1 1 2 3 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE 4 COMANCHE BUSINESS COMMITTEE 5 MONTHLY MEETING 6 JULY 11, 2009, 10:06 A.M. 7 COMANCHE NATION COMPLEX 8 LAWTON, OKLAHOMA 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 __________________________________________________ REPORTED BY: KELLY STOABS, CSR 23 DODSON REPORTING & ASSOCIATES 435 NORTH WALKER, SUITE 102 24 OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA 73102 (405) 235-1828 ~ (405) 235-1266 (FAX) 25 dcri@coxinet.net 2 1 A P P E A R A N C E S 2 3 COMANCHE NATION BUSINESS COMMITTEE MEMBERS: 4 Michael Burgess, Chairman 5 Richard Henson, Vice-Chairman 6 Robert Tippeconnie, Secretary-Treasurer 7 Edmond Mahseet, Committeeman #1 8 Lanny Asepermy, Committeeman #2 9 Darrell Kosechequetah, Committeeman #3 10 Clyde R. Narcomey, Committeeman #4 11 LEGAL COUNSEL: 12 William Norman, James Burson 13 Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker 14 15 16 17 * * * * * * 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 INDEX OF PROCEEDINGS 2 PAGE 3 Meeting called to order at 10:04 a.m. 6 4 Roll Call. 6 5 Motion passed to approve minutes. 6 6 Jerry Jankovic gives presentation on 7 building power plant. 7 Motion passed to amend agenda. 14 8 Motion passed to table Resolution 16 9 #57-09/Amendment to Election Ordinance. 10 Motion passed to approve Resolution 17 #98-09/Signature Verification of Indian 11 Preference for Employment (BIA 4432) Forms. 12 Motion passed to approve Resolution 18 #99-09/Enrollment/List No. 790 Relinquishment. 13 Motion passed to approve Resolution 20 14 #100-09/Enrollment/List No. 791 Ineligible. 15 Motion passed to approve Resolution 20 #101-09/Enrollment/List No. 792 Ineligible. 16 Motion passed to approve Resolution 37 17 #102-09/Enrollment/List No. 793 Ineligible. 18 Motion passed to approve Resolution 38 #103-09/Enrollment/List No. 794 Eligible. 19 Motion passed to approve Resolution 39 20 #104-09/Changing Authorized Inquires and Signatures of Financial Accounts. 21 Motion passed to approve Resolution 41 22 105-09/Authorizing Establishment of New Retirement Plan and Amendment of Trustees. 23 Motion passed to approve Resolution 81 24 #106-09/The National Congress of American Indians. 25 4 1 INDEX OF PROCEEDINGS (continued) 2 PAGE 3 Motion passed to table Resolution 44 #107-09/Election Board Compensation. 4 Motion passed to approve Resolution 49 5 #108-09/Approve Policies & Procedures for the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Program. 6 Resolution #109-09/Appointing Member 55 7 to Gaming Employee Board of Review tabled. 8 Motion passed to approve Resolution 55 #110-09/Appointing Members to Gaming Advisory 9 Subcommittee. 10 Motion passed to approve Resolution 65 #111-09/Amending Comanche Nation Gaming 11 Ordinance of 2009. 12 Motion passed to make Resolution 81 #111-09/Amending Comanche Nation Gaming 13 Ordinance of 2009, effective immediately. 14 Motion passed to approve Resolution 81 #112-09/Appointing Commissioners to the 15 Comanche Tax Commission. 16 Motion passed to approve Resolution 86 #113-09/Appointing KCA Board Member. 17 Motion passed to approve Resolution 86 18 #114-09/Creation of CN Hazard Mitigation Citizens Advisory Committee. 19 Presentation by ADP. 94 20 Motion passed that individuals 120 21 cannot serve on more than one board at a time with the exception of the CBC. 22 Motion passed authorizing Comanche 126 23 Nation Elder Madeline Mahsetky Spicer to utilize a building for church services. 24 25 5 1 INDEX OF PROCEEDINGS (continued) 2 PAGE 3 Motion passed authorizing the Tribal 129 Administrator to build a core team of grant 4 writers and/or proposal builders. 5 Motion passed authorizing the TA to 133 utilize one of the vehicles purchased from the 6 CNG Housing Improvement Program for daily use. 7 Motion passed to authorize the 135 Tribal Chairman, Michael Burgess, to attend 8 the National Indian Gaming Association legislative session in Washington, D.C. 9 Presentation by Adam Proctor of the 141 10 American Indian Chamber of Commerce. 11 Motion passed to approve a hiking 149 trail at no cost for the tribe. 12 Presentation by Eleanor McDaniel/ 150 13 Comanche Tribal Forum Regarding Tribal Concerns. 14 Presentation by C. Knowles & K. 171 15 Yackeyonney/Comanche Nursing. 16 Presentation by Vance Yellowfish/ 189 Request for Sponsor for AIEPAC’s Annual 17 Student Pow-wow Fund Raiser. 18 Presentation by Elton Yellowfish/I-CARE. 193 19 Francine Jones/Casino Eviction and 227 Bus Routes. 20 Report from the Shoshone Reunion Committee. 240 21 Discussion of princesses. 245 22 Motion passed to go into executive session. 258 23 Executive session held from 4:22 p.m. 259 24 to 6:00 p.m. 25 Meeting recessed at 6:00 p.m. 259 6 1 (Meeting called to order at 2 10:06 a.m.) 3 MR. BURGESS: We'll call the meeting 4 to order at this time. 5 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Michael Burgess? 6 MR. BURGESS: Here. 7 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Richard Henson? 8 MR. HENSON: Here. 9 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Robert 10 Tippeconnie? Here. 11 Edmond Mahseet? 12 MR. MAHSEET: Here. 13 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Lanny Asepermy? 14 MR. ASEPERMY: Here. 15 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Darrell 16 Kosechequetah? 17 MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Here. 18 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Clyde Narcomey? 19 MR. NARCOMEY: Here. 20 MR. TIPPECONNIE: We have a quorum, 21 Mr. Chairman. 22 MR. BURGESS: Thank you very much. I 23 know that we went in reverse of this roll call 24 here, and next meeting we'll change that. We 25 always want to go to our Father first and the rest 7 1 of us come behind him. 2 Ladies and gentlemen, we want to say 3 congratulations on behalf of the Nation to 4 Mr. Darrell Kosechequetah here on the birth of the 5 twins July 1st, a boy and a girl. Honey Leigh is 6 the girl, and she's the oldest by, what, eight 7 seconds; and Micah Jordon. Love that name. 8 So, Mr. Secretary, Mr. Tippeconnie, 9 on the meeting minutes of the previous meeting? 10 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes. Let's review 11 those. You have two pages of them. You see there 12 a red -- when you move to the second one, there's 13 two minutes, because we had recessed it previous. 14 So we'll go through those minutes. We'll accept a 15 motion to approve. 16 MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman, I make 17 that motion. 18 MR. BURGESS: A motion has been 19 made. Second? 20 MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Second. 21 MR. BURGESS: Second has been made by 22 Mr. Darrell Kosechequetah. All those in favor, 23 say "aye." 24 (Aye.) 25 MR. BURGESS: Thank you. And now, 8 1 Bunky, you had something you wanted to introduce 2 here? 3 MR. HENSON: We have a group that was 4 supposed to be on the agenda from Tulsa that drove 5 all the way from Tulsa this morning, and they are 6 going to talk to us or give us a small 7 presentation on energy and possibly what we can do 8 in the future. After this, we'll probably meet 9 with them later, but right now we want to give 10 them a little bit of time to present what they 11 were going to present. Mr. Jerry Jankovic. 12 MR. JANKOVIC: Yes, thank you. 13 Ladies and gentlemen, elected 14 officials, my name is Jerry Jankovic. I'm the 15 chairman of the board of New Pinnacle Energy and 16 21st Century Energy. We're out of California and 17 Tulsa, Oklahoma. We've built hundreds of power 18 plants all over the world, every type. We own the 19 cleanest technology in California for the type of 20 plants that we're presenting to you. This is a 21 jet engine. 22 MR. HENSON: Can y'all hear him back 23 there? 24 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: No. 25 MR. HENSON: You're going to have to 9 1 speak a little louder. 2 MR. JANKOVIC: It's an electrical 3 generating facility that we're proposing that's 4 the state-of-the-art, cleanest facilities. It's a 5 General Electric product that we have perfected. 6 And it's something that we can install and run 7 efficiently where a project that we're presenting 8 is a couple of hundred million dollars. We'll 9 bear all the cost, and we'll buy the land, bear 10 the cost, do the financing, and share the profits 11 with the Tribe. You'd be essentially buying the 12 electricity from yourself. In 30 years, you own 13 the facility. 14 What I get most commonly asked is 15 what's in it for you, what's in it for us. Well, 16 you get two-thirds and we get a third. And at the 17 end of the 30 years, you've gotten a little over a 18 billion-and-a-half dollars. You're paying for the 19 energy now to somebody else, and I know what 20 you're paying and it's too high, so that's what 21 prompted me to put this project together to 22 present to you. 23 We have some booklets that we can -- 24 presentation material that we can leave off. It 25 tells all about the project, and it's got a spread 10 1 sheet in there that tells you what you're going to 2 make on it. And it's a nonbinding agreement, but 3 if you like what you see and you want to sign it, 4 I'll move forward with the financing. 5 We've already done a lot of 6 engineering, hired outside engineering firms to do 7 the transmission and distribution studies, so we 8 know all the other clients that we can sell 9 electricity to, and you still get the revenue from 10 it. So it's a really nice package for -- 11 MR. HENSON: Did you tell them the 12 split that you were suggesting? 13 MR. JANKOVIC: Yeah, you get 14 two-thirds and we get a third. You told me 75/25, 15 but let's stick with our program. 16 MR. HENSON: One other thing. Have 17 you -- 18 MR. JANKOVIC: But it's no cost to 19 you. 20 MR. HENSON: Have you possibly looked 21 for a site already? 22 MR. JANKOVIC: Yes. 23 MR. HENSON: And where are you 24 proposing that site? 25 MR. JANKOVIC: Well, there are 11 1 several sites. And until we finish up the 2 distribution study, and there's a couple of other 3 major users that we'd like to sign up that would 4 buy power from you, that would determine which 5 site we'd use. 6 MR. HENSON: Anybody got any 7 questions? Go ahead. 8 MS. CABLE: How many other tribes 9 have you made these presentation to and what was 10 their response? 11 MR. JANKOVIC: Well, we've built 12 several of them. I'm from California, the Morongo 13 Tribe. Actually, we're getting ready to build 14 another one for the Morongo. What we're proposing 15 here is 110 megawatts, expandable to 220. What 16 we're doing out there is 180 megawatts out there. 17 MS. CABLE: Oklahoma tribes? 18 MR. JANKOVIC: To the California 19 tribes, Morango. 20 MR. BURGESS: Are you talking about 21 Morongo at Cabazon? 22 MR. JANKOVIC: Yes, yes, Robert Mark. 23 MS. SHANGREAUX: I have a question. 24 If you're providing all of the money and all of 25 the financing and all of that, why do you need 12 1 the Comanche Nation? 2 MR. JANKOVIC: I'm sorry? 3 MS. SHANGREAUX: Why do you need the 4 Comanche Nation? 5 MR. JANKOVIC: I didn't say that I 6 did. This is a unique thing for tribes. I've 7 been involved in helping tribes for years. I grew 8 up on the Morongo Reservation in California and I 9 just made a specialty of helping tribes. 10 MR. BURGESS: One more question and 11 then we're going to move on. I think maybe, sir, 12 that we could probably establish another date and 13 time that you could give a full presentation to 14 ourselves and perhaps one of our economic engines 15 over here, our development office. 16 One last question. 17 MS. ATTOCKNIE: Has the gentleman 18 given to the CBC a copy of any type of prospectus 19 or information as to what he's talking about? 20 MR. HENSON: We're not that far yet. 21 MR. BURGESS: That's why we are 22 asking him to come back and talk to us at a 23 separate time. Oscar, Mr. Codopony here, has one 24 question and we'll move on. 25 MR. CODOPONY: Mr. Chairman, all I 13 1 would ask of the CBC is if you would consider 2 involving me in the analysis of this, because 3 that's my business. 4 And just from the generic 5 discussions, I see tons of problems with this. As 6 far as -- I mean, have you talked to the FCC about 7 conjectional transition grid? I know I have 8 trouble getting power across the grid all the 9 time. There are contracts that have my company 10 tied up that I cannot buy power from anybody else, 11 and I know at least 20 other companies that are in 12 Oklahoma that are the same way. So if you could 13 -- 14 MR. JANKOVIC: We've had Black & 15 Peach do a complete study. And Black & Peach is 16 the engineer. 17 MR. BURGESS: Mike, we haven't had a 18 prospectus from them, so this is just preliminary. 19 Come Monday, give us a call. I think, 20 Mr. Tippeconnie, we probably may not have an open 21 date until late July and the second week of 22 August. We're caught up with a lot of cultural 23 community things here. So where somewhere in that 24 time, give us a call and then we'll work with 25 Mr. Tippeconnie to schedule a better presentation, 14 1 a long term, with a prospectus for us. 2 MR. JANKOVIC: Thank you. 3 MR. HENSON: Let me say one thing 4 before he leaves. You can be assured that if we 5 go into anything like that or look at anything, 6 we're going to look at all avenues before we even 7 talk about it. He's going to have to present us 8 with a lot of things. And, of course, we don't 9 know everything, so we'll be going to the people 10 that know. So just to ease your mind a little 11 bit, that's what's going to happen. 12 MR. BURGESS: Mr. Codopony, we'll 13 have directions through my office to contact you 14 as soon as we have an established date and try to 15 give you two weeks' notice to open up so you can 16 be present. 17 MR. CODOPONY: If I can be of any 18 assistance. I just know that there are -- coming 19 from a regulated entity and knowing the 20 environment in Oklahoma, I know there are tons of 21 hurdles to clear before something like this can be 22 done. 23 MR. BURGESS: For your information, 24 sir, Mr. Codopony is full-time employed with Caddo 25 Electric in Caddo County, one of the power 15 1 companies. 2 MR. NELSON: Can I interject one 3 thing, sir? Mr. Chairman, when I was approached 4 by these gentlemen in the middle of the month, 5 just due to the fact we're talking about stock 6 options later on for our people. Another thing, 7 the Morongo Tribe, if you know about the Morongo 8 tribe, that's a multi billion dollar tribe. So if 9 you've done work with a multi billion dollar 10 tribe, we should at least look at it, consider it, 11 feasibility of it, so on. 12 MR. BURGESS: Thank you. Point of 13 order. We need to amend our agenda here. We 14 wanted to make sure -- this gentleman came a long 15 distance to hear from him and his people, so do I 16 hear a motion to amend it so we can properly -- 17 MR. HENSON: I make a motion to amend 18 it. 19 MR. BURGESS: Do I hear a second? 20 MR. ASEPERMY: Second. 21 MR. BURGESS: Additionally, motion to 22 amend the agenda will include -- we have a travel 23 item here for the chairman and one other member to 24 Washington D.C., Mrs. Mahsetky, Madeline; is that 25 right? 16 1 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes. 2 MR. BURGESS: Madeline Mahsetky. 3 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Add those two 4 motions? 5 MR. BURGESS: Yes. The other motion 6 is to authorize a vehicle for use by our Tribal 7 Administrator on daily business. And the other 8 motion is to amend a development office, 9 responsibility of grant writers. That would be 10 under 14. Then we'll come to Mr. Nelson to bring 11 those forward. We'll continue with Item 1. So 12 all those in favor of amending the agenda, please 13 signify. 14 (Aye.) 15 MR. NARCOMEY: I vote no, because I 16 think we ought to rescind it, but I'm just one 17 vote. I'll vote no. 18 MR. BURGESS: Rescind which one? 19 MR. NARCOMEY: The election 20 ordinance, that one we're talking about. 21 MR. TIPPECONNIE: We hadn't gotten to 22 that. He's amending for adding to, adding the 23 motions. 24 MR. BURGESS: So all those in favor 25 of amending the agenda again? 17 1 (Aye.) 2 MR. BURGESS: Thank you. Agenda is 3 amended. 4 Mr. Tippeconnie, did you have time to 5 write all that? 6 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes, I got it. 7 MR. ASEPERMY: TA vehicle and what 8 was the other one? 9 MR. BURGESS: Mrs. Madeline Mahsetky 10 Spicer, use of the facility for church services. 11 And the other is creating the core team to develop 12 our office for grant writers. That's already 13 funded under the development area. Those are the 14 three majors, I believe, plus these gentlemen who 15 made a presentation. 16 MR. ASEPERMY: Okay. Back to our 17 agenda, Item Number 1. 18 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Mr. Chairman, I 19 make a motion to table Resolution 57-09 for future 20 review. 21 MR. NARCOMEY: I second, 22 Mr. Chairman. 23 MR. BURGESS: Motion has been made 24 and seconded; motion by Mr. Tippeconnie, second by 25 Mr. Narcomey. All those in favor say "aye." 18 1 (Aye.) 2 MR. BURGESS: All those opposed? 3 Hearing no opposition, Resolution Number 57-09 is 4 tabled. 5 Item Number 2, Resolution Number 6 98-09, Signature Verification of Indian Preference 7 For Employment. This is a BIA form that requires 8 a resolution to change over signature authorities 9 of the -- is it two of us, Chairman and Vice- 10 Chair, as well? 11 MR. NELSON: There's three of them, 12 Chairman. 13 MR. BURGESS: Nelson as well? 14 The Committee shall designate Michael 15 F. Burgess, Chairman; Richard Henson, Vice- 16 Chairman; Robert Tippeconnie, Secretary-Treasurer; 17 Edmond Mahseet, Committeeman Number 1; Lanny 18 Asepermy, Committeeman Number 2; Darrell 19 Kosechequetah, Committeeman Number 3; Clyde 20 Narcomey, Committeeman Number 4; Willie Nelson, 21 Tribal Administrator, to sign verification of 22 Indian Preference. 23 This resolution removes the names of 24 former Chairman Wallace Coffey, former Vice-Chair 25 Ronald RedElk, and former Tribal Administrator 19 1 Johnny Wauqua. 2 All those in favor, please signify by 3 saying "aye." 4 (Aye.) 5 MR. BURGESS: Any oppose? Motion 6 passed, resolution adopted. 7 MS. ATTOCKNIE: So all seven, three 8 of the seven can sign these 4432s? 9 MR. BURGESS: Yes. 10 MR. ASEPERMY: Eight. 11 MR. BURGESS: As of lately, many of 12 you have realized I'm not always in the office. 13 We're always doing a lot of meetings with various 14 entities, so we always have one or two people that 15 will be by the office, as well as the Tribal 16 Administrator, to sign off on them. 17 MR. BURSON: Mr. Chairman, I didn't 18 catch who moved and who seconded. 19 MR. BURGESS: Second was 20 Mr. Asepermy, moving was Mr. Kosechequetah. 21 Resolution 99-09, this is Item Number 22 3 under our resolutions. Enrollment List Number 23 790, this is relinquishment. We have a person who 24 is leaving our -- who actually was enrolled with 25 us -- as member of the Choctaw Nation, and their 20 1 enrollment has been approved through Choctaw 2 Nation Enrollment Committee. This person will be 3 removed from our rolls, because they're now 4 enrolled with the Choctaws. All those in favor? 5 MR. NARCOMEY: I make a motion to 6 approve, Mr. Chairman. 7 MR. ASEPERMY: Second. 8 MR. BURGESS: Motion by Mr. Narcomey, 9 second by Mr. Asepermy. 10 MR. ASEPERMY: Discussion? I would 11 like to say that this is a voluntary 12 relinquishment, that they took themselves off. 13 MR. BURGESS: Yes. They've applied 14 for Choctaw membership and they have been accepted 15 by the Choctaws, which is what we should be 16 verifying before we release anybody. In the 17 future, our enrollment office will be doing that. 18 Motion and second by Mr. Asepermy. All those in 19 favor, please say "aye." 20 (Aye.) 21 MR. BURGESS: Item Number 4, 22 Resolution 100-09 -- 23 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Motion carried. 24 MR. BURGESS: Motion carried, excuse 25 me. Thank you, sir. 21 1 MR. ASEPERMY: We had no oppose? 2 MR. BURGESS: No oppose. 3 This is a resolution telling us that 4 an applicant does not possess the required 5 one-eighth degree Comanche Nation blood as 6 provided by our Constitution in Article III. We 7 only have one applicant. So at this time, a 8 motion to approve Resolution 100-09? 9 MR. NARCOMEY: Mr. Chairman, I make 10 that motion to approve. 11 MR. BURGESS: Second? 12 MR. HENSON: I'll second it. 13 MR. BURGESS: Second by Mr. Henson 14 here. All those in favor say "aye." 15 (Aye.) 16 MR. BURGESS: Any opposed? 17 Resolution 100-09 has passed. 18 Item Number 5, Resolution Number 19 101-09. Again, Enrollment List Number 792 is 20 ineligible, only one person. They're an enrolled 21 member of another tribe. It says that they have 22 accepted material monetary benefits as a member of 23 another tribe. According to our Constitution, 24 Article III, Section 3(b), they're not eligible 25 for enrollment. Has everybody read it? 22 1 MR. HENSON: I want to say one 2 thing. This is something new that I learned since 3 I've been on the CBC, and I brought it up to 4 Enrollment. There is a part of our Constitution 5 that says that these children that are growing up 6 now; for instance, they might be just born, two or 7 three years old, and they're a member of another 8 tribe, so automatically the parents usually enroll 9 them with that tribe. But under our constitution, 10 when they reach 18 years old, they can come back 11 and apply for the Comanche Tribe. Does everybody 12 know that? 13 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes. 14 MR. HENSON: That was just new that I 15 learned. I thought I might put that out there. 16 MS. ATTOCKNIE: But does it stipulate 17 that even if that child, when they reach the age 18 of 18, if they did receive any moneys from another 19 tribe, is there minority? Does that still exclude 20 them from membership into the Comanche Tribe? 21 MR. HENSON: Once they reach 18 years 22 old, they're brand new whether they receive 23 services from anybody or not. They have a right 24 to apply to this Tribe. 25 MS. AITSON: Mr. Henson, I'd like to 23 1 say something to that effect. Two of my children 2 were disenroll ed from the Comanche Tribe, and 3 they keep saying that they have received money, 4 per se, Lanny Asepermy said he proved it with 5 Donna. Those two kids never received any kind of 6 moneys from the Kiowa Tribe. They were minors 7 when they were enrolled. We all got the money, 8 the three tribes. That, my son Roy Dale got. And 9 what are they -- I don't understand why they're 10 still not approving them for the roll. They were 11 past the age of 18, but I didn't realize that 12 that's what they were supposed to do. I didn't 13 start coming to all of these meetings until after, 14 you know, the facts of all this. 15 MR. HENSON: There's an open period 16 from 18 to 19 years old. 17 MS. AITSON: I didn't know that. My 18 son Joe got on that. 19 MR. HENSON: Well, I didn't know it 20 either. But we've been discussing that, and we're 21 looking at expanding that period from 18 to 21. 22 MS. AITSON: I really think that 23 these people that were disenrolled from the 24 Tribe need to be left alone and put back on. 25 MR. HENSON: Let me say this: That 24 1 is not ours, that is your power to do. You can 2 amend that Constitution and say that. Right now 3 we only have one thing to do: We can go by the 4 Constitution. So if you feel that way, bring it 5 up in a General Council, amend the Constitution, 6 get the vote on it and it will change. 7 MS. AITSON: We came with an appeal, 8 a lot -- all of our papers came, and they didn't 9 listen to our appeals. 10 MR. BURGESS: Ms. Aitson, let me read 11 this resolution. The second whereas in this 12 resolution is going to quote the constitution. 13 His statement is very correct, this depends on the 14 people. 15 As the Constitution now reads, 16 Article III, Section 3(b) of the Constitution and 17 Bylaws reads this: "The person is at the time of 18 the adoption of this constitution an enrolled 19 member of another tribe or has in the past 20 received and accepted or, if a minor, whose 21 parents or legal guardian has received and 22 accepted for said minor, material or monetary 23 benefits as a member of another tribe." 24 That's what our Constitution 25 presently reads. For those of you who have 25 1 concerns about it, that is another issue that can 2 be taken up among your community. You need to 3 discuss that and come forward at a time that if 4 you wish to present that to the CBC, you want to 5 change or modify, amend the Constitution, that 6 would be done at a separate meeting. So I would 7 say to all of you, please talk among yourselves, 8 your families, because we don't have the power to 9 do anything but follow the Constitution. 10 MS. ATTOCKNIE: But the Constitution 11 also says that it just takes three of the 12 Committee to call a Special General Council. 13 MR. HENSON: Yes. 14 MS. ATTOCKNIE: If the General 15 Council were by the people that affected by it or 16 any of the majority here even made that request to 17 you today, would three of you stand up and say, 18 yes, we will call a General Council? 19 This has been done before. The 20 people at this -- that were in the audience with 21 us at a CBC meeting requested that three 22 individuals on the Business Committee to call a 23 General Council. Every one on that table said 24 yes. Three of them said that they would do that. 25 It never happened. Mr. Tippeconnie was one, but 26 1 that meeting never happened. 2 MRS. HENDRIX: Chairman, I'd like to 3 bring up that at the last General Council, 4 Glennetta had a resolution or a petition to put 5 everybody back on the roll and receive their per 6 cap. At that point, the Chairman then stated that 7 it had to be a Constitutional amendment to put 8 people back on the roll. Where was the 9 Constitutional amendment to take people off the 10 roll? 11 MS. ATTOCKNIE: Thank you. 12 MRS. HENDRIX: There was none. So 13 things should be status quo as of April the 17th. 14 Nobody should be off the roll. Because if you 15 need a Constitutional amendment to put people on 16 the roll, then you need a Constitutional amendment 17 to take people off the roll. So, therefore, it 18 voids each other out, so every one that was 19 disenrolled should automatically be back on as of 20 April 18th, 2007, without calling a General 21 Council for the people to vote on, because it was 22 done in a CBC meeting secretly. So if there was 23 no Constitutional amendment to disenroll, then 24 none of these people are disenrolled, right? 25 Because you just got through saying we needed a 27 1 Constitutional amendment to put people back on. 2 MR. BURGESS: No, I'm referring to 3 the individuals that received -- we are saying 4 they can't be enrolled because their parent 5 received financial -- other gain from the other 6 tribes. 7 MRS. HENDRIX: You just stated to 8 Delores that she would have -- we would have to 9 make a Constitutional amendment. 10 MR. BURGESS: I said the community 11 would have to talk about it and come up with that 12 development, and then you can bring forward that 13 at a different time, not today. 14 MRS. HENDRIX: I'm just saying, it 15 shouldn't be an issue now. After the statement 16 that he made, there was no Constitutional 17 amendment to disenroll, so, therefore, why would 18 you need a Constitutional amendment to add them 19 on? 20 MR. BURGESS: I understand what 21 you're saying, but what I'm asking is that the 22 community go back and talk about it and come at a 23 different time, not at this meeting. We'll set up 24 a special meeting if we have to. Let's have that 25 big discussion and let me hear it, us, Richard and 28 1 I are new here, and if that's what we can do, if 2 the people want to do that, we'll have to follow 3 that will, but let's not that discuss that here. 4 MRS. HENDRIX: Well, following those 5 two statements that you made and that Chairman 6 Coffey made, then y'all have the power right now 7 to vote and say, well, it's just all voided out 8 and everybody's on the roll, because it wasn't 9 done at a General Council. Nobody was disenrolled 10 at a General Council. 