capita payment? 11 MR. HENSON: No. 12 MR. BURGESS: No. 13 MR. HENSON: Don't worry about your 14 per cap or your Elders money. That's taken care 15 of. We have taken care of that. The CBC has 16 taken care of that. 17 MR. TIPPECONNIE: It's always 18 reserved. 19 MR. HENSON: It's there. It's always 20 there. 21 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We're not 22 going to be penalized again for paying taxes that 23 the complex up here, the people in charge don't 24 know how to do? 25 MR. TIPPECONNIE: That's been 73 1 corrected. 2 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I tell you 3 what, because in 1979, I went to work for the 4 Comanche Housing Authority. And would you believe 5 way back then, it was my job to go down there and 6 work with the IRS because they didn't pay their 7 taxes either. And it's still going on. Now, if 8 somebody don't know how to do those things, take 9 them out of there and then put somebody else in. 10 MR. TIPPECONNIE: We're all in order 11 now. 12 MR. WHITEWOLF: We also had bingo, 13 too, up here, and the person in charge didn't pay 14 any taxes then. And now they didn't pay the taxes 15 down there in the casino. I mean, that should 16 send a message that some people shouldn't be in 17 there. 18 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Some of these 19 cases, like the IRS, they're past years, you know, 20 so -- but, presently, we are working with an 21 outside accounting firm. You know, they're going 22 to make sure that we have those documents relative 23 to taxation and whatnot. So that has really 24 helped us. 25 MR. NARCOMEY: Just so everybody will 74 1 know, that IRS fine you're talking about here at 2 the complex, we finally got the final word last 3 week or early this week. We got fined $775,000 4 for years 2004, 2005 and 2006. 5 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Doesn't 6 anybody check on those things quarterly? 7 MR. HENSON: Tell them the total that 8 they were going to use. 9 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Doesn't 10 anybody check on the -- 11 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Those were those 12 previous years '04, '05. So, see, they picked up 13 that we didn't pay it then. That's true, they 14 weren't doing those things then. Now that we're 15 with an outside accounting firm, well, everyone's 16 really on it. That doesn't mean that we don't 17 have to keep watching it, monitoring like you're 18 saying. We have to monitor it, yes. 19 MR. NARCOMEY: I think whoever was in 20 charge of them years, we need to do something to 21 him. 22 MR. WHITEWOLF: Was that our 23 accounting department's fault? 24 MR. NARCOMEY: We need to do 25 something to him. 75 1 MS. WHITEWOLF: Is it our accounting 2 department's fault? Well, that's what I'm saying 3 Tribal, is it our accounting department's fault? 4 MR. HENSON: Roderick, excuse me, let 5 me say something right now. Okay? This is a 6 discussion that everybody should know, but it's in 7 the past. Everything's happened in the past. 8 There were some things that happened in the past 9 that should stay in the past. 10 I want to tell you right now that we 11 are on top of all this stuff and it's not going to 12 happen again. We're getting things in place to -- 13 we've got an accounting firm that's bringing us 14 right up to date. When they get through with 15 that, they're going to teach everything to 16 everybody that's going to be in the office. 17 We're having a reorganization of the 18 programs, too. Everything's going to be changed. 19 This monkeying around about throwing money over 20 here and throwing money over there, that's not 21 going to happen anymore. 22 I can tell you that we are working 23 close with the TA, and we're developing stuff here 24 with the CBC that's going to be a lot different. 25 And believe me, you may not like it when we do it, 76 1 but we do it. But believe me, in 10 years, five 2 years, three years, you're going to love it. The 3 whole Tribe is going to be operating as a multi- 4 million dollar business. And we're going to have 5 control over it. 6 MR. WHITEWOLF: Bunky, let me tell 7 you my take on this. You know, you, as a new 8 committee person, we've never seen you prior to 9 you taking office -- getting nominated. You're 10 naive as far as the past has happened. We have 11 experienced a lot of things. We know firsthand, 12 not just idle gossip, so don't demean our 13 knowledge, our experience. 14 You are a newcomer. So I just want 15 you to know that, because you're kind of brushing 16 us off. But you got to understand that we've 17 lived here, we've been here a lot of times. 18 You're just a newcomer. 19 MR. HENSON: Well, I'm not going to 20 argue that point. I am a newcomer to a certain 21 extent, but I come back every so often. And I 22 hear -- I've heard the same thing that you have 23 heard about. My sister's very bad about telling 24 everything. My mother was very bad about telling 25 everything. I hear that stuff when I come home, I 77 1 used to hear it all the time. 2 What I'm trying to tell you now is, 3 that we're on top of everything. Well, mostly 4 everything. There might be some stuff that may 5 kind of move out, but we're on top of all that. 6 There's a lawsuit right now that has a lot of 7 those allegations that you're talking about. It's 8 going on and it's going to come to court. We 9 don't know what the Court's going to accept. 10 There's some allegations in this that 11 covers all the rumors that I think you're talking 12 about that I knew about, and those allegations are 13 there. And when it comes to court, I don't know 14 if the Court's going to accept those allegations. 15 But if it does, it's sure going to straighten out 16 a lot of those things that's happened in the past. 17 Mr. WHITEWOLF: Well, the man's 18 volunteered to go before a grand jury, so he must 19 be serious. 20 MR. HENSON: The point I'm trying to 21 make is, they may not accept all the allegations. 22 It's up to them. If they accept them, that's 23 going to be great for us, because we're really 24 going to know what's happened. 25 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: There's 22 on 78 1 this suit. Well, there's more than that. Some of 2 them are working here. Now, ones that are 3 employed by the Tribe, what are you going to do 4 about this? 5 MR. BURGESS: They have to defend 6 themselves, because that's not against -- 7 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: No, I'm not 8 talking about that. Are you going to just let 9 them work here? 10 MR. BURGESS: Until we get a 11 determination that we don't violate their civil 12 rights and get a lawsuit on the Tribe. 13 MR. WHITEWOLF: But she's also 14 talking about, are you going to protect the 15 Tribe's interest? 16 MR. BURGESS: We're trying to protect 17 the Tribe's -- 18 MS. WHITEWOLF: Because these people 19 are accused of dishonesty. 20 MR. BURGESS: Yes, but we can't make 21 -- we can't do anything until we know it's not 22 going to affect the Tribe in another lawsuit 23 against the former employees or employees now. 24 MR. WHITEWOLF: We don't want to 25 bring the Tribe into it. 79 1 MR. BURGESS: Right. And yet, at the 2 same time, if you're not working at the casinos 3 any longer, they're not going to be under the 4 umbrella of any legal decisions that have already 5 been made over there. The Gaming Commission is 6 named. So they made a decision. Because they're 7 a separate entity, basically, of our 8 administration here, we can't make that decision 9 for them. 10 They've decided to move forward and 11 coordinate that with the attorneys. And even the 12 attorneys are going to have to find if their home 13 office is going to let them defend themselves or 14 get other attorneys to defend them. That's the 15 coordination that's going on over at the 16 Commission. 