TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMANCHE BUSINESS COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING FEBRUARY 19, 2011, 1:12 P.M. COMANCHE NATION COMPLEX LAWTON, OKLAHOMA ________________________________________________ REPORTED BY: KELLY STOABS, CSR DODSON COURT REPORTING & LEGAL VIDEO 435 NORTH WALKER AVENUE, SUITE 102 OKLAHOMA CITY, OK 73102 405/235-1828 OFFICE ~ 405/235-1266 FAX 877/681-2119 TOLL FREE dcri@coxinet.net ~ www.dodsonreporting.net A P P E A R A N C E S COMANCHE NATION BUSINESS COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Michael Burgess, Chairman Richard "Bunky" Henson, Vice-Chairman Robert Tippeconnie, Secretary-Treasurer Ronald Red Elk, Committeeman #1 Mark Wauahdooah, Committeeman #2 Darrell Kosechequetah, Committeeman #3 Clyde R. Narcomey, Committeeman #4 LEGAL COUNSEL: Kirke Kickingbird, James Burson Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker * * * * * * INDEX OF PROCEEDINGS PAGE Meeting called to order at 1:12 p.m. 5 Roll Call. 5 Invocation. 5 Motion passed to amend the agenda. 8 Motion passed to approve minutes of 7 January 8, 2011. Motion passed to approve Resolution 9 #07-11 Land Acquisition. Motion passed to approve Resolution 21 #11-11 Levy of Revenue Allocation Plan. Discussion of Comanche Nation 25 College. Motion passed to approve Resolution 58 #12-11 Enrollment List No. 855. Motion passed to approve Resolution 58 #13-11/Enrollment List Number 856. Motion passed to approve Resolution 59 #14-11/Enrollment List Number 857. Motion passed to approve Resolution 60 #15-11/Enrollment List Number 858. Motion passed to approve Resolution 61 #16-11 Approving Appointment CNE, only Mr. Oberly. Motion passed to approve Resolution 63 #17-11 Approving NIGA Membership. Motion passed to approve Resolution 66 #18-11 Housing HUD 184. Motion passed to approve Resolution 82 #19-11 Unemployment Taxation Act. INDEX OF PROCEEDINGS (continued) PAGE Motion passed to approve Resolution #20-11 upholding tribal council resolution and rescinding standing resolution regarding Comanche Indian Mission Cemetery. 120 Executive session commenced at 4:36 p.m. 132 Reporter's Certificate. 133 Secretary/Treasurer's Certificate. 134 * * * * * * -February 19, 2011 (Meeting called to order at 1:12 p.m.) MR. BURGESS: Ladies and gentlemen, we'll call the meeting to order. Mr. Tippeconnie, will you give us a roll call, please? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Michael Burgess? MR. BURGESS: Here. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Richard Henson? MR. HENSON: Here. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Robert Tippeconnie, here. Ronald RedElk? Mark Wauahdooah? MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Here. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Darrell Kosechequetah? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Here. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Clyde Narcomey? MR. NARCOMEY: Here. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I might mention that Mr. RedElk is sick. He did call and say he couldn't make it. He's sick. MR. BURGESS: Okay. Mr. Wauahdooah, would you give us the invocation, please? MR. WAUAHDOOAH: I want to acknowledge our family for helping our family, the Tosee family, with the loss of a family member. -February 19, 2011 Keep praying for Donna Tosee who is about to undergo a heart surgery. (Invocation.) MR. BURGESS: Thank you, Mark. Appreciate those words for our families, our relatives out there that are crying at this time. Gentlemen, take 10 or so minutes. If y'all have any corrections or adjustments you'd like to make to last month's minutes, please do so. MR. NARCOMEY: Mr. Chairman, I'd like to thank you for allowing us to attend Eunice's funeral this morning. She was a good lady. I've known her since '59, I guess. But thank you for letting us attend. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Mr. Chairman, we may want to amend the agenda before we go into the minutes and included will be Resolution 19-11. And that's on unemployment. (Break held.) MR. BURGESS: We'll entertain a motion to accept the minutes, with corrections, if any. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Mr. Chairman, I make a motion we accept the minutes for January 8th, -February 19, 2011 2011. MR. BURGESS: All right. Motion's been made. MR. HENSON: I second that. MR. BURGESS: Mr. Henson has seconded that. All those in favor signify by saying "aye". (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a note that the February 14th special business meeting minutes be added in as soon as we could. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes. MR. BURGESS: Okay, his motion is to add the minutes from the 14th as soon as possible. MR. TIPPECONNIE: We have to bring it up to an official meeting, next meeting, where we can vote on it, accept them. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Next meeting. MR. BURGESS: All right. Motion's made and second. All those in favor signify by saying "aye". (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same -February 19, 2011 sign. All those abstain, same sign. Ayes have it. Motion to amend the agenda to include Resolution 19-11 made by Mr. Tippeconnie. Any second? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Second. MR. BURGESS: Second made by Mr. Darrell Kosechequetah. All those in favor signify by saying "aye". (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. MR. TIPPECONNIE: When we get it, we'll have a copy of it, hopefully. The ayes have it, then. All right. That's the item to add on the agenda. So moving on to Resolution 07-11. Resolution 07-11 addresses the purchase of the Honenanker land, which is on the west side of the reserve near the river. Whereas, the CBC realizes the responsibility to continually pursue opportunities to increase the land base of Comanche Nation and the importance of purchasing individually owned trust land in order to ensure that tribal lands -February 19, 2011 maintain trust status; and Whereas, the CBC authorizes the purchase for consideration in the amount of BIA appraisal value or higher in negotiated sale from Mr. Lloyd Heminokey, Jr., Clorandia Tsatoke, and Gregory Haumpy, Jr. The property is as follows: Allotment name is Honenanker, allotment number 1619. Be it further resolved that the CBC, as a whole, is authorized to act on behalf of the Comanche Nation to direct and oversee the purchase of the property described above in coordination with the BIA and the above-named owners. So, gentlemen? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Mr. Chairman, I want to add to this, we tabled this as it's written? MR. BURGESS: Yes. MR. TIPPECONNIE: And I want to -- I wanted to bring it up to us before we amended. But I want to see it amended so at the top when you see resolution, the resolution should just read the allotment name and number and we delete the names. Because also when we go down to the last whereas, we delete those names that are -February 19, 2011 stated there. It will be all the landowners hopefully on the tract. MR. BURGESS: Okay. MR. TIPPECONNIE: As I understand, we're gaining all the persons of interest. They're making application for sale, aren't they, Clorandia? MS. TSATOKE: Yes. MR. TIPPECONNIE: It's for all landowners of that tract. Remember, we tabled it because it had that undivided situation to it. So now as we understand, all the owners are willing to sell and making application, correct? MS. TSATOKE: Correct. But there's -- the ones that I've talked to just recently, we do not want to sell our minerals. MR. TIPPECONNIE: It's surface only? MS. TSATOKE: It's surface only. MR. TIPPECONNIE: But all parties want to sell. That makes a big difference. If you remember, we tabled it because it was undivided 40. And now it will be the total 160, surface only. So we'll amend the resolution to strike those names to say all landowners of that allotment. So modify it. -February 19, 2011 MR. BURGESS: Okay. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: So we've gone from, what, 40 acres to -¥ MR. TIPPECONNIE: The total of the allotment. MR. BURGESS: 160. MR. TIPPECONNIE: 160, more or less. MR. HENSON: This is only for consideration of purchase. Just to get it considered, it's not to purchase it. MR. TIPPECONNIE: We'll redo one, but I'm just saying we can amend it here. I'll strike all those as I would like to see it. In fact, I would make the motion to do that with these amendments that I've stated, and I'll follow through with those. MR. BURGESS: With the corrections made. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yeah, with the corrections made. MR. HENSON: And I'll second it. MR. BURGESS: Motion made by Mr. Tippeconnie, second by Mr. Henson. Resolution to include all adjustments to it. Gentlemen, those in favor say "aye". -February 19, 2011 MR. WAUAHDOOAH: I have a question, though. Clorandia, may I direct these questions to you? MS. TSATOKE: Yes. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: How close is this highway to land? MS. TSATOKE: Well, you go through Snyder, you go through town, then it's about half a mile back. There's a railroad track there and you'll cross the railroad track when you go into Mountain Park, and then it's about the second block, which you go back about two miles -- maybe not quite two miles. And it's right there. I mean, you can see it, it's all -¥ MR. BURGESS: It's about a mile¥ and-a-half west from Mountain Park. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Is it mountainous? Is it wooded land? MS. TSATOKE: It don't have mountains right on it, no, but the background, it has mountains in the background. MR. TIPPECONNIE: It has a scenic backdrop. MS. TSATOKE: It's not far from Quartz Mountain. -February 19, 2011 MR. BURGESS: It's probably within 10 miles of Quartz Mountain, going north and back to the east. But you've got to drive through Mountain Park, go around the big hill, then go into Quartz Mountain. MR. NARCOMEY: Are you guys voting to make the changes or voting to buy it? MR. HENSON: This is only for consideration of purchase. MR. BURGESS: The appraisal has not came back from BIA yet. MR. HENSON: When the appraisal gets back, then we vote whether we're going to buy it or not. This is just for consideration. MR. TIPPECONNIE: The resolution is that we will consider a negotiated sale. So once the appraisal is given to the landowners, they will come forward and discuss that. Then we'll negotiate that price. Then we'll decide at that point whether we purchase it. But at this point, we're approving entering into a negotiated sale. MR. NARCOMEY: Thursday we had that meeting at the business center with Chas' group. He said that he was having a feasibility study on this land. Right, did he tell us that? I think -February 19, 2011 we ought to table it until he gets that to us. I mean, the feasibility study is going to tell us if it's worth it or not it. It will shed more light on it. MR. BURGESS: I think they're getting that done in two weeks. They won't have this back 'til the end of March, because they've been working on the appraisal. MS. TSATOKE: It should be coming in any time. MR. BURGESS: What's happening is that other acreage that's south of there, they'll make their determination. The investment group will let us know what one way that you would like to look at. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: I'll make this comment: It may not be the most retail-oriented space, desirable place to buy. It might be used for something else. But I have some questions about the feasibility for retail commercial business. MR. BURGESS: One thing about Mountain Park and the Snyder area, while the two towns' population probably doesn't number more than 15,000 or even 10,000, during the summer, of -February 19, 2011 course, Quartz Mountain Lodge and Lake Elmer Thomas, they log in tourism approximately 30,000 people between the springtime and the late summer, Labor Day weekend when all tourism starts going away. They have festivals that draw people just for the weekend from Texas, Altus, and even further north. The tourism trade there is pretty big now, because Lake Lawtonka over here and this other lake over here, they're overcrowded with sports people; boats, those who might be fishing, and so they're limiting their sales to fishermen. So a lot of our folks here go to that lake now, spend the weekend. So they're out there. Additionally, the casino's C Club membership averages 3,500 people from around Altus who come over here on weekends to play at the casino, and their families go shopping and take advantage of things here in Lawton. So while we think that every day you won't have high numbers, every job -- every industry has its peaks and its valleys. And putting something out there that will create some kind of entertainment and allow those people who don't want to drive all the way over here two nights a week, or three weekends in a row, they would have that available to them. -February 19, 2011 Particularly it's a smoke shop that we're looking at. So that's the driving impetus here, the economic base that we're looking at out there. Just letting y'all know those are the things that we're looking at, those are numbers that we think would increase cigarette sales and to the community coming there. Okay. Any other discussion? MR. NARCOMEY: I'm going to vote no on it, because I hate to build anybody's hopes up if it's not feasible. It may be feasible. MR. BURGESS: All right. MS. TSATOKE: Can I say something? All the members that I talked to, all the landowners, it doesn't make that -- yeah, we want to do that to help the tribe, too. Because the way we're looking at it is like there's a lot of us, there's about 10 people on the -- that inherit the land. And as time goes on, when I pass away, my children will get it. By the time they get it, there's so many people on that, that eventually it turns out to be like five cents a year. I mean, what's that? You know, it can help the tribe, too, to make a little bit more money or whatever to help us with, you know, per cap or elderly -February 19, 2011 money or whatever. But that's the way we're looking at it. We don't have to sell. I mean, you know what I'm saying? You're not going to hurt our feelings if you turn it down or whatever. Remember I was talking to you? So that's kind of the way we all feel about it. And that's just, you know, what I would like to say, is that it's -- if you want to do that, it's fine. If you don't, nobody's going to get mad at you, nobody's going to say anything. I mean, it is not like we're looking really forward to it. We all have jobs and we can support ourselves. That's just the way we're looking at it. But right now none of our children want to live around Mountain Park or whatever, you know, so -¥ MR. BURGESS: All right. Thank you, Mrs. Tsatoke. Call for the question here. All those in favor signify by saying "aye". (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. MR. NARCOMEY: Nay. MR. HENSON: That was only to make the correction on the resolution. -February 19, 2011 MR. BURGESS: So you're voting for the resolution? Clarify that, right? You're voting for the resolution? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: With corrections. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Which is proceed with negotiated sale. MR. HENSON: Okay. MR. BURGESS: So again, how many ayes was that, Bob? MR. TIPPECONNIE: It's three? MR. BURGESS: I abstained. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: I abstained. I will say this: That potentially 160 acres could be used for something other than retail casino business side. And, Mike, I hope that we consider that in the future. MR. BURGESS: I'll make a statement here in regards to those of you who read the newspaper within the last week or so. Do y'all remember reading about River Springs, the city of River Springs in Cotton County? Just to let you know, the people are -- who are proposing that town, they're trying to include the Kiowa casino, the Comanche casino, and any other trust lands down there that might draw a casino. The River -February 19, 2011 Springs people are trying to include our lands in this city township because they think they're going to get tax base from the trust lands and the businesses that we have down there. So you can see how the tribe has become an economic engine for the whole southwest here. And they've -- Cotton County passed a resolution in their own county ordinance that stated that they would have the right to tax any and all businesses, trust or nontrust land. That's the impression I got. We've asked the attorneys to start reviewing that, so that if that River Springs township goes through, we're going to end up going head to head with it. And we are already buying our water from the county rural water system and we're buying electricity from Cotton Electric, I assume. And then the sewage system, we have underground lagoon, or I should say lagoons. We're going to have to do something different with that, because we're -- we would no longer be in a city township, and they'll probably want us to buy sewage from them if they become a little town. So ladies and gentlemen, we have to look forward and be aware of all these things that -February 19, 2011 are going around us, because everybody sees the tribe as a tax base that they need to tax. The state does, too, remember. So these are things that we have to worry about and be appraised of, just to let you know. We've got to keep looking long distance at these things and be prepared whether going to court or whether we develop our own utility system and pay ourselves for it. Next resolution, 11-11. This is a resolution by the business committee approving a levy of Revenue Allocation Plan per capita payments under federal court writ of garnishment. Pursuant to the Revenue Allocation Plan approved by the BIA, the CBC is the trustee designated to supervise the full and fair administration of the Revenue Allocation Plan; and Whereas, the Federal law 18 USC, subsection 361.3(a)1 provides that a federal criminal monetary penalty can be enforced against any property or property rights of a defendant subject to limited exceptions not applicable to tribal per capita payment; and Whereas, the Comanche Nation has received writs of garnishment for the levy of per capita payments of certain tribal members as -February 19, 2011 identified on the attached list. There's a second page to this. Therefore, the CBC is to be compliant with federal laws to keep your per caps flowing to you, we have to go through this motion of allowing garnishments on the per capita payments. Now therefore, be it resolved, that CBC hereby approves and authorizes City National Bank & Trust of Lawton to levy the Fiscal Year 2011 per cap payment and/or elder per cap payment and continue yearly until the garnished amount is paid in full for the members on the list." This keeps us compliant with federal courts and writs of garnishment. Ladies and gentlemen, we're following federal law as we said we'd do when we applied for the Revenue Allocation Plan. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Mr. Chairman, this is not a new list, right? MR. BURGESS: I'm not sure of that, Bob, no. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes, this is -¥ some of these have had garnishments. But as you can see, some of them -- it's not totally new, some of them. I don't want to give the names. -February 19, 2011 But this, if you read this, we're putting it continuing yearly rather than having them annually, having a letter or a resolution annual. This will be one resolution that makes it continued. As it says here, until all that is satisfied, until the outstanding indebtedness or such is satisfied. Previously we've had just yearly resolutions. MR. NARCOMEY: In other words, we can get no money from these people until we pass the resolution? MR. BURGESS: The court. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Well, the court is asking, not us. MR. NARCOMEY: But they've got to have this to get it? MR. TIPPECONNIE: They're coming to us because they're giving us that direction by court order, so we have to conform to that order. Otherwise, we could be in contempt as a nation. MR. NARCOMEY: I make a motion to approve. MR. BURGESS: Mr. Narcomey's making the motion. Second? MR. WAUAHDOOAH: I'll second that -February 19, 2011 motion, Mr. Chairman. MR. BURGESS: Mr. Wauahdooah is seconding the motion. Discussion? All those in favor signify by saying "aye". (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. The ayes have it. MR. NARCOMEY: Mr. Chairman, before we go into enrollment, there's about three or four enrollment resolutions, and I'd like to make a short statement. One of our elders that is here is handicapped, and I want to bring up something first before he does, but he asked to speak a little bit on it. Everybody remembers the cold weather that we had the first week of this month, by any chance? Everybody owns a TV, watches TV? You watch Channel 7 for all the update on the news and what's closing, what's opening? We had closings of everything really. A lot of the public schools, Cameron College, Walters, Geronimo, Elgin, Cache, Sterling, Fletcher. Everything was closed on the bottom of the caption below there. I can just say one word about Comanche Nation -February 19, 2011 College. I wonder how come? I think there ain't no students there. That's all I got to say. Hammond, your next. MR. MOTAH: Yeah, I live in the Carnegie area and all I hear is rumors, speculation. I asked Clyde the other day, I was in the hospital, I said why are we giving the college $1.5 million every year when they're not accredited? And, also, why are we paying such huge salaries to people that are working there when we hardly have any students? Now, I'm not against education. Don't get me wrong. I'm just concerned about the money that's going out. The money that, you know, how it can be directed other ways. And that was my concern. Like I say, all I'm hearing is rumors, and people are talking very angrily about how much money we pay out every year. And I was told that one of the people that worked there told them five years ago that they were just this far from being accredited. Now, that's five years ago, or roughly four years ago. And we've been giving them, what, $4 million since then? Why are we doing that when they're not accredited. A lot of the students that go -February 19, 2011 there could possibly go to vo-tech and get the same training. But I'm just here for my own information. That's why I'm asking this. MR. HENSON: Hammond, we had a meeting yesterday with the college, and Mike and I have been meeting with them pretty often about accreditation. For those that don't know about accreditation, for us to get accredited in the schools, it takes approximately four years. Now, prior to this new doctor that we got over there, the new president, we never even put anything in. And this is a little over what, a year ago? She's only been here less than a year, two years, and she's got all the accreditation materials, everything, out to the accreditation people. Now, the process that it takes is, that the first thing, even when they got all the material to them, it has to be accepted to be considered for accreditation, and that won't happen until probably November. At the earliest, November. Once it's put into that process of consideration, then it may be nine months or a year after that, or maybe sooner. But it takes -¥ there's a period of time. And in between that, -February 19, 2011 they may ask for more information. There's a lot to accreditation. There's teachers, there's the certification of the teachers and everything, and then there's money that has to come in. And we do have 212 students for everybody's information. MR. MOTAH: Well, my concern was -¥ like I say, I'm not against education. I'm kind of concerned about the money that's being paid out to people that work there. Sure, we got to get accredited, but why are we paying them so much when they're not accredited? Say, for instance, our president getting $260,000 a year, and then a teacher getting $186,000 a year, and another one getting 86,000 and they're not accredited. You know, that's my concern. MR. HENSON: Basically, all the students that go to that college gets accredited hours. Those accreditations come through Cameron and they come through Bacone. So to say that the school is not accredited, you can be right in the fact it's not Comanche accredited, but it's wrong in the fact that all the students get accredited through Cameron and Bacone. And the salaries that you got is not right. MR. MOTAH: Well, I know last year -February 19, 2011 some of our nurses that went to the nursing school weren't accredited. They couldn't go out and get a job because the Comanche Nation certified that they were registered and all that, you know. A lot of those kids were disappointed. MR. BURGESS: To respond to the nurses' issue, the nurses went through graduation. Sadly enough, some of them were rushed through it. They weren't quite ready. They have a flex program over there which allowed them up to 18 months to complete. That's under the previous president and his leadership. Those students graduated from Comanche Nation College. Their next step to finalize their education is to pass the Oklahoma State Board of Nursing test, so they were to study for that. And so technically they couldn't get a job if they don't pass the OBN, Oklahoma Board of Nursing test. They're not able to call themselves a nurse anyway. So when they finally did take that test, nine out of those 10 ladies, I believe, maybe all of them, passed. And then after that, they go into work. It's the same way with each of what they call the cohorts. This cohort graduated just I believe it was December or January, and -February 19, 2011 they're taking their Oklahoma Board of Nursing test if not in March, in April. So they have that time lag that they've got to study for the Oklahoma Board of Nursing test. And they can go to work as -- I think a long time ago they called them candy stripers. They could go to work -¥ nurse's aide until they pass their OBN. Then they would be certified as a nurse. So it's not even up to the college. MR. TIPPECONNIE: It's LPNs. MR. BURGESS: It's not even the college that calls them passed until they pass their state boards. So all of that discussion and dialogue over the last year and before was very erroneous. It was in error to tell you all that they couldn't go to work because they didn't graduate Comanche Nation College. That leadership should have told you that they still have to pass the Oklahoma Board of Nursing in order to get certified as a nurse, not just our school. So it's a two-step process. And that past administration wasn't explaining that to you all. So we've had to live with that and we've tried to explain that to people. But someone who's more expertise than us, as they tell us, -February 19, 2011 knows all about it. But eventually Oklahoma Board of Nursing now has reviewed Comanche Nation College. And when this group passes, they will certify them to start another cohort. So they're getting geared up to start another class, either it's August or September, to start another nursing group. All of that was in error, it was dialogue, it was words to get you riled up. Now -¥ MR. HENSON: It's somewhat like the same requirements as a doctor has. You go to school for all those years and then you have an internship and then you got to pass the state test before you become a doctor and can practice as a doctor. It's the same thing. MR. MOTAH: Well, that's what I'm here for. I'm glad I heard it from the horse's mouth. Now I can rebuttal those that tell me otherwise. We don't get that kind of information from Carnegie. We should come around here to get that, but we don't get that. MR. BURGESS: It's hard. One of the things about the budget, people talk about the high salary for the president. There's a line item, a budget line item for the president's office. That is not her salary. That's for her -February 19, 2011 assistant, that's for her telephones, that's for all the business that office conducts. It's even for the chairs. All the communications that she -- that's the whole budget for one year for her office, and I think it's two-and-a-half people that are paid salaries out of that, I think you said the 200-and-some-thousand. That is not her salary. We've asked that question. And the counsel said that is not her salary. And it's the same with saying one professor got paid 100 -- there's several grants that one professor or another professor supervises those grants. That's the total for that grant. And that's how their budget is made, is made to that program, and the professor gets paid the hourly wage out of that grant, plus the assistants who come there. And it's for that class or that program. Like the language grant they got, whether it's $160,000, that's not a salary. That's the grant they got to conduct the language class over a two-year time period. MR. MOTAH: And I realize that, because I've written proposals before. MR. BURGESS: So for them to tell you that's salaries, that's again another falsehood. -February 19, 2011 MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Let me interject this. The State of Oklahoma, or any other state for that matter, is a public institution. Because it is a state-paid salary, do they publish the salaries, like former Governor Boren of the University of Oklahoma, president, do they publish his salary? MR. BURGESS: I know that the state Secretary of Education publishes their office. I don't know if all school districts that publish theirs. Universities can do that. It's up to each of those school districts, I believe. But, you know, locally, if they want to do that, the school superintendents can do that. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: If the state of Oklahoma does it, I think we might want to do the same here at Comanche Nation. MS. MCDANIEL: I have a comment. On January 25th, just recently, the Oklahoma Board of Nursing, they published their minutes of their recent meeting with the Comanche Nation College. And their minutes state that the nursing program is suspended and cannot and will not be allowed to admit any more students. And then we only had three that actually supposedly graduated just -February 19, 2011 within -- just last month. So, you know, you can believe what these men are telling you, but it's a bunch of eshop. They're not telling you the full story, you know. We spent way too much money on that college. And it's a waste of gaming dollars when we could be using it for other things like health care, fixing up our homes. That college is a waste of money. And what they're telling you is a bunch of eshop. I'm sorry, Hammond, that these men are lying to you. MR. BURGESS: All right. Thank you, Eleanor. MS. ATTOCKNIE: But by that same token, whatever she is saying, I would like to see that. I mean, if it's there, and she's saying it and trying to convince others that what she is saying is true, I would like to see it, too, so that I could make up my mind. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Eleanor, I went to bingo and I spoke to some elders there. And they told me in the '70s and '80s you stole those elderly blind. You also got a deal over this old man where you stole him blind and he was an invalid. They also told me you stole from the -February 19, 2011 casinos. They also told me all kinds of stories about you. MR. HENSON: Judy, Judy, Judy. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It's wrong for you to get up here and try to fight these men when you're not in a predicament to say that. MR. BURGESS: Thank you. Let's come back to order here. The discussion here, we had seven graduates ,I believe, of the nursing program. They've yet to pass their Oklahoma Board of Nursing test. That's what we were told. MR. HENSON: Let me say something right here. You guys, there is a budget that the general council passes. This is not the CBC that passes that budget. It's you, the general council, that gives the college what they are. They have a board that's over the general council. All the CBC does is appoint the board members when they're given to us. We try to appoint the best ones for the college. Now, the college was developed because the general council wanted it at one point. So it's not up to the CBC that does anything about it. Of course, we try to keep up with it and try to get it accredited. We're -February 19, 2011 really pushing it, because if we can get it accredited, that's going to be a really good thing for the Comanche Nation. But you can't do it overnight. It just takes time. MS. MCDANIEL: But when we vote on a budget, the CBC never sticks to it. MR. BURGESS: Let him finish. Sit down. Let him finish. Let him finish. MS. MCDANIEL: Everybody else is able to interject but me. I mean, he stepped -- I waited for him, you know, to speak. MR. BURGESS: He wasn't finished. MS. MCDANIEL: He jumped up in front of me. MR. HENSON: I'm sorry. MS. MCDANIEL: I have a right to say something, too. You know, you can stand here and tell your side of the story. I'm a tribal member, I have a right to be here. I have a right to interject something when I feel like you're not telling the truth and you're not being totally honest. You know, you guys can say you stuck to the budget, but you didn't. You moved money here and there. Especially to the college, you gave them -- they spent all their money, but you gave -February 19, 2011 them an additional $300,000 just in September. They blew all their money and you gave them another 300,000. You know, we've spent it, we spent a lot of money on that college and everybody knows it. MR. BURGESS: I believe the general council approved $300,000 for the nursing program. You're making all of these statements but you're not sticking to the facts. We have heard you, let us move on. We have another item on the agenda. MS. MCDANIEL: You cannot stick to the budget. MR. BURGESS: Ms. McDaniel, let us go through the agenda. MR. NARCOMEY: Mr. Chairman, since I started all this deal here, let me make one last comment. In September or October 2009, the administrator of the college was sitting right here. He said we're this close to getting accredited. I said, I bet you my per cap you ain't going to be accredited. I said, when do you think? He said May of next year. So it should be on record there where he called my hand, so -¥ MR. HENSON: We have been talking to -February 19, 2011 the college about them getting more information out to the people. So you can start looking for it online, you can start looking for our newsletter. So they can let y'all know directly what they're doing. So that should be coming out very shortly. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Mr. Chairman, shouldn't all that stuff be in the newsletter every month you get? All programs put in what they got, what they're missing, what's going on? That should have been in the newsletter. You know, they should really lay it out there for the people to look at. MR. BURGESS: Well, you can go to the college and they have a bookcase -¥ UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I mean in our newsletter. MR. BURGESS: One thing about the newsletter is we only have so many dollars per month to pay for printing and try to -- it's good that you're telling us, but over here last month we heard your news is old, it's always late, because we only print once a month. And we're not a weekly newspaper or a daily, so we have that conception that we want to give you current news -February 19, 2011 that's up to date, but if you read about it on the Internet and all of the conjections that go on and we finally print them out the first of the month, but you heard something different in February, just like Hammond is telling us, he wanted to come here and ask and hear it. So when we do put it out here, everybody wants to say eshop, but that's the fact. The fact is, right now the college has produced a 6,000 page document, 13 chapters, which is called a preliminary information form. It's not a paper. There's a paper that covers it, and there's 6,000 pages about this high, 13 chapters. They had to send three copies of that booklet to the higher learning commission. Higher learning commission told them, we have never gotten an application like that. We've never got a PIF this large. We want you to take it back and condense it. They turned around and condensed it to 1,100 pages. And the person who sent that back ends up losing their job because our people worked for the last 18 months to get that done and followed the exact rules and formats, answered every question they wanted, and provided all the proof of documentation they said had to be there. -February 19, 2011 So when they got it, they told them no college has ever done it this way, not even a four-year university. We don't have people that will sit and read this. They find five professors who read that information and say that it's all there, 13 chapters, mind you. And the 13th chapter was added in the 90 days. Never had it before. So Dr. Lopez and her staff had to go back and respond to Chapter 13, which was financial questions, which took them all the way back to 2002 when we had a one-page resolution. Come in here, no format for that college. No idea what the college was supposed to do to get accreditation. Three times they tried, and they come down here and say you're not ready, you don't have this in place, you don't have that in place. Don't even apply until you have all these things in order. So it took us seven years, five¥ and-a-half years to get all those things in order. And Dr. Lopez did that within 18 months after they removed the other president. So she got us on track. We have now applied in less than two years where it normally takes four years. And to say that we're not close enough to -February 19, 2011 accreditation, we're in the pipeline now and they've told her, Dr. Lopez, Comanche Nation College, you can use those 6,000 pages as your self-study, which is step two towards accreditation. Give us this 1,100 page document and take the 6,000 page document and start responding to the self-study. The self-study has 60 questions, not 40, but this big document, the 6,000 pages, that's two years worth of work they did in 18. And now they don't have to do two more years. Hopefully, they won't have to do but another year's work to answer the self-study, which is step two towards accreditation. So we're now way ahead now. We have caught up inside of three years. Two years the college has gotten ahead of where it should have been in the fifth year of Dr. Winkleman's tenure. So we're making strides, we're moving ahead. But if you want to continue to say get rid of the college because it's a waste of money, ask those students who want to go there. Ask those students who come from Walters, Elgin, Fletcher, Cache, those Indian kids. 8th and 9th grade, 6th grade, they say I want to come to school here, -February 19, 2011 this is my people, this is the Comanche College. That's what they're getting. They're doing these institutions to try to expose the Comanche Nation College to our Indian kids. Did we have that when we were youngsters? Yes, we have OU; yes, we have OSU Cameron. Cameron's not supporting us. When they agreed to give us accreditation, they would share the money from administration back to the college. They did that for the first two years, and then they cut it off. And they won't talk to Dr. Lopez at all. They won't invite her over other than just to come over here, you're our token. They're going to get these words because we're on the Internet. But I'm tired of that Dr. Ross at Cameron making promises and not following through, because I was there in 2002 and 4 and 5 as the TA. And she wanted us over there. Boy, they wanted the Comanches there. Why? Because they receive 50 percent of all of our higher education money. $2,500 on average for 150 kids. Y'all add it up. And they won't share administrative cost over to our college. So we support the administrative cost at the college, -February 19, 2011 and they won't let our Indian kids take their general education, introductory math, science, English. They want to keep them at Cameron. Cameron is not supporting us. Just like City of Lawton, the county, Lawton. They want our tax dollars, they want our scholarship dollars. We all love OU's football team. Maybe OSU's baseball, maybe the tennis, maybe the golf. But are they telling us about the real history of this state, this nation? No. Are they telling us about the treaties that our kids are entitled to live under? No. Are they telling us about the real ways that they took this land across from ocean to ocean? No. But you can go to any tribal college around here except ours and you can hear the truth that our elders left behind. That's why it's important that your grandchildren know how your grandparents had to live and suffer for us to be here today to argue about a pittance. That's what's happening to us. If our future isn't secured by us and the educators that we can bring in who are Indian, then we have no secure future. That's why I feel like college is important. Right here, one of our members that sat at this table could be over there -February 19, 2011 Monday through Thursday teaching classes on Comanche history, Comanche government and how we were formed, why we had to form. No one really understands that. I ask people about what do you remember of the takeover. People under the age of 40, I wasn't around, I don't remember it. Some of my elders will say this is why we did it. Others say, well, why do you want to know? That was a bad time in our history. Why should you want to know about it? Because if we don't remember what happened to us in the past, we're going to repeat it again. And we're trying not to repeat that past. Nobody's here trying to live forever in this office. But you got people out there coming to you telling you that. Oh, they're going to make great changes. One of them said, when we had our storm last year, oh, just give everybody money, let them stay in motels. There was no room to find in town, and there was no money to give 'til we passed a resolution to set aside money for emergency management. That was never thought of in previous leadership. We're thinking about that future and that time. We earned $1.4 million from FEMA. -February 19, 2011 People are out there saying where is it? It reimbursed us for every time we borrowed money from this coffer. It put the money right back in it. We didn't spend it frivolously. It goes right back into that savings, that $200,000 that we set aside to be ready for another emergency. Now we got tornado season coming. These things we have to think about and we have to train our people to think about that for us. When I went to OSU, they didn't tell me about treaties. I went to OU, they didn't want to tell me about -- I'll tell you what they did tell me. Dr. Errol Gibson, my Native American studies history teacher, first thing he did in class, and there was four of us in there, Comanches. Start talking about the -- he said, well, the Comanche language is gone. There's no one who can speak Comanche anymore. That's what's happened to them. They have to make strides in a man's world. That's what their elders told them. And that famous word that Eleanor give us, ah, eshop, four of us started chuckling. Because we could come home and listen to an elder, we could come home and hear one of them. But you have a non-Indian telling me -February 19, 2011 about my history, and I know it to be wrong. But I'm taught to be respectful of my elders. I didn't get up and argue with him. There's 75 other white kids in class taking notes, writing it down. That's what I had to put up with, and some of you did the same. So ladies and gentlemen, we are trying to make sure that college is doing its job and going to be there for the future. You get to vote on it. Come tribal council, it will be a line item. You vote it up, you vote it down. You vote for the future of your college for your grandchildren or you vote it down. MR. MOTAH: (Spoken in Comanche.) You know what that means. I made a mistake by asking a question. (Spoken in Comanche.) MR. BURGESS: You did the right thing to ask and you know how important this place was to your father. MR. MOTAH: I got my answer. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It was a good answer. I have a question. I'm like Hammond over here and anybody else in here. Higher education is fine. Now, my big question to you was because we're not getting interaction from Cameron, if I -February 19, 2011 understand you right, considering various subject matter, my question is: Do we have the enticements to attract those people who are knowledgeable and prepared to teach these particular subjects that they resent us about? In other words, what comes to my mind right quickly whenever I heard you say that, was when they were talking about 638 in the hospitals, all the Indian tribes wanted to take the hospital and say that's our hospital. But you know what? And I was serving on the committee at the time, and I was never for that. Simply because I understood that when you take a -- again, I like to use that analogy about, you know, we're used to driving Model T Fords, and somebody offers you a Corvette and you don't even know where the ignition is. It appears to me that that's what we -- has happened over here. I'm not trying to belittle higher education. But when you take on something that you're ill prepared for, such as let's go back to that hospital situation. We could have 638'd that. You know, the seven tribes in the area could have done that. But look here, when you go out and approach a doctor who has a following in town or wherever he's from, I -February 19, 2011 don't care if he's in New York City and you tell him hey, we got Indians over here in dire need but we can't give you but X number of dollars and he goes plays golf three days a week, you know, and triples what you making an offer to him from, you're not going to get those kind of people. That's just plain and simple. So my question comes back to that original thought. Are we prepared at the college to attract some of these people who have that knowledge and that expertise and understand that they're not going to be drawing those professorship salaries because we're incapable of doing that. They must be driven by another motive, and that other motive is, hey, here's Indian people that are the same ones that we took their lands from, and they're saying help. That's the kind of people we got to reach. Because most all of us know this country is a capitalistic society and the bottom line is, hey, I want all the money I can get as quick as I can get it and nothing else matters. So I see that we're kind of -- and that's my impression at the moment. I'm giving you my opinion with just a little information I -February 19, 2011 gathered here today. I see that as probably a great obstacle that the leadership somehow has to sit down and address this. And not just you, but the existing personnel over at the college itself. I've never been in there. You know, ever since its beginning, there's been turmoil, and you've explained why a lot of that is. It's some of the students their self were out there not having enough self-responsibility to give the whole answer, if you would, why they couldn't leave there and go get employment. Now, I was curious about that when I heard somebody at the general council say they had graduated and they were still unemployed. I couldn't understand that. The fact is, you can't get employment if you don't have that certificate from the state. And so you were correct in saying that erroneous information that they pass that comes back to self-responsibility, and unfortunately, I don't want to belittle us as a people, but we seem to dwell in that area as much as the realistic end of it. So that was my question. Is part of the problem that we can't attract those people capable of doing what we dream of over here. -February 19, 2011 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Thank you, Roland. I might comment, one of the things that I really feel the nation should be looking at and it's in my heart. I think the point you make to me, is who has this passion in them that will go over and help us in this educational pursuit. You know, about our treaties, about our culture. Things are very, very important to us. You know, we're fortunate at the moment, most people can smile about it or make jest of it, but we're very fortunate to have a council, college council, Comanches, with PhDs. You know, that is something outstanding. That's terrific to have that in a tribal college. But the one thing I want to say about and I just want to add some points, because the chairman made some good points. If this Comanche Nation is to be something tomorrow, we must invest in our children today. And that means, my heart says, investing as the minute they're born. If you look at some of the situations some of our children go through today, it's terrible, it's tough. The families are fractured, economics are tough, all kinds of challenges to their mind by outside things like the media, the music, -February 19, 2011 everything. They're challenged because they want to be okay with where they are. And to be okay, unfortunately sometimes, is to get trapped by all that junk. I call it junk, because it can lead you in a crazy way. When we really have to invest in our young people. And I say, again, from the day they're born and in preschool. What are we doing as a nation taking monies and investing in a preschool, and not just in preschool. Look at our dropouts in high school. I think we should be ashamed that we're having the number of dropouts in high school. That hurts me, because where are we going to be tomorrow? We need these young people. We have to invest in them from the day they're born and through elementary school, secondary school, and then maybe they can get to college. But if we have a college -- you know, I think, just as the chairman says, wow, it enriches us. We should be proud we're Numunuu, not that we're better than anything that God created. We're one of his creations. But we have something special. We really have something special. I think about the older people, you know, and I was told some stories that were just interesting to me when I grow up. When they were -February 19, 2011 out, you know, they didn't cry. They didn't challenge each other and tear each other apart. They worked together. And they had tough times because all kinds of people wanted to kill them. Look at what happened in Palo Dura. Killed all their horses and what do they want to do, kill them so they could starve us to death. But we didn't give up. We walked. We came from there and we came back over. We didn't want this reservation as a reservation, but we wanted this homeland and we came back. How do we come back? We had spirit. We had unity, we had pride, and we weren't going to give up. And that's what we have to do today. We can't give up. And we have to invest in education, and I say education is too valuable to us. And we talk around about not investing pennies. When you look at -- sometimes it may seem like a lot of money. But is it? If you take it down to the students, it isn't much. We're giving $2,500 per semester to a student that's in college. Go see what the bill is. It's not $2,500. It could be 1,400 per semester, it could be 10, 12,000, I'm talking about. And these students, a lot of them have to go out and beg for -February 19, 2011 this. But the point I want to make is, I don't think we should be underestimating what education is and the investment into it. We need to be investing more into education, and we need to start at the lower levels, and we need to help in elementary schools and in the secondary schools and prep them for higher ed. And if they get to colleges like our universities, and I've had the privilege and honor to be in a number of tribal colleges around the U.S. When you go in there and see the pride they have about Indian culture, Indian language, you know, as you said, we speaking our language. You know, we need to really speak our language. But when you -¥ because when you speak the language, it says something more than you can say in English. And some of that's going to tell us. You know, one of the things when we equip ourselves in education, we have to have a moral base. We have to have an ethic base. We have to know what is right and wrong. And then when we get educated, we always live with these principles, core values. I know our people in the past had core values, because I heard them from my -February 19, 2011 grandparents on my mom and my dad's side, core values. So as a little one, you know, remember how we'd come into (Comanche) tell you to come and eat. And we run in, you didn't go in and sit down. You waited until the elders, you waited until they sat down, they had their meal. And you sat there. Yeah, I was hungry, but you respected it, because you had core values. You understood the relationship you had to your older generation, and you had an understanding to the younger generations. That's part of the education we can get in our college. Those kind of things, we need them. Because if we're to equip our young people to sit at this table, to guide this nation to do dynamic things tomorrow, we must invest in tomorrow. Invest in them today and that's called education. I just wanted to make those comments because it's in my heart. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Thank you, Mr. Secretary-Treasurer, for the comment. It was very eloquently spoken. Obviously there's pros and cons to the college issue. It's sort of gotten us off the resolution for enrollment, but let me just say this. This can be a black hole financially. On the other hand, it can be an -February 19, 2011 educational bonanza. But come April 16th, if you want to bring it up then, bring it up then. In the meantime, folks, can we move on with the enrollment issue? MR. HENSON: I want to say one thing in closing about the college. When I went to the college the first time, I talked to them about the program to develop for our children. Unfortunately, I was one of those that was very poor when I was coming up and nobody told me I was college material. Knowing that, where some of our people are that don't have very much money and that are poor, those children are not encouraged to go to college. They're just trying to live day to day. So I talked to the college about developing some kind of program where they can target those children and put something on over at the college to try to boost them up to make sure and tell them that they are and can be college material. So to let you know, there's two. They put on a program last year, and most of them was from the 3rd grade to the 7th grade, and they had a lot of people do that. They're going to do that this year again, and it's going to be called -February 19, 2011 Eagles, something about Eagles Camp I think it is. So if you got some grandkids or some children that may want to participate in that, it is fantastic program. I would suggest that you put the word out when it comes out so they can participate in that. That's it. MRS. SCHONCHIN: I wanted to answer Uncle Pratt's question on my point of view. The PIO, we put out an e-mail to all the directors saying this is our deadline. If you want to put information in our paper, please meet the deadline. About seven or eight tribal administrators ago, he made it mandatory for programs to give the newspaper something. And he made it mandatory for programs to turn in their monthly reports to us that we could it in the paper. Well, as time went on, that just kind of faded away and it's not mandatory for programs to put information in the paper anymore. We do send out information telling them this is our deadline, please meet it. Sometimes programs give us information after the deadline after the paper's already done. So we got to wait until the other month. Because like -February 19, 2011 Chairman Burgess said, we really have a strict budget. But for the ones that have Internet access, as soon as we get that information, we put it on our Website. So the ones that have Internet access can go to the Website daily and it's always being updated with things that we get that didn't make the newspaper deadline, but we do put it on. Some programs don't respond to this, and that's up to those directors. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Thank you, Joleen. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Just right quickly, I would like to kind of defend this other side where I'm like Mr. Wauqua here. Hey, I'm not computer literate and I know probably a lot of other people in here aren't either. Now, the new technologies are fine. If you've got that in your home, more power to you. But let me tell you, there's a lot of people like myself and like these fellows over here who want that paper every month and who depend on it to get their what little news that comes out monthly. We appreciate that very much. And I want to tell you people who fund it, I do really appreciate that and I would say most people in here would tell you the same thing. But, to say, okay, if you want news -February 19, 2011 fast and you got the Internet, more power to you. But, hey, don't push this other thing aside and say, you know what, that's old news. I would rather have that old news because look here, my memory ain't as good as you guys up there. If I want to say you know what, I read that last week. I want to go back and check that wording on it, so I can go back to that. So you see how important that is that we, in fact, like she said, some of the TAs required these various departments to submit something. And, you know, she said it fell off. Well, I'm familiar with that. That's the Indian way. But you know what, I hope the Comanches are moving up to a level again where that self-responsibility, department heads, that's where it starts. If you've got the proper department head in here, he's not going to say, well, let's push that aside, let's put that on the back burner. He's going to say let's get this out there and he'll submit something. Now, whether it gets published or not, again, you've got a director over the newspaper. So there's obstacles there. But let's don't ever, ever challenge one against the other. The ones with the computers, the ones that don't -February 19, 2011 -- that aren't on the computer, not literate, I think we need to treasure that newspaper for what it is. I think it's won many awards, and I'm here to tell you I'm pretty proud of what I see in it and how we do it every month. Thank you. MR. BURGESS: All right. We'll move on to resolution for enrollment, Resolution Number 12-11, Enrollment List Number 855. This one has one individual that is deemed ineligible for membership in the tribe. They're currently enrolled with another. MR. HENSON: I'll make a motion to approve. MR. NARCOMEY: Second. MR. BURGESS: Motion made by Mr. Henson and second by Mr. Narcomey. All those in favor signify by saying "aye". (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. The ayes have it. Enrollment Resolution Number 13-11. It's including a list of about eight names. MR. NARCOMEY: I make a motion to approve, Mr. Chairman. -February 19, 2011 MR. BURGESS: They are ineligible, lacking the proper quantum of blood degree. Mr. Narcomey has made that motion. Second? MR. WAUAHDOOAH: I second that motion, Mr. Chairman. MR. BURGESS: Second by Mark Wauahdooah. Call for question. All those in favor signify by saying "aye". (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. The ayes have it. Then we have another list, Resolution Number 14-11/Enrollment List Number 857. MR. NARCOMEY: I make a motion to approve that, also. MR. BURGESS: Which is a list of ineligibles due to they're not descended from an original allottee. Motion made by Mr. Narcomey. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: I second that motion, Mr. Chairman. MR. BURGESS: Okay. Is that right, Darrell? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: That's fine. MR. BURGESS: Second by -February 19, 2011 Mr. Wauahdooah. All those in favor signify by saying "aye". (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. The ayes have it. Now Resolution Number 15-11. This is a list of those who are deemed eligible. They're all descendants of allottees. They possess the required 1/8th or more degree of Comanche Indian blood. So therefore, be it resolved that the CBC accept the verification of eligibility for the applicants shown on this List Number 858 by the Comanche Nation Enrollment office. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Approximately 44. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: You have a motion for this? MR. BURGESS: Motion being made to accept these 43 new members. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: I'll make the motion. MR. BURGESS: Second? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Sure. MR. BURGESS: Darrell has made -February 19, 2011 second. All those in favor signify by saying "aye". (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. The ayes have it. MR. HENSON: 43. MR. BURGESS: 43 new members to the approximately 15,000 something now. Okay. Resolution Of CBC Acting on Behalf of the Owner of Comanche Nation Enterprises, Inc. Approving the Appointment of Directors. Hold on a second. Did we see this? I didn't see this. MR. TIPPECONNIE: This one is the Enterprises, the Inc. MR. HENSON: It's the corporation. MR. BURGESS: Were they expired? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes, those two names listed there were expired. MR. BURGESS: Didn't know about that. We meet next week, don't we? MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Tuesday. MR. TIPPECONNIE: We can table it and visit with them, if we need to, or we can act on -February 19, 2011 it. (Discussion held off record.) MR. WAUAHDOOAH: I'll make a motion to table this. I'll withdraw my motion, then. I withdraw my motion. MR. BURGESS: Motion to accept Frank Oberly. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Is someone making the motion? MR. WAUAHDOOAH: I'll make a motion that the economic development enterprise accept Frank Oberly as a commissioner, a board member. MR. HENSON: I'll second that. MR. BURGESS: Motion made by Mark to accept Frank Oberly, a second by Mr. Henson. MR. NARCOMEY: What about David Orme? MR. BURGESS: We'll talk about that. MR. NARCOMEY: Well -¥ MR. BURGESS: We can come back. MR. NARCOMEY: I've got a question. David Orme, how long has he been on this board? MR. BURGESS: That's what I mean. MR. NARCOMEY: What about Oberly? How long has he been on the board? MR. BURGESS: He just came on before -February 19, 2011 we got in, isn't it? MR. TIPPECONNIE: He's been on one term, just one term. MR. NARCOMEY: Well, I think two terms ought to be enough for anybody on any board. MR. BURGESS: That's why this would be the second term for Mr. Oberly. This would start the second term. MR. NARCOMEY: Some of these guys are making a living being on these boards, you know. MR. TIPPECONNIE: So the motion that Mark has made is just to accept the one time. MR. BURGESS: Yes, that won't throw them out of quorum. So a motion is on the floor accepting Mr. Oberly as -- All those in favor signify by saying "aye". (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. Motion passes. Mr. Oberly is reappointed. Next is Resolution 17-11, which is approving the NIGA membership, the CBC approving it for the gaming board to go ahead and make an appointment. MR. NARCOMEY: What does that cost a -February 19, 2011 year? MR. HENSON: 15 grand. MR. BURGESS: Ladies and gentlemen, Resolution 17-11 reads: Whereas, the Constitution, Article VI, Section 7(e,) designates the Business Committee as the duly elected body to conduct business for and on behalf of the nation; and Whereas, the Constitution, Article XII, Section 1, directs the chairman to be the principal member of all tribal delegations; and Whereas, the National Indian Gaming Association is a voluntary association composed of member tribes and associate members representing federally recognized tribal governments, gaming tribes, rancherias, pueblos, bands, and businesses engaged in gaming enterprises in Indian Country; and Whereas, the primary objectives and purpose of NIGA are to: 1, promote, protect, and preserve the general welfare and interest of Indian gaming tribes through the development of sound policies and practices with respect to the conduct of gaming activities in Indian Country; 2, to assist in dissemination of information to the -February 19, 2011 Indian gaming community, federal government, and the general public on issues related to the conduct of gaming in Indian Country; 3, to preserve and protect the integrity of gaming in Indian Country, and to maintain, protect and advocate Indian tribal sovereignty. Therefore be it resolved that the CBC authorizes the payment of dues for the Comanche Nation NIGA membership of $15,000 as a permitted operational expense under the approved gaming board of directors' Fiscal 2011 budget; and Be it further resolved that the CBC hereby appoints Chairman Michael Burgess as the nation's representative to NIGA with Secretary¥ Treasurer Robert Tippeconnie as the alternate. Therefore be it resolved that the forgoing appointments shall remain in effect until December 31, 2011, or until replaced by the business committee. Do we have a motion to approve, gentlemen? MR. WAUAHDOOAH: I have a question. Why 2011? Why is it not longer? MR. BURGESS: I think it's January to December. -February 19, 2011 MR. WAUAHDOOAH: I make a motion that we accept this. MR. HENSON: I'll second. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Motion made by Mark Wauahdooah, second by Mr. Henson. All those in favor signify by saying "aye". (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, say nay. All those abstain, same sign. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: I understand we have a gentleman from NIGC coming soon? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes, March 11th from 5 to 6 at the business center. Mr. Wheeler. MR. BURGESS: All right, gentlemen. We have Resolution 18-11. This is the business committee approving Housing Section 184 program of Housing & Urban Development, which is about helping American Indians, Native Americans, to buy homes. I should say get home loans through non-Indian housing entities, banks or home loans or other tribal housing authorities. Am I correct, Mr. Yellow Wolf, or am I wrong? MR. YELLOW WOLF: You want me to embarrass you? MR. BURGESS: Go ahead. Everybody -February 19, 2011 else tries. MR. YELLOW WOLF: The resolution before you is to provide your support for the enrolled members of the Comanche Tribe that reside in Texas. Okay? Right now the HUD 184 loan, it's a loan guarantee program that is not available in the state of Texas for any Native American, any tribe. Okay? There are three tribes in Texas, but they have not been approved yet for 184 loan program. The way HUD works the program for Native Americans, a tribe or tribes will request that their program be opened up statewide. Here in the state of Oklahoma, you've got enough tribes in the state of Oklahoma where it's pretty well covered. And there are other states in the country that have a lot of tribes, and so their service areas cover each other. And that's good. In the state of Texas, it's not that way. You have enrolled members of your tribe residing in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Wichita Falls, Houston and a few other places. Quite some time ago, the Southern Plains Indian Housing Association, which is made of tribes from Oklahoma and some in Texas, wanted to see the 184 program -February 19, 2011 extended into the state of Texas for all Native Americans, and it's been some time they've been trying to do this. We, the housing authority, we're a member of that organization, and I spoke with the deputy assistant secretary, Mr. Roger Boyd, this past December at a meeting, and he said if you guys put forth a resolution, a letter, something requesting that certain areas of the state of Texas be opened up to your membership, which would be the Comanche members, and if HUD approves this, then it opens it up for all Native Americans in those areas. So this resolution then basically is requesting that HUD do that. Right now, your Comanche members living in the state of Texas, they're eligible for loans. I mean, they got to meet the underwriting criteria and everything like that, and that's okay. The Section 184 program administered through HUD, it's a guarantee, as I said, to the loan. Will be able to have a better interest rate and the terms, depending upon the bank, are a little bit easier to work with. But that's not available in the state of Texas, okay, for your members. So by passing this resolution, it is giving support to not only the enrolled -February 19, 2011 members of the Comanche Nation in the state of Texas, but to other Native Americans as well. I'm not familiar with the state of Texas and those counties that those cities are located in, but if this is approved by HUD, and HUD says okay, we're going to open up the Dallas/Fort Worth area to the enrolled members of the Comanche Nation. Then it's also going to open it up, for example, Chickasaws, the Choctaws, Cherokee. Anybody that's residing down there. So quite honestly, this is going to be a first for the state of Texas as far as 184 is concerned. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Mr. Yellow Wolf, it doesn't say anything about Texas in here on this resolution. Does it need to be stated Texas? MR. TIPPECONNIE: We should state in Texas. Should we be stating the counties in Texas? MR. YELLOW WOLF: Well, it could. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Because I don't know what those are. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Just leave it Texas. MR. HENSON: That will leave that whole thing. MR. YELLOW WOLF: If you say Texas, -February 19, 2011 that's fine, but the decision of opening it up is going to be left up to HUD. They're going to come back and say where do your members reside. Now, that was the information I provided to you guys, but you guys didn't put it in there. MR. HENSON: This 184 program that's funded by HUD and it's open to all Indian tribes, correct? MR. YELLOW WOLF: Yes, it is. It's guaranteed by HUD, and it's open to all Native Americans throughout the United States as long as there's a service area that provides the service. MR. HENSON: So we're going to be that service area for Texas? MR. YELLOW WOLF: No, we're not going to have anything to do with it. HUD is the one that administers this program. We do not administer it. All we're doing is trying to open the door for your enrolled members in the state of Texas. I mean, you guys, quite honestly, your tribe is taking the first step. You're ahead of everybody else. MR. HENSON: I make the motion to approve. MR. TIPPECONNIE: With modification -February 19, 2011 that we'll add on the last therefore be it resolved, add in Texas? MR. WAUAHDOOAH: I second the motion. MR. MASON: I have a question for you. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Mr. Yellow Wolf, you have a question over here. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Let's just say, for instance, the resolution passes and it takes on that form that you just explained to us. Now, the responsibility of our members down there or any other person, you know, that qualifies for the program, who takes on the responsibility for them should they not complete the program or do we still have a connected -¥ MR. YELLOW WOLF: No, we don't. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It becomes a self responsibility thing? MR. YELLOW WOLF: Yes, sir. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: So all we're doing is just to make sure our members have a chance to a low percentage loan or something to acquire a home under HUD guidance? MR. YELLOW WOLF: Right. They have access. -February 19, 2011 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: But there's no responsibility given to the tribe or no connection other than the resolution that we allowed this to happen? MR. YELLOW WOLF: If they default on the loan, sir, they default, the -- when the bank forecloses on the individual, HUD is guaranteeing that loan at 100 percent of the remaining balance or whatever the mortgage is. MR. MASON: I didn't want that responsibility to fall back on the Comanche Nation because we did put the resolution forth. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Mr. Chairman. MR. HENSON: All this does is extends the area that they'll be eligible for. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Mr. Chairman, I call for the vote. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Wait, Tom. May I ask you a question, Tom? When you looked at the resolution and should we say that not only that it will be in Texas, but this notice be given to the secretary of HUD? Should it say something about that or will the housing authority do that? MR. YELLOW WOLF: You guys are doing it. You're just asking that you support 184 -¥ -February 19, 2011 you guys got this messed up. MR. TIPPECONNIE: See, I want you to look at this. MR. YELLOW WOLF: It should be 184 program for the Comanche Nation and members, and enrolled members of the Comanche Nation residing in the state of Texas. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Scratch that and give it to me. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: This might be a good time to announce that there's been a commissioner, a president change at the housing authority. I guess it's going to be released in the newspaper or the Website. Would you want to announce that right now? MR. YELLOW WOLF: Sure. Last Tuesday we had our annual meeting at the Housing Authority board. We had election of officers, and Mr. Arthur Tommy Johnson is the new chairman, and Ms. Francine Frisch is the new vice-chairman. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Thank you, Tom. MR. BURGESS: Thank you. All right. We'll call for the question. All those in favor signify by saying "aye". -February 19, 2011 (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. The ayes have it. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I'd like to ask a couple of questions. I'd like to know if y'all have submitted the RAP plan for the 60 percent distribution. MR. BURGESS: That's been submitted. It has to go through the area director's office across the river in Anadarko. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Tell him when it was submitted. MR. YELLOW WOLF: And also I'd like to have -- this is before the general council. I'd like to know how much money economic development has given to the tribe in revenue and also enterprise. I'd like to have that next week or as soon as you can get it from Finley & Cook. MR. HENSON: I can give you that answer right now. If you want that answer, I can give it to you right now. MR. YELLOW WOLF: Give it to me in written form. MR. HENSON: Okay. -February 19, 2011 MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Robert, do you recall the dates that we submitted the 60 percent RAP? Was it November? MR. BURGESS: It was in October after we had our complete -- how shall I say. We had a complete analysis of all earnings from them, it came after October 15th, so we submitted the RAP request to change it, to change per cap up to 60 percent. That was submitted in October to Mr. Terry Bruner, deputy regional director. And at that time, I asked them how soon it would leave his office and go to Washington, D.C. He said well, we'll review it to see that you complied with your laws, your internal legal responsibilities, and then from there it might take 60 days from his office. Now, that 60 days is not from when I give it to him. It's 60 days when he decides to get to it. And then through his office 60 days, and then to Washington, D.C. To this date, they have not notified me. I've placed two calls. Mr. Bruner has said once that, no, it's still at the office. He'll get back to me. He'll let me know when it goes to Washington, D.C. Now, the reason it's going to take -February 19, 2011 more than 60 days, mind you, in October and September you had a recall petition going on with the Kiowa Nation, you had recalls going on with the Comanche Nation, you had recalls with the Apache Nation and an assumed takeover at the Apache Nation. You had an assumed takeover at the Cheyenne Arapaho Nation, and then you had some legal court proceedings against some other tribal leaders going on in CFR court. So when all those issues are ironed out between now and whenever it leaves his hands, we don't know. And now you have the 5-7 recalls against us again. So ladies and gentlemen, the less recalls we have, the sooner the RAP application will go to Washington, D.C., because those are precedent. So what's most important? Throwing us out, so you can say we did a bad job and then you find out that the job we're doing is following the law? So you can get more per cap and then get more per cap. As you realize now, some people have found out, we have to budget 60 percent for per cap and only 40 percent for services. So ladies and gentlemen, when the per cap passes and we cannot afford to give you all the services that -February 19, 2011 you want, you know, then that's what happens. MR. YELLOW WOLF: That's why I want it, because we can probably make some adjustments at general council. MR. BURGESS: Even if the per cap passes, gaming was not developed for tribal governments to have per cap to members. It was to help tribal governments to improve their economic situation, helping to create businesses. It was there for educational purposes, whether it's scholarship form or your own college. It's there for housing issues, it's there for medical issues. MR. YELLOW WOLF: Well, I think the tribes have a right to determine how they want to spend their revenue. MR. BURGESS: True, they do, but they should do it mindful of the future, because what did we have in the past before we had gaming? MR. YELLOW WOLF: I talked to my nephew from Florida this morning, and we exchanged pleasantries. He said the Florida Seminoles, every member of that tribe gets $104,000 per year. MR. BURGESS: Okay. MR. YELLOW WOLF: So I'm sure they have their own welfare and, you know, at heart. -February 19, 2011 MR. BURGESS: They have their what? MR. YELLOW WOLF: I'm sure they have their own interest at heart. MR. BURGESS: If I recall, Florida Seminoles have, if not three or four large casinos, surrounded by populations of 5 million people or more. MR. YELLOW WOLF: I understand the situation. I'm just saying that on a large scale, they stay -¥ MR. BURGESS: They also give their own members homes, pay for their education free of charge, just like we do. They provide those services. That means if you have income and they have other economic enterprises that bring income to them. MR. YELLOW WOLF: They're putting the government secondary. MR. HENSON: One of the things that I'm going to say me and the tribal members need to realize, that everybody wants a bigger per cap. I want a bigger per cap, everybody here wants a bigger per cap. But if we turn around and keep cutting all these programs of what we got coming in, we're not going to be able to get an economic -February 19, 2011 base. We've got to look at the future. Now, you mentioned two of the programs that can provide sometime in the future some -- that could provide that. MR. YELLOW WOLF: It's been five years. Surely, there should be some major returns. MR. HENSON: What I'm saying basically is look to the future. Look and see what you're doing for the future. Right now, I'm really disgusted because when, you know, we're trying to go out and build an economic base, the CBC's hands are tied because the money goes to certain places, and we can't get enough money and we got a $3 million borrowing. We haven't borrowed any money. We haven't done anything. We're debt free, and you guys saw the results of what happened this last time. Everybody got a little over $800 per cap. Well, that was because the casinos didn't get that money in. Every time they rely on the economic base, the nation that's what the casinos are. And if it goes down, your per cap's going to go down, if we don't have another economic base. We've got to have money coming in from somebody else, somewhere else. -February 19, 2011 Now, we've got several things in mind that we're trying to do, even with our hands tied, in developing that economic base. We're trying to get more money for the Comanche tribe so they can do more and get more per cap. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Mr. Chairman, I think we're getting off track here and I think we should give MR. YELLOW WOLF all the information he needs, and anybody else for that matter. Let's go back -¥ MR. YELLOW WOLF: You was talking about worrying about the future, but by the same token, we can't live and we can't wait when all we get is promises, promises. It's y'all's position to be very, very secure in your choice of people that run that casino. You should have professional people down there. You know, we haven't had it to date. We had a man down, CEO, who didn't know a thing about gaming, because he let a sure thing collapse. MR. HENSON: For y'all's information, too, we just had the gaming board, which runs the casinos, that is the authority over the casinos, just hired a new CEO and his name is Chas Robbins. I can vouch for that kid. That kid is -February 19, 2011 smart as ever. He's really smart. MR. YELLOW WOLF: Did you know that Chickasaws have oodles of money and they only have three people over gaming? They have a commissioner and they have two other people. Just three people. We got half the tribe down in there gaming. MR. HENSON: We got three people. We got three that's on the board and we got the person they hired to run the casinos. MR. REDELK: Yeah, but we want experience. We want experienced people to give advice, to make decisions. We want the maximum. MR. HENSON: I want the same thing. MR. YELLOW WOLF: Yeah, but we're not getting it. What you want and what I want, we're not getting it. MR. BURGESS: We need to take a five minute break here. We've got to review this before we bring it to vote. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll have a five minute break here for soda, water, or washroom. (Break held.) MR. BURGESS: Ladies and gentlemen, let's come back to the meeting. Ladies and -February 19, 2011 gentlemen, we're going to go back into session here. We have an added item to the agenda, Resolution 19-11. This is in regards to the Unemployment Taxation Act with the state of Oklahoma and the Nation of Comanches. This is amending the Comanche Nation General Taxation Act of 1995 by enacting Part 10, unemployment tax. What we've witnessed is the state has raised our unemployment tax from 1.1 percent to 3.7 percent effective January 1, and we find it necessary to opt out of their initial payment. We're going -- Comanche Nation's going to move into a reimbursement-type program with the state unemployment office. It means that people will still file for unemployment. They can collect it, but the state won't collect it up front. All we're going to pay is a reimbursement for anyone who's claiming unemployment and receives it. We reimburse the state for its payment of that only. That's taken us from an approximate expense of $150,000 to the nation to close to a quarter million dollars every quarter. It's almost a million dollars annually we would be paying out of payroll tax on behalf of every employee just here at the tribe. -February 19, 2011 The second thing the state has done is told all tribes that have various entities, every tribe is affected. We have to move into one -- for them, one number. Every organization underneath us, the museum, economic development, economic enterprises, the casinos, college, they're all coming under the headline of Comanche Nation. So the state is going to expect the Comanche Nation to pay these reimbursements. Even the tax commission had its own situation. The state is saying they want us under one umbrella, and that one umbrella would be Comanche Nation and all those unemployment taxes would be collected, put into the bank and then paid on a reimbursement process. This is what that resolution is about, and enacting Section 10 of our codes will create the Comanche Nation Unemployment Tax Act. So we have the new modified Section 10 for our tax codes with the appropriate resolution above it that we will have to pass today. Gentlemen, if you have some questions, I know you're reviewing this now. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Mr. Chairman, I understand all Indian tribes in Oklahoma are being -February 19, 2011 pushed into this umbrella situation, right? MR. BURGESS: Yes. MR. TIPPECONNIE: All employers. MR. HENSON: All employers of the state of Oklahoma, not just the Indians. I'll make a motion to approve. MR. BURGESS: Motion being made by Mr. Henson to approve these. We, the CBC, have been apprised of this for, oh, since last fall dealing with this aspect of it. Do y'all have any questions on this resolution, the wording basically? But we have to get started. This is our starting point. And the enactment of the codes itself will be a part of this resolution, so the tax commission will then start setting up the appropriate account or accounting systems. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Each entity will be notified that they remit to there? MR. BURGESS: Correct. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: At what percent? MR. BURGESS: That's our discussion now. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I say that we should stay at the 3.7, even though -¥ MR. MASON: Mr. Chairman, could I ask -February 19, 2011 you a question? MR. BURGESS: Sure. MR. MASON: How did we -- how does the state intrude in our enterprises? When did we ever surrender that right? MR. BURGESS: Well, it's a part of the payroll taxation act that we have to pass, federal law. MR. MASON: That we have to pass, meaning the elected body? MR. BURGESS: No, the federal government and the state. MR. TIPPECONNIE: It's a federal law. MR. BURGESS: It's a federal law that we have to provide unemployment. It's our option as to what vehicle we use for unemployment collection and payment. We simply opted to use the state in the past. The state will tell us, could tell us you're not going to do that, you have to go to the federal route. Then you have to pay a 6 percent unemployment federal tax rate to the federal government. MR. MASON: So just because it was a little bit less, if you would, to go the route of the state rather than the federal, now, to me, -February 19, 2011 that's already slipping and sliding in a negative direction. And, I mean, I said that to mean this: Once the State of Oklahoma and you know and I know, let's be truthful, they're not favorable to Indians getting on an equal playing field. When we surrender this, and it will be a surrendering of a right. I mean, we got elected lawful people over there that can tell us that. We can't ever back up on that. And nibbling away on the cheese is -- to me, this is another indicator. I see this as very serious, and I'm sure the elected body has looked at it as a very serious sliding of that sovereignty, if you will, toward coming more into a state jurisdiction. We don't -- we need to keep that minimal. That's my opinion, of course. And if I was up there, I would be arguing that point. MR. HENSON: What happened, if I may, what happened in the past was that, like they say, some previous CBC made the decision to go with the state instead of federal government, and I'm sure that decision was made because if you went with federal government, you'd have to pay them 6 percent. At the time, the state was only 1.7 -February 19, 2011 percent or something like that. It was really low. So the government, the federal government gave us a choice of going with them or going with the state, and I'm sure the previous CBC said, yeah, let's go with the state. Well, now, the state said, hey, we're going to raise it up to 3.7 percent. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Or they did. MR. HENSON: Or they did. They're going to charge everybody 3.7 percent. So what the CBC, we've been discussing this, and the way to make more money or get more money out of it was to hire a firm in which all that unemployment goes to that firm, and when that firm gets it, if they save us any money, they only charge us half of that and we still get the other half back. MR. MASON: Now you see exactly my argument. Once you turn that -- and it's a legal right. When you give this resolution up, that means this body agrees in totality with however you write that. Now, once you surrender that, you can't control them anymore. In the beginning, if what you say is true, and I got no reason not to believe you, it was minimal, but look what's -February 19, 2011 happened. Because the economic times? They, they, not you, decide, hey, let's up this on those Indians. They're making too much money over there. So, boom. Now instead of 1 percent you got 3.5 percent, whatever it is. Therefore, you don't know where that's going to end simply because you allowed that to come out from under your chair here. MR. HENSON: Just one second. This is not just the Indians, it's the State of Oklahoma. It's every employer. MR. MASON: I understand that. But do you understand me? I'm talking about your right as a nation versus their right as a state. That's what I'm talking about. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Correct me if I'm wrong, Robert. Historically, the Indian tribes had been paying unemployment tax for, what, 20, 30, years now with no problems coming from the people. So this is something that's been set in place. Now the rates are going up all across the United States. As a matter of fact, we're probably one of the lowest rates. MR. TIPPECONNIE: In Oklahoma we're one of the lowest. As a tribe, we're one of the -February 19, 2011 lowest. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: But they are going up, and so the -- well, go ahead. Historically, we have always paid unemployment tax to the State of Oklahoma by virtue of federal law. MR. MASON: Maybe my argument is too late, because here's what I don't want the thing to do. I'm going to guarantee that this resolution that you're looking at right now to fix the path and ship it through your -- through the lawyers to the state, that surrenders whatever right we have. In other words, let's go back to the beginning. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: No. This will actually save us money. MR. MASON: Let's go back to the beginning. There was nobody in this country who could tell us that we had to do that for our employees. Nobody. The feds might say, well, you should, here's what we would recommend. And you know what? We as a nation, we could say, okay, we'll give them half a percent. But we already surrendered that now. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: 30 years too late. MR. MASON: Well, no, you're going to -February 19, 2011 buckle it up now, see. You're going to really buckle it up now. MR. TIPPECONNIE: But we haven't necessarily surrendered it, because we can go under the federal unemployment tax. You know, we can go under that or we can go under the state. If we went under the federal, the federal's even higher than the state. MR. MASON: Your resolution ought to have in there that at some point in time there should be a cap that you will allow it to move to and not beyond. That would be my suggestion. MR. TIPPECONNIE: You know, the point you're making, which I like, is that if we could, under our matters of sovereignty, exercise the establishment of our own unemployment, you know, take that on our own, I like that. And I think that's something that we should be thinking about, if we could do that. However -¥ MR. MASON: It may be too late. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I don't think it's necessarily too late. I think at the moment, see, we're in this relationship of having to pay this unemployment tax. MR. MASON: In other words, it's a -February 19, 2011 bill due? MR. HANSON: Yes. MR. TIPPECONNIE: It will be coming due the end of March. MR. HENSON: What happened, the process is, is that if we fire someone or lay somebody off, they go to the state and file for unemployment, and if the state says okay, we'll give you unemployment, then the state comes back to us and says you pay this. This is something -¥ the state pays them, but we have to pay the state back. Now, under this management deal that we hired, they're going to file unemployment. And if they go to the state and the state tells us to do it, well, this management guy is going to say hey, they don't owe you this much. They only owe you half of that. So, here, you're going to pay the state half of that. That's the process. Now, as he explains it, if we go back to federal, if we want to go back to federal, which we won't have a choice, anybody else, if we go back to federal it's going to cost the Comanches more money. And then they're going to have to file, I guess, with the federal, right? MR. TIPPECONNIE: The federal. We -February 19, 2011 respond to the federal then. MR. BURGESS: We have the responsibility to pay the unemployment tax for every employee that we have, every employer. MR. MASON: Yes, because you got into the program, somebody did, the committee. MR. BURGESS: Because it's a federal law requirement of all employers. MR. MASON: Mandated. MR. BURGESS: It's mandated by federal law. That's why the states have to pay their people unemployment tax, too. That's given. The federal government says it's required. So you have two options. Follow your local state unemployment or go back to the federal unemployment rate. Now, if you're with the state, you have a second option. You're paying the rate up front, 3 percent, whatever -¥ MR. TIPPECONNIE: 3.7. MR. BURGESS: 3.7 percent per every individual per payroll period per quarter. So it's all paid -- on April 1, it's paid for that first quarter. However, the second option is, we tell the state we're taking ourselves out of that -February 19, 2011 prepayment program and we're only going to reimburse you for the actual dollars that are paid out to any former employee that we have, thereby reducing our costs up front. And that, secondly, the company that's going to handle all this stuff, because we have to go under one umbrella again, they're going to handle all that paperwork and all those claims, and they're going to challenge every HR person, did you use this language, did you do this correctly to make sure they did it correctly and file those claims with the correct words that the state won't automatically give them unemployment. But we challenge them. Now, if you're furloughed, if you're terminated for cause, or if you're just laid off because of illness, there's certain ways to present that that the state won't use unemployment. So making sure that those words are used correctly, then go into the state and fighting those claims that are frivolous. I'll use that word. You know, so we have to be careful, too, but this will help reduce our costs twice over. MR. MASON: Okay. Now, let's come back to if I understood you right, if there was a -February 19, 2011 case where all the funds that were paid in weren't used, excess funds on our part, does that money just go to the state coffers? MR. BURGESS: No. MR. HENSON: Yes. MR. BURGESS: Right now it would. Last year it did, it went to the state. We never used -- we paid in for a whole year, and they kept all that money because nobody was laid off. This way, they give us a bill, we pay the bill and ask them to prove it's legitimate. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: We contest it. MR. BURGESS: We contest it all the way and then we only pay the legitimate costs, and the balance that we've collected stays in our unemployment tax fund. And then after a year or two years, if there is excess funds to use, we have to pass a resolution, put it on a ballot and then it used for other projects. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: The Chickasaw tribe, which is a very progressive tribe, is using this method to contest the State of Oklahoma, and they're saving oodles of money. And so we're going to follow their model. MR. HENSON: What this does is we're -February 19, 2011 going to pass the resolution for all of our entities that has to pay unemployment tax to pay it into our Tax Commission, and we're only going to pay the state the bills that they get contested by this organization. So all that money that instead of paying that money every day to the state, we're paying it to our Tax Commission so what we don't spend, we're still going to have. MR. MASON: It doesn't leave our hands here. MR. HENSON: Until the state -¥ MR. MASON: And the resolution is written to address it in that manner? MR. HENSON: Yes. MR. BURGESS: Over at the Tax Commission there will be a resolution there setting this up even further how it's going to be utilized. MRS. MASON: But didn't you say y'all are going to hire somebody to take care of that? Then y'all got to pay them. MR. HENSON: Which they're only going to get half of the money that's saved. So we're not really paying them anything. We're gaining half of the money back that we wouldn't have had -February 19, 2011 before. MRS. MASON: So they're like working on commission? MR. BURGESS: Kind of like that, yes. The more they save us the better off we are, because they only get half of what they would -¥ MR. HENSON: Let me explain it this way. As of right now, the state says you're going to pay us 3.7 percent and we have to send that money up there. Now, if they say, well, you laid this guy off, you fired him, so you pay him -- so we're going to pay him this, and you got to pay that bill. Well, this company takes a look at it and says no, that's not right. You're not going to pay it because it's not right, so they're saving us that money. MR. MASON: It's just a safety net? MR. HENSON: That's right. MR. BURGESS: They're our guard at the door from the state filing claims on us. Because we all have different stories about how the state -- see, once that money is paid to the state, it doesn't come back to us. MR. MASON: Well, that's what my concern was, if you turned over through your -February 19, 2011 resolution not being written in the proper manner where you understand it and where your interpretation comes, rather than to let them interpret it, you know what? They might have a free ride to just keep up, up, up, with no cap. MR. BURGESS: Well, yeah, you're paying attention to the state coffers which is -¥ MR. MASON: The times is what's driving this. MR. BURGESS: You're right. That's why we looked at, well, if we did this now, because the state gave us 'til January 31st to put notice in, and we told them we're backing out, we're going to go the reimbursement route. So the state is aware. We're probably not the only tribe doing this. Everybody is looking at how they can keep their costs down. Not to injure the state but at the same time -¥ MR. MASON: Well, we're just trying to be fair. MR. BURGESS: Be fair with us, and at the same time keeping that door squeezed where the state is not throwing us around with taxes. MR. MASON: That was my concern at the beginning. I don't want to surrender nothing -February 19, 2011 that gets out of our control. MR. HENSON: Well, it was out of our control. We got it back. One of the things on the back of this resolution, it says that this money that we're going to pay the Tax Commission, they can use it for several things, and I want to point out two of them. One of them is for employment training programs to benefit tribal members, and the other one is to use it for Economic Development projects. So if we save any money over there, we already got it earmarked and we could use it in those areas, and that would be one of the areas that would open it up for Economic Development. MRS. MASON: Isn't that what Economic Development is for? MR. BURGESS: Hang on. We've got some people that might take it off the ballot. That's what gaming did was help the tribe with Economic Development. So we'll come back to that issue. But, yeah, the idea is it's in our Tax Commission and it does have to go on the ballot for you all to approve it before we can expend it. It's part of the tax act. MRS. MASON: It's double dipping. -February 19, 2011 MR. BURGESS: No, you have to approve the ballot. You have to approve the expenditure. Like other tax money. We have to tell you where we plan to put it. It goes on a line item, you vote it up, you vote it down. MRS. MASON: So that means read your budget very carefully. MR. BURGESS: It will be a part of the tax. But we're years away from that. MRS. MASON: Read your ballot very carefully. MR. BURGESS: We're years away from using that on the ballot now. There's nothing there. MR. WHITEWOLF: This reimbursement, since we employ non-Indians, do we reimburse -¥ MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Mr. Chairman, does this need to be posted every year? MR. BURGESS: No, it's the tax act. MR. HENSON: I make a motion to approve it. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Mr. Chairman, do you know if all the entities including enterprises, the college and everything, have they been notified, and if not, how soon? -February 19, 2011 MR. BURGESS: Three of them know about it. Delphine's aware, gaming board is aware, tax Commission Is aware, college was made aware the other morning, the corporation's aware. Bob's been talking to them as we get ahold of them and let them know this is coming down the pike. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Let me state something on this resolution. What this resolution is saying is that all those entities of the tribe, the Comanche Nation, pay this -- what they would normally pay to the state, they pay to our own Tax Commission. It goes in there to a pot and it's reserved there to pay any claim that may come from the state. And we just pay it on those claims. That's all we pay. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Quarterly. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Whenever they send the billing to us. Quarterly is when they send the billing. So if we have something standing that needs unemployment, it comes out of that pot and we pay it out of that pot. That's what that is. That's what this resolution says. So the monies come into our own Tax Commission, we hold the monies, and then we pay the bill when we have to pay a state tax bill. That's what this -February 19, 2011 resolution -- that's what the modification to the tax code is. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Have we already sent notification to the state opting out? MR. TIPPECONNIE: We sent notification that we opted out. Yes, we did that at the midnight hour on the 31st of January. We had to submit that notice to the State of Oklahoma by midnight of January 31st, and we did that. MS. NELSON: We pay our unemployment taxes, our federal taxes on the monthly basis, and we've already paid for January and we are looking at, you know, coming to the end of February. How is that going to affect us as different entities of Economic Development? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Once we pass this, stop it. And then we'll have to apprise everyone. We're going to have to visit with everyone that this stands and that the payment goes into the Tax Commission. MS. NELSON: Rather than us paying the state, we should stop our paying in any taxes? MR. BURGESS: Effective Friday. MR. HENSON: We already notified the -February 19, 2011 state that we're not going to pay them anymore. MS. NELSON: Well, they're not going to tell me not to pay them. They're going to take my check. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Delphine, don't pay. The state's given notice all our entities are under one. So when we make any kind of payment, they address it to the Comanche Nation. In this case, you'll be paying your money to the Tax Commission. And then when we make something that's due out of yours, well, wherever, it comes out of that pot. MR. HENSON: The only obligation that changes where you're concerned is instead of paying it to the state, you pay it to our Tax Commission. MS. NELSON: I understand that. It's just that we've already paid and that monies last fall. MR. WAUAHDOOAH: Is there a motion on the floor? MR. YELLOW WOLF: Are they requesting to reflect those entities not getting their money? When do they submit it? Is it every month? -February 19, 2011 MR. BURGESS: Every payroll period. MR. TIPPECONNIE: We're going to have to give notice, the nation is, to everyone. From this point on, this is executed, it's paid to the Tax Commission. And the Tax Commission establishes that account, separate account for that. MR. BURGESS: No, there's not been a motion made, Mark. MR. HENSON: I made a motion. MR. BURGESS: You did? MR. HENSON: Yes. I made a motion hours ago. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Who made the motion? MR. HENSON: I did. MR. BURGESS: Mr. Henson is saying he made a motion. I saw him move his hand, I don't know if that was it. Mr. Henson made a motion. Is there a second, please? MR. WAUAHDOOAH: I'll second that motion. MR. BURGESS: All those in favor signify by saying "aye". (Aye.) -February 19, 2011 MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. The ayes have it. Tom, do you want to do a presentation to us on the presentation? You're in open business here, new business. MR. TOM NARCOMEY: Gladys, hers was a resolution for the cemetery. I don't know if you want to go over this. She's at the Tosee family at the funeral. MR. HENSON: Bob, I never did meet with the Fort Sill. Did we ever get to meet with them? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Let me explain to everyone here. We have two circumstances going on in this cemetery. One is Mr. Clark here, Wahnee Clark, has visited with the general on doing some things to highlight and to protect and to acknowledge the cemetery on Fort Sill. Without me going into them, maybe if we need to, he can explain those, but there's things that he's got the general agreeing to do. Okay? At the same time, you know, we've had this standing resolution to nominate this cemetery to what they call historic places. It's a nomination that's made to -February 19, 2011 the National Park Service, and it becomes a national site. Well, because there are some questions if we do some of the activity that has been agreed to by Fort Sill on the cemetery, will it complicate the nomination. So then we sat down among ourselves and discussed it. We discussed it with Thomas and his mother and others and Mr. Clark, and we all have somewhat of an understanding that there are things we can do that will not jeopardize the nomination. That's our perspective. However, the one who makes the nomination is Fort Sill, not the Comanche Nation. So we have yet to meet with the garrison commander and the general to convey now where we got together somewhat in that meeting. And I hope we got to someplace and some understanding. But anyway, we contacted the Fort Sill. We're being hospitable to the garrison commander because it lies within his jurisdiction, so to speak, although the general is a very important person in this. They've gotten together now that whenever we convene with them, they'll be together with us. -February 19, 2011 Well, the predicament we have is getting on his schedule. We hoped we could get this next week and it seems he's out of town again, the garrison commander. So we're hopeful -- and then it mixes with our own schedule, you know, when the CBC's around. So we're trying yet, Thomas, and all of us here, you know, Mr. Wahnee, we're trying to get that meeting set with Fort Sill. MR. HENSON: So we need to table this until -¥ MR. TIPPECONNIE: I would say. But I say again, maybe because Thomas may have -¥ MR. TOM NARCOMEY: We've already met on it, and I thought everybody wanted to do the resolution now. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: The resolution says to nominate. You're saying we can't nominate it anyways because we don't own the land, Fort Sill has to -¥ MR. TIPPECONNIE: We don't make the nomination. Fort Sill makes the nomination. MR. TOM NARCOMEY: We're requesting. It says right there the CBC requests that the designated federal preservation officer at Fort -February 19, 2011 Sill to nominate the Comanche Indian cemetery to the register. MR. TIPPECONNIE: They're waiting for us to come to them and say, you know, that the things that Mr. Clark has worked out fit within this. MR. TOM NARCOMEY: He doesn't have a written agreement with Fort Sill to do anything. That's why we wanted to go ahead and nominate it and start the process, because it's going to take a long time. MR. BURGESS: That meeting we had, there were two items that we didn't come to agreement on. We wanted to come back with Colonel Lacy and make him aware that we had these areas and we needed their input on those last two items. But we haven't had that meeting. MR. TOM NARCOMEY: Because the CBC has committed to 177 enrolled Comanche members that voted to nominate it, and then there was zero against. Then we wanted to put it on the next annual meeting so we could get more Comanches to participate in this, to support the nomination. MR. TIPPECONNIE: As I understand -¥ I can't speak for Mr. Clark, but as I understand, -February 19, 2011 all of us want the nomination. We want Fort Sill to proceed with the nomination, but we want them to be clear on these matters that we're working with Fort Sill on the cemetery because they're ready to go, are they? More or less they're ready to go? MR. TOM NARCOMEY: We're ready to go, too, with this resolution nomination. Been ready for five years. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I don't mean to put either one of -¥ MR. CLARK: I'm Wahnee Clark. It was September the 2nd, Fort Sill put together a 38- or 42-page document that they sent to the state historic preservation officer in Oklahoma City. And that outlined in detail, excruciating detail each of those things which we've called the list of 10, the 10 things we want. That document is, in my judgment, a reflection of the general's desire to get this project done. He has told us personally that he wants to get this project done. He's told others in positions of authority that he wants to get the project done. If the tribe can move with some degree of speed, we can move forward with this -February 19, 2011 project before the general leaves. He's going to leave in May. Then we've got to educate a new general. The garrison commander is going to leave in May and we've got to educate a new. So I spoke with the general's second man, the chief of staff, Rosemarie and I met with him just a few days ago, and asked him what we could do to move the tribe forward. Because if you go back to October of 1988, the tribe had a resolution, as Thomas says, to do something. The tribe didn't do anything. If you go back to December the 15th of 2009, the tribe had an opportunity to do something with regard to eligibility to the National Register of Historic Places. The tribe didn't do anything. We've been working, we've been getting things done. We need to see the general or his staff. We get in and go see and take care of things. We've made this project foremost in the general's mind. So all I'm saying to you at the moment is do something. Do something. Instead of keep putting it off until another meeting and another time, just do something. MR. TOM NARCOMEY: I'd like to correct Wahnee Clark. The tribe has done -February 19, 2011 something. Fort Sill said that the cemetery was ineligible, and then our chairman sent a letter saying that the -- they sent an architect over there -¥ (Discussion held off record.) MR. NARCOMEY: Here's the main things. The tribal council is -- both of these guys hear me, too. Two years ago they passed that resolution to put it on the register, 177 to zero. Now, since that time, we ain't done nothing about it. We voted on it back in September, or when was it? Four or five months ago? I said, well, go ahead, we'll call for the pass this resolution. I said before we do it, now, I want to see who's going to vote against the tribal council. The one that passes it in the first place. So anyway, we got them here, we got shot down four to two. I think, me and Mark was the only ones that voted to pass. Everybody else voted not to do it. So what we're doing is going against the tribal council's wishes to pass this thing, but we won't do it. Simple as that. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I agree that's a very simple -¥ -February 19, 2011 MR. NARCOMEY: You keep on saying we want to pass this resolution but how come we don't pass it? MR. TIPPECONNIE: You know, we can pass it. And you know then when we pass it, we present it to Fort Sill. You understand that? MR. BURGESS: In conclusion here, ladies and gentlemen, we've notified you that we did have a meeting among ourselves. We had scheduled a meeting with Colonel Lacy, who is actually the person who would see that the nomination is being made. General Halverson is willing to go the route, go all the way to the barn with us to do what we want done in recognition over this gravesite. And a motion or a resolution was made last spring or summer to postpone a nomination because we were working on the list of 10, and we all wanted to come to an agreement on the list of 10. We had a meeting. We come to an agreement on a list of 8, we wanted to sit down with Colonel Lacy and General Halverson to tell them that we're now ready to move forward with this, that we have a resolution in place. There's a resolution from tribal council, there's an older -February 19, 2011 resolution from the CBC. We have resolutions upon resolutions unnecessarily. So we have them. We'll pull them forward. We're looking for a meeting on March 16th. We've asked Colonel Lacy to set that meeting in place for March 16th. He's to get back to us. That's the time frame that we've got. We want to come to a conclusion on this by April so they can get their ball rolling. Because if we pass a resolution, whether it's this one or pull forward the other resolutions and reinforce those with the motion to move forward on it, is what we need to do. And the 16th is our absolute deadline to them to meet, because we can't wait any longer. We want to move forward with this. We have got a tribal council resolution telling us. Two years ago there was a CBC resolution doing it. It's because we don't own the land, and the first nomination was made under an architectural design. This one is a culturally significant site. Those words were never used in the prior application; therefore, it was turned down. And now that these improvements or these restorations that we can make have no negative impact or negative effect on the -February 19, 2011 nomination, as we were told, we can move forward with the nomination doing the 8 and have it in plan to do the other headstones and doing the markers. That's what we need to tell the base that's what we want to move on, this culturally significant site is why we're doing it. MR. TAHKOPFER: I want to be clear on something. When you said the condition of the property out here, is the question there whether to put individual grave markers that one wants, or if you want a bigger memorial that will list all the names that are there now presently, but there's more there than you could ever put on that big memorial. But I'm in favor of the large memorial because we own it. MR. BURGESS: We probably can get both. We can get both. The reason being if we fence it in -- is it the VA? What department was -¥ MR. CLARK: Veterans Administration. MR. BURGESS: They were going to put low-lying grave markers for those that would have names. We could select to put unknown, but it's more impactful to put all the unknowns listed, even with those names on an obelisk or diorama. -February 19, 2011 MR. TAHKOPFER: I want to see a large granite marker. Because you're never going to list all the names because you got three sites that are there. The Pentateucos underneath, the bottom we don't even know who those people are. Then you've got the second tier and the third tier, which was those infested blankets. So all you can do is put what names that you have that are there that you know of. MR. BURGESS: That's what we discussed, and we agreed that we can probably get both, the big obelisk, and those grave markers will stand about that high off the ground. They're not -- and they would have their names on them. MS. TAHKOPFER: I would be in favor of a large big marker. MR. BURGESS: If they're spending the money, let them spend it. But that's what they want us to do. They're asking -- there will be a plaque made and that will give our history. Yes, Wahnee? MR. CLARK: To the CBC, I ask you to postpone going for the nomination because I feel like you're walking into a trap that Fort Sill had -February 19, 2011 laid for you. I will compromise or change or agree, whatever you want me to say, to have you go ahead and do what Thomas wants. MR. TOM NARCOMEY: Well, not me. I'm not by myself. MR. BURGESS: Let him finish. MR. CLARK: And get that to Fort Sill ASAP. They are prepared to go to their office in the Pentagon, the office of the federal preservation officer, and take the word of the CBC and move this thing into the office of the keeper of the national registry. I've talked with both over the phone. I've corresponded with the Pentagon about this. Go ahead and do that. I give up. But be sure that you know when you're doing this that you may be walking into a trap that Fort Sill's laid. And I say that for one reason. For years Fort Sill has opposed this cemetery being on the national register. All of a sudden, I believe it was in March the 26th of last year, they did 180 degree turn around and said we'll not only help you get it, but we agree that it should be on the national registry. Why? What's their motivation for changing? They have no motivation for changing. But I'll give up on -February 19, 2011 that. Pass -- rescind that other resolution. Pass a resolution that you want them to go for the eligibility. Let's get it going. Do something. We just keep putting it off. Since 1984 these people, Thomas's mother, Ken, the Platas. Everybody has been just meeting and meeting and meeting, but let's do something. We've done something. MR. NARCOMEY: Amen. MR. CLARK: If I need a meeting with the general, we call and I get a meeting within 10 days. But I'm doing something. We went to San Antonio and met with the top man down there. We're prepared to go and almost ready to get in our car and go down there again. If nothing happens, we want this thing done. I want it done in my lifetime. I want it done in Ken's lifetime, I want it done so all of you can have pride and dignity in what those 109 or 14 graves out there. But just keep putting it off and putting it off and putting it off. Do something. MR. TIPPECONNIE: We can proceed here and rescind that one that held, and we'll -¥ MR. BURGESS: Postpone it. MR. TIPPECONNIE: We'll get the -February 19, 2011 number and we can pass it here saying that we will notify to proceed on the nomination. MR. CLARK: Let me say something else. I apologize for my passion about this, but I've got an uncle and aunt buried out there. I've got great grandparents buried out there, I've got other distant relatives buried out there. Meetings are going on. Meetings are going on between the CBC, the tribal preservation officer, things are going on and I'm not being informed about it. I've said to them, to this group, to the tribal preservation officer, my books are open, we have open books. We have no secrets to hide. But I'm not getting cooperation from this group, I'm not getting cooperation from the tribal preservation officer. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Mr. Wahnee, we can proceed with this action, which would -- which I suggest to us here that we not only rescind the one that's standing. We'll pull that number up, but we will conform or perform under the resolution's standing from the tribal council. MR. WAHNEE: It's 126-10. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yeah, 126-10. Anyway, we will do both those things on the -February 19, 2011 motion. I would make that motion. MR. HENSON: I'll second that motion. MR. ATTOCKNIE: What is the proposed name of this cemetery when it gets done and the reason why a certain name is favored over another? MR. CLARK: The name of the cemetery should be historically the Indian Agency cemetery, because it was established by the Indian Agency long before -¥ MR. ATTOCKNIE: What about the Comanche Indian Church here? They came here to Christianize us when we were supposedly, you know, wild and rambunctious. MR. CLARK: Let me answer your question. MS. ATTOCKNIE: Where are we going to put this marker? What color are we going to post this, et cetera? If the business committee is going to rescind it, then let's do it and get it done, and all these other issues can be addressed later. MR. BURGESS: As I was saying earlier, when we had our meeting, it was Comanche folks that were at the meeting. From that meeting -February 19, 2011 we tried to establish another meeting with Colonel Lacy with all the same folks. Wahnee, everybody that was there to come and meet with Colonel Lacy and whoever sat on that side of the table with him. The first date that we had, came the snow and ice, and then Mr. Lacy couldn't be at our second date. So our request to Colonel Lacy is in the recent two weeks. Presenting this date of March 16th, Wahnee. We've not met with, I've not met with or talked with anybody else at the base since we Comanches sat down to work out the list of 10. MR. CLARK: Bob has. MR. TIPPECONNIE: In what way? Only way I've just made calls to try to arrange a meeting. MR. CLARK: Jimmy Arteberry has. MR. BURGESS: Mr. Arteberry was following up from that meeting about information they want from us. MR. CLARK: No one tells me what's going on. It's like I'm not even part of the Comanche Tribe. MR. TIPPECONNIE: We really haven't convened since that meeting. All we're trying to -February 19, 2011 do, as we agreed in that meeting, is set a date with Colonel Lacy. MR. BURGESS: And follow through with the things that we said -¥ MR. TIPPECONNIE: To uphold the resolution upheld by the tribal council and remove the one we put a hold on. I just want to bring out here, Mr. Narcomey says to me that in this motion he would like to be sure that the resolution incorporates the whereas statement which says 200 Comanches are buried who died from small -- from the small pox epidemic in the winter of 1898 and '99. And after they were issued, he puts in here, disease infested blankets by the U.S. Army which killed over half of the Comanche Tribe. And he says based on commonly and well known Comanche oral history. So he would like us to not only do the two things I've stated, but to incorporate this language. MR. NARCOMEY: If it's not already in there. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Is it in the original? MR. TOM NARCOMEY: It's already in -February 19, 2011 there. It's the same wording. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I just want to bring it out. So that would be the motion. MR. NARCOMEY: I make the motion. MR. TIPPECONNIE: To uphold the -¥ Number 20. MR. BURGESS: 20-11. MR. TIPPECONNIE: 20-11. Resolution being to uphold the tribal council resolution and to rescind the one that's standing. I'll get the number of that. MR. NARCOMEY: Second. MR. BURGESS: Second has been made by Mr. Narcomey on this resolution. Any more discussion? We'll move on. All those in favor signify by saying "aye". (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. The ayes have it. Now, Mr. Narcomey brings before us a document talking about putting in our planning, our research development department. He has several issues of why it should be done, and they're very valid. It's not unreasonable. Most -February 19, 2011 every progressive tribe maintains a research and development planning department. MR. TOM NARCOMEY: I'd like to make one comment about the cemetery. Why wasn't the effort of the cemetery, the Comanche Indian Cemetery put on the national register? It's because Fort Sill wanted to remove those graves. Some official from Fort Sill came to the CBC, I can't remember the date, '96 or something, to inform them that the graves were going to be removed. So the Army had always planned to remove the graves. That's why they didn't want it on the registry. And then, also, why they made a turn is because of all the publicity they got. They were -- the construction that was going on at the apartments at Fort Sill for the soldiers, they started digging up Comanche graves and that's what happened. It was on the TV. MR. BURGESS: Okay, Thomas. MR. TOM NARCOMEY: Now, this is a CBC agenda item. This is to suggest that the planning department be put on the annual budget. And I have a paper here I say that over 20 million may be obtained through federal grants and contracts in one year. Now, I don't know that figure is -¥ -February 19, 2011 it seems reasonable. One guy told me that the Iowa tribe made 20 million through federal grants in one year. I don't know if that's true. I figure we should make 20 million also. Last year we received 6.6 million in net revenue, and I believe it's mostly 638 that was in the newspaper a couple days ago. We would get a per cap increase if BIA approves it, then we're going to -- per cap increase is 10 million, then our budget items for services will decrease by 10 million. So the BIA says tomorrow they may approve it, then, pow, we're going to have to decrease our services by 10 million. This is the only budget item which brings in revenue within one year. The other items are expenditures. They don't bring in any revenue. Look at our economic department. It has not generated one penny in federal funds in four-and-a-half years. And also our enterprise, section 8(a) program has not generated one penny either. So they need help. They need a lot of help. We need to be ready when we get off the blacklist for federal funding. That way we'll have this planning department all ready to go. I said the same thing a year ago and we're still at -February 19, 2011 risk. We've been at risk for 638 I don't know how many years. We still don't have an accounting department, we never had a CPA on staff. We had a chief financial officer and we had no audits. We didn't have no accounting system. We have a budget of 40 million without a CPA and a computerized accounting system. We are still contracting with an accounting firm doing our accounting for about four years now. So I don't know how long we have been at risk, but maybe somebody should get an award for being at risk for a long time. They should recognize some people for putting us at risk, whoever is responsible for that. I mean, that's a long time. MR. HENSON: I want to correct you on one thing. MR. TOM NARCOMEY: It's not this administration. It's the past administration. MS. NELSON: Point of clarification. To say that Comanche Economic Development Commission has not contributed back to the tribe is a matter of opinion. At this time we have six small businesses, which are employing 102 full¥ time employees with an annual payroll of $2.5 -February 19, 2011 million. To say that we have not contributed back to the Comanche Nation is a blatant lie. MR. TOM NARCOMEY: What I said here is you haven't generated one penny in federal funds. MS. NELSON: You said we haven't contributed back to the Comanche Nation also for the last two years. At one point in time, the Comanche Nation Funeral Home was receiving over $500,000 per year that no longer -- but that is no longer -- that is no longer on the budget. The Comanche Nation Funeral Home is no longer on the budget. Also, the water park was receiving up to $500,000 per year five years in a row. That water park is no longer on the annual budget. It is self-sustaining, as well as the funeral home. MR. TOM NARCOMEY: I want the CBC to do a resolution to do a detailed report on all the businesses that print in the Comanche Nation newspaper. (Discussion held off record.) MR. HENSON: There's one other thing I want to correct you on. The corporation has made money and they have gotten money. But they -February 19, 2011 have gotten that money for reinvestment into Economic Development. They can give it back to the tribe if we want that Economic Development to stop. But they've just obtained another construction company and they're getting -- I think there was like an 8, $12 million contract, something like that, and I think there's like five years -¥ MR. TOM NARCOMEY: That's where you're a joint venture and using l8 -¥ MR. HENSON: It's not a joint venture. We bought Todd Construction. The only thing that the corporation is doing -¥ MR. TOM NARCOMEY: That's Dennis Woomavoyah, that group, or is that the other group? MR. BURGESS: One at a time. We can't understand y'all talking at the same time. MR. TOM NARCOMEY: The tribe joint venture is with the construction company and use our name to get contracts, and then we get part of the money. Maybe 2, 3, percent. I don't know what. That's what he's talking about. MR. HENSON: It's not a joint venture. -February 19, 2011 MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: No, we actually own one now. MR. HENSON: The Comanche corporation actually owns Todd Construction. They bought them out. MR. NARCOMEY: Just because you own anything, that doesn't mean you're going to make money. MR. HENSON: They've got a big project out at Fort Sill right now that's brought in some revenue through the corporation that we don't have employees. We got one person that goes over there and he's a project manager, and the top of that money is coming from the project manager back into the corporation. MR. TOM NARCOMEY: I understand the Chickasaws do the same thing and they make a lot of money. MR. BURGESS: Well, let me say this. You made a point, Thomas, about how much money we're going to lose if we increase the 60 percent per cap. And moving $10 million from services sides over to per cap side, loses about $2 million in indirect cost rate. So you're very right on by asking us to put it on the budget using monies to -February 19, 2011 create the research and planning department, because we don't have enough in our indirect cost budget to even hire these people to put the department in. So the 60 percent is going to kill that back because we were trying to deal with our indirect cost rate. So since our people want more money at home and not enough here in services, then we'll have to put that on the budget to get that approved so we can have research and planning going on. Another item on there, Thomas, where you read in the paper about the $6.6 million that was to that time frame, but on the annualized basis, when I walked in here in 2009 the statement in July or August in that audit said we received roughly 9.5 or 10.5 million in federal grants and contracts. That includes 638 and others. Since that time, we are now at about $15 million in federal grants and contracts. 638 grants average about 8.5 million. So we have gone that extra four-and-a-half million with other grants and contracts in the past almost 24 months. Ladies and gentlemen, we did this in a not so positive manner when we have to use outside consultants and grant writers, and there's -February 19, 2011 only so many that want to write grants for us because if you're highly competent you'll go where the money is. Somebody's going to go where they get paid 10 or $15,000 for the grant. We've kind of limited ourselves to local people and we're paying at most 3,500. And that's a pittance for some real accomplished grant writers. So we're trying to do this. As y'all know, we played around with that -- with our department. We started it, then we killed it. Now we got it back up, but the budget constraints are what's hurting us to bring people in and the other issues on that. Thomas, we need to move on. MR. TOM NARCOMEY: Also, you know, in 2010 I was on the CBC meeting for this same thing, just to remind you how important it is. I mean, we're talking 20 million. It's that important. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Phyllis is here. Phyllis has been facilitating submitting grants and we're doing very regularly, and yes, we're using some outside grant writers, but this is under way. MS. ATTOCKNIE: But, also, I write -February 19, 2011 some of the grants, and I don't get paid the big bucks other than my salary. That's because there's times when we can't find competent grant writers that will accept what we are offering them. Thomas, you got them going. They're agreeing with you. Shut up. MR. TOM NARCOMEY: Item 6, proposals not funded, they can be revised and resubmitted the next funding cycle. This further guarantees our proposals will get funded second or third time we'll still get it. MR. BURGESS: What he's talking about, ladies and gentlemen, when a grant gets turned down, you can go back to the funding agency and ask them to give you a review and evaluation, the exceptions to that grant, why it wasn't funded. And then the next cycle if that grant is recurring, you can write your grant and respond to those concerns and put those in there. The shortcomings of it, you rewrite it, put it in, and then your opportunity is better. We've done that on several grants already, older grants, and they've been refunded to us. But, Thomas, we have got to move on. MR. NARCOMEY: Mr. Chairman, before -February 19, 2011 we go into executive session, I need to request that we move the grandparents, Vickie and Lavern Tahchawwickah, move them to the front first. Because she's in a wheelchair and she's not really in good health, if it's okay, if you guys see them. MR. BURGESS: We'll do that. MS. ATTOCKNIE: Sirs, I've always got something else I have to add. MR. BURGESS: Yes, ma'am? MS. ATTOCKNIE: It's been brought to my attention that with some of our tribal members passed away during the year of a per capita payment accumulation, that heirs or family members who are eligible to receive part of or prorated amounts of their per cap payment for the family member that passed, is being sort of bottlenecked up. In visiting with the girl at enrollment that works with that, and Jennifer at the City Capital Bank, and tribal members that are in this situation, that a lot of these people aren't getting those funds, because they have to go through different steps or not enough steps or it's the issue that's not real clear, et cetera. So I just wanted to bring it before the CBC -February 19, 2011 because there was two just this Friday afternoon before I left the office that were in that situation. I'm hoping that by bringing this out, we could address that or give direction to the appropriate persons or whatever to -- let's do something about it. If it means a resolution -¥ MR. BURGESS: Hang on. Bob has got a responsibility because we have to deal with the legal system over there. MR. TIPPECONNIE: We're addressing those in each case. When it comes to heirs, we have to be sure it's legitimate, it's legal. And the City Bank attorneys get involved as well. They want to be sure that this is -- these recipients are legal heirs. And we have run into a few situations where, you know, there's people that contest other persons that say they're entitled to this. So we have to go through that process to be sure. So that is a legal matter. It's like going through probate. In some cases, it has to go through a probate. MS. ATTOCKNIE: I understand that. But this has been an ongoing issue for almost two years now. MR. BURGESS: Ladies and -February 19, 2011 gentlemen, we're going to go into executive session. (Executive session commenced at 4:36 p.m.) * * * * * * * R E P O R T E R 'S C E R T I F I C A T E STATE OF OKLAHOMA ) ) COUNTY OF OKLAHOMA ) I, Kelly Stoabs, Certified Shorthand Reporter for the State of Oklahoma, certify that the above and foregoing meeting transcribed by me is a true and correct transcript of the meeting; that the meeting was held on February 19, 2011, in the State of Oklahoma; that I am not an attorney for nor a relative of any said parties, or otherwise interested in the event of said action. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set hereunto set my hand and seal of office on this the 5th day of March, 2011. Kelly Stoabs Certified Shorthand Reporter for the State of Oklahoma S E C R E T A R Y ' S C E R T I F I C A T E I, Robert Tippeconnie, Secretary¥ Treasurer of Comanche Nation Business Committee, certify that the above is a true and correct transcript of a meeting of CBC Members held at 1:12 p.m. on February 19, 2011, and that the meeting was duly called and held in all respects in accordance with the charters and bylaws of the Comanche Nation and that a quorum was present. I further certify that the votes and resolutions of the CBC Members of Comanche Nation at the meeting are operative and in full force and effect and have not been annulled or modified by any vote or resolution passed or adopted by the CBC since that meeting. Signed:_________________________ Date:____________ Robert Tippeconnie Secretary-Treasurer