11 MR. BURGESS: I know that. I just 12 don't have enough background on that at this time. 13 And I'm willing to listen to you, and I understand 14 how you feel, but I want to get through this 15 agenda. So if you would come up with a 16 subcommittee that we can sit down and talk about. 17 Because if we're going to do one thing, there's 18 more than one meeting, there's more than one item 19 on the Constitution that we need to amend, if 20 that's what it's got to be. 21 MRS. HENDRIX: Without an amendment, 22 how can you change an amendment? How can you 23 say -- 24 MR. BURGESS: I'm just saying that in 25 the future -- 29 1 MRS. HENDRIX: Okay. I have another 2 question for you all. 3 MR. BURGESS: Let me come back. I 4 just quoted what the constitution presently reads 5 about those minors who would like to come over 6 when they reach the age, but at the time, if their 7 parents accepted something on their behalf. This 8 is the Constitutional amendment I'm talking 9 about. I'm not referring to the disenrollment 10 process that was done with or without a 11 Constitution. I'm just referring to this. 12 MRS. HENDRIX: I'm just saying you as 13 the CBC have the power today to say that's null 14 and void because we had no constitutional 15 amendment to disenroll anybody. 16 MR. BURGESS: I understand that. I'm 17 just referring to this. 18 MRS. HENDRIX: I also have a 19 question. I don't know whether or not everybody 20 knows it or not, but I'm in Supreme Court right 21 now on that issue. And we have a writ of certiori 22 with the Supreme Court. It has now gone for 23 discussion for conference with all the judges as 24 of July the 8th. This is the book the attorneys 25 sent and it's done by a printing company. On it, 30 1 they have Donna Wahnee as a CBC member. When did 2 she become a CBC member? 3 MR. BURGESS: I don't know who 4 printed the book and she did not become a CBC 5 member. 6 MRS. HENDRIX: My question now is, 7 who is paying the attorney costs? I mean, the 8 individuals that are being sued, who is paying for 9 their -- Lanny, are you paying for your own 10 attorney? If you're not, then who is, the Tribe? 11 MR. ASEPERMY: As far as I know, 12 yeah. 13 MRS. HENDRIX: Why? You were sued 14 individually. I didn't sue the Tribe, I sued you 15 individually. You should have your own attorney. 16 Mr. Coffey is no longer with us. The attorneys 17 shouldn't be representing him. If they represent 18 Wallace Coffey now as an ordinary Comanche Tribal 19 member, any of you should be able to use the 20 attorney as your representative, right? Because 21 he is not Chairman anymore. Neither is Ronald 22 RedElk. So if the Tribe is paying for their suit 23 in court, they should be paying for everybody here 24 that wants to go to court. 25 MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: The way I 31 1 understand it is that they're being paid for 2 because they're being sued for doing Comanche 3 Nation business, upholding the Constitution as 4 it's interpreted. 5 MRS. HENDRIX: Well, then you've been 6 told wrong, because that's what we just 7 discussed. There is no Constitutional amendment 8 that says you can disenroll, and I didn't sue on 9 disenrollment. I sued on due process and civil 10 rights because I was not allowed to vote, I was 11 not given due process in the disenrollment. This 12 was done in a secret meeting where they conspired 13 with the Enrollment Director, and I've got the 14 minutes. It shows all this. Okay? That's what 15 I'm talking about. Why are the -- and these 16 individuals acted outside their authority. The 17 constitution doesn't give them the authority to 18 disenroll, because it's not in the constitution. 19 So they acted outside their authority. And that's 20 what I'm saying. 21 Now that Wallace and Ronald RedElk 22 are not on the committee, and they're saying that 23 they represented them, why are they paying for -- 24 why are you paying for this book now? These 25 individuals should be paying for this and paying 32 1 for their own attorneys. They're sued 2 individually. Not anywhere does it say the Tribe 3 is being sued. All individuals. I'd like to know 4 where the money is coming from and why is the 5 Tribe paying for this. 6 MR. BURGESS: Well, what I'd like to 7 do is that topic will come up in executive session 8 with our legal counsel. And then after we come 9 out of executive session, then I would like to 10 meet with you. It doesn't have to be today. If 11 you want to have a meeting with me in the office 12 next week, Monday or Tuesday. 13 MRS. HENDRIX: Well, now that it's 14 gone for distribution to the judges -- 15 MR. BURGESS: If you'd like to meet 16 with me privately, and Mr. Vice-Chairman. Who 17 else would you like to meet with us? 18 MRS. HENDRIX: I just want to make it 19 clear this is a civil rights suit, because all my 20 civil rights were violated. And the enrollment 21 contract that has, it had a due process clause, 22 and that due process clause was not followed. And 23 our Enrollment Director also perjured herself by 24 saying that I had been on the Caddo Tribe when the 25 letter she received said I had never ever. That's 33 1 why I said there's some on this committee that 2 doesn't know what "never ever" means. I'm glad 3 we've got two here that are educated and can read 4 now and can understand what "never ever" means. 5 MR. NELSON: Mr. Chairman, I'd like 6 to bring this up to you guys. 7 MR. BURGESS: Bring it to 8 Mr. Tippeconnie. 9 MR. YELLOWFISH: As a matter of 10 precedence, in 1991, I served on the committee. 11 We had a problem with jurisdiction of one of our 12 young Indian children. There were three in the 13 family. I flew to Washington, D.C. This is 14 before we had casinos. Zena Anderson, myself, and 15 another person testified at court in front of a 16 judge, and we were cross-examined concerning 17 enrollment, eligibility. And one of the things 18 that was brought out then was the fact that our 19 tribal constitution, they had a copy of it, it 20 describes eligibility requirements. It did not 21 address how to take people off. So this is 22 something that the committee needs to keep in 23 mind. Now, you can get those records at the 24 Orange County Superior Court Clerk on what took 25 place in 1991. 34 1 Chairman Wallace Coffey sent myself, 2 Zena Anderson. I can't think of the other third 3 one. We went out there to testify. It was a 4 jurisdictional problem. We were dealing with 5 Indian Child Welfare. We lost the case. We 6 wanted to bring the kids to Comanche under our 7 supervision. They didn't understand, California 8 did not understand Indian Child Welfare. We lost 9 the case. But this issue that we're talking about 10 here, enrollment, was brought before discussion at 11 that time with the judge asking some questions. 12 And it came to my attention then, you know, hey, 13 we meet all the requirements here necessary to put 14 people on the roll; there's nothing there that 15 says we can take them off. 16 MRS. HENDRIX: I'd also like to bring 17 up one more thing. Delores, there was a 18 resolution -- this was a big deal back September 19 30th of '06, because there was supposed to have 20 been a meeting up here for those that had 21 completed a process and application. I believe 22 there was three here, but the other three didn't 23 show up, so there wasn't a quorum at that time. I 24 do have the resolution. And it's funny that the 25 resolution says three for, one approve, one 35 1 abstain, and on the back it has Ray Aitson, Donna 2 -- Dana Aitson, and it says motion made by LaNora 3 Parker to approve seven applicants because they've 4 completed all requirements, seconded by Eddie 5 Mahseet. These are two resolutions for a meeting 6 that was never held. So this is what I'm talking 7 about. This is -- 8 MS. ATTOCKNIE: Falsified document. 9 MRS. HENDRIX: This is what happened 10 to these people that were disenrolled. It was a 11 whim, it was vendettas. As I said -- and this is 12 Mr. Coffey's handwriting. 13 MS. AITSON: Mr. Burgess, 14 Mr. Narcomey knows what happened that day, because 15 there was a powwow down here. Mr. Coffey had gone 16 down there because Cheavers Coffey was having a 17 name giving or something. That was the day we 18 were all supposed to meet at the gym, and he never 19 did come back up there. He said that was more 20 important to him than what we -- our issues were, 21 and these were our children that they were doing 22 this to. And so Clyde can tell you on that, too, 23 if you would talk to him more on it. 24 MR. BURGESS: What was the date on 25 that, Deborah? Thank you, Ms. Aitson. 36 1 MRS. HENDRIX: That was September 2 30th, 2006. That was a big problem, because there 3 was no meeting, but yet we have the resolution 4 where LaNora made the motion and Eddie seconded 5 it, and they weren't even there. 6 MR. BURGESS: What's the resolution 7 number, please? 8 MRS. HENDRIX: 92-06. 9 MR. BURGESS: Thank you for the 10 information. We'll take it under advisement. The 11 CBC is going to have to deal with that. 12 Ladies and gentlemen, it is our first 13 meeting, we have a long agenda. I know that is a 14 big topic, a very hard topic; a lot of discussion 15 and heartfelt concern. But as you know, we've got 16 things to do, and as I've talked earlier, we will 17 accommodate you, as I'm trying to accommodate 18 Mrs. Hendrix here. Call me Monday and let's try 19 and set up a time that we can come in and discuss 20 this. 21 MS. ATTOCKNIE: I think with regard 22 to -- one statement, please. With this lawsuit 23 that is being -- that is filed in the Supreme 24 Court that is now before all of the Supreme Court 25 Justices, that the attorneys that are representing 37 1 these individual people need to make a correction 2 that Donna Wahnee is not a member of the Comanche 3 Business Committee as stated in their answers. 4 Because in all of the paperwork that was done 5 prior to this, it named Donna Wahnee as the 6 Enrollment Director at that time, but now it's 7 including her as a member of the Comanche Business 8 Committee. 9 MR. BURGESS: So noted. 10 MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman, call for 11 the question on Resolution 101-09. 12 MR. BURGESS: Thank you, 13 Mr. Asepermy. Ladies and gentlemen, a question 14 has been called for a vote on Resolution 101-09. 15 Did we have a motion made? 16 MR. ASEPERMY: Motion. 17 MR. BURGESS: Second, please? 18 MR. NARCOMEY: Second. 19 MR. BURGESS: Second by Narcomey. 20 All those in favor signify by saying "aye." 21 (Aye.) 22 MR. BURGESS: All those opposed? 23 Having no opposition, Resolution 101-09 has 24 passed. 25 Item Number 6, Resolution 102-09, 38 1 list Number 793, again of ineligibles. Again, 2 we're using the Constitution to approve or 3 disprove membership. They are ineligible for 4 membership with the Comanche Nation because he or 5 she do not meet the Nation's Constitutional 6 membership requirements. This is Article III, 7 Section 1(b), all living direct descendants of 8 allottees eligible for membership under the 9 provisions of Section 1(a) of this article born on 10 or before the date of adoption of this 11 Constitution. So these persons are not direct 12 descendants of an original allottee. I know that 13 hurts a lot of people, but ladies and gentlemen, 14 that's how our Constitution reads. 15 MR. NARCOMEY: I make a motion to 16 approve, Mr. Chairman. 17 MR. BURGESS: Motion made to approve 18 Resolution Number 102-09. Second? 19 MR. ASEPERMY: Second. 20 MR. BURGESS: Second by 21 Mr. Asepermy. All those in favor signify by 22 saying "aye." 23 (Aye.) 24 MR. BURGESS: All opposed? 25 This is the constitution. Article 39 1 III, Section 1(b). All living direct descendants 2 of allottees eligible for membership under this 3 Constitution, Section 1(a), who are born on or 4 before the date of adoption of this constitution. 5 It means they're not descended from a person who 6 got an allotment. Motion passed? 7 MR. ASEPERMY: Yes. 8 MR. BURGESS: Motion has passed, 9 Resolution 102-09. 10 Moving to Item Number 7, Resolution 11 103-09. This is a list of eligibles. This has a 12 page-and-a-half of names. There are 29 new 13 members. Currently we have 14,460 total. Does 14 this add do it? This adds to it. Ladies and 15 gentlemen, the names of these individuals are 16 Charlene Pewo, Ariel Butler, Sheridan Butler, 17 Telly Butler, Merle Cantrell, Tristan Crosson, 18 Brook Cruse, Kyleigh Davidson, Isaiah Davis, 19 Manuel Garcia, Jace Haddon, Rebecca Haralson, 20 Olivia Hill, Jake Karty, Joseph Killsfirst, 21 Annabelle Logan, Katrina Martinez, Aniyah McCray, 22 Tiyanah McCray, Anthony Pineda, Gabriella Pineda, 23 Michael Poafpybitty, Chasity Thompson, Drake 24 Trice, Payton Trice, Bradley Washington, Jordan 25 Williams, Madison Williams, Ephraim Zamorano. 40 1 MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman, call for 2 the question on 103-09. 3 MR. BURGESS: Ladies and gentlemen, a 4 question has been called. Second? Do I have a 5 motion. 6 MR. ASEPERMY: Motion. 7 MR. BURGESS: Second? 8 MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Second. 9 MR. BURGESS: Second over here by 10 Mr. Darrell Kosechequetah. All those in favor 11 signify by saying "aye." 12 (Aye.) 13 MR. BURGESS: All opposed? Hearing 14 no opposition, Resolution Number 103-09 has 15 passed. We now add 29 members to our membership. 16 (Applause.) 17 MR. BURGESS: What we have are a few 18 perfunctories here, meaning just general business, 19 ladies and gentlemen. 20 Resolution 104-09 is changing 21 signatures on our financial accounting records. 22 Also, authorizing a new retirement plan and the 23 amendment of trustees to that plan, which is the 24 new elected officials. Then we're going into the 25 National Congress of American Indians, a 41 1 resolution for them. So I'm just trying to move 2 us along, it gets warm in here, but those of you 3 who have -- especially my relatives, if you're 4 diabetic, we've got something over there, we hope 5 that you can help yourself to it, if you need to. 6 Resolution 104 states that the CBC 7 authorizes the following persons named in Table A 8 to have the designated authority for the accounts 9 identified, which are holding funds in the name 10 and for the benefit of Comanche Nation. So what 11 we're changing are the former officers' names, 12 Mr. Coffey and Mr. RedElk, to those of Mr. Burgess 13 and Mr. Henson, Chairman and Vice-Chairman, and 14 maintaining the names of our Secretary/Treasurer. 15 And Mr. Nelson, our Tribal Administrator, is being 16 added to some of the disbursements and the record 17 of copies, because at the Tribal Administrator, he 18 deals heavily with all of our daily financials and 19 responsibilities to the people. 20 MR. NARCOMEY: I make a motion to 21 approve that, Mr. Chairman. 22 MR. HENSON: I'll second it. 23 MR. BURGESS: And a second by 24 Mr. Henson. All those in favor signify by saying 25 "aye." 42 1 (Aye.) 2 MR. BURGESS: Any oppositions? 3 Motion has passed. 4 Next, gentlemen, Number 9, Resolution 5 105 is authorizing establishment of new retirement 6 plan and amendment of trustees. Again, ladies and 7 gentlemen, this includes several persons: Our 8 Tribal Administrator, Ms. Jimenez in the finance 9 office, Shirley Rivera in the personnel office, 10 Mr. Tippeconnie as our Secretary/treasurer, and 11 adding the name of Mr. Richard Henson, our Vice- 12 Chairman. They are authorized to represent the 13 Nation in its retirement plan to our employees. 14 Do I hear a motion to approve? 15 MR. HENSON: I make that motion. 16 MR. BURGESS: Motion by Mr. Henson. 17 Second, please? 18 MR. ASEPERMY: Second. 19 MR. BURGESS: Second has been made by 20 Mr. Asepermy. All those in favor, please say 21 "aye." 22 (Aye.) 23 MR. BURGESS: All those opposed? 24 Motion has passed. 25 Resolution Number 106-09 is our 43 1 membership to the National Congress of American 2 Indians. According to the bylaws, Article III, 3 Section 3(b), each tribe that wishes to be a 4 member is paying a membership fee. This fee is an 5 amount of $5000, I believe. And is this 6 authorizing travel it to as well? 7 MR. TIPPECONNIE: No, we'll do that 8 later. 9 MR. BURGESS: So, gentlemen, may I 10 hear a motion to approve? 11 MR. NARCOMEY: I make a motion to 12 approve, Mr. Chairman. 13 MR. HENSON: I'll second that. 14 MR. BURGESS: Motion by Mr. Narcomey, 15 second has been made by Mr. Henson. 16 MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman, I'd also 17 like to mention that you will be the official 18 principal tribal official, and that the officers 19 and the remaining CBC members are accorded 20 membership. 21 MR. BURGESS: Okay. There's no extra 22 cost to that, is there? 23 MR. TIPPECONNIE: No. 24 MR. BURGESS: Shouldn't be. 25 MR. ASEPERMY: No, still the same 44 1 cost. 2 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I might comment. 3 If an individual goes to a convention of NCAI, 4 they would have to pay an individual membership at 5 that time. 6 MR. BURGESS: All right. Item Number 7 11, sirs, motion to table? 8 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes, a motion to 9 table Resolution 107-09. 10 MR. HENSON: I'll make that motion. 11 MRS. GALLEGOS: Was 106 voted on? 12 MR. TIPPECONNIE: No, we need to 13 vote. 14 Excuse me. No, we did. 15 MR. BURGESS: Motion and second was 16 made, all those in favor said "aye." Thank you, 17 my sister, and the motion passed. 18 Moving on to Item Number 11. Motion 19 to table was made by Mr. Tippeconnie. 20 MS. CRAIG: Excuse me. Did you say 21 you tabled 107-09? 22 MR. BURGESS: Yes. 23 MS. CRAIG: May I ask why? 24 MR. BURGESS: We're going to go into 25 a meeting with them on the executive level side 45 1 and discuss this with Mr. Charles Wells. He's 2 here to represent them. When we come out of 3 executive session -- 4 MS. CRAIG: The reason I ask the 5 question is there are a number of people that are 6 concerned about the Election Board. They have 7 been discussed among the CBC members, and they 8 would like to have some answers, not in secret 9 meetings as in the past. 10 MR. BURGESS: You're correct. In our 11 executive session, we'll talk with Mr. Wells, and 12 at that time we're going to establish a date and 13 time to meet with the full Election Board, not 14 with -- 15 MS. CRAIG: As an individual member 16 of the Comanche Tribe, I would also like to know 17 why you are asking for a meeting with Mr. Wells 18 himself when you have Election Board members that 19 have more interest than he does. 20 MR. BURGESS: We're not going to go 21 into that full discussion with him, because I 22 understand Mr. Wells and the Election Board have 23 their ideas and input, and that's what we want to 24 hear. So that's why we want to establish another 25 time to meet with them totally so that we're not 46 1 holding this body up. At that time, we'll put 2 them back on the agenda with combined 3 recommendations and move forward. 4 MS. CRAIG: That's just what I wanted 5 to know for myself, because there's so many secret 6 meetings with the CBC. 7 MR. BURGESS: Yes, I understand 8 that. I've already discussed that with Mr. Wells, 9 as sitting over that, that that's what we want to 10 do so we can move this agenda, and come to that at 11 another time when we can come to a meeting of the 12 minds and that we're on the same road together. 13 MRS. HENDRIX: If you're just going 14 to discuss a date with him, why don't you set a 15 date -- 16 MR. BURGESS: Because there's a few 17 more other issues that we want to talk with him 18 about, and then we'll establish that meeting date 19 after that. This is a big agenda. There's a lot 20 of things we're picking up from last time, 21 Mrs. Hendrix. 22 MR. HENSON: Let me explain something 23 about the executive session. The executive 24 session is always held, it's not a secret 25 meeting. It's because there's personal stuff 47 1 that's involved that can't get out to the public. 2 It's just personal stuff. They're not secret 3 meetings, it's because of confidentiality. 4 MS. ISAAC: The Election Board has 5 been elected by their districts, and I don't want 6 that to change. This is the fairest time that 7 we've ever had when we elected our people from the 8 districts. I don't know why there are some 9 people, even people that ran for office, want them 10 to be appointed again. It's never been fair when 11 they were appointed. We need to keep it as it is. 12 MR. BURGESS: Thank you. Please make 13 note of that. And that's one of the discusses and 14 the issues that's come forward, and then we'll -- 15 again, a meeting of the minds, so -- the Election 16 Board will be heard, but not at this time. And 17 then when we get back to the agenda, they can 18 express themselves if they need to, but the 19 Chairman is their spokesman. And there will be no 20 -- we have no agenda other than to hear them at 21 this time, establish a future date, and we want to 22 just work with them in a good way. That's the 23 best way we can do that. 24 MRS. HENDRIX: I see Aurilla's point 25 to where the Chairman doesn't have a vote, so 48 1 shouldn't the whole committee be in there? 2 Because they'll be the one making any decisions. 3 MR. BURGESS: We're not voting on 4 anything today, Mrs. Hendrix. 5 MRS. HENDRIX: That's what I mean. 6 Shouldn't they be in the discussion today? 7 MR. BURGESS: If they are, they can 8 sit in, but we're not going to go into a long 9 discussion. It's a long day, people have family, 10 I appreciate you all being here. I'm glad to see 11 you here personally. 12 A little bit of history: My very 13 first meeting, there were three people at the CBC 14 meeting, myself and Ed Tahhahwah. My second 15 meeting, there were two people at the CBC 16 meeting. At the third meeting, there were five 17 people at the CBC meeting, and when their issues 18 and concerns were heard, they left. I'm very 19 proud of you all. Since that time in 2001, when I 20 put out a call to membership to be here, y'all 21 haven't left. I like that. Thank you. 22 MS. AITSON: Mr. Burgess, this is the 23 same. Is anything ever going to change? You 24 know, this is the same thing we go through at 25 every meeting. When they see something that needs 49 1 to be done here with the people as a group, they 2 want to hear things and ask you questions, our 3 Chairman used to always say we're going to table 4 that. We'll have another meeting. Well, they'd 5 have another meeting during the week, but, you 6 know, it's not all these people here. And this is 7 still being the same thing. We're going through 8 the same steps again. We'll talk about it later. 9 We'll let you know later. That's -- you know, 10 it's never going to change. 11 MR. BURGESS: Mr. Wells, are you 12 here? 13 MR. WELLS: Yes. 14 MR. BURGESS: Would you relay to the 15 people that we agreed that we'd have a separate 16 meeting with the Election Board, that we're going 17 to come back and talk with you? 18 MR. WELLS: Right. 19 MR. BURGESS: I've assured Mr. Wells 20 there's nothing in secret going on. And at the 21 time we have a meeting of the minds and come back 22 with a resolution that we all agree upon. I'll 23 just tell you right now, I don't agree with this. 24 I haven't read it, I haven't reviewed it, I 25 haven't reviewed the ordinance that was 50 1 developed. I want to know. Mr. Mahseet and I 2 both have ideas and opinions. We've sat on the 3 Election Board before, and that's why Mr. Wells 4 kindly agreed to work with us. So for those of 5 you -- 6 MR. WELLS: And he's not going to be 7 just working with me, but the entire board. So 8 the entire board will be -- have questions and 9 answers and then have their input. 10 MR. BURGESS: With that said, thank 11 you Mr. Wells, we'll move forward. 12 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Call for the vote. 13 MR. BURGESS: All those in favor 14 signify by saying "aye." 15 (Aye.) 16 MR. BURGESS: Motion passes. 17 Number 12, Resolution Number 108-09. 18 This is approving some policies and procedures for 19 our Workforce program. This is the portion that's 20 federally funded. Just to let you know, ladies 21 and gentlemen, that at some point in time in the 22 past, our Nation was awry in not having specific 23 policies and procedures which the Department of 24 Labor understood and can follow. So we now have 25 policies and procedures the Department of Labor 51 1 can follow and we can follow. And that, sadly to 2 say, has been a finding in our auditing process 3 with the correction of this and the adoption by 4 this body, we now have procedures that clarifies 5 and continues this funding for our people and the 6 Workforce program. In general, that's what it 7 means, that we're going to follow these rules and 8 procedures from here on out. 9 MS. ISAAC: Does the WIA program also 10 use Comanche Tribe money, 20 percent? 11 MR. BURGESS: Not 20 percent, ma'am. 12 We have the gaming fund, CNG moneys, which, in 13 fact, the 20 percent, if you go back to our 14 budget, that is our trust fund moneys. And as 15 I've always said before, our trust fund monies 16 should not be spent inappropriately. 17 MS. ISAAC: About three years ago 18 when I went through this program, I, you know, was 19 wondering what I should do, how can I qualify, and 20 she said, oh, we can do anything we want. So 21 that's changed now, right? 22 MR. BURGESS: There are some things 23 we can do that we're not beholden to the federal 24 guidelines. As long as we have policies and 25 procedures that are adopted by this body, that's 52 1 what this does. So similar policies and 2 procedures now that we have these, those policies 3 and procedures are mirrored by our CNG funds. 4 Those funds will mirror this policy and procedure 5 as well. 6 MR. NELSON: Mr. Chairman, could I 7 add one thing to this? Gabby, we always talk 8 about high risk, right? Through the help of the 9 CBC, the Secretary/Treasurer and I, we have made 10 at least 35 findings come down to seven. Now, we 11 never had a procurement policy. This has been 12 enacted by the seven, the seven leaders that you 13 people elected. Now we have compliance issues 14 that we're getting on top of them. Our 15 reimbursements will be coming back. We will be 16 entitled to a lot of grants. 17 It's taken a long time for us to get 18 to this point, so it's taken us kind of a short 19 time by the activity of these gentlemen up here. 20 They've all been helping this. This WIA policy is 21 needed. As a matter of fact, we'll have 22 membership from ADP showing how our compliance 23 issues are going to be handled in HR. 24 There's so many things within our 25 tribe that we've, I'll be honest, we went off the 53 1 road. Okay? We got big game and we went off the 2 road. So with this said, this WIA policy, a lot 3 of policies are being made that we are adhering to 4 and we are coming back into compliance. I applaud 5 these seven. They've worked very hard on this, I 6 really do. That's it. 7 MR. BURGESS: With that, thank you 8 Mr. Nelson, do I hear a motion to approve? 9 MR. HENSON: I make the motion. 10 MR. BURGESS: Motion by Mr. Henson. 11 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I second it. 12 MR. BURGESS: Second by 13 Mr. Tippeconnie. Discussion? 14 MR. ASEPERMY: On this policy, I know 15 it's part of -- it's a government issue. There is 16 an eight-page application process. Is there any 17 way that we can direct Mr. Tippeconnie to get with 18 Donna Victorian to see if they can streamline 19 that? 20 MR. BURGESS: Actually, we'll go to 21 our TA. There may or may not be, but the process 22 is dictated by the Department of Labor. 23 MR. NELSON: Got to follow it. 24 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yeah, we've got to 25 follow it. 54 1 MR. ASEPERMY: I saw the verification 2 form, eight pages. So it can't be streamlined? 3 MR. NELSON: No. 4 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Got to follow it. 5 MS. ATTOCKNIE: But what about the 6 moneys? Are they held for the jobs or whatever we 7 come under, our gaming dollars for WIA? Would 8 those have to be just as stringent as the federal 9 funding agency? 10 MR. BURGESS: Not just as stringent. 