17 And those people that were formerly 18 employed there that are no longer there, they 19 can't come to the Tribe to say, "I need legal 20 defense for this lawsuit." We can't do that. 21 That's not against the Tribe. They didn't do 22 anything in a capacity as the Tribe, so we're not 23 going to defend them legally; meaning, we're not 24 going to pay for their attorneys' fees. 25 MS. ISAAC: I appreciate all this 80 1 interaction with everybody and, Bunky, too. You 2 know, you're from around here, so you really catch 3 up real fast. But what I wanted to say that 4 before Gene left was, he was the one, one of the 5 persons that initiated all of these things going 6 on right now with that financial aspect of it. He 7 got that started. So I really appreciate Gene for 8 doing that. 9 The other stuff got dropped. But 10 like the lady we hired, you know, she's supposed 11 to straighten up all the administration. And when 12 she got let go, but Gene got this other stuff 13 started. And I want to ask about the children's 14 accounts. Are they being secured? 15 MR. BURGESS: They're secure. 16 MR. HENSON: Yeah, they're secure, 17 yeah. 18 MR. BURGESS: They're there. 19 Mr. Tippeconnie made a statement, Debbie, so would 20 you hang on? Because the point that Mr. and 21 Mrs. Whitewolf were speaking to -- can you wait a 22 minute? 23 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I just want to make 24 a comment that the Nation has really been 25 attempting to move smartly on all these 81 1 situations. As an example, audits. Audits tell 2 us a lot of things. I've been here a year. When 3 I came in, we were way behind on our audits. I 4 don't want to say it's just me, it's the CBC. But 5 we pushed that. 6 You know, we pushed three audits. We 7 got three audits done here in this one year. We 8 were so far behind. Okay, we just completed the 9 '08 audit. That was the year that just finished 10 last September. 11 MR. NARCOMEY: Tell them what grade 12 it was. 13 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Okay. In the 14 audit, we got -- a good part of it, A. We got an 15 A on a good part of it. That's outstanding. 16 Because the previous audit, they were like -- they 17 can't even make a statement about it because it's 18 just not good. We got an A on a good part of it. 19 The other part of it, we have to work on all our 20 assets. 21 These buildings here, we have to say 22 when we bought them, how much we spent on them, 23 and now what they're appraised on. We're working 24 on that hard with the TA and with property, 25 Mr. Nauni. We hope we get that done in September 82 1 or October, so that when we move into this year's 2 audit, '09 audit, we have -- we're right on pace 3 and we'll have these things together. Those are 4 examples of the CBC working hard to get on top of 5 situations. That's just one example. 6 We're also -- because of the high 7 risk, the 638 program, we're high risk. You know, 8 because we weren't making reports, we weren't 9 using money in the sense that we were spending it 10 over here when we can't, we have to spend it the 11 way the contract says. We're straightening all 12 that out. 13 We've got a very active, aggressive 14 plan that's acting on all those. We're almost 15 done with all the things that we need to do. It's 16 now pushing our directors here to get on top of 17 all the reports. That happened in a short term. 18 It just happened here, I'd say, in this one year 19 that I've been here. We've pushed hard on a lot 20 of things to get on top of these problems. And I 21 think our CBC has to see, you know, let's be 22 proud. 23 Now, it doesn't mean everything's 24 perfect. It doesn't mean everything's perfect. 25 We had to sit with an adjustment to our budgets. 83 1 And now it all comes about, not because of 2 mismanagement, I would say, it's because of 3 downturns in the economy and just the way 4 operations occur, you know, with the money that we 5 get. 6 The thing that most people don't 7 understand, we have no money, basically, in the 8 bank. Yes, we have some in the bank. But, 9 basically, it comes monthly from gaming, 10 principally gaming. That's where we get our 11 money. So if gaming is up, that's where money 12 comes. I just want to bring those points out to 13 say that, you know, feel proud of your Nation, 14 too, because there are people here that are 15 sitting here trying to do a very good job for 16 you. 17 And I'd like to say that the TA isn't 18 here. You know, we're going to reorganize the 19 government here. We're going to move from all 20 these numbers of directors down to eight. When 21 you have eight directors, then you're going to see 22 efficiencies. You're going to see things go and 23 be coordinated, integrated. 24 It's like one stop. If you come for 25 health reasons, you're going to have one shot, so 84 1 to speak, to go to. Like optometry, all those 2 will be together. We want to do things like 3 that. Then our business side, we hope, you know, 4 our business rolls. You know, we've got two arms, 5 the Economic Development and the corporation and 6 we hope they roll and they help us get more 7 diversified. 8 So I'd like to say, you know, yes, 9 there's problems, but I think we should also take 10 a very positive constructive point of view, that 11 we're trying, all of us, you know. It saddens me 12 sometimes when we sit in here and we name -- you 13 know, we name this person, that person. 14 I'd say this, you know, anyone that 15 isn't doing the job well, you know, we're going to 16 investigate that. We're going to investigate it 17 relative to their performance. But if it's a 18 criminal, or it looks civil, or it looks like it's 19 an illegal act, we're going to take the proper 20 actions. And that's being undertaken by the 21 Nation. I'm proud of that. A lot of that, too, 22 we can't speak about. 23 It becomes very -- it's confidential 24 until -- let's say this: You know, until a person 25 is proven guilty, they are not guilty. You know, 85 1 we accuse people a lot, but they have to be proven 2 guilty. It has to be a fact that they are 3 guilty. And then there's consequences. 4 MR. BURGESS: Deborah was next and 5 then -- 6 MRS. HENDRIX: On the lawsuit that 7 was filed on July 18th, I think it was July the 8 18th, I've heard that the attorneys have already 9 met with these people. Isn't that out of line 10 since these people are sued individually and not 11 the Tribe? Why would the Tribal attorneys be 12 meeting with these people? 13 MR. BURGESS: Hold your question. 14 Yes, Tom? 15 MR. TOM NARCOMEY: I guess to do the 16 proper thing, or -- people ain't guilty until 17 they're found guilty or what -- anyway, 18 allegations. But couldn't the CBC or the council 19 do -- authorize a forensic audit on our gaming to 20 see if there's any possible charges that the feds 21 could bring up against any past CBCs or anybody, 22 you know, whoever done any wrongdoing? And I'd 23 like to ask the attorneys, if that would be a good 24 action to do, to authorize a forensic audit on our 25 gaming? 86 1 MR. BURGESS: Okay. Hang on. I got 2 your question. 3 MR. TOM NARCOMEY: In order to 4 protect the Tribe. 5 MR. BURGESS: Okay. We're going to 6 do two things here. I'm going to ask Mr. Codopony 7 to respond to your question, Deborah, because the 8 Gaming Commission is the one who's coordinating 9 that defense. And then Thomas will come back and 10 then the attorneys address the questions. 