11 There's more flexibility with that. We can do 12 more flexible things with those than we've been 13 doing. However, the guidelines for the federal 14 money has to be followed and adhered to, but we 15 can be more flexible with ours. As it has been a 16 policy similar to this that we pass here, that can 17 go. So as long as we have policies in place, that 18 will be the next step. 19 MR. NELSON: In defense of Mrs. Donna 20 Victorian who isn't here, we did a count. Over 21 1,100 jobs have been established in the WIA 22 program over the years. Out of those 1,100, 23 people have been hired on at 35 percent here at 24 the tribe starting at this bottom level. It's a 25 good program, it's a great program, it's just kind 55 1 of been out of kilter due to the fact of not 2 having policies on CNG. We are coming to 3 policy -- CNG means Comanche Nation Gaming money. 4 So with the help of the CBC and this year my 5 tenure, we will have these policies. We will have 6 them. We will have the guidelines. We just 7 haven't had the guidelines, which is just kind of 8 -- we're winging it. 9 So with that said, I will be having 10 Donna -- our Comanche Nation newsletter this month 11 will be doing a piece on Donna. A lot of jobs 12 were created through this program, it's been a 13 good program for the Tribe. 14 MR. BURGESS: Call for the question. 15 MR. ASEPERMY: Call for the question. 16 MR. BURGESS: All those in favor 17 signify by saying "aye." 18 (Aye.) 19 MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same 20 sign. All those abstain, same sign. We have no 21 opposition. Resolution Number 108-09 has passed. 22 Item Number 13, Resolution 109-09 -- 23 MR. HENSON: I make a motion to table 24 that, Mr. Chairman. 25 MR. NARCOMEY: Second. 56 1 MR. BURGESS: Motion made to table 2 Item 13 by Mr. Henson, second made by 3 Mr. Narcomey. 4 Item Number 14, which is Resolution 5 Number 110-09, which is adopting members to the 6 gaming advisory subcommittee. Oh, all those in 7 favor Item 13 being tabled? Any discussion? 8 Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying 9 "aye." 10 (Aye.) 11 MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same 12 sign. All those abstain, same sign. 13 Thank you. Now Item 14. Item 14, 14 ladies and gentlemen, if you have that, the Gaming 15 Board and the Gaming Commission had come to the 16 CBC in the past and requested the development of a 17 gaming advisory committee, excuse me, 18 subcommittee. That subcommittee is made up of the 19 members of the CBC. So this resolution is 20 essentially changing two names out and adding the 21 two newly elected, myself and Mr. Henson. 22 So this motion is going to say that 23 the Business Committee appoints immediately the 24 following people to the gaming advisory 25 subcommittee: Michael Burgess and Mr. Richard 57 1 Henson. Mr. Tippeconnie, Mr. Mahseet, 2 Mr. Asepermy, Mr. Kosechequetah and Mr. Narcomey 3 are still members of that body. With that, do I 4 have a motion to approve? 5 MR. NARCOMEY: Make a motion to 6 approve, Mr. Chairman. 7 MR. BURGESS: Motion has been made by 8 Mr. Narcomey. 9 MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: I second. 10 MR. HENSON: I second. 11 MR. BURGESS: Second by Mr. Darrell 12 Kosechequetah. All those in favor signify by 13 saying "aye." 14 (Aye.) 15 MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same 16 sign. All those abstain, same sign. 17 MRS. GALLEGOS: What's the duties and 18 responsibilities of the subcommittee? 19 MR. BURGESS: It's not a strong 20 committee. We're a sounding board, how it affects 21 us on this side. It also tells us what is the 22 concern of the Commission and the Board 23 respectively together, so that we, particularly 24 legislation, whether it's federal or internal, 25 tribal, or state legislation, how it's going to 58 1 affect our games, and then how we, the body here, 2 have to react or act accordingly to protect our 3 interest in gaming rules and regulations or the 4 interest coming to us that might affect our games 5 and legislation that may change our laws. 6 So it's keeping us informed of what 7 the gaming industry is happening. Particularly 8 right now there's some issues that are going on 9 with gaming on a national level. So we, as an 10 advisory subcommittee, are brought to this to hear 11 out, and we can take action on the laws over here 12 that are needed to protect our interest in 13 gaming. 14 MRS. GALLEGOS: So do you meet with 15 them on a regular basis? 16 MR. BURGESS: I believe it's 17 quarterly. Right, Mr. Tippeconnie? 18 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Monthly. 19 MR. BURGESS: We meet with them 20 monthly and the Commission quarterly. That's how 21 it goes. 22 MS. ISAAC: This is a subcommittee 23 board for gaming and the whole CBC is on it? 24 MR. BURGESS: We are the legislators, 25 and the thinking in the past is that we would sit, 59 1 because the laws and guidance come from here that 2 we must give to them. 3 MS. ISAAC: Before who was the 4 liaison between the -- 5 MR. BURGESS: There was none. 6 MR. PATTERSON: May I address the 7 group right quickly? 8 MR. BURGESS: Yes. 9 MR. PATTERSON: Being a member of the 10 Gaming Board, I would like to address this. For a 11 period of time we did not meet periodically with 12 the Business Committee, and it was at our request 13 that the Committee come to us periodically, 14 monthly, so that we could advise them of issues we 15 have, concerns we may have, good news we may 16 have. So the Gaming Board asked that they could 17 become a part of our body on a monthly basis, 18 because everything we do within those casinos 19 eventually has to be approved by the CBC. It's 20 just easier for us to meet periodically with them 21 so that we can review things we are doing within 22 the casinos. So we appreciate their input, and 23 they became the subcommittee at our request. 24 MS. ISAAC: So if we have a question 25 about the gaming, we can ask them to relay it to 60 1 you? 2 MR. PATTERSON: No, we would rather 3 you ask gaming directly. We all know, Beverly, 4 when you start asking this person over here to ask 5 somebody over here, everybody gets confused. We 6 welcome you to come to meetings. 7 MS. ISAAC: That's what we didn't 8 know. We didn't know if that was open. 9 MR. PATTERSON: Yes. Yes, they are. 10 MS. ISAAC: Some of the people at the 11 last CBC meeting were wondering why the families 12 of these employees were not allowed to play 13 anymore. You're just -- 14 MR. BURGESS: We're going -- 15 MR. HENSON: We're going to get into 16 that. You're a little bit ahead. 17 MR. PATTERSON: Thank you, 18 Mr. Chairman. I just wanted everybody to know 19 it's at our request that you serve us as a 20 subcommittee. 21 MR. BURGESS: I'm just going to take 22 two more questions on this. 23 MS. JONES: Let me ask a question. 24 Are they open to the public, your meetings? 25 MR. PATTERSON: Yes, ma'am, they are. 61 1 MR. BURGESS: Thomas? 2 MR. TOM NARCOMEY: How much are they 3 paid per meeting? 4 MR. BURGESS: I believe that's around 5 $200 a meeting. 6 MR. ASEPERMY: 250. 7 MR. TOM NARCOMEY: How many times do 8 they meet a month? 9 MR. BURGESS: Once a month. 10 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I have a 11 question. How did the Gaming Board come to be? 12 What is your purpose? 13 MR. PATTERSON: To manage the gaming 14 operation. And that was brought about a number of 15 years ago with discussion with the National Indian 16 Gaming Commission. It's a long process. The 17 Gaming Board is created through the gaming 18 resolution, gaming ordinance. It's a separate 19 entity, the Gaming Board, created to take the 20 Business Committee away from the day-to-day 21 operations of the casinos. 22 MS. ATTOCKNIE: At this time, I need 23 to inform the elected officials that were in 24 attendance at the last gaming meeting that an 25 issue with regard to one of the employees had with 62 1 a wrongful -- not being considered for a position 2 that he was eligible for. That position -- it was 3 told at that meeting that you guys were all in 4 attendance, the Board of Directors were all in 5 attendance, and they were directed to the Human 6 Resource person to adjust or to make some kind 7 of -- do something about recognizing the fact that 8 this young man had Comanche Indian preference but 9 was overlooked at that position for six years or 10 working for the Comanche Nation Gaming for six 11 years, and that they hired a non-Comanche in that 12 position that had only been working with the 13 Comanche Nation Gaming for six months. That has 14 not been addressed yet. 15 MR. BURGESS: Stick to the point that 16 it hasn't been addressed, because it's got to go 17 back to the gaming. 18 MS. ATTOCKNIE: This is just for your 19 information, that the events that took place that 20 day, the directives that were given have not been 21 followed, have not been addressed, and it's still 22 -- the young man is still not knowing if anything 23 is coming out of his appeal to somebody else being 24 hired rather than he as a Comanche with a college 25 degree. 63 1 MR. BURGESS: Mrs. Attocknie, had 2 Mr. Francis, right, had he received that 3 information? 4 MS. ATTOCKNIE: No, he had not 5 received it. The gaming manager for Comanche 6 Nation Games said he was too busy to do it. We 7 again took -- he took the issue back to 8 Mrs. Heath, who is the Human Resource person at 9 the corporate level, and speaking with him she 10 said, well, I don't know what you're talking 11 about. 12 MR. BURGESS: Okay, thank you. 13 Mr. Codopony? 14 MR. CODOPONY: Yes, the Gaming 15 Commission was made aware of this discussion after 16 the meeting. One of the functions of the Gaming 17 Commission is to make sure that the ordinance is 18 followed, and in the ordinance there is a 19 prescribed method as far as appeals for employment 20 matters. Those go to the Board of Review. It's 21 inappropriate for that matter to be brought before 22 the Board, so if that can be directed to the Board 23 of Review. That's the appropriate place to direct 24 that. 25 MR. BURGESS: That's where we want to 64 1 take that. Thank you, Mrs. Attocknie. That will 2 have to be discussed with the Board of Review and 3 Mrs. Heath over at the Gaming Board. We can't do 4 it here. Your message is duly noted. Thank you. 5 MS. HEATH: As of Friday, 6 Mr. Chairman, we received all the papers he 7 requested. 8 MS. ATTOCKNIE: He has not received 9 all the information, because I talked to him last 10 night. I have a lot of words to tell you and I 11 don't feel like saying them at this time. 12 MR. BURGESS: Thank you, 13 Mrs. Attocknie, Mrs. Heath. Mr. Patterson? 14 MR. NELSON: I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman, 15 we've got an elder here who wanted to say 16 something to Mr. Codopony, I guess, or something. 17 MS. JONES: I got my turn to talk. 18 MR. NARCOMEY: She's on the agenda. 19 MR. BURGESS: She's on the agenda 20 later, Mr. Nelson. 21 MS. ISAAC: I have a question. How 22 many committees are the CBC on? Do y'all get 23 paid? I mean, how many are y'all an? 24 MR. BURGESS: Just two, subcommittee 25 advisory, Tax Commission. I sit on two of them, 65 1 Tax Commission and the -- 2 MS. ISAAC: What about the liaison 3 for the hospital? 4 MR. BURGESS: We sat in on that first 5 meeting a week ago, and we're going to continue. 6 MS. ISAAC: That's important to be at 7 the hospital meetings all the time. 8 MR. BURGESS: Yes, and we got KCA 9 that we have to sit with. There's several, but 10 there's no compensation for all of them. Yes, 11 Mrs. Hendrix, and then we're going to move on. 12 MRS. HENDRIX: I just wanted to make 13 one comment. I noticed on the next few 14 resolutions you're appointing commissioners and 15 appointing KCA board members and stuff. I would 16 just like to see individuals appointed that 17 haven't been on the board the past 10 years, the 18 same ones. We have 14,000 members or so, but it 19 seems like the same individuals are always put on 20 the boards as though we have a tribe of 10. 21 MR. BURGESS: I understand what 22 you're saying. There are -- there were some items 23 here about boards that we discussed, and until we 24 can all review any applicants together and make a 25 decision, and I understand your situation, the 66 1 concern about recycling the same ones. I know 2 that we have 14,000 members, 9,700 are eligible to 3 vote, and we have approximately 5,000 that live 4 within the state of Oklahoma and only 3,500 that 5 live within our area. So we do have the 6 opportunity for other members to serve, and that's 7 why we're advertising for those. We're going to 8 process that advertising again; if not in our 9 paper, in the Lawton Constitution and maybe 10 Anadarko paper where we have a lot of membership 11 as well. 12 MRS. HENDRIX: That's what I was just 13 asking you about. You always seem to have the 14 same ones and nothing changes. 15 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I want to add that 16 all of these council boards and all of those 17 committees, they will be advertised. 18 MR. ASEPERMY: They have been for the 19 last six months. 20 MR. BURGESS: They've been doing it. 21 At this time, Resolution 111-09. This is a 22 resolution to amend the Comanche Nation Gaming 23 ordinance, which Mr. Tippeconnie, would you state 24 it? 25 MR. TIPPECONNIE: This amendment or 67 1 this resolution amends our gaming ordinance so 2 that our -- let me read the thing that we're 3 amending. The amendment that we're amending reads 4 this. This is the revision: Members of the Board 5 of Directors, Commissioners and Commission 6 employees are prohibited from gaming in the gaming 7 facilities of the Nation. Casino -- it said 8 casino employees are prohibited from gaming in the 9 specific gaming facilities where they are 10 employed. 11 Well, we're changing that so that 12 members of the Board of Directors and 13 Commissioners, employees, these employees will not 14 be prohibited from gaming in their facilities. 15 However, there are certain things they do such as 16 tables, which will be handled by gaming, where 17 they may not be able to game if they're operating 18 on the table, not the game on the table, on those 19 tables. But the employees will be allowed, when 20 this gets approved, to be gaming in our 21 facilities. 22 MS. ISAAC: To be playing? 23 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes, to play. 24 MS. ISAAC: And their families won't 25 be -- 68 1 MR. TIPPECONNIE: No. 2 MR. BURGESS: We're changing it back. 3 MR. HENSON: There's going to be some 4 certain restrictions for our employees that are 5 employed in certain positions, of course. Some of 6 those are not going to be allowed to play at all, 7 because some of them are tech machine operators or 8 repair and so-and-so like that. Then we've got 9 the deal that there's going to be constraints on 10 certain ones, but not employees. 11 MS. ISAAC: I mean, like if somebody 12 works at Spur, they can't play at Lawton either? 13 MR. BURGESS: No, they can. We're 14 changing it. 15 MS. ISAAC: He said there's going to 16 be certain restrictions. 17 MR. HENSON: That's only on the 18 employees in certain categories. We don't want 19 anybody that fixes our machines to gamble on our 20 machines. You know what I mean? 21 MS. ISAAC: Yeah, but I'm saying like 22 if they're employed at Spur, they can't go to Red 23 River and play? 24 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Let me read it 25 again for you, if you can follow it. 69 1 MS. ISAAC: I understand it, but I'm 2 saying he's saying certain techs can't play at 3 all, and I thought, well, maybe if they can't play 4 at their place of employment, but they can go 5 someplace else and play. 6 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Wait a minute. I'm 7 going to read it one more time. To permit gaming 8 operation employees, those working in the gaming 9 industry, to gamble in the Nation's gaming 10 facilities, except as limited by the rules of the 11 Board or Commission. So the Gaming Board or 12 Gaming Commission may have some rules to say you 13 can't do certain things. So that's the only place 14 where there may be an exception for our employees 15 to game in the facility. I use the example which 16 would be set by the Commission or the Gaming 17 Board. If you are on the table, you know, you 18 shouldn't be gaming on the table. Those kind of 19 things. But those are up to the Commission and 20 the Board to set and establish. 21 MR. TOM NARCOMEY: What if a person 22 gets barred for life? 23 MR. BURGESS: You have to follow the 24 Commission's appeal process. I don't know about 25 life, unless they got a bad habit. Real bad. 70 1 MS. ATTOCKNIE: It might be a 2 godsend. 3 MR. TOM NARCOMEY: Who would they 4 begin with? 5 MR. HENSON: Board of Review. 6 MR. TOM NARCOMEY: Would that be for 7 the Comanche and Apache tribe also? 8 MR. CODOPONY: The ban policy for the 9 facilities only pertains obviously to Comanche 10 facilities. If you're banned from a Comanche 11 facility by the operations side, which the people 12 who run the casinos ban you for whatever reason, 13 if it's a temporary ban, that can be brought back 14 to us. If it's a permanent ban, if there's a 15 permanent ban, there is no appeal process under 16 the provisions of the -- I'm sorry, there's a 17 window. There's a 10-day window that you have to 18 make -- I'm getting signals from over there and 19 trying to make sure I get this right. There's a 20 10-day window that you can make that appeal. If 21 you don't make a request for us to hear an appeal 22 for that ban, then outside that 10-day window you 23 lose your right to appeal. That all is given to 24 the person when they are banned at the time at 25 that facility. They are given all the paperwork 71 1 and documentation that describes that. 2 MR. TOM NARCOMEY: Would that pertain 3 to the Fort Sill Apache Casino also? 4 MR. CODOPONY: No. Again, we only 5 regulate Comanche facilities. 6 MS. ATTOCKNIE: I want to know who in 7 the gaming casinos or commission or directors put 8 that thing out. I mean, it's like cutting off our 9 noses to spite our faces. 10 MR. BURGESS: I know, it's a big 11 mistake, and we've got it covered now. So let's 12 just go. 13 MS. ATTOCKNIE: You mean calm down? 14 MR. BURGESS: Calm down a little bit 15 on that one. One last question. One last 16 question. 17 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I'm an 18 employee at the Comanche casino here in Lawton for 19 six years. I'm also a tribal member. I'd like to 20 suggest, concerning the employees gambling inside 21 their own casinos, that it goes back to the way it 22 was. Because before this ordinance was, where the 23 employees cannot gamble in their own facility, 24 just based on the fact that the perception of the 25 customers, it looks bad. Honestly, whenever 72 1 employees hit the jackpots, and that happens, it 2 just looks like -- the gaming public doesn't -- 3 they don't see it as random. We fix those 4 machines, we can tighten them up, loosen them up, 5 do whatever we want. As far as they're concerned, 6 there's a button inside that we can push to hit a 7 jackpot. It really needs to go back to you can't 8 gamble in your own casino. As far as family 9 members, whatever, but it's a perception that -- 10 MR. HENSON: What you're talking 11 about is banning certain employees from playing. 12 Just like I said, if you fix the machines, you're 13 not going to be allowed to gamble on them. Push 14 the button, you're not allowed to gamble on them. 15 There's certain restrictions that's going to be 16 held against some employees that's involved in 17 that. Like we don't want anybody perceiving that 18 somebody's cheating. If it comes to that, then 19 they're restricted on their gambling. We don't 20 want our own people to go to Apache and spend 21 their money if we can provide for them. 22 MS. ISAAC: Everybody has understood 23 that if you hit a big jackpot, you know, you're 24 not allowed if your son works there. They know 25 that, they go to play, just, you know, pleasure 73 1 and for a little bit of money. But if it's a big 2 jackpot, I don't think they always go for it that 3 I know of. 4 MR. HENSON: Again, the Board is 5 going to look at it and there's certain 6 restrictions on certain area. None of the 7 employees that's going to be involved with 8 gambling are going to be allowed to get in in any 9 one of the promotions. I can tell you that from 10 the beginning. The employees can gamble somewhere 11 else. 12 MR. BURGESS: One last time? 13 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: One more 14 thing. I don't know if anybody's been in the 15 casino near Lawton in the evening time between 4, 16 5, 6 o'clock in the evening. It's an emergency. 17 We have to get air in there, some cool air into 18 that casino. It is probably 90 degrees inside the 19 casino. 20 MR. BURGESS: Is that due to 21 renovation? 22 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It's due to 23 old air-conditioning. We were told that not until 24 August. We won't have a new system until August. 25 We're going to -- you know, by the time all this 74 1 renovation is done, we're not going to have any 2 customers. It's beautiful over there in the bingo 3 hall and coming this way on the bingo side of the 4 casino. But on the main side of the casino, it's 5 terrible. 6 MR. BURGESS: That's more of a 7 development that's going on. They're constrained 8 because of the time line and the funding of 9 material or equipment to come in. We don't know 10 about that but to take that to our Gaming Board. 11 Mr. Patterson is here, he's over management. 12 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It's a dire 13 emergency, seriously. 14 MR. BURGESS: Well, Mr. Patterson, 15 are you still here? 16 MR. PATTERSON: Yes. 17 MR. BURGESS: Mr. Patterson, you need 18 to come back to us before, if necessary, but -- I 19 know you're not the chairman, but can you come 20 back and tell us what's needed? 21 MR. PATTERSON: I can give you some 22 brief information right now, Mr. Chairman. 23 MR. BURGESS: That's not necessary. 24 We want to move forward. 25 MR. PATTERSON: It's being done, it's 75 1 being corrected. 2 MR. BURGESS: Do we have a motion? 3 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I make the motion. 4 MR. BURGESS: Motion has been made on 5 Resolution 111-09. 6 MR. HENSON: Second. 7 MR. BURGESS: Second has been made by 8 Mr. Henson. 9 MR. NARCOMEY: Mr. Chairman, this 10 resolution, it's got that such amendment shall not 11 become effective until approval by the NIGC. Now, 12 I'll vote yes if we change that immediately. In 13 other words, don't wait on the NIGC. They don't 14 control this board right here. 15 MR. HENSON: The NIGC controls all 16 gaming throughout the nation, Indian gaming. It 17 has to be approved. All the ordinances have to be 18 approved by them. 19 MR. BURGESS: Mr. Codopony, can we 20 get them to do some fast action on this? 21 MR. CODOPONY: Actually, we can, 22 because the last ordinance change, we expected it 23 to last months and it took a couple of weeks. So 24 we've already talked to the attorneys about that 25 to expedite this, but all gaming ordinances that 76 1 are approved by the various Nations have to be 2 followed up and approved by the NIGC. 3 MR. BURGESS: So they'll fast-track 4 it for us? 5 MR. CODOPONY: Yes. We can attempt 6 to do that. We've already had experience with 7 that. 8 MR. NARCOMEY: So if it's not 9 approved, if we don't get the okay by the NIGC by 10 next month, will you consider my statement that it 11 be effective immediately instead of waiting 12 around? They don't control us. They can't 13 approve it. 14 MR. CODOPONY: Can I say one thing? 15 One of the things I would like to say is in 16 practicality what we can do, what we've done as a 17 Gaming Commission, is that we've -- when these 18 things have been changed by the CBC, as long as 19 they weren't things that caused us to violate 20 federal regs, which these fixes I don't think are 21 going to cause us to do that. We've in 22 practicality enforced them as being effective and 23 wait for the official word. 24 Now, big changes that do affect 25 federal regulations, obviously we have to wait. 77 1 But these are on practicality things, like 2 Mr. Narcomey said, that are Nation related. As 3 long as we're not violating any federal 4 regulations by allowing them to happen, we can -- 5 I feel like we can do that as the Gaming 6 Commission and the Operating Board, too. 7 MR. BURGESS: Mr. Norman, William? 8 You said that you've already spoken with them and 9 they have a -- 10 MR. NORMAN: Well, we had a number of 11 changes a few months ago that were implemented 12 very quickly by them. So we suspect that a much 13 smaller direct change will be turned around very 14 quickly, particularly because it doesn't affect 15 federal regulations. The problem is, that under 16 federal law, no tribal amendment of gaming 17 ordinance is valid until they put their stamp of 18 approval on it. Very low risk from a practical 19 standpoint that they would have a problem with it 20 or impose themselves on the Nation, but we still 21 need to go through the process as quickly as 22 possible so that we don't run into that problem. 23 MR. BURGESS: Clyde, you say as soon 24 as possible? 25 MR. NARCOMEY: Well, I would say -- I 78 1 don't think people are going to go down here and 2 check on family members gambling. If they do, all 3 we got to do is say we approved this resolution. 4 They ain't going to shut us down for stuff like 5 that, heck. 6 MR. CODOPONY: We've already had some 7 discussion with the Board about how we're going to 8 implement this. As a practical purpose, I don't 9 see this as -- this is going to be a Board 10 implementation because they run the facilities, 11 it's their employees. But as far as the Gaming 12 Commission goes and we regulate, once this body 13 changes, in practicality we're not going to need 14 them for implementing the policy. Right now under 15 this particular issue, the Comanche Gaming 16 Commission is the one that would have oversight. 17 Again, practical purposes, I guess 18 it's kind of a wink and a nod thing. But 19 practical purposes is that this isn't going to 20 cause us a twist with the federal entity, the 21 National Indian Gaming Commission. As the tribal 22 regulators, we're not going to ding the Operating 23 Board if they proceed with this once it's 24 approved. 25 MR. HENSON: So what you're basically 79 1 saying is as soon as we pass this resolution, they 2 can go down there and gamble. 3 MR. CODOPONY: Well, as soon as the 4 Board implements their proper procedures, yes. 5 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Mr. Chairman, I'd 6 like to amend my motion to make it effective 7 immediately. 8 MR. HENSON: I second that. 9 MR. BURGESS: Amendment has been made 10 to this motion to add the word immediately. 11 Seconded by Mr. Henson to second on this motion. 12 MS. ISAAC: Why implement it in the 13 first place? 14 MR. ASEPERMY: I have a question for 15 Oscar. Are we going to be within our -- we're not 16 going to violate anything by making this effective 17 immediately? 18 MR. CODOPONY: I don't think so, no. 19 MRS. HENDRIX: You can't even get the 20 NIGC to come down when they do something wrong. 21 Why would they come down on that? 22 MR. BURGESS: A motion's been made to 23 change the word to say immediately. It really 24 doesn't affect what we can do because the Board 25 then has to inform their employees of this change. 80 1 MS. ATTOCKNIE: May I be excused from 2 this meeting so I can go to Comanche Nation Gaming 3 now? 4 MR. HENSON: No, you don't have 5 enough money. 6 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Mr. Chairman, I'd 7 like to make a further amendment to this, if 8 Mr. Henson is okay. And that is to change it from 9 a resolution to a motion because I feel the motion 10 has less of sort of a challenge to the National 11 Indian Gaming Association, you know, and we can 12 make it effective. If it's a resolution we're 13 sort of saying, you know, you're there but we're 14 not paying attention to you in a way. I think 15 it's smarter to go by a motion, move it from a 16 resolution to a motion, and then we can -- do we 17 need the resolution too as well? 18 MR. NORMAN: You need to pass the 19 resolution, and then I would recommend that you 20 pass a motion about when it's to be effective. 