11 MRS. HENDRIX: I'd like to tell 12 Mr. Henson, too, that, you know, the way he was 13 talking about the investigation and getting all 14 the facts and everything, and having the meeting, 15 because this came about -- 16 MR. BURGESS: That's too long. 17 MRS. HENDRIX: -- and there are more 18 coming -- 19 MR. BURGESS: What I'm saying is, 20 let's go back to that first question, let 21 Mr. Codopony answer that about coordinating that 22 defense of this new lawsuit. 23 MR. CODOPONY: It named the Gaming 24 Commissioners. And after reading through the 25 lawsuit several times, there's a lot of things he 87 1 claims that disenrollment, which has nothing to do 2 with the Gaming Commission. There's a lot of 3 other side issues, but the core of it that caught 4 the attention of the Gaming Commission was the 5 fact that his gaming license was revoked by an 6 action of the Commission. 7 So at that point, because it was a 8 direct action of the Commission, we advised our 9 counsel that we wanted to take defense on that, 10 and make sure that the Commission, in their 11 role -- because, again, under the proper authority 12 and under all of the rules of evidence that we 13 use, we feel like that we took proper action on 14 this particular topic. 15 Now, the other sideline, as far as 16 the disenrollment, that has nothing to do with the 17 Gaming Commission. There's other issues that are 18 alleged in there. But the direct attack as far 19 as -- or a threat, I guess, is the proper word -- 20 the direct threat as far as what the Gaming 21 Commission's action was as being improper is what 22 we're defending and what we've asked our attorneys 23 to defend for us. 24 MR. BURGESS: All right. 25 MR. CODOPONY: And just as a side 88 1 note, I do believe that was a forensic audit that 2 was ordered several years ago, and I don't think 3 anything ever came of it as far as -- let me 4 rephrase that. It was conducted and there was no 5 results. So, I mean, the comment that was made 6 there, and since that audit was done, there are 7 standard audits that have been in place and that 8 have been provided to the Nation that have come 9 back clean. So, you know, just a sideline on that 10 comment. 11 MRS. HENDRIX: My question now is, 12 did -- these are individuals being sued. I've got 13 the suit and I don't see where the Gaming 14 Commission is being sued anywhere on here, so the 15 attorneys wouldn't be representing the Gaming 16 Commission because they're not defendants. 17 MR. CODOPONY: The actions for -- the 18 actions that me and the other Commissioners were 19 named for were official actions that we took under 20 our role and our authority as Gaming 21 Commissioners. The actions that -- the things 22 that he alleges that we did, which was the 23 revocation of his license, we couldn't have taken 24 it outside the scope of our authority in our 25 official function as Gaming Commission. 89 1 MR. BURGESS: All right. 2 MR. NARCOMEY: I've got a goofy 3 question. Am I the only one that sees these 4 lawyers over here? Am I the only one that -- it 5 seems like we ought to ask them. 6 MR. BURGESS: We're coming to that. 7 MR. NARCOMEY: That would be the 8 simplest thing instead of going in circles, is the 9 way I look at it. 10 MR. BURGESS: William, do you want to 11 address the question about the forensic and then 12 why the firm is involved. 13 MR. NORMAN: As Mr. Codopony 14 mentioned, there actually was a forensic audit 15 done. I think the Tribe spent maybe $400,000 on a 16 forensic audit that took maybe two years to 17 complete. And as I recall, there was maybe one or 18 two incidents of theft that they reported. But 19 those incidents that they reported were incidents 20 of theft that the facilities, themselves, 21 uncovered while they were going on, turned over to 22 law enforcement, and the individuals were 23 prosecuted. 24 So it was actions that the Tribe had 25 properly responded to and the bad guys were 90 1 prosecuted. So other than that, there were a few 2 procedural things in that audit, but there has 3 been a forensic audit done. I guess it was 4 completed maybe a year ago. Bob, do you recall? 5 MR. NARCOMEY: Early 2008. 6 MR. NORMAN: So it was completed 7 early 2008. And so there were those two issues 8 and those had already been discovered when they 9 happened and were prosecuted. 10 Now, with respect to defense of 11 individuals, and we've dealt with this before on a 12 number of occasions, there's kind of a 13 misunderstanding about how somebody is defended in 14 a lawsuit. The fact that an individual, as an 15 employee, or as a -- some sort of an official, if 16 somebody is accused of doing something in their 17 role in the capacity of an employee or an official 18 of the Tribe, they come under the umbrella of the 19 Tribe, and, therefore, they are entitled to the 20 defense, because the action against them as an 21 official or employee of the Tribe is actually an 22 action against the Nation. That's the way the 23 courts view that. 24 And so we have a responsibility to 25 the Nation, as the Nation's general counsel, to 91 1 defend individuals who have been alleged to have 2 done something wrong during the course of their 3 employment or official activities. And so we have 4 the responsibility, and we're coordinating with -- 5 this is very preliminary -- discussions that we've 6 had to just say, "Hey, there's a lot of people who 7 have been named here, we need to figure out what 8 role they played in this." Do they even know the 9 plaintiff, did they have any relationship with the 10 plaintiff, what things have they been accused of, 11 so we can decipher and determine who and how they 12 will be defended, and if they're entitled to be 13 defended. 14 But even the CFR Court has 15 acknowledged in a previous lawsuit that Mr. Bread 16 brought in which the attorneys, for instance, were 17 named. And the strategy was to name the 18 attorneys, so that the attorneys, then, would be 19 conflicted out of defending the Nation. And the 20 Court very clearly said, "You cannot take away the 21 defense of the Nation by naming their counsel, 22 because their counsel was giving advice to their 23 clients." You can't do that. And so we will do 24 what we are ethically and responsible to do having 25 been hired by the Nation to be your counsel. 92 1 We're going to defend those persons 2 who have been accused of something in their 3 employment or official capacity to the degree that 4 it's not clear that they've done anything wrong. 5 Obviously, if somebody has done something wrong, 6 it's going to be dealt with by the appropriate 7 body, whether it's their supervisor, if they're 8 Gaming Board of Directors, or if it's employees of 9 the Gaming Commission, or whether it's folks that 10 are employed with the Nation's government. 11 But we're going to be discussing that 12 further, because, again, this is preliminary. 13 MRS. HENDRIX: I know why the 14 disenrollment was brought up in the suit, is 15 because Oscar didn't make the open enrollment 16 period. And that's why that was brought up in the 17 suit. So how could he serve on the Commission 18 when he's not enrolled? 19 MR. BURGESS: All right. Well, I 20 don't know that the Commission calls for 21 commissioners to be Tribal members, so let me read 22 that. Yes, Carlotta? 23 MS. KNOWLES: I just have one comment 24 for our attorney. I totally understand what 25 you're saying, except, just like in my profession, 93 1 everywhere else, as long as that individual is 2 acting within the scope -- within their scope of 3 practice, within their roles and responsibilities 4 that has been given to them by that position, then 5 they certainly do fall under the umbrella. 6 However, when an individual steps outside of that 7 scope, is assuming a role, responsibilities that 8 they have not been given that authority, then we 9 are no longer responsible to defend them, correct? 10 MR. NORMAN: Exactly. And that's an 11 initial question that the Court has to wrestle 12 with, whether they were within or without their -- 13 outside their scope of authority. So you 14 explained it clearly, yes. 15 MR. BREAD: William, okay, when I was 16 in as vice-chairman, you represented Mr. Coffey in 17 my recall at the CFR Court. 18 MR. NORMAN: You brought an action 19 against officials in their official capacity. 20 You, as an individual, brought that action against 21 them. 22 MR. BREAD: Okay. But I was a CBC 23 member. I was vice-chairman. Why wasn't you 24 representing me? 25 MR. NORMAN: Because you brought the 94 1 action as an individual. 2 MR. BREAD: I don't understand that. 3 I deserve some of your attention. Well, not now, 4 but then. Somebody should have been helping me. 5 MRS. HENDRIX: And since you're 6 talking about recalls, Darrell didn't even have 7 enough sense to call the meeting and a meeting was 8 called, but yet Lanny has enough signatures to be 9 called and a meeting has never been called. So 10 when you look at Terry Bruner, ask the Bureau to 11 call the meeting, because the constitution says if 12 the Chairman doesn't call it within 30 days, the 13 Bureau can call it. So since it's certified and 14 it's a good petition, ask the Bureau to call this 15 recall meeting. 16 MR. BURGESS: Ladies and gentlemen, 17 we have Premiere Power, gentlemen. John. Do 18 y'all want to make a presentation and let the 19 people hear? I'm willing to hear it. Thank you. 20 MR. OLSEN: My name is Jim Olsen and 21 I'm from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I'm not a Comanche, I'm 22 sorry to say. This is my first meeting here. We 23 attended one other briefly one day about a month- 24 and-a-half ago. But we're here with Premier Power 25 Company, and we're here with, I think, good -- 95 1 we're not asking for anything that's going to cost 2 you anything, but we'd like to relate a story to 3 you. 4 And I know that do -- you need a 5 break or can we just proceed with this? And 6 everybody -- you know, do I have everybody's 7 attention back here? Let's -- I'd like to 8 introduce very quickly -- and I'm going to go 9 through this in just a few minutes -- the CEO of 10 Premier Power Company, Jerry Jankovic here from 11 Tulsa, and our other partner, Tom Gudgel, from 12 Tulsa, Oklahoma. 13 What I'm going to do, we build power 14 plants. And everybody uses electric power. We do 15 this -- the history of the company is we have 16 experience building power plants all over the 17 United States. We have a special program that we 18 are bringing into Oklahoma at this point in time. 19 And I'm going to -- I'm not going to use my whole 20 PowerPoint presentation. I'm going to skip over a 21 couple of areas here. Just to tell you that we 22 have enough experience. I will address that right 23 on the tail end of it to give you a little more 24 about our company. 25 But I want to get right into what we 96 1 are proposing and -- this is actually good news. 2 And I am going to hear -- our proposal to the 3 Comanche Nation is that we would like to come and 4 identify a suitable site on your land and lease 5 land from the Comanche Nation so that we can build 6 a power plant, an electric power plant that will 7 be a clean source of power, not only to supply 8 power to the Nation, but also to others around 9 here, and to create an income stream for the 10 Nation. 11 We are going to design, build and 12 operate a 110-megawatt natural gas-driven electric 13 power plant. We would construct and operate a 14 cogeneration hothouse. That's a big greenhouse 15 that is one of the largest you will ever see. And 16 the good news to that is, it brings jobs to the 17 area. These hothouses grow tomatoes. These are 18 hydroponic tomatoes that are the best you've ever 19 seen, and they're marketed to both coasts, East 20 Coast and the West Coast. 21 We are going to -- we would propose 22 to negotiate power purchase agreements with other 23 neighbors that surround your land, and to 24 negotiate power purchase agreements under 8(a) 25 program, power users. And then we would also 97 1 propose, as part of this, to enhance the 2 transmission and distribution infrastructure that 3 is around this general area. All of this at no 4 cost to the Comanche Nation. 5 The reasons why we came to the 6 Comanche Nation are these: Number one, this 7 location is very favorable geographically for a 8 small network of power plants that we want to put 9 in the State of Oklahoma. This is a very 10 strategic location. Secondly, there's an 11 availability of well-educated and motivated 12 people. In other words, we're here to bring jobs 13 to the area. Third, we have already completed the 14 majority of a feasibility study. In other words, 15 we've already invested in this process. And what 16 we've determined is that there is a -- there is 17 going to be significant growing demand in this 18 part of the state in the years ahead of us here. 19 And then, fourthly, as you all know, 20 we're in very unusual times in our overall nation 21 here. And there are significant incentives right 22 now that are being offered in this economic 23 climate by the government. Let me tell you what 24 the status of power resources are in this area. 25 Just a very rough overview. 98 1 The Nation currently pays, I am told, 2 about $1.5 million per year to area power 3 companies. There is current pending legislation 4 which will cause rates to increase significantly. 5 And, basically, we're talking about the cap and 6 trade regulations that will penalize people with 7 high carbon. I will tell you this power -- these 8 power plants have virtually zero carbon emissions. 9 In other words, they are clean and 10 green and are welcomed anywhere that they are 11 built. Comanche Nation is currently being asked 12 to build a substation, which would require some 13 capital outlay on your part. We would, as a part 14 of this process, be able to take a lot of that 15 liability as we would build our network here to 16 take the transmission and to take the power to its 17 source where it's needed. 18 And then we have the future growth of 19 the Comanche Nation will continue to increase 20 demand for power. This is just an indication 21 here. In other words, what we're offering to do 22 is to come in and build the plant. We bring the 23 money. We're not asking you for any money. We 24 are asking you for permission to enter into an 25 alliance with you and to put our plants on land 99 1 that would be a part of your Nation. 2 But we're not asking you to give it 3 to us. We're asking you to lease it to us with 4 the idea that we will operate it. We have one of 5 the most skilled operating teams that you'll ever 6 find anywhere. I'm going to just give you a quick 7 profile on who's who here in just a minute, but we 8 will operate it for 30 years. 9 During that time, you will 10 participate significantly in the cash flow from 11 that operation. So in other words, we're pumping 12 money into your economy here. We're bringing 13 jobs. Then at the end of 30 years, with our 14 management team in place, it's yours to operate 15 and own in totality. This is a formula that will, 16 I think, endow -- really create a legacy for you 17 to leave your children. I won't be around that 18 long, probably none of us will, but it will be 19 good for the future of the Nation. 20 I just want to jump back to that one 21 -- I want to show you this one right here. This 22 is assuming that no increases are going to take 23 place in your current electric -- the cost of your 24 electricity. That is unreal, obviously, because 25 there's going to be inflation coming, and there's 100 1 also going to be increased demand. But I'm doing 2 this just for analytical purposes to demonstrate 3 to you the difference. 