21 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I'll pass the 22 resolution and then I'll make a motion following 23 the resolution to be effective immediately. 24 MR. BURGESS: Clyde? 25 MR. NARCOMEY: See, the reason I 81 1 wanted to change that is because all the gaming, 2 the employees and their families, from what I 3 hear, I don't know, I haven't seen the paperwork, 4 but maybe 6, 700 people that's not being able to 5 go gamble at our casinos. Now, two or three years 6 ago, making as much as we was from the casinos, it 7 would be a different story. But nowadays we're in 8 a crunch. So we need all the help we can get. 9 That's the reason I'm voting yes if we change it 10 to immediately. Why are we keeping our own people 11 out of the gaming casinos? 12 MS. AITSON: You need to change it 13 immediately. They are all going to other casinos 14 that are not our tribe, and that money is going, 15 you know, elsewhere. It could stay right here in 16 ours. 17 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Well, again, 18 Mr. Chairman, I call for the vote on the 19 resolution as it's stated, and then I'll make a 20 motion subsequent. 21 MR. BURGESS: We're in agreement to 22 that. So now the call for the -- 23 All those in favor signify by saying 24 "aye." 25 (Aye.) 82 1 MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same 2 sign. All those abstain, same sign. We have no 3 opposition. This passes. 4 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Now I make a motion 5 to -- 6 MR. BURGESS: We're going to hear a 7 motion here from Mr. Tippeconnie that will make 8 this effective immediately internally to our 9 casinos, and the Gaming Board and Gaming 10 Commission will come together with a statement to 11 the employees ASAP. 12 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes, I make a 13 motion to change the section to implement -- I 14 make a motion to implement this change with this 15 Section 504 immediately, to be effective 16 immediately. 17 MR. HENSON: I'll second that. 18 MR. BURGESS: Second by Mr. Henson. 19 Motion's been made. All those in favor signify by 20 saying "aye." 21 (Aye.) 22 MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same 23 sign. All those abstain, same sign. Motion has 24 passed. 25 Now, going to Number 16, Resolution 83 1 Number 112-09. This is appointing commissioners 2 to the Comanche Tax Commission. It involves newly 3 elected personnel to be seated, Mr. Henson and 4 myself. 5 MR. NARCOMEY: Mr. Chairman, I have a 6 question on this. Did we have resolutions here at 7 this level to remove someone from the Tax 8 Commission? 9 MR. BURGESS: Yes, we can, because 10 they are brought here and recommended to the Tax 11 Commission. 12 MR. NARCOMEY: We're still going with 13 that, that you can only be on one committee, 14 excluding committee, the Business Committee. Say, 15 for instance, someone out here is on a board, they 16 can serve on two boards? 17 MR. BURGESS: We prefer not, because 18 we do have the comment from the public that, you 19 know, a lot of people would like to serve, a lot 20 of people want to be involved with our 21 government. This is one way to learn how our 22 government functions, so I concur. 23 MR. NARCOMEY: I just wanted to know 24 if this is where you remove someone. 25 MR. BURGESS: If there's some 84 1 concern, come back in the next meeting in August. 2 MRS. HENDRIX: They did in one 3 meeting already approve that you can only serve on 4 one board. 5 MR. BURSON: That's a misstatement. 6 There was never any official action taken. 7 MR. TIPPECONNIE: There was an 8 understanding but not an official resolution. 9 There was never an action. 10 MR. BURGESS: Let's address that at 11 the next meeting, CBC. 12 MR. NARCOMEY: Well, let's go ahead 13 and vote on this. I make a motion we approve 14 this. 15 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Mr. Chairman, I'd 16 like to go back to the previous that's effective 17 immediately. When you understand that section 18 that we're saying effective immediately, the 19 Board, the Gaming Board and the Commission yet has 20 some actions to convey, you know, as to what there 21 may be some limitations. So we have to have that 22 understanding so the Gaming Board and the 23 Commission has to act on these very quickly. 24 Mr. Patterson, are you here? 25 MR. PATTERSON: Sure. 85 1 MR. TIPPECONNIE: When we passed this 2 motion to make this effective, this change, you 3 know, you have to do some things which limit, if 4 you see there's limitations to our employees' 5 gaming, you have to do it very quickly and you 6 have to give the -- the notice will go out when we 7 sign off on this motion. We haven't signed it 8 yet, so we'll get it signed and attest it. Then 9 we'll give it to each of you and then you have to 10 effect these limitations. 11 MR. PATTERSON: We'll do that very 12 quickly. 13 MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: My concern was, 14 just as she said, people leaving the meeting and 15 going and the employees not being informed. Then 16 there being some type of, you know, 17 misunderstanding. 18 MR. HENSON: It's not effective until 19 we sign off on it. 20 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes, that's what I 21 said, not effective. I didn't want to have a 22 misunderstanding. 23 MR. NARCOMEY: Mr. Patterson, once 24 this thing is signed, well, all you got to do is 25 call the General Managers and tell them that this 86 1 deal is limited, right? 2 MR. PATTERSON: Once this is done, 3 I'm going to talk to Mr. Codopony, and if he 4 agrees that we can implement this immediately, and 5 I may ask legal counsel, one phone call and it's 6 done. 7 MR. CODOPONY: I think the larger 8 picture to this is there is some education that 9 needs to go on with the employees. Not all the 10 employees are at work right now because of the 11 shifts they work. Because the original 12 prohibition wasn't gaming -- there was a 13 misunderstanding. So, again, I appreciate your 14 clarification on this, and we will get together. 15 We can get it done pretty quickly. 16 MR. BURGESS: You make a motion, 17 Clyde? 18 MR. NARCOMEY: Yes, sir. 19 MR. MAHSEET: Second. 20 MR. BURGESS: We're having a motion 21 made to approve Item 16, seconded by Mr. Mahseet, 22 adding new members to the Tax Commission and 23 removing the names of the other members. Did I 24 say seconded by Mr. Mahseet? All those in favor 25 signify by saying "aye." 87 1 (Aye.) 2 MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same 3 sign. All those abstain, same sign. They ayes 4 have it, there is no opposition. 5 MR. ASEPERMY: We got a five vote on 6 that. 7 MR. BURGESS: Moving on to Item 8 113-09. This is appointment of KCA board 9 members. My arm was twisted, my neck was rung, 10 and they said the chairman has to serve, too. So 11 we're appointing Mr. Burgess as the new member to 12 the KCA Intertribal Land Use Committee. 13 MR. NARCOMEY: I'll make a motion to 14 approve, Mr. Chairman. 15 MR. BURGESS: Motion made by 16 Mr. Narcomey. 17 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I second it. 18 MR. BURGESS: Second by 19 Mr. Tippeconnie. All those in favor signify by 20 saying "aye." 21 (Aye.) 22 MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same 23 sign. All those abstain, same sign. 24 Moving on to Resolution 114-09. 25 Ladies and gentlemen, this resolution establishes 88 1 the Comanche Nation Hazard Mitigation Citizens 2 Advisory Committee, and we talked of one change, 3 Mr. Tippeconnie? After whereas, we want to 4 include "this committee shall consist of the 5 following individuals and others who would be 6 named at a later date. 7 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes. 8 MR. BURGESS: We're adding that 9 language just so we can add more personnel to this 10 area, because those of you who witnessed what 11 happened in Anadarko and our response time, while 12 it was better than other tribes, we didn't have 13 local groups who could respond immediately. So as 14 we work within our communities, as Cache, Apache, 15 Walter, even Geronimo, we will find local citizens 16 to add to this area and give them training so we 17 would have an emergency response team. 18 We call it mitigation, but it's 19 actually like the first responders to any tornados 20 especially, flooding for those of you who might 21 live on the creeks, and I hope you do. So we just 22 want to have the flexibility to add more names, 23 and this is what this resolution is about. 24 MR. NARCOMEY: Mr. Chairman, this is 25 a grant, right? It's not going to cost the tribe 89 1 any money. If it's not going to cost us anything, 2 I make the motion to approve. 3 MR. HENSON: I second that. 4 MR. BURGESS: Correction to this, I'm 5 not sure, they weren't able to put it in, 6 Mrs. Yeahquo under the planning section. 7 Mr. Narcomey has made a motion to approve. It 8 doesn't cost us money, it allows us to get money. 9 MR. HENSON: I'll second. 10 MR. BURGESS: Second by Mr. Henson. 11 All those in favor signify by saying "aye." 12 (Aye.) 13 MR. BURGESS: Discussion? 14 MS. TIGER: This tornado that 15 happened in Anadarko, my sister lives at 112 West 16 Palmetto, and she still has a big tree down in her 17 yard. We have to mow around it. Nobody came down 18 there for her. She can -- she's 100 percent 19 disabled. She called down here on different 20 occasions and asked for help, but she can't get 21 any help. She needs that tree -- 22 MR. BURGESS: Please direct your 23 concern to the TA so he can work with you on that 24 when he returns. He's doing another issue 25 outside. 90 1 MS. TIGER: But, you know, can we be 2 assured that the tree will be cut down? 3 MR. BURGESS: Please follow up with 4 the TA. 5 MR. NARCOMEY: I'll follow up on it, 6 Marilyn. 7 MS. TIGER: Thank you, sir. I 8 appreciate it. 9 MS. ATTOCKNIE: Mr. Chairman, one of 10 the statements that you made earlier, you 11 mentioned about you're having to be on the Board, 12 the health advisory board with the Indian 13 Hospital, and you said you already went to their 14 meeting this month. 15 MR. BURGESS: They had a meeting. I 16 think it was more or less an emergency meeting. 17 MS. ATTOCKNIE: They told me it was 18 their monthly meeting and it was held last 19 Thursday. 20 MR. BURGESS: Thursday or Tuesday? 21 MS. ATTOCKNIE: Thursday. that the 22 next one won't be until August the 6th, but August 23 the 6th is two months before the end of their 24 fiscal year. I have been informed by different 25 staff people that they're having a change in 91 1 procedures of how to accept patients, and patients 2 like myself, I have one doctor that I go to all of 3 the time. She knows me, she knows my situation, 4 she knows all of my vital statistics. Not my 5 measurements, but, you know, information that's 6 pertinent to my health. 7 But they're telling me that now that 8 we cannot go to these doctors again, because now 9 they're being -- they're under a directive from 10 their director of -- their clinical director as 11 well as the director of Hickory Star. One of the 12 things is something about money. They're wanting 13 to have tribal people or patients to try to help 14 them with trying to get it back to the other -- 15 the other way where we don't all have to pile up 16 in urgent care, et cetera. 17 Again, they mentioned something about 18 money, a money crunch. Well, I have found out in 19 the interim that there is $10 million set aside 20 specifically for the Lawton Indian Hospital, but 21 that money is specifically for clinical staffing, 22 meaning doctors, meaning nurses, meaning x-ray 23 technicians, even pharmacies. But the fly in the 24 ointment is that they have to spend that before 25 the end of this fiscal year, which is September 92 1 the 30th. If they don't spend it, the money stays 2 where it's at at area in Oklahoma City, and they 3 can spend it any way they want to. So I'm trying 4 to let you know this because of the urgency that 5 is needed. Yes, sir? 6 MR. HENSON: I attended that meeting, 7 and just to set your mind at ease, all the money 8 is obligated. It's already obligated. 9 MS. ATTOCKNIE: They're going to hire 10 more doctors? 11 MR. HENSON: It's for staff. I can't 12 remember the exact staff that's going to be hired, 13 but they are going to hire the staff. I think -- 14 was that around 28? I think the number was 15 somewhere around 28 new staff. 16 MS. ATTOCKNIE: Okay. Because I 17 didn't know if that has been addressed, and we 18 just got such a short time. 19 MR. WILLIAMS: That was our question 20 and Hickory Star said that money was obligated. 21 MR. HENSON: They can't touch it. 22 MRS. HENDRIX: Do you know who is 23 changing the policy, though? Because I have a 24 doctor that I see all the time. 25 MR. HENSON: I don't know a thing 93 1 about that. That was not discussed at the meeting 2 or anything. That wasn't brought up. That might 3 be something -- since Mike's on the board, that 4 might be something he can look into. 5 MS. ATTOCKNIE: The other thing with 6 regard to the board that you all sit on or 7 participate on, in our tribal constitution it 8 specifically states that any meetings, that any 9 meeting that the CBC attends that reports are to 10 come back to and be made available to the rest of 11 us. 12 MR. BURGESS: One last statement. 13 We've got a motion on the floor. Does it deal 14 with mitigation? 15 MS. TIGER: It deals with what she's 16 talking about. 17 MR. BURGESS: Hang on, I've got a 18 motion. Ladies and gentlemen, we've had a motion 19 and a second on the mitigation advisory 20 committee. All those in favor signify by saying 21 "aye." 22 (Aye.) 23 MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same 24 sign. All those abstain, same sign. Okay. Item 25 is approved. 94 1 And before we go into the new and old 2 business, ladies and gentlemen, if you would, 3 we're going to take a 10-minute break. There's 4 food back there, there's drinks. Please help 5 yourself. 6 MRS. HENDRIX: Can I say one thing 7 before you go? I'd like to say that Clyde 8 Narcomey is a great asset to the CBC. When he 9 told her he'd follow up, he does do that. You 10 talk to him and he will follow up on this. My 11 husband had to have some assistance and he 12 followed up. He's a heart patient. He had to 13 have some surgery on his leg, and Mr. Narcomey did 14 follow up with his assistance that he needed and I 15 just wanted to -- 16 (Break held.) 17 MR. BURGESS: We want to come back 18 into session. Thank you very much. We're going 19 to ask y'all to bear with us a moment. We have to 20 add three areas in here. Mr. Nelson, we're going 21 to start off with ADP. I guess there's a 22 gentleman on the line. We're going to ask all of 23 you to please hold your conversations down. We're 24 going to be on the telephone with a gentleman here 25 representing ADP, their specialist. Mr. Nelson 95 1 here over daily operations is going to be working 2 with them, so whatever message he has, we're going 3 to turn the floor over to Mr. Nelson and ADP. 4 MS. WRIGHT: I am Linda Wright. I'm 5 the sales director for ADP here in Oklahoma, and 6 this is Kimberly Irma, she's your sales 7 representative here in Oklahoma for the Comanche 8 Nation. 9 MR. NELSON: Okay. What ADP is 10 about, they work hand in hand. We have Finley & 11 Cook, which is our accounting firm, they have 12 discussed earlier when I was talking about our 13 compliance issue. Compliance, when we are a 14 federally recognized tribe, means we get BIA 15 funding. We have been out of compliance. We're 16 at high risk. 17 At this time, I'd like to have our 18 Human Resources people come up, Shirley, 19 Jeanette. What we did, we had a meeting last 20 month where we had Finley & Cook and our 21 Secretary/Treasurer. What this means to our 22 Comanche Nation people is this: Our employees are 23 your greatest asset. We want to, with our new 24 chairman, and his foresight is to bring 65 percent 25 of services to the people. At present, you know, 96 1 we've done demographics and we found out that only 2 22 percent was coming to our people. 3 When people say, well, you didn't 4 help me with this, you didn't help me with that, 5 you know, how come I didn't get funded for college 6 with this. Well, it's our inner staff that brings 7 this service to the people. The reason I had 8 these ladies come aboard, we had findings in our 9 audits, our past audits. The good work of our 10 Secretary/Treasurer, we're getting caught up on 11 our audits. We graded out on F's, I'm sorry to 12 say. Our past audit, 2008, wasn't any better, but 13 better, better. 2009, we're trying to grade out 14 to a B. 15 This means money back to the Nation. 16 The good work that Shirley, Jeanette and Rene 17 Toahty, who is not here, working with ADP, working 18 with Finley & Cook, tells us one thing: Our 19 Nation and employee base and fact findings we have 20 with any bad audits will be handled. Compliance, 21 compliance, compliance. 22 I'd like for Mr. Norman Nauni to step 23 up. Our tribe has not been inventoried in 10 24 years. This means one thing: What do we have, 25 what do we have? I believe the last time we 97 1 really knew what we had, Mr. Burgess was working 2 on it, but because some political thing, I don't 3 know. Anyway, it's getting done. Norman, can you 4 tell to the public how are we on our audits? I 5 mean, on our actual inventories? 6 MR. NORMAN: Well, right now to-date 7 we have 19 programs that we've inventoried. 8 There's a total, I think, of around 52 programs, 9 and that also includes the Tourism Center. So 10 we've been quite busy. The property procurement 11 department has a staff of three, so we've been 12 pretty busy aside from all the other 13 responsibilities that we have. This date we have 14 19 programs that we've inventoried. 15 MR. NELSON: We've got 48 programs, 16 Comanche Nation membership. He's got 19 done. 17 We're halfway there. I mean, we've been trying to 18 do this three, four, five years. It's getting 19 done. What does this mean to the membership? 20 MS. ATTOCKNIE: Nine-and-a-half 21 years. 22 MR. NELSON: Compliance, compliance, 23 meaning that a 14,000 membership tribe should be 24 getting federal funding of five million. Like 25 Gabby and I talked about, 22, 30 million in grants 98 1 jump on board. Our job here is to release 2 gaming. I think gaming money should go back to 3 the people, but I'm talking politically there. I 4 don't even want to go there. 5 The thing is this: ADP is going to 6 show us how we're going to get our findings in 7 order through Human Resources. Our greatest asset 8 inside the complex is the employee. So with that 9 said, ladies, go right ahead. 10 MS. WRIGHT: First of all, I want to 11 say thank you to the committee and to the members 12 for allowing us to come in and speak to you. We 13 have currently the technology in place at the 14 Comanche Nation. We have it up and running, we 15 have everything set up thanks to the work of these 16 ladies. 17 What we'd like to do from there is 18 complement the technology and bring people and 19 services behind it to get you in compliance, to 20 make sure we're mitigating those risks, make sure 21 that the lawsuits come to a smaller, smaller 22 amount, possibly eliminated, because of the fact 23 that compliance exposes you as a Nation to large 24 dollars every year. Like Mr. Nelson said, those 25 are dollars that belong to you, the people, not to 99 1 the legal staff, not to the government, not to 2 regulation violations and policy. They belong to 3 you. 4 So our goal here today is to show 5 you, and I'm going to apologize up front because 6 our specialist is on vacation, in Hawaii, by the 7 way, so he couldn't be here live. But he is on 8 the phone, and I will try to share what he's 9 saying if we can't hear. This is your money, and 10 our goal is to bring the services behind it to 11 support the HR staff, wherever they went, and get 12 them where they need to be without putting you at 13 risk. So that's our goal here today. 14 We'd like to share this with you. If 15 you have any questions, maybe at the end we can 16 take those so that we can get the gentleman off 17 the phone and we'll be able to talk more one-on- 18 one. Is that fair? Ryan? All right. What 19 you're going to have to do is you talk, I will 20 just kind of reiterate. Okay? 21 RYAN: Okay. You want me to pause in 22 between so I can hear you catch up? 23 MS. WRIGHT: That would be great. 24 RYAN: We appreciate the introduction 25 and the opportunity. As Mr. Nelson said, you 100 1 know, within an organization, the greatest asset 2 is its employees. And, true, the program that we 3 will introduce to you, the goal behind this is 4 exactly what she said. It's to allow you to 5 retain the fund of monies and not have that sent 6 to outside parties for regulations, compliance, 7 legal counsel for an additional fee. 8 With that, I'll transition into what 9 this model looks like. This model consists of 10 technology, as Linda had mentioned, people, and 11 then additional resources. So I'll walk through 12 the model briefly, I'll provide you a few 13 examples, and I'll share with you some specifics 14 in terms of how these resources interact with your 15 existing HR team, then what you can expect from 16 us. 17 MS. WRIGHT: Hang on, Ryan. What he 18 just said is our solution comes with the 19 technology, our services and people. And so what 20 he's going to go through is how this all works to 21 benefit you as a tribal member, because you're the 22 ones coming to HR needing help, and they're tied 23 up with administrative people that they can't get 24 to to help you. So he's going to show you how we 25 can offload some of that so they can focus on you, 101 1 the members, get you in compliance. Okay. Go 2 ahead, Ryan. 3 RYAN: So we have on the left-hand 4 side of the screen, you see two aspects of our 5 technology, which is self-service tools that will 6 empower the employees to help the tribal nation 7 communicate more effectively policy changes, 8 programs, benefits that are available to the 9 employees. 10 MS. WRIGHT: Did you hear that? What 11 he said was the self-service tool is going to help 12 you as a Nation member to empower yourself as far 13 as benefits, knowing what the policies are, 14 verbatim, they'll be there for you to look at, 15 review and understand. It would also allow you to 16 empower yourself on your benefits so you don't 17 have to come in and do all paper. You can 18 communicate with your own family and your own 19 members to get this done and get it done 20 effectively so you're getting the right things you 21 need. Go ahead, Ryan. 22 RYAN: So this will allow you to go 23 in and view your pay stubs on-line if you want to, 24 make W-4 changes, direct deposit information, and, 25 again, really empower you to be able to have 102 1 complete visibility or access to your information 2 at all times. 3 MS. WRIGHT: Has anybody here ever 4 needed a copy of a pay stub for a loan or a car? 5 You can actually get on-line and get it yourself 6 now, instead of having to wait until HR can get to 7 you because they're so bogged down. These are 8 just some of the tools, a small part of what we 9 will bring to the table. Go ahead. 10 RYAN: Then additionally, what we do 11 to try to provide some administrative relief to 12 the HR department, we will set up a dedicated 13 service center to the tribe with a dedicated 800 14 number that will be able to assist in answering or 15 responding to basic questions to the employees: 16 What's our vacation and tech policy, what is our 17 policy around this, how do I access the 18 information that's available through the associate 19 portal. 20 So that way, again, your HR 21 department that runs very lean can be more 22 involved and hire programs back to the employees, 23 such as session planning, such as employee 24 development and training, and other strategic 25 priorities for the tribe that will benefit its 103 1 employees. 2 MS. WRIGHT: What the employee 3 service center is, it's going to be a dedicated 4 team that acts as an extension of your HR 5 department. They're going to know your policies, 6 they're going to know your guidelines, they're 7 going to be on an 800 number accessible to anybody 8 in this room any time you need help. If you can't 9 figure out how to print out your check stub, 10 they'll walk you through it. If you have a 11 question about who should have got this job, who 12 should have got that job, and you have issues and 13 concerns, they're going to be directed more to 14 Shirley. That's important. 15 The back end administrative pieces 16 aren't as important. Your policies and your 17 guidelines are going to be out there. We'll help 18 service you and walk you through that, let you 19 know what your rights are and try to keep 20 everything compliant under the legal regulations 21 and guidelines. Go ahead. 22 MR. RYAN: So that's the technology 23 aspect. On the right-hand side, this is the 24 people that we will be -- that will be dedicated 25 to the tribe. These people, their primary focus 104 1 is to create a standardization process for 2 consistency and continuity throughout the payroll 3 and HR and to help communicate better with its 4 employees. They help reduce administrative, 5 increase efficiencies to create the better 6 programs and process. Last and probably most 7 importantly, they will aid in ensuring that you 8 are in compliance with the ever-changing 9 legislation and requirements. 10 MS. WRIGHT: What he just shared 11 there, that team of specialists are HR compliant. 12 They have over 15 years on a typical base of 13 leadership in the HR world, certifications, 14 compliance pieces. They handle the payroll and 15 the tax questions, they handle the risk and safety 16 for your people and the Nation. They handle 17 recruitment. They handle the guidelines and 18 compliances that the government put out. 19 Since Obama stepped into office, 20 since January 1, he's changed five compliance 21 regulatory pieces that affect employees. For your 22 staff to keep up on all that and be experts is 23 almost impossible, and there's a lot more to 24 come. So that's where that team will step in. 25 Not only will they help advise you with numbers, 105 1 but they'll also help the HR staff stay compliant 2 and not break any regulations unknowingly, break 3 any kind of regulations as much as possible and 4 keep them aware of it. 5 They'll also reach out and tell them 6 ahead of time, this policy is coming, here's what 7 we need to do to be prepared so we are compliant. 8 So when they come in and audit, you're not 9 backpedaling trying to get caught back up so you 10 don't get the fines. These fines are not small. 11 I've seen fines over millions of dollars for 12 things that happen to HR departments because 13 things change and they couldn't get to it quick 14 enough. Go ahead. 15 RYAN: Linda, do I need to provide 16 more color on the relationship manager? 17 MS. WRIGHT: Yes, go ahead. 18 RYAN: So the relationship manager 19 will be the strategic extension and complement and 20 support person to your existing HR staff. This 21 person will sit down with the executive team and 22 initially do a 12-month strategic plan, understand 23 what the priorities are and where the key areas of 24 focus will be. 25 In addition, they will have at 106 1 minimum, a monthly scheduled meeting to sit down 2 and evaluate how we're doing, what needs have 3 popped up since the last conversation, and are we 4 heading in the right direction, as well as they 5 are your dedicated contact for any individual or 6 situations that arise on a day-to-day basis with 7 interacting with the employees and the legislation 8 and requirements of the tribe. 