4 First of all, I don't know what those 5 increases are going to be. We might be 6 experiencing 10 percent inflation here in the 7 coming years, but over -- in years 2009, '10 and 8 '11, which is basically the period it would take 9 us to build this and get it operational, there is 10 a continuing cost of a million-and-a-half dollars 11 a year over on that current cost column. The cost 12 of a substation, if you were to do what may be 13 required currently, would be approximately $6 14 million. So during that period of 2009 through 15 2011, your outflow of cash is 7-and-a-half plus 16 another 3, 10-and-a-half million, roughly. 17 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: On the page 18 before this one, is that what's listed on Item 19 Number 4? Our initial cost would be $6 million on 20 Item Number 4? 21 MR. OLSEN: Yes, it is. Yes, it is. 22 DR. YEAGLEY: Okay. In other words, 23 there is a cost. We do pay? 24 MR. OLSEN: No, that is not -- that's 25 something that, if you had ever met us, you're 101 1 going to -- you're being asked to do that right 2 now, is my understanding. Now, I don't have all 3 the facts on this, but for a substation, in order 4 to deliver the electricity to the -- and usually 5 what happens is they just add it to your bill a 6 little bit here and there to pay for improvements 7 that take place on these transmission lines. 8 DR. YEAGLEY: Who's asking us to do 9 this? 10 MR. OLSEN: The current providers. 11 DR. YEAGLEY: They want the Comanche 12 Nation to build a substation for 6 million? 13 MR. BURGESS: No, they're asking us 14 to build a substation on ours. We pay for the 15 other substation through taxes, administrative 16 fees, and costs. They add on to our bills. 17 MR. OLSEN: It's just added to 18 bills. This happens even on your residential. Up 19 in Tulsa, they had a little bit -- it looks like a 20 little, but we're paying for all those 21 improvements. 22 MR. JANKOVIC: But under our 23 proposal, we would absorb that. 24 MR. OLSEN: We would absorb that. 25 MR. JANKOVIC: So it wouldn't cost 102 1 you. 2 MR. OLSEN: So over a period of 30 3 years, we're talking about an outflow of an 4 additional $45 million. What would happen here is 5 that we would begin even while we're constructing 6 the plant, as we enter into that land lease. 7 There would be an income flowing back into the 8 Comanche Nation of our current package that we 9 have before our lenders, would allow a land lease 10 of about 289,000 and a few odd dollars, 289,000 a 11 year would be income back to you while we're under 12 construction. Then -- 13 MR. SAPCUT: Which land lease are you 14 talking about, acreage-wise? 15 MR. OLSEN: About 75 acres, and it 16 would be located in an area where we have -- 17 MR. SAPCUT: One spot? 18 MR. OLSEN: Yes, one spot. And it 19 would be in an area where we would access good 20 distribution so we could get the electricity out 21 into the area. So I can't tell you where it is 22 now because I don't know. We would have to do the 23 study and locate the land. 24 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: So would you 25 work with individuals as well as Comanche-owned 103 1 land? 2 MR. OLSEN: Hiring, you mean hiring- 3 wise? 4 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Individuals 5 that owned that land? Would you work with an 6 individual that had the land? 7 MR. JANKOVIC: If it's the right 8 land, yes. And then we would put it in trust with 9 them. We'd buy it and put it in trust. 10 MR. OLSEN: Did y'all hear the 11 question and the answer? She was asking if we 12 would work with individuals. And the answer is, 13 if it is in the right location, and then it would 14 be put in trust, the land would. 15 MS. ISAAC: Where would the central 16 line location be for you? 17 MR. OLSEN: I don't think we know 18 that yet. 19 MR. JANKOVIC: It's more than just 20 the transmission lines. It's the gas lines as 21 well. So we have to have a general location. But 22 we can't force people to sell land to us, so we've 23 got five or six different locations. And there's 24 ample -- as y'all know, there's ample land 25 around. And if we have to build additional gas 104 1 lines, we'll build them. If we have to build 2 additional transmission lines, we'll build them, 3 too. And at the end of the 30 years, you get it 4 all back. We just give it to you. 5 MR. HENSON: At the end of how long? 6 MR. JANKOVIC: At the end of 30 7 years. 8 MR. HENSON: And all we've got coming 9 in during that 30 years is 289 -- 10 MR. JANKOVIC: No, not hardly. 11 MR. OLSEN: No, no, no, no, no. Let 12 me finish this piece and I'll come back to your 13 question here. Once the plant is up and 14 operational, there is a -- there is an income 15 stream. And the way it is laid out right now, 16 there would be approximately $7.5 million of 17 residual income flowing back into the Nation. 18 Because when I said we would be in an 19 alliance, it would basically -- it's in an 20 alliance where we are, in a sense, partners, but 21 not in a legal sense. We are coming in and doing 22 all the work, managing the plant, doing the power, 23 helping to get the agreements with all of the 24 other folks that would buy power. And please 25 understand, you're already paying somebody for 105 1 this power. We're not talking about any new money 2 going out of anybody's pocket. 3 But what we are doing is bringing in 4 a state-of-the-art electric generation facility 5 here that would be even nice to look at. It is 6 not an ugly thing. It's not one of these old 7 coal-burning-type of things. 8 And so, at that point, there's an 9 income stream. If you total all of the net income 10 stream over that 30-year period, that number 232 11 million, that's income that would flow into the 12 Tribe. 13 So when I said "legacy," this is 14 really something that is very positive news, very 15 good news, I think, for what could happen. We're 16 not asking you to invest in anything, because 17 that's our job. We're not asking you to manage 18 it, because that's our job, that's what we do. 19 And at the end of the period, literally, the way 20 this is set up, you own the plant after that 21 period of time because it has been fully funded, 22 fully purchased, the debt's all gone. 23 And it is a tremendous -- it's like 24 an endowment that would flow to the Comanche 25 Nation for years and years and years to come. And 106 1 when you see who we have managing this in a 2 minute, you'll see that you really have one of the 3 best situations you could hope for. 4 MR. WHITEWOLF: T. Boone Pickens? 5 MR. OLSEN: Well, almost. Almost. 6 MR. JANKOVIC: But over the 30 7 years -- 8 MS. ISAAC: Next door to me and my 9 sister is on Public Service, I'm on Cotton 10 Electric. What's the deal with them crossing, and 11 would they allow you to cross over each other in 12 Cotton Electric Company, Public Service Company of 13 Oklahoma, Oklahoma Natural Gas, they all have 14 their history. Will you -- how are you going to 15 do that? 16 MR. JANKOVIC: One of our board 17 members is former Congressman Wes Watkins. Wes 18 wrote the electric codes in Washington for 19 Oklahoma Native Americans. And the reason he's on 20 that board is to guide the legal team through 21 those type of contracts. And you have some very 22 specific advantages and we'll use them all. 23 They can't stop us from supplying you 24 power. The object for us helping you with this, I 25 help tribes all over Southern California and 107 1 Arizona and Nevada. The object is to make you 2 energy independent and self-reliant and not even 3 getting gouged. And now you can participate in no 4 out-of-pocket expense. 5 MS. ISAAC: We see the Public Service 6 Company putting their poles on our property and we 7 have to allow them because they're servicing 8 members. I mean, it's our property, but they 9 still use it without even asking us. 10 MR. JANKOVIC: Well, we'll help you 11 out on that. 12 MS. ISAAC: The telephone company, 13 too. 14 MR. JANKOVIC: There's some specific 15 laws and rules that we already have the power 16 purchase agreements drawn, and they really can't 17 stop us. Plus, the reason that we came down here 18 to begin with, we were called down here by a 19 couple of other utilities, from Western Farmers 20 and Southwest Power Pool. They need electric down 21 here, because along the river is the fastest 22 growing part of Southern Oklahoma. 23 So they asked us to come and build 24 facilities and then sell them back power. And 25 while we were investigating, doing all this, I met 108 1 a couple of your Tribal members and they said, 2 "Well, you know, you're talking about X for power 3 and we're paying this." And I said, "You know 4 what? You're getting ripped off, so let's put an 5 alliance together and present it to the Tribe and 6 see if you want to go for it." So that's what we 7 did. 8 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: You didn't say 9 specifically what areas. Would it be located in 10 the Lawton area, Anadarko? 11 MR. BURGESS: Down by Red River area, 12 Tribal land. 13 MR. JANKOVIC: Down by the Red River 14 area. But it will serve a wide area. But the 15 physical facility would be located closer to the 16 river, because that's where the gas lines are. 17 MR. OLSEN: It would be like you're 18 buying power from yourself in one sense, and in 19 the future, it would be literally that, because 20 we're saying this will be your endowment. 21 Let me just proceed here. Let me 22 just summarize the benefits to the Comanche Nation 23 here. Number one, is no capital required. It's 24 always good when somebody is not asking you for 25 money. And we're not. Secondly, there's a 109 1 receipt of income from the land lease 2 immediately. We're not talking about several 3 years. 4 These are plants that do take up to 5 two years for us to build, but in the meantime you 6 are getting that smaller payment, which is a 7 little over a quarter million a year, and that's 8 not pocket change. And then, thirdly, your 9 receipt of participating income from the power 10 plant is for 30 years. 11 The ownership of all the power plant 12 and assets will flow to the Comanche Nation at the 13 end of that 30-year period. This adds to your 14 self-sufficiency for future power needs for the 15 Nation and it creates job immediately. Each one 16 of these hothouses will employ around 300 people. 17 And this is -- these are good jobs. This is great 18 for this area. But it's -- again, it would be 19 something that goes directly to the needs that you 20 have right here. 21 There is also -- the plant will be 22 designed so that it's expandable to 500 megawatts, 23 which is very important, because this area is 24 going to grow much more rapidly than any of us 25 realize right now. When you read the feasibility 110 1 studies and see what all is going to be coming 2 down the road, especially down near the border 3 area, that's where the demand will come. 4 And then, finally, there is a 5 tremendous management team, very experienced, in 6 place at the point when that transition occurs. 7 It will be a seamless transition, because we've 8 already got the management team in place that will 9 continue to oversee it. 10 MR. HENSON: Excuse me. What is the 11 projected income for the Tribe after the third 12 year? 13 MR. OLSEN: Approximately 7.5 million 14 a year. 15 MR. HENSON: We get 7.5 million a 16 year? 17 MR. OLSEN: That's correct. 18 MR. HENSON: What's the projected 19 income of the company itself? 20 MR. OLSEN: With the way it's set 21 up -- and you can't look at it on an annual basis, 22 because it ramps up over a period of seven to 23 eight years. But over the period of time, the 24 Comanche Nation would get about two-thirds of all 25 the revenue off this and our company is about 111 1 one-third. So it's a participating revenue stream 2 with us doing everything, including bringing the 3 company. 4 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Two-thirds and 5 one-third? 6 MR. OLSEN: Two-thirds and one-third. 7 You don't see too many deals like that. It's a 8 good deal. Let me add -- 9 MR. HENSON: Sounds too good to be 10 true. And you know what they say about that. 11 MR. OLSEN: Yeah, I've heard that 12 before. 13 MR. NARCOMEY: You've got one 14 question back here. Oscar, hit the lights. 15 MR. CODOPONY: Where does that 16 revenue come from? 17 MR. JANKOVIC: It comes from the 18 electricity that you're consuming now at the same 19 rate that you're paying right now. 20 MR. CODOPONY: So we're paying 21 ourselves part of it. I gathered that from the 22 first -- 23 MR. JANKOVIC: Right. 24 MR. CODOPONY: Where does the rest 25 come from? 112 1 MR. JANKOVIC: And then the rest of 2 it is contracts that we go out and get to finish 3 up the 110 megawatts. And one of them is a 4 hothouse that we're building, so we'll be buying 5 power from you as well for the hothouses. 6 MR. CODOPONY: Okay. So the 7 contracts aren't in place yet? Have you 8 identified your -- the people you're going to hit 9 up? 10 MR. JANKOVIC: Yes, we're already in 11 negotiations with the people, so that by the time 12 the financing is completed, those contracts will 13 be in place. 14 MR. CODOPONY: What about the other 15 side, the fuel side? Have you -- 16 MR. JANKOVIC: We were in contact 17 with a lot of fuel suppliers. We worked closely 18 with them. We're in that business, so, yeah, we 19 know the fuel supply side. 20 MR. CODOPONY: You mentioned to her 21 individual question about her individual 22 residence. Right now, Oklahoma doesn't have open 23 access as far as distribution goes. I know 24 California opened it up and that's what caused the 25 crash a few years ago, so how are you planning on 113 1 serving that? I know Mr. Watkins with previous 2 experiences, so I'm not sure what you're referring 3 to as far as legislation that enables that to 4 happen. 5 MR. JANKOVIC: I'm sorry, I didn't 6 hear the question. 7 MR. CODOPONY: You were talking about 8 -- the lady asked about getting power to her 9 house. 10 MR. JANKOVIC: Oh, I thought I heard 11 her say about the power poles going up or -- 12 MR. CODOPONY: Maybe I misunderstood 13 her question, but I thought it was about how you 14 get power from your plant to her house. And my 15 understanding was that you said that Mr. Watkins 16 said that can't be stopped. And right now, the 17 legislation, the way the law reads in Oklahoma, 18 that can't happen, so -- and I know it can in 19 California because their wind. They opened 20 theirselves up. And, you know, we're going back 21 to the old -- all the fiasco that happened down in 22 Houston, energy, and then all the stuff and 23 brownouts a few years ago. 24 MR. JANKOVIC: Right. We weren't 25 looking to furnish all individual households. 114 1 These are commercial contracts that will be using 2 the power, not individual homes. 3 MR. CODOPONY: You mentioned the SPP 4 a while ago, so they've already at least done 5 their preliminaries as far as having -- 6 MR. JANKOVIC: The Southwest Power 7 Pool? Yes. 8 MR. CODOPONY: Having access to their 9 grid? 10 MR.JANKOVIC: Yes. 11 MR. CODOPONY: Because I know right 12 now, Western's is fully loaded. 