9 MS. WRIGHT: So this relationship 10 manager is one-on-one to the HR and the committee 11 and to you. They will support you guys 12 completely. They will make sure that all your 13 questions are taken care of, whether it's a 14 payroll question, a time attendance question, any 15 support you need on the software to all the 16 compliance pieces. They will sit down with the 17 executive staff and see what direction they want 18 to help support the Nation for, and Mr. Nelson has 19 been a great piece of that. We'll make sure we 20 bring you to that compliance piece. Like we said, 21 we want to mitigate that risk. It costs you 22 money. Go ahead. 23 RYAN: I'm going to show you an 24 example of the value that one of our clients has 25 recognized as a result of our relationship 107 1 manager. The client called in for a question 2 about our time and labor system, and they simply 3 said this is a nonprofit organization that's 4 challenged financially due to the economic 5 conditions, and funding is very tight for them 6 right now. 7 They gave nothing but praise to the 8 RM for how they've been able to help, how they've 9 been able to keep in compliance, how they've been 10 able to keep a lean organization because of the 11 lean financing and grants that have been removed 12 from them. They're just pleased that they're able 13 to have this type of support and guidance and 14 direction. 15 MS. WRIGHT: Now, earlier in your 16 meeting you had a question about the Department of 17 Labor and audits, about time and attendance and 18 getting compliance in your policies. We set up a 19 system to match those policies and requirements so 20 that keeps you out of that hot water. We did the 21 same thing for this nonprofit organization. 22 That's what that letter is about. We came back 23 and not only saved them money but got them in 24 compliance and made that available to use for 25 other things. Especially nonprofit. They don't 108 1 have the cash. Go ahead. 2 RYAN: So the other two things that I 3 wanted to share was just, again, how we help 4 companies stay in compliance and how thorough and 5 diligent we are in responding back to make sure 6 that all of our clients are, again, in compliance, 7 that they're mitigating their risks, and reducing 8 exposure. 9 So this is a client that e-mailed to 10 us and said they had been paying out unused sick 11 days to their nonexistent employees and they 12 wanted to stop that practice and could they stop 13 it and when could they stop it. 14 MS. WRIGHT: This is another policy 15 question. Paid time off, your vacation, you're 16 sick. How is it regulated in the Nation? Is it 17 compliant, is it standardized. That's where we'll 18 help. And if something needs to change within the 19 policies, we make sure that they change legally 20 and properly so that everybody is represented 21 fairly. That's where we'll step in and help. 22 That's a client that came back and said thank you 23 for helping us in that area. 24 RYAN: Go to slide 17, please. So 25 what this shows is that we're -- we went through 109 1 and the review that we did for the state 2 requirements, what penalties they can incur as a 3 result of this. Case studies that were in similar 4 nature and guidance and direction for them were to 5 stay in compliance and make sure that they were 6 not at risk for or exposed to this type of 7 situation. 8 MS. WRIGHT: Again, that's just 9 another case study about compliance. In this 10 situation they were on the verge of an audit, they 11 needed to have help. We were able to step to the 12 table quickly, get their policies in line, get 13 them compliant and ready for that audit. Go 14 ahead. 15 RYAN: If you can go to slide 20. So 16 this is in regards to overtime and terminated 17 employee warning to receive credit on their 18 overtime pay. Again, we reviewed the state 19 requirement, shared what the case studies were, 20 and, again, just showing the due diligence and 21 background that we do in providing the guidance 22 and direction back to our client. 23 MS. WRIGHT: Again, there's policies 24 out there. If you have a policy handbook, it 25 needs to be updated, it needs to be kept current, 110 1 because compliance and laws change. I know that 2 they're in the process of doing that right now. 3 It's been years since it's been looked at. 4 This case, that customer had a 5 problem with withholding a final check. Well, 6 there's state laws on that. You can't just make 7 up your own decision. There's state laws and laws 8 within your own Nation that they have to follow. 9 That's where we step in and help you make sure 10 that that gets compliant, they're doing the right 11 thing, and no one feels cheated or left behind. 12 Go ahead. 13 RYAN: If you could go to slide 25 14 for me. Again, as I had mentioned at the outset, 15 this solution combines technology with people and 16 partnerships or resources. So we walked through 17 the people piece of the relationship manager and 18 the support specialist. The technology side is 19 our payroll processing, the HRIS system, COBRA 20 administration, travel and expense solution, and 21 incorporate your travel and expense policies to 22 make sure that any travel is following and is 23 within the requirements of your travel and expense 24 policies and practice. 25 MS. WRIGHT: On the left-hand side 111 1 you see what ADP brings to the table on 2 technology. The one that we haven't spoken a lot 3 about but is important for funding and grants for 4 the Nation is travel and expense solutions that 5 actually monitor it and make sure that they're 6 compliant across the board. Because the federal 7 government will not just give you funds and grants 8 if you don't have ways to tie expenses back. 9 Right now it's all paper processed. 10 We bring an automated tool that will have it 11 compliant. It will have pieces that will allow 12 you to do things that are compliant. So again, 13 we're bringing that compliance to the table. 14 On the right-hand side we talk about 15 partners within our own organization and outside 16 of our organization that will help bring more 17 tools to your HR staff. Training was another 18 piece that came up here earlier. Getting 19 everybody trained, standardized across the whole 20 nation so that everybody's compliant the same 21 way. That one group isn't treating an employee 22 different than another group. We have all these 23 skills and training that come right back to the 24 organization. It's an added asset to your HR 25 department and to you. 112 1 MR. BURGESS: I don't want to be 2 rude. What was your name? 3 MS. WRIGHT: Linda. 4 MR. BURGESS: And your partner here? 5 MS. WRIGHT: Ryan. 6 MR. BURGESS: Ryan, this is 7 Mr. Burgess, Chairman of our Business Committee. 8 Is there a furtherance of information we need that 9 our TA will have to work with your personnel 10 you're here with at later time? 11 MR. RYAN: Okay. 12 MR. BURGESS: I appreciate it very 13 much. It's very informative. 14 MR. NELSON: We've just got a full 15 agenda here. What does this mean to our Comanche 16 Nation? Our attorneys can fill the Nation in, how 17 much did we have to pay the IRS? We can't go 18 there anymore. Helping out with I-9s, Eddie, 19 W-2s. This is what ADP, and the thing about it, 20 we've already paid for this service. We've 21 already paid for this service. We never utilized 22 it. So what they brought forward is what we're 23 utilizing now. So this service has been here, we 24 just never utilized it all the way. 25 The reason I brought it to the people 113 1 is for one reason, get in compliance, go ahead. 2 Your folks are employed here, Comanche 3 membership. Look at where we're going. Everybody 4 within their job, they're going to be retrained to 5 empower them to do a greater job. So thank you, 6 ladies. Thank you very much. 7 MR. ASEPERMY: Well, I have a 8 question. Is this one of those contracts for 9 these services that we didn't bless? 10 MR. NELSON: Actually, you guys did. 11 You guys did. 12 MR. ASEPERMY: Do you remember when 13 did we -- 14 MR. NELSON: I believe it was about a 15 year and a half ago. It's never really been 16 implemented, guys. 17 MR. ASEPERMY: What's the cost? 18 MS. WRIGHT: The technology that you 19 have right now it's about $30,000 a year. Are you 20 talking about what you currently have, what you're 21 paying right now, or what we just showed you would 22 cost? 23 MR. NELSON: I'll explain it. Its 24 $30,000 a year, but what they're doing, it would 25 take staff about 7. So 7 and a comparable salary 114 1 of about what, 20, 25? The savings are there, 2 guys. 3 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I have a 4 question for the ladies. I think all employees as 5 employees of the Nation, all the employees need to 6 learn to be courteous, nice, they need to learn to 7 smile, because none of that costs a dime. They 8 need to remember, also, that if they have a 9 problem with someone coming in, they don't like 10 them, that needs to stay outside the office. They 11 need to remember that they work for us and just be 12 nice. That's all we ask. 13 MR. NELSON: Where's one of our 14 employees? What's our objective, Alicia? What's 15 my objective, what are we here for? 16 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: For the 17 people. 18 MR. NELSON: That's our mantra. 19 During my tenure, we are here for all enrolled 20 Comanche Nation members with compassion and 21 cooperation. 22 MR. NARCOMEY: How many times have I 23 told you, tell your people we're paying them to do 24 a job, not to like each other. How many times 25 have I told you that? 115 1 MS. ATTOCKNIE: Where does a fair pay 2 scale schedule come in? 3 MR. BURGESS: We're working on that. 4 It's in development. I seen it. 5 MS. ATTOCKNIE: So right now, this 6 group, this ADP has already been hired to do this 7 work that they're showing a year-and-a-half ago? 8 MR. NELSON: A year-and-a-half ago, 9 never really been truly implemented. 10 MS. ATTOCKNIE: But they were hired? 11 MR. NELSON: No. 12 MS. ATTOCKNIE: What happened? 13 MR. NELSON: Robert and I, this CBC, 14 fellas, we're about solutions. If we go back 15 there and always bring out the terrible stuff -- 16 MS. ISAAC: You got to know what 17 happened, you weren't there. 18 MS. ATTOCKNIE: That's our right, 19 Mr. Nelson. I'm sorry. 20 MR. NELSON: It never was 21 implemented. It was micro management from the 22 top. 23 MR. BURGESS: We've got two questions 24 and we are going to move on. 25 MS. CRAIG: You were talking about 116 1 the employees going to take courses and so many 2 days, all the employees. Okay? What happens if 3 some of them go and they don't pass the 4 requirements? Do you retain them as employees? 5 MR. NELSON: Oh, yeah, it's on-line. 6 It's an 800 number. It's just to help them. 7 MS. CRAIG: But if you're going to 8 spend all this money to help them, as the young 9 lady said a while ago, why can't they be more 10 courteous and why can't they be more helpful? If 11 that's going to help them, great, but why spend 12 money if they don't care about the job, just 13 waiting for the paycheck? 14 MR. NELSON: It's a new nation, 15 Aurilla, a new nation. 16 MS. ATTOCKNIE: Is there a policy in 17 place now that if, say, Ms. Craig, myself, any of 18 these people here, that because they're being 19 mistreated, discourteously or subjected to BS, can 20 they make a complaint and how, and to what extent 21 will it go? 22 MR. HENSON: Willie, can I answer 23 that? 24 MR. NELSON: Hold on. Shirley, stand 25 up. Shirley has been empowered to be a true HR 117 1 director. 2 MS. ISAAC: Has she hired anybody? 3 MR. NELSON: We've got a staff of two 4 with our budget crunch, you guys. Keep this in 5 mind. It is truly a budget crunch. Robert and I, 6 we don't want to write hot checks. We don't. But 7 coming in October, we're on pace to your staff -- 8 her office area has expanded to three. You know, 9 we can bank on WIA to help out and help out, but 10 these two ladies here have really helped us out to 11 the extent of parlaying that work on them that 12 we've already paid for. 13 So this -- what I was bringing to the 14 people is this: The Nation is in a great 15 transition. It's a fail safe where we never had 16 that before. 17 MS. WRIGHT: And if I can add, we 18 bring seven or eight people as an extension to her 19 that will be polite, will be a representative of 20 your Nation and will care about what you say. 21 They will handle your questions. 22 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: That deals 23 more with employees as opposed to -- 24 MR. NELSON: But that transition to 25 the employee is you, the enrolled -- we're only 118 1 here because of the enrolled membership. If the 2 enrolled membership was not here, we shouldn't 3 even have a job, bottom line. 4 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: What are you 5 going to do with those people that are rude? What 6 are you going to do? 7 MR. BURGESS: Statement here, we have 8 a statement by the Vice-Chairman, and we need to 9 move on. 10 MR. HENSON: Let me say one thing. I 11 feel the same way as you do. No matter where you 12 go, nobody smiles, nobody says anything. There's 13 only a few employees that does that. I'm going to 14 say one thing. If that happens to you again, 15 Willie's the man to run to. I mean, open up his 16 office, tell him exactly what happened. He's the 17 man that's in charge of all the employees here. 18 If it happens down there at the casino, there's a 19 place to go for them, too, and that's Sharrod. 20 That's the board down there. 21 We're already working on that as 22 CBC. We've already brought it up. There's a lot 23 of things that we've done already that you're 24 concerned about, and I'm telling you right now, 25 there's going to be big changes coming. 119 1 MRS. HENDRIX: The question is, he 2 said we're in a budget crunch. Okay. How are we 3 going to pay these people, and I'd like to know 4 how many budgets are over. 5 MR. BURGESS: Come back and talk to 6 Willie next week. Get with Willie. That's it. 7 MRS. HENDRIX: The main question is, 8 I heard our attorneys are $700,000 overbudget. Is 9 this a fact? 10 MR. BURGESS: Come in and talk to 11 Willie or Bob here. I haven't seen it lately. 12 I've just seen the figures at the end of May. 13 (Discussion held off record.) 14 MR. BURGESS: We're trying to follow 15 policies. When there's an announcement, it's 16 Human Resources for applications. When there's an 17 announcement of a job, yes. I'm not trying to 18 lose my emotions here, but, please, we've got an 19 agenda that's full. At this time, we have a 20 motion to be made by Mr. Narcomey. Mr. Narcomey, 21 you can state your statement and make your motion. 22 That will be followed by Mr. Nelson with the three 23 motions he has. 24 MR. NARCOMEY: As I stated earlier 25 and the lawyers corrected me, there's been no 120 1 resolution passed for one person to be on more 2 than two boards or three boards. The reason is, 3 there's a lot of people out here that know a lot 4 of people that's qualified to be on some of these 5 boards. So why do we have one person being on two 6 or three boards at once? We have talked about it 7 and we said we was going to go ahead and do it. 8 According to our lawyer, we didn't. So we've got 9 one person on two boards. That's the motion I'd 10 like to make. You can only be on one board. 11 MR. BURGESS: Your motion would be 12 that the CBC makes the motion that individuals 13 serving on one board are not allowed to serve on 14 any other current? 15 MR. NARCOMEY: Excluding the CBC. 16 MR. BURGESS: Excluding the CBC, 17 yes. Commissions, boards, committees or 18 subcommittees. 19 MRS. HENDRIX: And those on the 20 boards now, they've been on the boards long 21 enough. Give somebody else a chance so that none 22 of those people -- they've had their term, new 23 people will be elected. 24 MR. BURGESS: Let us make the motion 25 to pass at this time and then come back with a 121 1 resolution, because it should reflect what our 2 constitution allows generally, so we have a better 3 discussion. Our constitution allows only two 4 terms in sequence. So if we make a resolution 5 similar to that, then we come back with it. You 6 understand? 7 MRS. HENDRIX: Well, some of them 8 have been on there for the last six years. 9 MR. BURGESS: What I'm saying, the 10 motion goes through, then our resolution comes 11 that is right along with the constitution. Two 12 consecutive terms only. I think that's fair. So 13 at this time, Mr. Narcomey, your motion? 14 MR. NARCOMEY: I make the motion. 15 MR. BURGESS: Do I have a second? 16 MR. ASEPERMY: Say the motion, say 17 the complete motion. 18 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Individuals cannot 19 serve on more than one board at a time with the 20 exception of the CBC. 21 MR. ASEPERMY: Is your motion also 22 going to be on term limits? 23 MR. BURGESS: Well, we just stated 24 that. We'll come back with a resolution to mirror 25 the constitution. Two terms, that's our 122 1 constitution. That should be it. Because if 2 they're appointed for two years, three years, the 3 same move into another one. 4 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Mr. Chairman, each 5 of the boards have their bylaws, and I believe 6 they speak in those bylaws to those terms and how 7 they stagger. So I think we should say this is 8 subject to, you know, those bylaws. 9 MR. BURGESS: That's why we have to 10 come back and put it in sync with bylaws, 11 everybody's bylaws in sync with the constitution. 12 MS. MCDANIEL: Will they be in sync 13 as far as nepotism, also? 14 MR. BURGESS: They'll have to follow 15 the constitution on nepotism. 16 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yeah, policies, 17 those kind of policies. 18 MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: We're also making 19 an effort to advertise all board positions. There 20 was a time where they would just come in front of 21 us and we'd say, yeah, put them back on there. 22 But we've opened it up so that everybody has an 23 opportunity to apply. From within that pool, we 24 want to get the best qualified people to get that 25 expertise for whatever position it is. 123 1 MRS. HENDRIX: That's what I'm 2 saying. If one person has served for the past six 3 years, they shouldn't be eligible then for 4 advertising for rewards now to apply, because 5 they've been on it for six years. Give other 6 people a chance. 7 MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Each of the 8 boards has their own bylaws that sets out the term 9 limits, and they're different. 10 MR. HENSON: When that position comes 11 open, we advertise it, we ask for applications for 12 that position. So that's basically what he's 13 telling you. Everybody's going to have the 14 opportunity to apply when it comes open, because 15 it's going to be advertised. There's no more of 16 this just reappoint right away. 17 MR. BURGESS: Ms. Isaacs? 18 MS. ISAAC: Is that the housing 19 board, the language committee? Is it committee, 20 too, to include the committees? 21 MR. BURGESS: It's boards, 22 committees, subcommittees, councils. 23 MS. ISAAC: There's several on the 24 language committee that are on the housing 25 committee, you know, just little committees and we 124 1 all know about it. We just wonder, why are they 2 on so many committees? 3 MR. NARCOMEY: We're going to go 4 through the list. As far as I know, the Business 5 Committee hasn't given anybody homestead rights, 6 even though it looks like it. I don't think we 7 have an issue of anything like that. 8 MR. BURGESS: One last statement, 9 please, and we'll move on. 10 MS. KNOWLES: Just for clarification 11 to the CBC, the charter for the Comanche Nation 12 College allows for the council members to serve 13 for life and they rotate -- they may rotate every 14 four years. 15 MR. BURGESS: We understand that. 16 We've already discussed that with the president 17 and I've talked with Mr. Yeahquo and one other 18 person of counsel. This body will be meeting with 19 the council themselves. 20 MR. HENSON: There's changes coming 21 from that, too. 22 MR. NARCOMEY: Call for the 23 question. 24 MS. ATTOCKNIE: That same document 25 that Carla is referring to stipulates that even 125 1 the Board of Education for the college is to be 2 elected positions and not appointed positions. 3 MR. HENSON: We're discussing that. 4 MR. BURGESS: It's going to be under 5 review. We have a call for the question here. 6 Motion has been made and a second. Second has 7 been made by Mr. Henson. All those in favor 8 signify by saying "aye." 9 (Aye.) 10 MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same 11 sign. All those abstain, same sign. All those 12 not in favor? 13 MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: No. 14 MR. BURGESS: Three ayes, one nay. 15 MR. ASEPERMY: Abstain. 16 MR. BURGESS: One abstain. 17 I think the ayes, three to one. Let 18 the motion be recorded as three in favor, two 19 abstentions and two nays. 20 MR. ASEPERMY: That's seven. 21 MR. BURGESS: I abstain. What we're 22 going to do is get this motion down. During this 23 next 30, 45 days we're going to have to review all 24 board, committee, bylaws, rules, regulations and 25 get them to fall in sync so that they're in line 126 1 with our constitution and their own bylaws. If it 2 means changing bylaws and rules and regulations 3 internally so these consecutive terms can only be 4 to whatever our motion is here. And so those 5 people that are coming off will be replaced. 6 Okay. Thank you. 7 Now, Mr. Nelson? Mr. Nelson has -- 8 do you have your forms or do you want to use 9 these, sir? 10 MR. NELSON: I'll just use these. 11 One of our Comanche Nation Elders, Mrs. Mahsetky, 12 would you please stand up? This is a request 13 manufactured by me due to the fact of a conflict 14 of Mrs. Spicer. A motion authorizing Comanche 15 Nation Elder, Madeline Mahsetky Spicer, to utilize 16 the building for church services. This is a 17 request and hopefully an understanding motion of 18 spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. Possible 19 facilities could be Comanche College auditorium, 20 the Elders Center and/or Fort Sill Indian school 21 gym, which would come under KCA. 22 The Tribal Administrator will be 23 responsible for opening and closing the facility 24 for these Sunday and/or Wednesday services. So 25 the motion is, I'll give it back to you, 127 1 Mr. Chairman. 2 MR. BURGESS: The motion shall read: 3 This is authorizing Comanche Nation Elder Madeline 4 Mahsetky Spicer to utilize the building for church 5 services. This is understanding the motion is 6 helping to spread word of the Good News of Jesus 7 Christ. Possible facilities could be the Comanche 8 College auditorium, Elder Center and/or Fort Sill 9 Indian School gym. Tribal Administrator will be 10 responsible for opening and closing facility each 11 Sunday and/or Wednesday services. We'll designate 12 the facility later in time. 13 MR. NELSON: I guess if you guys 14 can -- 15 MR. BURGESS: Go ahead and coordinate 16 with any one of these, sir, and find out which one 17 is willing to work with us on this so you can 18 assist Mrs. Spicer in her efforts. 19 MS. ATTOCKNIE: I need to inform the 20 Committee that on the last environmental 21 assessment that was done on the Fort Sill Indian 22 School grounds that the gymnasium was deemed 23 asbestos -- not condemned, but it was assessed 24 that there was -- that asbestos and lead, some 25 contamination present. Not to the extent of the 128 1 majority of the building, but it was a smaller 2 amount for the gymnasium, but still it has that 3 factor. 4 MR. BURGESS: That helps us. 5 MR. ASEPERMY: The Fort Sill Indian 6 School is not useful. 7 MS. NELSON: The EPA did the lead- 8 based paint encapsulation. There is enough 9 asbestos, but it's not a threat to utilizing the 10 gym. But one thing about Fort Sill Indian School 11 gym, it has no bathrooms. 12 MR. BURGESS: No restrooms? 13 MS. NELSON: The restrooms are 14 unusable. 15 MR. BURGESS: Off limits? 16 MS. NELSON: They really are, because 17 they're down below and they have been flooded 18 several times. 19 MR. BURGESS: Well, thank you. That 20 gives you guidance, Mr. Nelson, as to usable 21 facilities. 22 MR. NELSON: Can I have a motion to 23 just approve to find what building would be 24 suitable? 25 MR. ASEPERMY: I think we need to add 129 1 community centers as a possible site. 2 MR. BURGESS: Let's do that. Strike 3 the word Fort Sill School gym and insert the word 4 Comanche community centers without fee. 5 MR. NARCOMEY: I make a motion, 6 Mr. Chairman, to approve. 7 MR. BURGESS: Motion made by 8 Mr. Narcomey. Do I hear a second? 9 MR. ASEPERMY: Second. 10 MR. BURGESS: Second by 11 Mr. Asepermy. All those in favor say "aye." 12 (Aye.) 13 MR. BURGESS: Motion has passed. At 14 the moment it's just too much money. There's just 15 not enough money. All those in favor signify by 16 saying "aye." 17 (Aye.) 18 MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same 19 sign. All those abstain, same sign. Motion 20 passes. 21 MS. JONES: Mr. Nelson, I'm sorry, if 22 you're handicap bound, you cannot go up the stairs 23 or down the stairs to go to the bathroom. You've 24 got to wet all over yourself there. 25 MR. NELSON: Yes? 130 1 MRS. GALLEGOS: I just want to let 2 you know that at our community center in Apache, 3 we currently use it for several churches. Several 4 churches in our area use it for services or 5 celebrations, Christmas, Easter, whatever. You 6 know, Madeline knows that they can come over and 7 utilize the building. They're more than welcome 8 to have them contact us. We can do it on a weekly 9 basis and set up the time. We've already opened 10 our doors to a lot of the churches already. 11 MR. BURGESS: Thank you, Sandra. 12 MRS. GALLEGOS: And we never charge 13 the churches. 14 MR. NELSON: This request here was 15 manufactured by the TA. How many grant writers 16 out there? This is a motion authorizing the 17 Tribal Administrator to build a core team of grant 18 writers and/or proposal builders. A facilitator 19 will be needed to bring together a group of 10 20 super qualified professionals. Facilitators 21 should be compensated a weekly $500 stipend with 22 no benefits purpose is to bring added money to all 23 48 programs under the Comanche Nation name. 24 A five percent to seven percent 25 compensation will be given for the award amount 131 1 achieved by the individual grant writer. What 2 that means, $100,000, you get about 6,000. A 3 working stipend in the form of $100 will be issued 4 for on-site. We've got the faxes, we've got the 5 computers, we've got the paper, the copiers. So 6 five hours of work will be $100. 7 Only two days out of the week will be 8 allowed for grant and/or proposal writer. All 9 monetary and direction of grant writers and/or 10 proposal writers will be done by a facilitator. 11 Once award amount is achieved, the CBC will be the 12 final authority to accept or deny the grant and 13 the compensation amount for the grant and/or 14 proposal writer. You guys will have the final 15 word. 16 So I say there's a budget crunch. 17 There is some funding which is fund number 0100, 18 department number 500, department name tribal 19 grants. We will only utilize 20,000 for 20 two-and-a-half months till the new fiscal year. 21 We've got to bring this other people's money to us 22 now. We've got to do this. So with that said, 23 that is the motion, sir. 24 MR. BURGESS: Thank you. Motion is 25 being read like that, ladies and gentlemen. 132 1 Gentlemen of the CBC, do I hear a motion to a -- 2 MR. NARCOMEY: I'll make a motion to 3 approve, Mr. Chairman, because we need to start 4 spending other people's money besides our own, 5 because the money we spend at our own should go to 6 everybody here, some of your per caps that you get 7 every year. So we need to start getting these 8 grant writers in. That's where the grant writers 9 get the money in that don't have to spend our own 10 money. So if I could vote twice, I would vote yes 11 twice. 12 MR. BURGESS: Second? 13 MR. HENSON: Second. 