13 MR. JANKOVIC: I understand what 14 you're saying. The engineering firm of record for 15 the Southwest Power Pole and the Western Farmers 16 is Black & Veach. Black & Veach is our engineers 17 of record as well for transmission and 18 distribution. So, yes, we can answer all those 19 questions for you. 20 DR. YEAGLEY: We're accustomed to 21 competitive companies, and you're making an offer 22 here. Are you requesting to hear from three other 23 companies? 24 MR. OLSEN: Is anybody else going to 25 make that offer? 115 1 DR. YEAGLEY: I don't know. That's 2 what we're used to. You know, when we had casino 3 contracts, we had four companies bid and the 4 people made the decision. 5 MR. HENSON: Let me straighten that 6 up. Right now, all he's doing is making a 7 presentation. If and when we decide to go into 8 this area, there's other areas that we're looking 9 at already, but if we decide to go in this area, 10 it's going to be following what their Tribal rules 11 are, what the constitution -- what the CBC does. 12 MR. OLSEN: Let me just go ahead here 13 and quickly -- this is an aerial of one of the 14 plants built by a company in Fort Lufkin, 15 Colorado. And I don't know, can y'all see it in 16 the back? That, in the back, is the hothouse. 17 That was originally 20 acres, expanded up to 40 18 now. And that's basically what it looks like 19 inside. 20 MR. BURGESS: How many people work at 21 one plant? 22 MR. JANKOVIC: 300. 23 MR. OLSEN: 300. And, basically, in 24 the past -- and I will say it's the history of the 25 company has been to work with a number of tribes 116 1 in other areas. 2 MR. BURGESS: Ladies and gentlemen, 3 can you kind of keep it down? The background 4 noise is real hard for our stenographer. 5 MR. OLSEN: And I'm going to let -- 6 you know, Jerry has a tremendous history in 7 helping many of these tribes that you see here. 8 For example, Cabizon. This is one of the -- over 9 in Southern California, that whole development 10 there was put in place by the company a number of 11 years ago where the tribe was the beneficiary of a 12 lot of the income off of that development. 13 And I don't want to get -- spend of 14 lot of time -- Morongo Band, our folks that have 15 been friends of the company, and, specifically, 16 Jerry, for many, many years. And this is one of 17 those tribes that are very, very interested in 18 continuing to be part of what we are doing, 19 because they have benefited from it; and, today, 20 are a very wealthy group of people. 21 MR. WHITEWOLF: What kind of numbers 22 are they enjoying? 23 MR. JANKOVIC: Well, a lot of it goes 24 to not just their casino, but all the ancillary 25 things that are around their casino; water, waste 117 1 water treatment, industrial park, intermodal tank 2 farms, outlet malls, and all the infrastructure to 3 supply all that. So it's not a direct 4 relationship to income, but it supports the 5 income, because without it, you wouldn't have it 6 anyway. 7 MR. OLSEN: But these are just some 8 of the -- 9 MR. JANKOVIC: Let's leave this one 10 here for a second, if I might. Chairman Groff, 11 this one here didn't go the way he expected it 12 to. My uncle is a partner with a fellow by the 13 name of Wayne Hisner who owns Republic Waste in 14 Florida. And San Diego wanted to build a dump, a 15 garbage pit out on the reservation. And so they 16 -- my uncle asked me to go out and look at the 17 land to see if it was suitable for a landfill. 18 So I drove down there, met with the 19 Chairman and looked at the land. And it's 20 100-year-old oak trees with native grasses about 21 knee deep, rolling hills. It looks off South San 22 Diego County, looks off into Mexico, the hills of 23 Mexico. Gorgeous, hair stand up on your arms. 24 And I told Chairman Groff, I said, "I can't build 25 a dump here. This is crazy. I don't care if San 118 1 Diego needs a dump, I'm not going to authorize one 2 to be built here. This is insane." 3 And he says, "Well, you don't see the 4 pain. You haven't lived here. We need the 5 money." 6 I said, "I'll help you make money, 7 but we're not going to build a dump here." 8 Well, today, we're friends and he 9 still doesn't have a dump, but he's got a 10 beautiful place. That's him on the left. 11 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Who's in the 12 middle? 13 MR. BURGESS: Santa Claus. 14 MR. JANKOVIC: And the gentleman on 15 the right is Robert Martin, who is the Chairman of 16 the Morongos. 17 MR. OLSEN: And this is one of the 18 projects that Jerry was very active in, and -- 19 Martinez Tribe out in Southern California. And 20 that's the Salt & Sea Project, which ended up -- 21 after him blessing the Tribe and him being named 22 California Businessman of the year, and -- 23 I think, basically, what we've got 24 here is a group of people; very, very wonderful 25 team that we have that are wanting to bring 119 1 something good that will help the Comanche 2 Nation. This is a very strategic location for 3 part of our plan that we have for the state. And 4 I think if -- the reason we are here is to kind of 5 expose you to what our desires are. We will not 6 come unless we're invited. So we want to be 7 friends, a long-term friend, not just for a 8 season. And that's it. So unless there are some 9 other questions. Yes, sir? 10 MR. CODOPONY: I've got one 11 question. Have you had any projects that were 12 with tribes that were located in areas that did 13 not have a reservation land base? In other words, 14 allotted lands like Oklahoma? 15 MR. JANKOVIC: I'm sorry? 16 MR. CODOPONY: The Morongo, the 17 Campo, those were all -- everybody west of here 18 has their own reservation that their land base is 19 contiguous. 20 MR. JANKOVIC: Right. 21 MR. CODOPONY: Okay. Here, our 22 reservation, the Tribal lands have been allotted, 23 so they're busted up. 24 MR. JANKOVIC: Yes. 25 MR. CODOPONY: Have you had projects 120 1 outside of the reservation on properties that have 2 allotted lands? 3 MR. JANKOVIC: No, this is a first. 4 MR. WHITEWOLF: We have a checker- 5 board. Ours is a checkerboard. 6 MR. JANKOVIC: Well, the Agua 7 Calientes have a large -- in Palm Springs -- they 8 have every other square mile that's 9 checkerboarded. Yeah, Palm Springs is all that 10 way, every other square mile. And I've lived on 11 reservation land most of my life, and I paid the 12 high electricity prices, too, because I was living 13 on trust land. 14 MR. WHITEWOLF: Each parcel is 15 considered a reservation. 16 MR. JANKOVIC: Right. 17 MR. OLSEN: Yes, sir? 18 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: What is your 19 life expectancy of your equipment? Does it expire 20 after 30 years or what? 21 MR. JANKOVIC: About 75 years. 22 MR. OLSEN: GE is -- it manages and 23 operates the plant. They are our partners in 24 managing. And you can't -- I mean, GE is going to 25 be around a long time. They've been around for a 121 1 long time. And these are basically -- as Jerry 2 explained it, these are jet engines, but they're 3 from the plant. They're very reliable and are 4 very, very efficient. 5 MR. BURGESS: Well, thank you. 6 Barring anymore questions, ladies and gentlemen, 7 we thank you very much. 8 MR. JANKOVIC: Thank you. 9 MR. BURGESS: It sounds very 10 profitable and inspiring here. Bob and I were 11 looking at it. I think the next thing is to 12 probably look at land sites that you might want to 13 -- unless you have a map or some other area of our 14 lands, our trust lands. 15 MR. OLSEN: Could I maybe just -- I 16 had a thing that showed a schedule of what things 17 would have to happen. And it would take just a 18 second to go through that. 19 MR. BURGESS: Now, do we have that in 20 the packet, that schedule? 21 MR. JANKOVIC: Yes. 22 MR. OLSEN: I don't think this one is 23 in there. 24 MR. BURGESS: You need to leave it 25 with us. 122 1 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Do you have 2 anything with it on it? 3 MR. OLSEN: I can leave you a copy of 4 out. I'll leave you a copy of it. 5 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Okay. 6 MR. BURGESS: Are you approached by 7 any other nations or -- 8 MR. JANKOVIC: We're helping another 9 nation right now. 10 MR. BURGESS: Locally? 11 MR. JANKOVIC: It's directly north. 12 We're helping the Osage. 13 MR. BURGESS: Oh, northeast, okay. 14 Far, far, away. 15 MR. JANKOVIC: Yes. Well, you don't 16 want them right next door, because then they 17 become a competing interest. 18 MR. BURGESS: Well, that's what we'd 19 like to keep. Our interests are imminent, as 20 opposed to some of our neighbors. 21 MR. JANKOVIC: Yes. 22 MR. BURGESS: But we have, the Tribe 23 -- we have larger private holdings by the Tribe 24 than any of our neighbors. 25 MR. JANKOVIC: Yes. 123 1 MR. BURGESS: That's not a part of 2 any of the trust land, it's Comanche land. 3 MR. JANKOVIC: In some of the sales 4 to third parties, are -- you know, they're 5 individuals. And we, ourselves, have other 6 companies that we can put into maybe like a tribal 7 industrial park, and do manufacturing, and we'll 8 buy the power. We supply it to you and then we 9 buy it from you. 10 MR. BURGESS: Right. 11 MR. JANKOVIC: And that would be the 12 case with the hothouses. 13 MR. BURGESS: Mr. Codopony, is he 14 still here? You know, he brought up the tactical 15 aspect of Oklahoma opening transmission lines. So 16 we'll need to discuss that at another meeting and 17 see how you're progressing with that. I mean, we 18 do want to do something, but we can't do something 19 within the next two or three years that can drag 20 on. We don't want to hold you up at the same 21 time. We need to invest. 22 MR. JANKOVIC: No, we basically have 23 those worked out. 24 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Those linkages are 25 tied? 124 1 MR. JANKOVIC: We have the linkages 2 worked out, yeah. 3 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Okay. All right. 4 MR. JANKOVIC: We've been working on 5 this for two years. 6 MR. BURGESS: We're going to ask 7 everybody to come in that's out in the hallway, 8 any Tribal members out there that want to pay 9 attention. Thank you very much. 10 MR. JANKOVIC: Thank you very much. 11 MR. BURGESS: One announcement to all 12 of our people, that there was a house fire just 13 the other day, the 31st. This family is Crystal 14 Lambert and her children. They've lost 15 everything. They were gone on vacation, come home 16 and their house had been burned down. They're 17 looking for clothing, donations of shoes, size 6 18 for one girl, 7 years old; another girl sizes 7 19 and 8, shoe size 2 and 3; age 9, another girl; 20 various ages, 16 years olds. And they need help. 21 They're staying at 1904 Northwest 22 Cherry Avenue in town right now. Everything's a 23 total loss. If you want to make donations and 24 pass along this information to other people, you 25 can always call Bonita Paddyaker. She's helping 125 1 coordinate this effort on behalf of this 2 individual. It just happened the other day, so we 3 haven't had a chance to respond or react with any 4 assistance to their home -- to establishing a home 5 for them. 6 So come Monday, I'm sure the family 7 is going to be in to see us on Monday morning or 8 Monday afternoon. And then again, if you would 9 contact Bonita here at the office at 492-3343 and 10 tell her if you have a donation or somebody can 11 come pick it up, where and when, the family will 12 certainly appreciate that. 13 MR. HENSON: Bonita, are you here? 14 MR. BURGESS: She had to leave. 15 MR. HENSON: I understand that Red 16 Cross is putting the family up until Monday, and 17 after Monday, they will have no place to go. So 18 I'm sure on Monday, they'll come in to talk to us. 19 MRS. HENDRIX: What about the 20 trailers? Don't we have trailers out there? 21 MR. BURGESS: There are trailers 22 there, but they've already been assigned to 23 people. And when they start moving those, I'm not 24 sure when. However, there's been a discussion 25 about bringing in more trailers, about 10 more. 126 1 So we'll probably have to do some short-term 2 housing just for a day or two or 10 days, if it 3 takes that long to get trailers in here. So we're 4 going to have to talk about that Monday, so we've 5 got some ideas already cooking. 6 MRS. HENDRIX: Okay. 7 MR. BURGESS: We certainly appreciate 8 it. We've gone through the major topics that were 9 on our agenda today. Sadly to say, we had two 10 proposals and resolutions we wanted to approve to 11 bring in money to the Tribe, similar to this. One 12 was for HUD, another one would be for Department 13 of Energy, and they're due on August 7th and 14 August 18th. Those of you who understand what 15 that means to us, that we don't have a quorum to 16 take care of business, you know it's unfortunate. 17 And we're going to take a break 18 here. But before we take that break, Kelly, 19 Mr. Henson here is going to make a statement for 20 those of you who want to know about a General 21 Council meeting. Bunky? 22 MR. HENSON: There has to be, to 23 call -- it's been requested by Roderick and some 24 of the others to call a General Council meeting. 25 And under the constitution, it says that there has 127 1 to be at least three members of the board present 2 to call a General Council meeting, just in 3 writing. And there are three of us here. There's 4 another way that you can do it, is to have 200 5 people sign a signature -- with a signature. 6 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Petition. 7 MR. HENSON: Petition. So at 8 Roderick's request, at this moment, I'm going to 9 request the General Council to set a date for the 10 September 19th. Everybody agree on that? 11 MR. NARCOMEY: I vote yes. 12 MR. BURGESS: So what happens now is 13 that these two gentlemen will put it in writing, 14 and then I'll sign the same letter as the 15 Chairman, myself. 16 MR. HENSON: So the General Council 17 is established for the 19th of September. 18 MR. BURGESS: Just to let you know, 19 that call for General Council doesn't require a 20 CBC meeting, it doesn't require us to be in a 21 general, it's just a request. So when these two 22 gentlemen send their letters to me, I'll sign off 23 on it as also requesting that. And we're telling 24 you ahead of time the 19th, because that's the 25 best date that's going to fit my agenda and things 128 1 are coming on. 2 And because we're trying to 3 reschedule the meeting to the 15th, my personal 4 agenda is set aside. I'll be here on August 15th 5 for our next scheduled meeting of the CBC. And 6 we're going to take a break right now. We've got 7 to take a break. It's necessary. 8 (Meeting concluded at 12:32 p.m.) 9 10 11 * * * * * * 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 129 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 ) 5 COUNTY OF OKLAHOMA ) 6 7 I, Kelly Stoabs, Certified Shorthand 8 Reporter for the State of Oklahoma, certify that 9 the above and foregoing meeting transcribed by me 10 is a true and correct transcript of the meeting; 11 that the meeting was held on August 1, 2009, in 12 the State of Oklahoma; that I am not an attorney 13 for nor a relative of any said parties, or 14 otherwise interested in the event of said action. 15 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set 16 my hand and seal of office on this the 26th day of 17 August, 2009. 18 19 20 __________________________ Kelly Stoabs 21 Certified Shorthand Reporter for the State of Oklahoma 22 23 24 25 130 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 10:05 a.m. on August 1, 2009, 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