14 MR. BURGESS: Mr. Henson has seconded 15 this motion. Questions? Hearing none, all those 16 in favor signify by saying "aye." 17 (Aye.) 18 MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same 19 sign. All those abstain, same sign. Motion has 20 passed. 21 MR. HENSON: I might give a little 22 further explanation on that. We're using a lot of 23 tribal moneys and we're using 638 moneys in a lot 24 of the programs. In the past that money's been 25 intermingled. We got in trouble over that because 133 1 we didn't know how to report it in the past and 2 we're paying a lot of fines, we're paying this and 3 we're paying that. 4 What he's talking about here is we 5 can bring 638 moneys in on grants, not just 638 6 but grants I should say. We're going to bring 7 those in to subsidize the programs we've already 8 got running and lower the amount which comes out 9 of gaming to pay for them, which means, of course, 10 that your money that you get and what is it, 11 September and November? I always call it old man 12 money, instead of November, but your money you 13 get -- 14 MR. NARCOMEY: Elder. 15 MR. HENSON: Elder money. That you 16 will get more moneys supposedly. This is not a 17 bad program, it's really great for the Tribe. 18 MR. NARCOMEY: Mr. Chairman, while 19 we're on the subject of money, we're lowering our 20 budget and everything. I need to withdraw my name 21 from going to this trip, which I think you should 22 go to, the NIGA trip for next month or next week, 23 two weeks from now. In my heart I don't think I 24 need to go because of the money because it's going 25 to cost probably about 1,300 for me to go. I 134 1 think that 1,300 maybe it will go to somebody out 2 here that, an elder that may need some help 3 somewhere down the road in the next month or so. 4 So I don't want to go because we're 5 low on money. So withdraw my name from going. 6 Thank you, gentleman. 7 MR. NELSON: I've got one last one. 8 This request was manufactured by the TA, a motion 9 authorizing the TA to utilize one of the vehicles 10 purchased from the CNG Housing Improvement program 11 for daily use. This request is merited because of 12 our outreaching locations. I never claim 13 mileage. I'm like Clyde. 14 We do have six vehicles in HIP, and 15 you guys know about the HIP situation. They're in 16 retraining furlough. They're coming back in 17 October. They will come back in October. But 18 this is just a request daily use of a vehicle. I 19 don't want to take one home because we got a 20 silent tow enforced, and I don't want Chief 21 Griffin to hook me. 22 MR. ASEPERMY: This would be only 23 from the time you arrive until you go home? 24 MR. NELSON: Actually, the 25 outreaching areas. Lawton, I usually spend time 135 1 in Lawton before I get here. Possibly go home. 2 Never on the weekend, though. 3 MR. ASEPERMY: So you will take it 4 home sometimes? 5 MR. NELSON: Yes. 6 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Because you go to 7 those places in the morning? 8 MR. NELSON: We have our children's 9 center, CHR. 10 MR. ASEPERMY: You've got community 11 centers in Walton, Apache, Norman, outreach 12 centers, legal offices at the business center, 13 fitness center, the funeral home. 14 MR. NELSON: I don't know if the 15 Tribal Administrator ever had a ride in the past. 16 I don't know. I don't know. 17 MR. BURGESS: You don't want me to 18 tell history on that? Ladies and gentlemen, we're 19 in general agreement with this, and I have no 20 question that Mr. Nelson will take very fine care 21 of the vehicle because he is liable for it off 22 duty. 23 MR. NARCOMEY: I make a motion to 24 approve that, Mr. Chairman. 25 MR. BURGESS: Thank you, sir. Motion 136 1 has been made by Mr. Narcomey. 2 MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Second. 3 MR. BURGESS: Second by 4 Mr. Kosechequetah. All those in favor signify by 5 saying "aye." 6 (Aye.) 7 MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same 8 sign. All those abstain, same sign. Motion 9 passes. 10 MR. NELSON: Thank you, gentlemen. 11 MR. HENSON: And I want a new 12 Cadillac. 13 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Can I make one 14 motion? 15 MR. BURGESS: We have a motion here 16 from Mr. Tippeconnie, ladies and gentlemen. Just 17 about the travel, the statement that Mr. Narcomey 18 made. Go ahead, Mr. Tippeconnie. 19 MR. TIPPECONNIE: One thing we have 20 standing with the CBC, any time we travel, it 21 takes the CBC to authorize that. So I'm making a 22 motion to authorize the Tribal Chairman, Michael 23 Burgess, to attend the National Indian Gaming 24 Association legislative session in Washington, 25 D.C. It's this next week, isn't it? 137 1 MR. BURGESS: Yes. From the 20th 2 through the 24th. 3 MR. TIPPECONNIE: From the 20th of 4 July through the 24th of July. That is my motion. 5 MR. NARCOMEY: I make a motion to 6 approve, Mr. Secretary. 7 MR. HENSON: I'll second that. 8 MR. BURGESS: Seconded by Mr. Henson, 9 Mr. Secretary. All those in favor signify by 10 saying "aye." 11 (Aye.) 12 MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, same 13 sign. All those abstain, same sign. Motion 14 carries. Statement to follow here, Mr. Henson? 15 MR. HENSON: For those that don't 16 understand that trip, it's very important to the 17 gaming. There were several of us that decided -- 18 that thought it was very important for us to go, 19 and because of the money crunch we decided that 20 Burgess would go, for the simple fact that we need 21 a lot more knowledge over gaming. We got some, 22 but this could benefit the tribe itself. 23 So if you're wondering why he's 24 going, he's not just going on a trip. This is a 25 two-leg trip. One of them is to go see our 138 1 congressmen and our senators for what we're 2 working on in the future, and the other one is to 3 attend this conference. So he's going to be going 4 in two different places. 5 MRS. HENDRIX: Doesn't that have to 6 be a constitutional amendment? 7 MR. BURGESS: No, the constitution 8 says the chairman should or anyone traveling 9 should get approval, but -- 10 MRS. HENDRIX: The authority of the 11 Comanche Tribal Council shall be include and be 12 exclusive with respect to the following: To 13 select an authorized delegation to transact 14 business of behalf of the tribe. When travel is 15 involved, the terms of the resolution shall 16 include the purpose of the trip and the existence 17 of the delegation. So it's tribal council. 18 MR. BURGESS: So do you want me to 19 call the council just for that? 20 MRS. HENDRIX: That's what I'm 21 saying, constitutional amendment. 22 MR. BURGESS: Thank you. Put that on 23 the list. Because it should come to this body. 24 There's a lot of things that come up, and that 25 should be relegated to this body. As y'all know, 139 1 our constitution was made when? 2 MS. ATTOCKNIE: 1967. 3 MR. BURGESS: 1967 and we've grown 4 what, seven-fold since then? We had our 5 enrollment of 7,000 people about that time. We've 6 doubled in size, we've doubled in business, ladies 7 and gentlemen, so we do have to change things. 8 Time is fast upon us. There was a time all our 9 people lived nearby and you could go to that and 10 do it, but this time we have to do business 11 differently. 12 I'm not an individual just to get up 13 and travel on because I want to. I'm working with 14 the CBC, we're all in compliance with this budget 15 crunch we're in, but this is highly important. 16 There's a lot of legislation that affect us. As 17 Mr. Henson told you, we have a two-fold purpose. 18 I've already talked with the Kiowa Nation 19 chairman. He, too, is trying to plan his travel 20 at the same time so we can both visit the 21 legislators on behalf of our Indian Hospital here, 22 on behalf of water rights issues that KCA is 23 dealing with. 24 The eight tribe members, they are now 25 looking at water rights issues. So there will 140 1 possibly be three or four people from the western 2 tribes, our eight tribe consortium, going to D.C. 3 to affect legislation for our benefits. Yes? 4 MS. ATTOCKNIE: There is a meeting or 5 conference or workshop, rather, that is to be held 6 this coming Wednesday at Cameron with regard to 7 water rights issues, and it's open to the public. 8 MR. BURGESS: Mr. Tippeconnie will 9 make a statement on that. There's new information 10 coming out Friday. 11 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yeah. This would 12 have been the third session for tribes and tribal 13 leaders on water rights in Oklahoma. We've had to 14 cancel this one. This with scheduled for this 15 coming Wednesday, the 15th, but it's been 16 canceled. All the tribes were supposed to be 17 given that notice by the Commissioner of Indian 18 Affairs from state of Oklahoma and others. 19 It had to be canceled because the 20 attorneys that are going to make the presentations 21 could not make this. Things came up and so it 22 appears that it's going to be rescheduled in 23 August at some time. What date, we don't know 24 yet. 25 MS. ATTOCKNIE: You mean I was going 141 1 to be sitting there by myself? 2 MR. BURGESS: We were almost with 3 you. 4 MR. TIPPECONNIE: It's canceled. 5 MS. ATTOCKNIE: Can you put something 6 like that in the paper, because there's several 7 other individuals that were interested in going to 8 this, but now if it's going to be canceled, put 9 some kind of -- 10 MR. BURGESS: We're going to have 11 Mr. Tippeconnie check with that. Because locally 12 we were just hosting a meal and reception-type 13 thing. So we don't know if the committee is doing 14 that locally, but they've notified everybody by 15 fax. So maybe Mr. Tippeconnie will follow through 16 with that. I know he will to see what they're 17 doing. 18 MRS. HENDRIX: Can I make a 19 suggestion, too? It's in the constitution and 20 he's making a motion. Can it just be in the paper 21 that due to short notice, the CBC delegated you to 22 go so that the people know that we're not 23 violating the constitution? 24 MR. BURGESS: Thank you. 25 MR. WILLIAMS: It will be in the 142 1 minutes. 2 MR. BURGESS: Thank you. Now, we're 3 going to move forward with our agenda. 4 Mr. Nelson, are Dan Littleaxe, Carter Merkle and 5 Adam Proctor, are you with us? 6 MR. PROCTOR: Representing. 7 MR. BURGESS: Good afternoon. 8 MR. PROCTOR: As I stated, Dan 9 Littleaxe could not make it today. He had a death 10 in the family, so he's in Littleaxe to be with his 11 family. Carter Merkle with Oklahoma Business 12 Assistance Network, he couldn't make it at this 13 time because he's in a conference in Nashville. 14 So as the saying goes, the cheese stands alone. 15 You got me. 16 My name is Adam Proctor. I'm the 17 state board member for the American Indian Chamber 18 of Commerce here in Oklahoma. I represent close 19 to 600 members in the state that are native-owned 20 companies or corporations. I have a directory 21 here, if you want to pass that around and let 22 everybody see that. 23 We are having a conference August 24 23rd, 24th and 25th near Lawton, Oklahoma. It's 25 at the Best Western Hotel, and we kind of 143 1 sponsored this year with TGI, Tribal Government 2 Institute, Old Man, and the American Indian 3 Chamber of Texas. They are also going to be 4 here. 5 With that, we're bringing a lot of 6 procurement people from a lot of the states from 7 Oklahoma and Texas, as well as the procurement 8 people from Tinker Air Force Base, Altus, Fort 9 Shephard, Fort Hood, Fort Sam Houston and Fort 10 Sill. This is a networking opportunity, kind of a 11 business summit with all our tribal members -- or 12 not tribal members, chamber members in the 13 directory, also chamber members from the state of 14 Texas. We're expecting at least 300 people to 15 attend, and we encourage the Business Committee to 16 attend as well. This is something that would help 17 your small businesses with the tribe here in this 18 area. I just want to make that announcement and 19 let them know, let you know that the tribal 20 members can attend this event. 21 The American Indian Chamber of 22 Commerce of Oklahoma has five chapters here in the 23 state, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Stillwater, and just 24 last year we opened up a new chapter here in 25 Lawton. It's comprised of a lot of your tribal 144 1 members here in this area. I think Geneva Hadley 2 is one of your members that heads that chapter. 3 Also with the conference, we're 4 having a lot of matchmaking night opportunities 5 with the prime contractors from the military 6 bases, as well as the state agencies here in 7 Oklahoma and Texas, and I think Mrs. Delphine here 8 in the back is one of the panelists for one of the 9 breakout sessions for this conference. 10 Again, it's an all -- it's a 11 networking opportunity for a lot of native-owned 12 companies here in Oklahoma and Texas, and we 13 encourage everyone to attend. Just kind of 14 participate the American Indian Chamber of 15 Commerce and what we do. It started 20 years ago 16 with a couple of native-owned companies in Tulsa. 17 They thought they could get together and try to do 18 business together. From that point it's gone on 19 to five people, 20 years later to almost 500 to 20 600 companies in Oklahoma. 21 As I understand, we're part of the 22 National Conglomerate of American Indian Chambers, 23 but we're the only state that has that many 24 native-owned companies. Given the economy 25 situation that's going on here in Oklahoma and 145 1 Texas, we decided it was going to be a good idea 2 to co-host this event with the Chamber of Texas 3 and have them come up and share what they have to 4 offer and kind of exchange ideas and opportunities 5 of what we have to offer here in Oklahoma. 6 MR. BURGESS: Is there anything more 7 specific you need for us? 8 MR. PROCTOR: My recommendation was 9 to encourage you to attend, and we were also 10 looking for sponsorships for the event to help 11 showcase your businesses that you have with the 12 tribe. 13 MR. BURGESS: We'll leave that to 14 Delphine. 15 MR. PROCTOR: We're also going to 16 have a powwow on the 23rd. I think there's still 17 a golf tournament being planned for the 23rd. 18 There's going to be a cultural night one night 19 during the conference. So we'd like to have -- do 20 you have the posters for the powwow? 21 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: No, we had 22 some -- we were going to have it over by the 23 casino. We were going to have it over by the 24 casino, but we talked to Mr. Sharrod and he said 25 that he didn't want us to have it there. So now 146 1 we have to have it over here at the complex. 2 We're still working on the flyer, because we had 3 to change that. 4 MR. BURGESS: We have it reserved for 5 you all here. So if there's any networking you 6 need to do on the facility, would you get with 7 Mr. Nelson over there, our TA? He can work with 8 our staff. If there's nothing else, thank you. 9 MR. HENSON: I have a question. What 10 is a platinum sponsor? What does that cost? 11 MR. PROCTOR: There's a form there in 12 your folder. It would give you the breakouts of 13 the cost and what you would get for each sponsor. 14 Our intention was to come to you, present this, 15 and help us represent the Tribe and all its 16 business entities that it has in the area. 17 MR. BURGESS: Thank you, Adam. Next 18 on our agenda, Mr. Chibitty with our hiking 19 trail. 20 MR. CHIBITTY: I'm not asking for no 21 money. What I'm asking for is just a little time 22 to put in a little hiking trail right here, right 23 next to our new fire station going up the little 24 hill. It's only about three-quarters of a mile. 25 It's real low impact on the land, like a little 147 1 cattle trail or horse trail or whatever. It's 2 only going to be about two feet wide, really 3 light. I'm just asking for permission from the 4 fire department to put it in. Real simple. 5 MR. BURGESS: How are you proposing 6 to do that? With volunteer labor? 7 MR. CHIBITTY: Our guys, volunteers 8 and our people on our staff. 9 MR. ASEPERMY: So you'll need a dozer 10 from EPA? 11 MR. CHIBITTY: If we need them. If 12 we don't need them, we don't need them. We'll put 13 them in by hand. 14 MS. ATTOCKNIE: Where is that again? 15 Where is the proposed trail? 16 MR. CHIBITTY: Right next to the fire 17 building right here. It's going to be right next 18 to the fence line going back west, and it's going 19 to curve around and up the little hill right there 20 and come back. It's only three-quarters of a mile 21 right across the road. 22 MS. ISAAC: Does it go to the little 23 mountains back there? 24 MR. CHIBITTY: It's going to go 25 partways. 148 1 MS. ATTOCKNIE: Is that our land, 2 Mr. Norman? 3 MR. BURSON: Yes. 4 MR. BURGESS: Richard, question over 5 here? 6 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Is that going 7 to be dirt or paved blacktop? 8 MR. BURGESS: Will that hiking trail 9 be open to all members that would like to use it? 10 MR. CHIBITTY: Yes. 11 MR. BURGESS: Okay. 12 MR. CHIBITTY: Use it at their own 13 risk. 14 MS. CRAIG: Mrs. Attocknie asked if 15 that was our land. My understanding is in the 16 past, Geneva Navarro, they purchased that property 17 so the Elders Council could have that for their 18 headquarters. Don't know what happened, but it 19 eventually got out of their hands and into 20 somebody else's hands. So when you're saying it's 21 our land, exactly what do you mean by our land? 22 MR. BURGESS: Comanche Nation. 23 MS. CRAIG: And how did the Comanche 24 Nation get it when the Elder Council paid for it? 25 MR. BURGESS: It has to be held under 149 1 the name of the Comanche Nation because the Elders 2 Council is not separate from the Nation as we 3 appoint them. We establish their bylaws and 4 ordinances under the tribe. 5 MS. CRAIG: That answered that 6 question. But tell me this: How did it get away 7 from us, Elders? 8 MR. BURGESS: I wasn't sitting here, 9 I couldn't tell you. I don't even proffer to tell 10 you. 11 MR. TIPPECONNIE: This land was 12 purchased not for the Elders. It was purchased 13 for the museum site. It was hopeful to be a 14 museum site. So the museum has been located 15 elsewhere. The long-term location may be 16 somewhere yet, but it was purchased, if you 17 remember, not for the Elders, but for purchased 18 for the purpose to locate a museum. 19 MS. CRAIG: But the Elders are the 20 ones that initiated the whole thing. 21 MR. TIPPECONNIE: No, no, it was 22 purchased by the museum board. In fact, I was the 23 one that saw the sign out there and pushed the 24 board let's buy it, because the sign went up real 25 quick. I said let's jump on that. And we did. 150 1 We made an offer, and amazingly, we got a good buy 2 because other parties came up and wanted to offer 3 more. We had already tied it up. 4 MS. CRAIG: Well, that answered my 5 question, because all around I've been hearing all 6 these different things. So now he said one thing, 7 he said one thing, and now you're telling us 8 something else. 9 MR. TIPPECONNIE: That's the way it 10 was. 11 MS. ISAAC: But initially, that's 12 where the Elders were going to have their site. 13 MR. TIPPECONNIE: No, no. It was for 14 the museum. 15 MR. BURGESS: Let's have a motion on 16 the hiking trail at no cost for the tribe. It's 17 for health benefits as well as training benefits 18 for firefighters. At this time, Mr. Nelson. 19 MR. NELSON: The only thing I ask, 20 Mr. Chibitty, get with Chief Griffin about that 21 not being trust land and any implications if 22 anybody gets hurt on it. Not trust land. 23 MR. BURGESS: Yeah, he made the 24 statement that you would use it at your own risk. 25 Snakes, rodents and all. Y'all take care of that 151 1 after we make the motion, or I should say call for 2 the question and make a motion. 3 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Who made the 4 motion? 5 MR. BURGESS: No one's made it yet. 6 Lanny raised his hand. 7 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Mr. Asepermy? 8 MR. ASEPERMY: Yes. 9 MR. HENSON: You made the motion. We 10 accept it. 11 MR. BURGESS: Motion made by 12 Asepermy. Second? Do I hear a second? 13 MR. MAHSEET: I second. 14 MR. BURGESS: Second by Mr. Mahseet. 15 All those in favor, please say "aye." 16 (Aye.) 17 MR. BURGESS: All those opposed? 18 Having no opposed, the motion passes. 19 MR. CHIBITTY: Thank you. 20 MR. BURGESS: We have now Item Number 21 4 under new and old business, Mrs. Eleanor 22 McDaniel, Comanche Tribal Forum. 23 MRS. MCDANIEL: Thank you, 24 Mr. Chairman. I gave you a letter from me to 25 you. As a concerned member of the Comanche 152 1 Nation, I have established an organization called 2 the Comanche Nation Tribal Council Forum. It is 3 the intent and purpose of the Comanche Tribal 4 Council Forum to act as an advocacy group to voice 5 tribal concerns and seek remedy for enrolled 6 tribal members for unresolved problems directly to 7 the Chairman of the Comanche Nation and/or the 8 CBC. It is the intent to use open and direct 9 communication to you as a tool to work through 10 different issues. Your support and cooperation 11 would be greatly appreciated. 12 I have attached some of the concerns 13 that we talked about in a public meeting on July 14 2nd, and also I'm going to provide a form which I 15 have named Comanche Nation Tribal Inquiry Form. 16 This form will be used to assist in seeking remedy 17 for unresolved problems for individual tribal 18 members. So I ask for your serious -- all of you, 19 your serious attention and consideration in the 20 concerns of the people. So respectfully, Eleanor 21 McDaniel. 22 So I want to congratulate you, 23 Mr. Chairman, for being there and I want to 24 congratulate y'all. Some of the concerns -- some 25 of the concerns that were addressed that night on 153 1 July 2nd, I have seen in person that you are 2 starting to do something about them. So I'm 3 really proud about that. I'm happy. I've seen 4 all of you work together on these issues, and I 5 hope that we -- it will continue to be that way, 6 because I am hoping that you take this opportunity 7 to make things right for our people. That's all 8 we ask. 9 So just to briefly go over a lot of 10 the concerns had to deal with housing. So I've 11 listed all those, but basically we're asking what 12 happened to the stimulus money, what happened to 13 the discretionary fund program, and the $3,000 14 assistance it was supposed to provide, and do we 15 still have an elder program. A lot of inspections 16 that were done, the paperwork was lost. We have 17 people over there that haven't shown any 18 compassion and understanding, they're and 19 disrespectful to our people who are in dire need 20 of housing. So I've listed all these concerns, 21 and you can review them. I hope that you would 22 give it your serious attention and consideration. 23 Also, the other thing that you 24 addressed today was the hiring practices for HRO. 25 So we have a lot of concerns regarding that a lot 154 1 of these positions were never advertised. We also 2 would like to see that tribal preference be 3 enforced. We want our Comanche people hired first 4 before we give it to anybody else. 5 We see that there's a need to create 6 a process to hire the best qualified tribal 7 members, and I see that you're doing what you can 8 to address that. We don't want to have any more 9 improper hiring, we don't want our applications 10 lost. We do need a human services office to 11 properly prepare applications for those directors 12 that are getting ready to hire. We need a 13 recruiting department to ensure for maximum pool 14 of tribal applicants. We don't need to see unfair 15 hiring. We also would like to see a central human 16 resources office where any opening, wherever it 17 may be within our tribe, that it's there and we 18 all know about it and we all have the opportunity 19 to apply for it. 20 There are a lot of other concerns, 21 but those are the major ones. We just want you to 22 clean up the hiring practices. Some of the other 23 concerns that were addressed, and I'll go over 24 them real quickly, is that why don't we have our 25 own finance department, why are we paying these 155 1 people a whole bunch of money. We want to see 2 more information on the lawsuits that are -- that 3 we are, you know, having to deal with these days. 4 Are we still in partnership with OU to accreditate 5 our nursing program? We need to enforce tribal 6 preference, tribal employee preference at the 7 college. Where is the revenue from tuition and 8 fees of 200 students enrolled at our college? 9 Does higher education assist the 10 nursing program students? How much did the 11 college receive from the Department of Labor 12 grant? What was the Department of Labor grant 13 used for? How was the $1.8 million for the 2008 14 budget used for the college? Why do we have a 15 brother and a sister of a CBC member on the 16 college council? How much do we pay the college 17 council members to attend monthly meetings because 18 they're all from out of state? We need our 19 nursing home. We need our nursing program to 20 operate without hindrance from anyone, because 21 that nursing program will provide LPNs, RNs to 22 care for our elders. 23 I just -- I just want to say that I 24 created this organization because I think that our 25 people deserve all the services. You know, it's 156 1 not that they are given because of goodness out of 2 somebody's heart, but that they deserve it as 3 Comanche tribal members. I just wish that a lot 4 of our people had received these needed services 5 and benefits before they died. So that's all I 6 have to say. Thank you. 7 MR. BURGESS: Statement here from 8 Mr. Henson to the community. 9 MR. HENSON: Every one of these that 10 she's had on there, at least what I've seen, most 11 of these on here have already been addressed. 12 Every one of them. In fact, this last week we 13 went through a lot of these, and for your 14 information out there, those boards, those 15 committees and everything that goes on is open to 16 the public. Those answers can be directed to them 17 at that time. I'm not talking about who's on the 18 CBC, I mean, who's on each committee or anything 19 like that. That's been addressed by us, we're 20 looking into it. 21 The housing, we've -- I don't want to 22 go into anything but in housing, we looked into 23 it. There's changes that's going to be done in 24 housing. We talked with the college, we've got 25 further meetings with the college. We've talked 157 1 with a lot of people, and believe me, there's 2 changes coming. You're going to see it. 3 MR. BURGESS: Statement back there in 4 the red? 5 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I just want to 6 know what happened to our nursing facility? It 7 seems like every year we've been voting on it and 8 there doesn't seem to be any moneys. What 9 happened to the money that was allocated for that 10 from the beginning, and are we actually going to 11 get a nursing home or a nursing facility? What 12 happened to all of the moneys every year that we 13 vote on it? 14 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yeah, ask 15 these guys what happened to the money? 16 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We're voting 17 on something that is not even there. 18 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I can only speak to 19 the point of since I've been here you know, for 20 the past fiscal year and this fiscal year. 21 Previous moneys were put into a CD for the -- a 22 previous year. The present year we haven't 23 expended those moneys. I think there's maybe a 24 little bit that's been expended, but the tribal 25 administrator has been charged to work on that. I 158 1 don't know if Mr. Nelson is -- the nursing, 2 assisted living, the TA, the position has been 3 charged to, you know, work on that. So it's in 4 the Tribal Administrator's hands. 5 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Do we have 6 money for it? 7 MR. TIPPECONNIE: We have this year's 8 moneys and we have some in the bank from a 9 previous year. 10 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: This is going 11 on four years. 12 MR. HENSON: Let me say this about 13 that nursing home. What I'm finding out is that 14 there hasn't been a lot of planning in doing 15 this. All they've been doing is saying we're 16 going to give this money this and that. There has 17 to be a lot more thinking done on it. Not the 18 only cost of construction, but where it's going to 19 be located, where is our medical people going to 20 come from that goes in there. We need to know how 21 -- or connect it with some kind of cost on return 22 of money. Not that everybody's going to be paying 23 or something like that, but there's a lot more 24 that needs to be done to this than just the money 25 itself. 159 1 The moneys's there, we can start, but 2 we have to know about the staff, we have to know 3 about what would you call it, Medicare, Medicaid, 4 how are they going to pay. There's a lot more 5 that needs to be thought about on this, not just 6 that we got the money. 7 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Well, they 8 should have done all of that before we started 9 voting on it, and how long is this going to take? 10 MR. HENSON: I grant you that should 11 have been done. 12 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We're just 13 voting on something we'll never get. 14 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: The Elders 15 Council started that. I hate to keep saying the 16 previous administration, but that's where it 17 started. We had all that information, what you're 18 talking about, we gave it to them the previous 19 administration. It was knocked down and they 20 wouldn't let us go any further. So we still have 21 another plan that we're going to go through and 22 try to get this started again. If we have to 23 gather all the material and everything that we did 24 before, that's what we're going to do. 25 MR. HENSON: Robert just told me that 160 1 the TA has that all that information, but let me 2 ease your mind. That's being looked into. It's 3 not been stopped. It's being looked into. 4 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: What I was 5 going to say was that we've done everything that 6 you said. We did present it to the prior 7 administration, but they didn't really look at 8 it. I mean, they didn't help us really. But 9 we've get all of it. As a matter of fact, we had 10 a meeting last week, and we're working on it next 11 week. We are getting ready to get together and 12 present this -- all the information that we have, 13 we've had everything that you said. We're getting 14 ready to give it to the chairman and to the TA. 15 We had no help from the prior TA. 16 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I thought 17 Raymond Almanza said you were almost ready to 18 break ground. 19 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We were until 20 we found out that the prior Business Committee had 21 spent our money. We didn't have it. 22 MR. HENSON: I can assure you since 23 Mike came aboard, since we came aboard, that was 24 one of our Number 1 priorities, and believe me, 25 it's being discussed and it's being looked at. 161 1 It's going to happen. I just don't know when at 2 this point because I don't have enough 3 information. 4 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We've got the 5 paperwork and we are getting ready to get it 6 together. 7 MR. BURGESS: I know that there's two 8 ideas on location, so until you come up with a 9 solid idea, and the reason I'm speaking -- hang 10 on, Delphine. Part of this trip going to 11 Washington D.C. is to advocate to the legislature 12 about the Indian Hospital. We know that it's 13 seriously underfunded, but we also know that there 14 are more Indians coming to this clinic now than 15 there used to be, even four years ago. 16 The concept was that this assisted 17 living center, and I'm saying that because it's 18 too expensive to have a nursing home, but the 19 assisted living center should be by the hospital 20 because we cannot afford medical staff at this 21 time. If you have a nursing home, you have to 22 have 24-hour medical attention, and that's 23 doctor. But if we were within 50 yards and have 24 an agreement with the Indian Hospital which has 25 24-hour care, it helps downplay our cost. 162 1 So that's why one of the trips, this 2 trip here is to talk to our legislators, and the 3 KCA people are now getting on -- I'm saying the 4 other two tribes -- are now getting on the 5 bandwagon to understand what we're trying to do. 6 So we want to work with you, and we understand 7 what happened in the past. Mr. Tippeconnie is 8 telling me, and I believe him, that with the 9 moneys that are left over and the new moneys 10 coming in, we're going to set those aside into its 11 own interest-bearing account. 12 Now, at the conclusion at the time 13 that we have that money, we can use that for 14 matching grants to get USDA and others to help us 15 with the facility. It's going to cost us probably 16 $3 million just to put the building up, and we 17 have to have a plan for at least 1.5 to 2 million 18 for maybe two years' operation or more for 19 staffing. And then that transition also includes 20 how the people who come there, hopefully Medicare 21 and Medicaid will cover some of the cost of their 22 stay. 23 I know you've thought that through, 24 you know that, I'm trying to give the short 25 version to everybody here because we have the 163 1 agenda. So if there's something else you need to 2 add? 3 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes, back in 4 2005, when LaQueta and myself and I met up and 5 made the resolution, the chairman sat there and 6 told us that the money was going to be put every 7 year in an interest bearing account. Okay, we 8 took him at his word. Every time we would ask 9 him, it's being done, it's being done. Okay. We 10 were told that we would have at least $2 million 11 for the nursing home. That's what should have 12 been in there now. 13 So come to this last Tribal Council 14 meeting, Mr. Tippeconnie says that we only have 15 280-something thousand and it was in a CD. So 16 what did they do with it? 17 MR. BURGESS: The previous? 18 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: That was 19 supposed to have been put in an account. 20 MR. BURGESS: It probably stayed in 21 general fund and got put into other areas. We 22 can't say. Most of us weren't here and we don't 23 want to -- we know that happened, we know it's 24 gone. We want to go forward. I'm not saying that 25 we're not going to look into it, but I'm just 164 1 saying at this meeting at this time we don't have 2 time to discuss that. But this year and come 3 September, October 1, Mr. Tippeconnie's going to 4 look at increasing all of that. We'll give you a 5 report at the balance of November when moneys are 6 transferred. 7 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We do have all 8 the paperwork you talked about already, and we are 9 going to presenting it next week. That was going 10 to be another surprise. We do have all of that 11 paperwork, and you will be getting it within the 12 next week. 13 MR. BURGESS: We're going to take two 14 more statements on this, Francine and Delphine, 15 Francine being our Elder. 16 MS. JONES: Mr. Chairman, I brought 17 it up in 2000 about building a nursing home at the 18 Indian School, and everybody was against it. 19 MR. BURGESS: So you're saying it's 20 time for it. It takes time. Change is not always 21 overnight, unless you're married, I guess. I 22 don't know. 23 Delphine, this is the last statement 24 on this. 25 MS. NELSON: One of the confusions, 165 1 because I started working on a feasibility study 2 for a nursing home, and somewhere down the line 3 it's changed to an assisted living center. So 4 some of the confusion with tribal members is part 5 of them wants a nursing home and part of them 6 wants an assisted living center. I have the 7 beginning statements of a feasibility study on a 8 nursing home, how it could be funded, how much, 9 you know, the construction costs, have raised 10 about $20 since that was done. 11 So it's just, you know, in order to 12 go forward, I think the membership needs to define 13 whether it's going to be a nursing home or whether 14 it will be an assist living center. Assisted 15 living centers are not covered under Medicaid and 16 Medicare. 17 MR. BURGESS: So we have several 18 opinions. I would say at this point in time we 19 are looking at no less than $5 million to put it 20 together and another $5 million to manage it. So 21 ladies and gentlemen, we only have a little stone 22 in a big river that we've got covered with two 23 years of funding that's going in the bank. We're 24 a long way from building that facility. While 25 many of our Elders are going to suffer, we can't 166 1 put more into it than what we have. 2 That's why we're asking you all, if 3 you're asking questions about dollars and cents 4 here, that we're going to come back to you. We're 5 not going to do it today, but we're going to do it 6 later once we get this evaluation and where we are 7 with our financial picture. I'm going to say that 8 we have a situation provided by our constitution 9 again where we come in April and present you with 10 a budget, but we don't know until September what 11 that budget really is. So we're going to have to 12 do a division here of our actual report to you, 13 then the actual responsibility of telling you what 14 the budget can be. 15 Again, our constitution, because of 16 the time frame, now we've changed to where we 17 are. Coming through maturity of the tribe, we are 18 going to have to adjust our constitution. But 19 that's a different picture. So please allow us to 20 do time here to get this in. One last statement, 21 please. 22 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I'm not an 23 Elder but my mom is. How many times are we going 24 to hear her story? We heard it for four years 25 about the nursing home, and I can't come from 167 1 Oklahoma City to hear everything tabled. 2 MR. BURGESS: This isn't being 3 tabled. 4 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Well, 5 everything that you've been saying has. We'll 6 table this, we'll table this. 7 MR. HENSON: It's being worked on. 8 That's the only thing we can tell you at this 9 point. It is being worked on. 10 MR. BURGESS: The question is a 11 response to what Mrs. McDaniel got up and spoke 12 about. The community had concerns, we've listened 13 to them. We're trying to give them information to 14 how best we are going to go about this. The two 15 things we're attacking here is grant writers to 16 write more grants, funding money to put into the 17 project, a land base to put the project on, and 18 getting congressional approval to help us with 19 more funding for the hospital to help us with the 20 medical care. It's all intertwined. It's not 21 going to happen because we've got $500,000. 22 MR. YELLOWFISH: Gaming needs to make 23 more money. 24 MR. BURGESS: Well, that's right. 25 Everybody's got to go play after here. Everybody 168 1 go spend $100. I'm not trying to make light of 2 your concern. I'm just telling you, it takes this 3 time. You have a different committee now. You 4 have things that we're going to come back to you 5 with. I'm not going to sit here and tell you it's 6 tabled until it is the responsibility. It's only 7 tabled here, the few things we've tabled have been 8 because we want more information, we want more 9 feedback, not because we don't want you to know. 10 I'm being honest with you. Most definitely. 11 MS. ISAAC: They were going forward, 12 everything was running really good, and the man 13 brought the pictures down to show us the pictures 14 of the nursing home and everything. Then Johnny 15 wanted it changed. Delphine wanted to call it or 16 she calls it a nursing center, and it's supposed 17 to be an assisted living. So the wording is 18 changed, but that's no big deal. We still want it 19 to go forward. 20 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I just want to 21 make a comment. It's not a question. One other 22 comment that the Elders Council started this, we 23 got shut -- they shut us down. We're going to 24 keep going until we get something done. 25 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yeah, we're 169 1 not quitting. 2 MR. BURGESS: Then you help us. 3 Practice a little patience. I've been in office 4 -- we've been here for three weeks. We know your 5 story from the last four years, and I'm telling 6 you, it takes better planning than what previously 7 took place. Allow us to put some kind of 8 feasibility study with the financing and where 9 we're going to get it. As you heard, our TA said 10 we had red flags. These red flags have been in 11 place since 2000, and now we're answering those 12 red flags that helped hinder us on our funding 13 levels, grants and contracts. 14 In order to do things right, we've 15 got to answer all red flags, close out all the 16 questions and move forward. At the same time, 17 we're trying to put money in the bank. This 18 committee is not going to be spending money 19 frivolously. I am not going to spend money 20 without anybody here knowing about it. I can't. 21 I'm going to follow the guides. I told you I 22 would. We've all campaigned on that all the way 23 back to when Eddie was on it. He's coming to the 24 conclusion of his two terms. 25 We said we'd be responsible and we're 170 1 trying to hold to that. There's nothing 2 underhanded. You saw me get approval to travel. 3 They don't even want me to take Fridays off on 4 payday. I want to go on to the next one. We've 5 got a long agenda. It's getting warm in here. 6 MR. ASEPERMY: Can I ask something, 7 Mike? I've been on the Business Committee for two 8 years, and yesterday -- 9 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: You haven't 10 done nothing either, Lanny. 11 MR. BURGESS: Come on, everybody, be 12 kind. Let him speak, please. 13 MR. ASEPERMY: Anyway, yesterday was 14 the first time that the CBC collectively had an 15 informal meeting. Never happened before, not all 16 of us, to discuss things like this. How are we 17 going to fix the things that are broke and how are 18 we going to continue to account for what we have 19 done up to this point. Okay? So that's change. 20 Never collectively in the two years that I've been 21 around have we met informally. So that's a good 22 thing. That's a good thing. 23 MR. BURGESS: We're going to move 24 on. I personally appreciate that many of you are 25 elders here. You've been through this a long 171 1 time. I've heard stories from many of you about 2 the old meetings that we had, about how the ruckus 3 would go on. I want to ask y'all, let's move 4 forward. Let's be as kind as we can, because 5 Lanny has come a long way. He has realized that 6 he wasn't always -- everything wasn't on the 7 plate. We're not doing that. Everything's on the 8 table right here, and we're being straightforward 9 with every one of these committees. 10 You've asked us to do something, to 11 get this government on track, so let us work 12 together, give us time. It's not all going to 13 happen overnight and we can't continue to do 14 things the way things were done in the past. We 15 have policies, we have to be a government, and 16 that's what we're trying to do. I appreciate your 17 patience, your understanding, and please give us 18 that understanding in the future. Thank you. 19 With that being said, Carlotta, 20 you're on the agenda. We understand your 21 concerns, but, again, we have a government to 22 operate. 23 MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman, I've got 24 a resolution here from Carlotta. I think we need 25 to, because of the sensitivity, and I understand 172 1 Keith, you're going to speak with them. Do y'all 2 want to talk to us privately first about your 3 concerns, and they are some concerns. Then after 4 we come out of executive session, then we will -- 5 if it's all right with you, Mr. Chairman, I think 6 we need to put them in executive session. There's 7 some really sensitive items here. 8 MS. ATTOCKNIE: If it deals with the 9 college and all of us have a vested interest in 10 the college. I myself would like to hear what 11 they have to say. 12 MR. HENSON: I might say one thing. 13 The college is one thing, and I told you before 14 that we are looking at. There's a lot of things 15 going on with that college right now and there's 16 some things that we're looking at, and we are 17 working on it. Nursing is one of them. I don't 18 have any objections if the chairman don't, but I 19 think he's got more information on it. 20 MR. BURGESS: What we have here are 21 some items, articles that have names and then 22 numbers in them that further investigation on our 23 behalf, because this just came to me. We wanted 24 to do this in a general manner, but because things 25 are present in a resolution here that I haven't 173 1 seen -- 2 MR. ASEPERMY: I just got it last 3 night. 4 MR. BURGESS: We haven't seen this 5 resolution that they're presenting. Any time we 6 are making a resolution, we're passing a law. 7 However, right now the college nursing program is 8 under the college. We pass a law about the 9 college and its responsibilities. So now we're 10 going to pass a law that would take one 11 responsibility from the college back to the tribe, 12 as I am reading it just briefly. But then I'm 13 going to ask you now, where are we going to put 14 you? That's the question. How are we going to 15 fund you? 16 Again, you're going to come back over 17 here and we have difficulty managing finances. 18 But see, that's why -- this isn't clear to most of 19 us here. So if you want to discuss this in an 20 executive session we can, because you do have 21 documents that have names and numbers. So I'm 22 concerned, we are concerned about having the names 23 out in the open, because if there's some personal 24 attacks, this is not the place for it. Just being 25 honest with you. Yes? 174 1 MR. NAUNI: Mr. Chairman, I'd like to 2 shed a little light on the nursing situation. 3 When I was on the CBC, Mr. Yackeyonny was 4 chairman. We started this nursing program. We 5 didn't have no college to put it in, and we had 6 resources that was available to us, the Higher 7 Education, and we also used some of the Department 8 of Labor. But this nursing program has been in 9 effect for 10 years. 10 You know, I wanted to point out to 11 the existing committee that it doesn't need to 12 have a college to support it. It started at the 13 tribe. Somewhere it got put into the college, and 14 that's -- you know, whoever delegated that, 15 whatever committee, that's fine, too. But there's 16 some real complications that's being done right 17 now to affect a nursing program that's being 18 accredited, and there's been some women here, 19 Comanche women and other women, that benefited 20 from that nursing program. 21 I, as a previous Business Committee 22 member, would like to see this nursing program 23 continue. It's a good thing. I mean, people are 24 finished with the LPN training. They go out and 25 get jobs. It's jobs that provide a good income 175 1 level for their families. So hopefully this is 2 what the committee will consider, you know, in 3 making decisions today, whatever that discussion 4 is. 5 But just to kind of enlighten you 6 with information, I wanted to bring it out, you 7 know, to the Business Committee. Anyway, that's 8 my comment. 9 MR. BURGESS: Thank you, Norman. I 10 appreciate that. 11 MR. YACKEYONNY: Mr. Chairman, I 12 don't mind being put under executive session, 13 because really what I want to talk about is what 14 Mr. Norman was talking about to the nursing 15 program and in generalities, not anything in 16 specific. So if you don't mind, I'll say my piece 17 and then Carlotta can go with you into executive 18 session on more specifics. 19 But, you know, the reason I've got 20 involved, I haven't been to a CBC meeting since 21 y'all threw me out. No offense, but, you know, 22 the tribe that employs me, they meet first 23 Saturday of the month also. I just got off 24 dialysis and Mr. Mahseet knows how that goes. It 25 kind of drains you a little bit. But nonetheless, 176 1 I felt the importance to come and address this 2 issue. It's not so much about the college as it 3 is the nursing program. 4 You know, the nursing program, the 5 Comanche Nation before we had all these gaming 6 dollars and we had to do things the old fashion 7 way, staying in compliance, using federal dollars 8 and using what little bitty trust money we had to 9 make things work. That's what we did. The 10 vision, we didn't just do things for the moment, 11 but everything had a vision. At that time, our 12 people were going to Pratt College and paying 13 thousands of dollars to get what they say is a CNA 14 certificate. 15 So Carlotta came to the Business 16 Committee and said, you know, we could train our 17 people to be CNAs cheaper. And of course, the 18 Business Committee had no idea what they were 19 talking about. We said, why do you want to make 20 Comanches Cheyennes and Arapahos? But, you know, 21 that's basically what, you know, we had no concept 22 of what we could do. 23 So at that time, the tribe had a Karl 24 Perkins program and we had a really good education 25 program. So what we did, is we took the nursing 177 1 -- took the concept of us doing some of the things 2 ourselves as opposed to giving money outside. 3 What we did then was we took programs and started 4 training our people to be CNAs. All the programs 5 coordinated. The job placement training 6 assistance program, the AVT program, the Karl 7 Perkins program, the child care program. 8 Everybody pitched in. Carlotta opened up in the 9 old conference room. You know, we finished that. 10 And then she said and everybody did really well. 11 If anybody's ever had to have teaching under 12 Carlotta, you'll know that it's not an easy thing 13 to pass. 14 So the next thing was when you said 15 we were so successful let's try the LPN program. 16 Let's get it started here. That's what we did. 17 And because of that, we have right here in our own 18 management system some of those graduates. Right 19 here is one of them. You know, when I look 20 around, all the nurses that we've put forth from 21 that first program, not only here at the tribe but 22 out there in the community. And these people 23 didn't leave here making $5 an hour. They made a 24 living wage to support their children. 25 So then the Business Committee said, 178 1 you know, this is something that will go on to do 2 something bigger. Because we had plans, you know, 3 like -- y'all talking about the nursing home this 4 past few years. If any of y'all have gone to all 5 Tribal Council meetings like I have, you'll 6 remember back in the '80s I passed a motion on the 7 floor at General Council to do a feasibility 8 study. But it always fell on dead ears in the 9 Business Committee so it never was done. That was 10 our vision. 11 Now, they're housed at the college 12 which falls in the natural progress of things. 13 However, there's one thing our students that go 14 there, they have to find the money to pay 15 tuition. Most of us who go to, like, Cameron, to 16 the RN program or any other program, you can apply 17 for financial assistance and get PELL money, get 18 student loans, but however because our college 19 isn't accredited and more importantly our nursing 20 program isn't accredited, our students can't go 21 after those resources. 22 Because of all this wealth that the 23 Comanche Nation has, we've created so many 24 kingdoms within the Nation. Education has their 25 own kingdom, WIA has their own kingdom, gaming has 179 1 their own kingdom, and nobody communicates. I'm 2 glad that this Business Committee is trying to 3 bring everything together so that we can 4 communicate with one another and get good 5 services. 6 That's what this resolution basically 7 says is that so that our nursing program, next 8 week has to get a study done to submit to the 9 state board in Oklahoma City. And then next 10 month, they'll come down to review everything that 11 we put in this study to see if it's true. When 12 they do that, they're going to either say yes, 13 we're going to accreditate you, Comanche Nation 14 nursing program, and you go to the next level, 15 which is the national level. 16 Once we get that national level 17 accreditation, then the students who go to the 18 Comanche Nation nursing program will be eligible 19 for student loans, they'll be eligibility for PELL 20 funding, all kinds of resources will become 21 available to them. But right now they have to 22 struggle, they have to come up here and try to get 23 on our job placement program, our WIA program, or 24 their tribe just has to pay for the tuition. 25 They're the only two students. Somebody asks 180 1 where our tuition goes from the college. Our 2 nursing students, their tuition is the only money 3 our college gets to keep, because the rest of it 4 goes to Cameron. 5 So what we're asking is not something 6 that's really difficult. The nurses don't want to 7 stay there, it's going to be housed there, because 8 we don't have any facilities. But in this 9 resolution it says they're going to pay for their 10 fair share of the cost at the college. But at the 11 same time, they're just going to fall under the 12 management system of the tribe. Y'all think the 13 tribe's management systems are kind of messed up 14 and you heard the TA talk about these, you know, 15 these audits and so forth and so on, but now he's 16 trying to make, put systems in place so that we 17 can be accountable for the dollars. 18 And you, Business Committee, y'all 19 are the ones that are stewards for our dollars. 20 We, the Tribal Council appropriates the money and 21 you guys are the stewards to make sure that it's 22 spent accordingly. What this resolution does is 23 not saying anything about the college. What it's 24 saying is, we're going to take the nursing program 25 and put it under you guys so that when the nursing 181 1 people come here, they are going to say is there 2 money in the budget, is this thing sustainable? 3 Of course, because the tribe has 4 resources they're going to say yes because we 5 voted last year and this year for a nursing 6 separate line item, the money should be there. 7 However, because the treasurer has made an 8 equitable cut across the board, he didn't single 9 anybody out, everybody got a 30 percent cut. It 10 puts our program into jeopardy because the 11 resources aren't there. Part of the reason the 12 resources has to be there, it's not so much for 13 Carlotta's salary, but you say we're going to have 14 up-to-date equipment, we're going to have up-to- 15 date study area, we're going to have a library 16 that has the resources, we're going to have audio 17 visual equipment from this century. But if you 18 don't have it, you're not going to get accredited, 19 and if don't get accredited they could basically 20 shut the program down. 21 All we want is for, you know, let's 22 put it under the tribe until we get through this 23 accreditation process, and then the Business 24 Committee can deal with the college and its 25 concerns, but let's -- we have something that 182 1 works. It's proven that it works because these 2 students who graduate from Carlotta's program, 3 they usually pass the state exam the first time 4 around. I'm not just saying this because Carlotta 5 is my friend. I'm saying this because I've seen 6 the nurses that come through here, and my own 7 nephew, when he was going through the program, he 8 griped all the time about Carlotta. But, yet, he 9 was up at 2, 3 o'clock studying because he wanted 10 to make the grade in that class. My nephew 11 graduated, he passed the state exam the first time 12 around, and now he's in Houston making more money 13 than me. They've got him into an RN program. 14 But that's the kind of 15 opportunities. This is a proven thing. This 16 works. We know it works. It's not something that 17 we're going to try, we're going to test or 18 whatever. We know it works. So if it works, 19 let's keep it. Let's not be a tremendous 20 detriment, let's not be a roadblock so that we 21 keep it in something that doesn't work. 22 The Comanche Nation College is a good 23 idea, it's a good concept, but it has its issues. 24 The nursing program does not have any. It's a 25 proven program. That's all this resolution is 183 1 about. 2 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Real quickly. 3 Keith, on that point, we need to give Carlotta the 4 support she needs. And also, we need to get 5 credit stamp of that college, let Carlotta have a 6 lot of leeway. The president there, Mrs. Lopez, 7 gives her a hard time. These girls that graduate, 8 they can go anyplace and work. So Carlotta, we 9 commend you. You're doing a great job, so we need 10 you. 11 MR. HENSON: Can I make a statement 12 here? The nursing program is not under any fire 13 at all. We as a CBC, we looked at it, we said we 14 need the nursing program, there's no problem of it 15 at all. We also looked at the college, and 16 there's some stuff that's attached to the nursing 17 program and the college and you all know that 18 we're been trying to get accreditation for that 19 college. 20 I was one of those that came in here 21 with the idea that if that college is not 22 accreditated, no other college would accept their 23 credits. They can go there and go there all they 24 want, but it isn't going to mean nothing because 25 nobody's going to accept it. But now I understand 184 1 we've got MOUs with other colleges. I think two, 2 I'm not sure, that they will accept those credits 3 even though we're not accredited. 4 The other thing is, they're working 5 on other colleges, and I think one of them is West 6 Texas State and the other one is OSU. Anyway, 7 they're working on that. But there are a lot of 8 questions and a lot of answers that we need. 9 We've already got meetings set up. But if you're 10 worried about their nursing program, there is not 11 a problem with it. We don't plan to do away with 12 that program. Go ahead. 13 MR. BURGESS: Last comment. 14 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Thank you. 15 What I want to say is that back when this nursing 16 program became so successful and we had so much 17 confidence in it, that is the real reason why we 18 decided to go Comanche Nation College. We felt 19 like if this could be successful, then we could be 20 successful in other programs, but that didn't work 21 out. The college, I don't know what the condition 22 is, but it doesn't look good. 23 I feel like if we can allow this 24 nursing program to operate independently so that 25 it's not affected by the problems that are 185 1 happening at the college, then we will continue to 2 succeed, we will continue to work with OU. The 3 Oklahoma University is trying to provide a program 4 called Fast Track to help these young people get 5 their LPN and help them quickly get their RN. 6 That RN makes one big difference for them when it 7 comes to an income. 8 Once those people get their 9 certificates, they're certified RNs, they can help 10 us with our nursing home. I think all the money 11 that has been spent in the past, we could have not 12 only an assistant nursing home, but a nursing home 13 as well. 14 MR. BURGESS: Thank you. 15 MR. ASEPERMY: I need to ask Carlotta 16 a question. If you were a stand-alone program, 17 how will that affect your accreditation? 18 MS. KNOWLES: A stand-alone program 19 means that I would have to rewrite the application 20 somewhat to the Board of Nursing and explain 21 somewhat the reorganization. That might take a 22 little bit of extra time. 23 MR. ASEPERMY: Let me ask you a 24 question. You're graduating a class in November, 25 correct? 186 1 MS. KNOWLES: Our class is due to be 2 wrapping up. Students can go either 12 to 18 3 months. The majority of them will be finished 4 around the end, mid to end of September, early 5 October. 6 MR. ASEPERMY: What's going to be on 7 their diploma? 8 MS. KNOWLES: Right now as it stands 9 without any changes, it will say Comanche Nation 10 College practical nursing program. They will be 11 eligible to write the Oklahoma Board of Nursing 12 for licensure. Now, that is if all of our 13 resources are in place. 14 MR. ASEPERMY: So that will be the 15 first -- 16 MS. KNOWLES: Graduating class, 17 formal class of the college. 18 MS. ATTOCKNIE: It will be the second 19 or third under the tribe. 20 MS. KNOWLES: I've done five classes, 21 plus an allied health because of that little 22 hiatus we had. 23 MR. ASEPERMY: By the way, 100 24 percent of on time tests -- 25 (Several inaudible conversations 187 1 taking place at the same time.) 2 MS. KNOWLES: This is the very first 3 one and right now, it doesn't look good. Now, the 4 board can come back and continue from visual 5 approval, and they can say we're going to allow 6 your students to finish at this point or they can 7 say we're going to allow them to finish but we're 8 not going to allow you to admit a second class. 9 Or we're going to allow you to have a second 10 class, see how it goes, let the first class take 11 their board, or we are going to shut you down. 12 Those are the options. It depends. 13 MS. ATTOCKNIE: From the college? 14 MS. KNOWLES: This is from the 15 Oklahoma Board of Nursing. The Board of Nursing 16 rules and regs is the bible to all nursing 17 education programs. You must have full approval 18 so that we can go on to the next step. The Board 19 of Nursing has approved us that they are willing 20 to let us have, if we can get through this first 21 program and show good results, they're willing to 22 let us increase our enrollment anywhere from 15 to 23 20 students. That's a 100 percent enrollment 24 increase. That is unheard of in the state of 25 Oklahoma because they -- 188 1 MR. BURGESS: Okay. With that said, 2 Carlotta, I'm going to let Mr. Tippeconnie have a 3 statement and then we're going to request that you 4 stay over for executive session. 5 MS. KNOWLES: Yes, sir. 6 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I want to convey, 7 you know, that we have a new president at the 8 college. The president has been attempting to get 9 all the accounting which is relative to this. You 10 know, part of this is money. A big part of this 11 is money. So the new president that's incoming, 12 or is the president, excuse me, our president is 13 looking at reconciling all those accounting and 14 all those monetary records. So she's been working 15 with Finley & Cook to do this. 16 Now, the predicament, I have to say, 17 that in my experience with the college and 18 knowledge of this, is that there were a lot of 19 things that were done that were not well 20 documented or were inappropriately documented, et 21 cetera. So it's not the college president in 22 place that did all this. These are things that 23 were previous. But nonetheless, she has worked 24 with Finley & Cook, they've taken all the 25 documents that are in hand, and they are putting 189 1 it in place. I'm glad to see at this moment, and 2 it's somewhat tentative because she has yet to 3 work with Finley & Cook, but it looks like she 4 will have, the college will have balances to 5 finish this fiscal year, which was a big question 6 to all of us. 7 Well, as I understand, too, the way 8 the college looks at, they have kept the nursing 9 program money separate. They've always been a 10 separate money, except that there have been some 11 administrative charges to that -- to those 12 moneys. Now, things that happen in the past 13 before the president came there, yes, there were 14 some things that looked out of order. But she's 15 attempting now to get it all in order. So I think 16 we have to say that the president is to be 17 commended on that, because she is working hard, 18 Carlotta, all of us to get that in order. 19 MS. KNOWLES: The budget in question 20 is only for this year, Mr. Tippeconnie. The 21 report I got, I for the first time had a meeting 22 allowed with Finley & Cook on Friday. The report 23 is, is that they were not notified to come on 24 board to separate the nursing budget from the 25 general operating budget until Thursday night at 190 1 10 or 11:00 p.m. 2 They were only instructed to begin to 3 set up a charter of accounts and that the budget 4 that they are asked to start preparing now, three 5 months from the end of the fiscal year, is 6 starting now. We are in the red. Nursing has no 7 money because it was put with the general fund. 8 It's this year only we're talking about. 9 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Well, I think it's 10 appropriate to visit on those matters in executive 11 session. 12 MR. BURGESS: All right. Thank you 13 very much. So Carlotta, standby. Vance? Is 14 Mr. Yellowfish here? He's our Comanche relative 15 from down south taking Texas back. 16 MR. YELLOWFISH: I'm going to give 17 y'all some material. Mr. Chairman, thank you, CBC 18 Committee thank you, and beautiful citizens of 19 Comanche Nation, thank you as well for this brief 20 moment. My name is Vance Wylie Yellowfish. I am 21 a proud enrolled member of the Comanche Nation, 22 treasurer for the American Indian Education Parent 23 Advisory Committee located in Dallas. I brought 24 with me Carrie Roular, who is our vice-chair. Due 25 to budgets, we only have a few of us that could 191 1 make it up to this event this morning. 2 I'd like to start off by telling you 3 a little bit about our group. We've been in 4 existence for over 20 years, American Indian 5 Education Parent Advisory Committee. We currently 6 have over 600 intertribal students in our 7 schooling system down there, and 40 of those are 8 Comanche students. We were founded years ago by a 9 group of native parents that saw the importance of 10 continuing Indian education to our youth and 11 established the American Indian Education Parent 12 Advisory Committee at that time. Actually, it was 13 founded by Frank McLemore. 14 With that said, the group, as 15 anything, funds becomes a challenge. Having funds 16 to continue to support Indian education, we 17 started emphasizing on our powwows as you guys do 18 back home as we was taught back home to carry on 19 our heritage, to carry on our tradition for our 20 youth. 21 We have four events. Let me back up 22 a second. Our group is pretty small, big name but 23 a small group. 100 percent volunteer work is 24 done. Every minute of every hour of every event 25 that we're able to hold to raise money to continue 192 1 Indian education is strictly voluntary. We have 2 no funding, no grants. I just wanted to share 3 that with you guys. 4 Three of our -- four of our events 5 that we hold, three of them are powwows. One is 6 in March, which is a student powwow, then we have 7 contests to help raise money. We also have an 8 upcoming back to school powwow in August, which 9 one of the attachments will list that chairman. 10 And then in November we also have a princess 11 crowning, and we acknowledge our veterans in our 12 community as well. The fourth event is our 13 basketball tournament, we're holding our third 14 annual this year, and I'd like to thank the 15 Comanche Nation for promoting that in their 16 newspaper. I'd like the thank them for that. In 17 particular, J.J. has helped out with that. 18 We're asking for serious 19 consideration this year should the tribe help us 20 with any funding that would help the students 21 cover their SAT tests, which they have to pay for, 22 lunch money. Dallas school systems, the children 23 have to purchase uniforms down there, and uniforms 24 as well has been a big topic of recent, if I'm not 25 mistaken. Carrie, is that one of the hottest 193 1 topics, school uniforms? 2 General overall, basic school needs 3 and scholarship funding are pretty much what our 4 events that we have. Funding that we're able to 5 raise covers these items down there. With respect 6 to the tight agenda and all the topics that the 7 folks are discussing, I'm trying to go through 8 this as quickly as possible and ask for serious 9 consideration this year. Outside of that, I 10 believe I touched on everything and hope I left a 11 few minutes for any questions you may have or any 12 of the Comanche members may have about our 13 organization in Dallas. 14 MR. BURGESS: Members, does anybody 15 have a question or concern? 16 MR. YELLOWFISH: If I missed 17 anything, please remind me. 18 MR. ASEPERMY: 40 Comanches? 19 MR. YELLOWFISH: Yes, sir, students. 20 MR. ASEPERMY: Elton, is this your 21 nephew? 22 MR. YELLOWFISH: Grandson. 23 MR. ASEPERMY: Named after your dad? 24 MR. YELLOWFISH: I do not teach it. 25 I started out as a volunteer and advocate, and 194 1 then was voted in as treasurer and have been 2 holding that for two years for our group in 3 Dallas. 4 MR. BURGESS: Thank you very much. 5 We'll take it under advisement and get back to 6 you. We won't make a move right now, but we'll 7 get back to you. Mr. Yeagley, Mr. Tahchawwickah. 8 MR. NELSON: Mr. Yeagley and Nick 9 aren't here. We'd like at this time for Mr. Elton 10 Yellowfish, if the CBC doesn't mind, if he could 11 step in in his stead. 12 MR. BURGESS: That's fine. 13 MR. YELLOWFISH: Let me make some 14 comments before I get into this. I'm here to talk 15 about a problem that's plagued our Comanches for a 16 lot of years. It's addiction. It's alcohol 17 abuse, substance abuse, drug abuse. I have buried 18 relatives, I have laid in a VA hospital myself. 19 One of the things that bothers me is the fact that 20 many of these are young people. A lot of them 21 aren't, they're older people retired, but the 22 bottom line is we're losing our Comanches because 23 of alcohol abuse, drug abuse. 24 I've been advocating for this program 25 for three years. I have come before this 195 1 committee since 2006. I've given them printouts, 2 handouts like what I'm going to give them again. 3 I'm explained to them, I've talked with them on 4 the phone. Not these particular individuals, but 5 I've talked with them on the phone and they say, 6 oh, yeah, we need it, we'll help you, we'll 7 support, yes. 8 Keith Yackeyonny, still here? He was 9 on the committee at the time when I introduced 10 this in the year 2006 at General Council. He came 11 to me and said how much money are you talking, 12 Elton, and I told him. He says we might be able 13 to help you. I said good, let's give it a try. 14 Well, he got recalled. There went 15 our advocate. But the closest I've gotten to a 16 response from the Business Committee was the 17 former chairman, Wallace Coffey, who said Elton, 18 we need it. That's it. I never got a letter of 19 support, I never got a vote of confidence. 20 Nothing. But I didn't give up, because I believe 21 in this. It's too important, it's too important 22 to give up on. 23 In the two years from 2004 to 2006,, 24 this is put out by the Lawton Indian Hospital and 25 it's in the resolution, we have had an increase of 196 1 24 percent outpatient Comanches, men and women, 2 adults. Indian Hospital here, Hickory Star can 3 tell you. I've got a letter of endorsement here. 4 The problem is here, it's not going away. It's 5 getting worse. It's going to get worse before it 6 gets better. 7 Your relatives, my relatives. We 8 can't wait till -- we can't wait till tomorrow. 9 We can't wait another two years. We can't wait at 10 all. These people are leaving us too early. 11 Let's do something about it. Help me. Help me 12 do something. 13 I have in my hand here a resolution 14 to administer and manage an outpatient treatment 15 program here in Lawton, Comanche County. This 16 will be for Comanches only. Line item on the vote 17 has already been approved of in the amount of 18 $200,000. That's not a hell of a lot of money to 19 run a program like this on. I also have a 20 proposed budget in here. It's slim, but it's 21 there, because we believe in it, I believe in it. 22 The organization that I represent was 23 created in the year 2000. My wife and I, 24 co-founders of this. It's called the Oklahoma 25 Southwest I-Care, Incorporated. It's nonprofit, 197 1 it's a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization. It's an 2 Indian organization, independent and separate from 3 the Comanche tribe or any other tribe. Our goal 4 is sobriety, drug free, and this is what we want 5 to do. We don't want to get into politics. I 6 don't want to argue with you about anything that 7 we've talked about so far this morning. We want 8 to do treatment. We want to save Comanche lives. 9 Now, to my understanding, the last 10 time the committee looked at this, it was tabled 11 for lack of information. I'm not really sure what 12 they meant by that, but I'm here again. I have a 13 feeling that in the past since 2006, the Committee 14 put me on. They put me on ignore, they put me on 15 hold, they put me on wait. I don't mean this kind 16 of wait, I mean wait till next time. So here I am 17 again, and I'm asking the committee to read this, 18 look at it, pray about it, approve it so we can 19 get going. 20 This isn't new to Clyde, to Bob, to 21 Mike, and to Eddie Mahseet. Eddie and Clyde, I 22 think, were on the committee at the -- during that 23 time, 2006, were you guys there? Keith, Darrell 24 Bread, LaNora Parker, Ed Tahhahwah. They were 25 there at that time. I came to the General Council 198 1 and told them who we are and what we want to do. 2 We lost a quorum. I came down from Phoenix this 3 April to do the same thing. I was at the tail 4 end, no quorum. 5 Well, I cussed a little bit, but 6 still didn't get a quorum. So I'm going to give 7 this to you, fellas, and I'm hoping that in all 8 due seriousness, after three years, you'd think 9 hey, Elton, we're going to give you an answer, yes 10 or no. Tell me yes or tell me no. And if you 11 turn me down, I'll go look some other place, but I 12 want to help my folks. This is where I want to 13 be. 14 Now, I give this information to these 15 guys. I want you to ask questions, I want you to 16 ask questions. I did some writing in the 17 newspaper, maybe you read it. I've had a couple 18 of people since I got here this morning ask me 19 some questions. So I'm open to information 20 from -- yes? 21 MR. HENSON: Elton, you had called me 22 several times on this, and you had sent me a 23 little bit of information. I didn't -- at that 24 time I didn't know anything about it or what was 25 going on, so I did look at your information. Then 199 1 when I got on the committee, I understand that we 2 have a program already. But what we've done in 3 the meantime -- is Willie still here? We have 4 looked into this, what you're talking about, and 5 Willie I think is supposed to come up with 6 something or another. 7 MR. ASEPERMY: A recommendation on 8 the meeting for September. 9 MR. NELSON: Can I just give a 10 summation, if you could pardon me, Elton? 11 MR. YELLOWFISH: Sure. 12 MR. NELSON: God bless you. What 13 Elton has been proposing for a long time is really 14 needed. It is needed. This feasibility that the 15 CBC wants me to do, we have a group that has a 16 methadone program. That's an alternative to 17 habitual drugs. You guys gave me the task of our 18 own substance abuse program and to try to 19 incorporate Elton. 20 I don't know about everybody else, 21 but we are board poor, committee poor. Keep in 22 mind what you gentlemen passed on for our 23 consolidation effort. I shared this with 24 Mr. Yellowfish, I stayed till what, 6 o'clock 25 to show him. I don't know how I can incorporate 200 1 the feasibility, Lanny, gentlemen, chairman, if he 2 is going to be his own sovereign entity. If he is 3 his own sovereign entity where the Nation endorses 4 him to be as such, I do not know how we can 5 incorporate it in the consolidation. 6 Keep in mind, all we have now is 7 counsel. We have counseling and outreach. It's 8 effective. Eddie, it is effective. I mean, the 9 staff there, they bring them in for counseling. 10 But the thing is this, guys: I-Care and what I've 11 seen the mandate that he's going to follow is to 12 be drug-free, drug-clean, with a follow-up 13 process. 14 MR. HENSON: What is the difference 15 between our Comanche Nation Substance Abuse 16 Program and the program that you're trying to 17 present to us? There you go, Elton. I don't know 18 the difference. 19 MR. YELLOWFISH: I see this as taking 20 some of the workload away from this group of 21 people, from him as a Tribal Administrator. If 22 you approve of this resolution, we'll enter into a 23 contract agreement. Comanches do contracts all 24 the time. You realize that, you know that. These 25 guys over here are on contract. Okay? 201 1 I'm the CEO chairman of I-Care. I 2 will sign that. I'm the one that you will be 3 holding responsible. That's true of any document, 4 whoever signs the bottom line, be it chairman, 5 CEO. 6 MR. HENSON: Don't get me wrong. 7 All's I want to know is what's the difference 8 between your program and the program we've got. 9 MR. YELLOWFISH: Sure. We need a 10 structured program. 11 MS. ATTOCKNIE: The substance abuse 12 program covers K-12th grade students. It does 13 include adults. 14 MR. YELLOWFISH: We create a 15 structured program of counseling, one-to-one 16 counseling, group, afternoon program consisting of 17 meditation, bringing in professional people, 18 medical doctors, nurses, social workers, 19 psychologists, sweat lodge traditional, bringing 20 them in and conducting this in the afternoon with 21 the counseling taking place in the morning. 22 Now, each client we want to keep 23 three months. When they finish our program, we'll 24 sign off on it. We're going to talk to the judges 25 at court and we're going to say we've got a three- 202 1 month program, it's staffed with certified 2 counselors. Don't lock our Comanches up for DUI 3 and send them off to McAlister. Let us work with 4 them. Let I-Care work with them. If they 5 misstep, if they don't attend classes like they're 6 supposed to, we report this to the court and 7 they'll probably get locked up. 8 MR. HENSON: What kind of follow-up 9 are you going to have on your patients? 10 MR. YELLOWFISH: What kind of follow- 11 up? We're going to have good follow-up. Once 12 they're discharged, the counselors will make site 13 visits, home visits, and they will be in touch 14 with the coordinator. They're going to say this 15 person is working, this person is in school, or 16 this person is sober. Mainly, we want to know if 17 that person is sober, staying drug-free. 18 MR. HENSON: How long are your 19 follow-ups? 20 MR. YELLOWFISH: Forever. 21 MR. HENSON: Forever? 22 MR. YELLOWFISH: A long time. As 23 long as they live in Comanche County and we exist, 24 we want to know where they're at and how they're 25 doing. It gets to that point where people like 203 1 this will come in voluntarily and say, hey, can I 2 talk with you a minute? Sure, sit down. That's a 3 good sign when that happens. 4 MR. HENSON: This doesn't only cover 5 Comanche County, though, does it? 6 MR. YELLOWFISH: Well, if we've spent 7 Comanche money, we're going to work with Comanche 8 clients. Comanches live in Caddo County, Comanche 9 County, Cotton County. So wherever they reside, 10 the communities, this is where we want to work at. 11 MR. BURGESS: Let's move on. We have 12 two more statements, and, ladies and gentlemen, 13 there's already been a resolution passed to this 14 effect, but we'll take a few statements. 15 MR. TOM NARCOMEY: This particular 16 program, is it an in-house program or is it 17 voluntary? 18 MR. YELLOWFISH: Well, you can come 19 in as a self referral voluntarily. We will accept 20 court referrals, the judge. One of two ways, or 21 they can be referred by other tribal alcohol 22 substance abuse programs. Kiowas have one, Casa 23 has one. 24 MR. TOM NARCOMEY: They need to be 25 sat down and told that this is going to be a waste 204 1 of their time and your time if they don't do like 2 they're supposed to. Simple as that. They need 3 to say yes or no. 4 MR. YELLOWFISH: Well, before each 5 client comes through, before we sign them up, 6 we're going to talk to them. One of the first 7 things we're going to do is say go take a 8 medical. We want to know if you're on medication, 9 what it is, how often you take it. You come back 10 to us and we'll do an intake, we'll do an 11 assessment, and you'll sit down with a counselor 12 and work out a treatment plan. We're going to 13 hold you to it. You sign off on it and you agree 14 to attend classes and to be there. If you want to 15 stay sober, if you want to -- 16 MR. TOM NARCOMEY: You won't have a 17 facility where they can stay those three months? 18 MR. YELLOWFISH: No, this is 19 outpatient. Our long-range goal, Wilbur, one day 20 soon, and maybe these guys up here can help us, 21 but the long-range goal is for one day five years, 22 10 years from now establish an inpatient hospital, 23 treatment, someplace nearby. Someplace near 24 Indian Hospital. 25 MR. BURGESS: We have a statement and 205 1 then Mr. Asepermy had a question; is that right? 2 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: What I 3 understand, I used to work in the program, the 4 prevention programs that the tribe had. It's 5 probably changed because it's been several years, 6 but at that time we worked mostly with young 7 children, like he just said, school-age kids, 8 prevention. What you're talking about is 9 treatment and there would be people coming to us 10 to our programs that would want help or that need 11 help and they needed treatment, the tribe would 12 have that. 13 We would have -- our director would 14 have to try and find a treatment program in the 15 area. A lot of them were sent to the Ada area 16 where they have an Indian -- at least they did 17 then. Drug program there. Where they live there, 18 you know, took I think it was three months. A lot 19 of them were from Fort Worth, or, you know, they 20 had to go there or they were going to jail. So we 21 would help them, you know, get into this program. 22 But the tribe didn't have a program. There wasn't 23 a program in this area, in the Lawton, Anadarko 24 area where it was -- where they could go and have 25 treatment, be their resident and live-in 206 1 treatment. So they'd have to go outside this 2 area. We'd have to take them to the Ada area for 3 treatment. So if this is like -- I think, you 4 know, I know they have use of one. 5 MR. YELLOWFISH: There's a positive 6 side to local outpatient. You can still as a 7 client attend, be signed up, be a client and still 8 hold a job. You can still be with your family. 9 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: That's the 10 thing, they had to get sent off, they had to leave 11 and couldn't keep their job. They couldn't do all 12 that other stuff, but that was the only option 13 they had. Either that or the jail. 14 MR. BURGESS: Okay, thank you. One 15 last statement. Let's keep it brief, ladies and 16 gentlemen. We have about 12 more items in our 17 executive session to get to. 18 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I just wanted 19 to say that I have that in my family, and we don't 20 have enough of that to go around. I want my son 21 to go anywhere that he needs these, not because we 22 already have one over there, you're not going to 23 deny him, but we need them all. We need them all. 24 MR. BURGESS: Okay. Thank you. 25 MR. HENSON: Let me ask one 207 1 question: In what way can you be connected to our 2 employees like in the casino or our employees out 3 here? We have a policy that says before -- or 4 should have a policy, I think we do, that says 5 before we can fire them for substance abuse, drug 6 abuse or whatever, we should give them the 7 opportunity to straighten it up by going to a 8 program. Is your program going to be qualified 9 for that? 10 MR. YELLOWFISH: We would be willing 11 to do this. Other tribal programs with casinos 12 are experiencing the same problem. They have an 13 in-house component built very much like what we 14 are proposing. They're saying before we fire you, 15 you go see the counselor and you get lined up for 16 treatment. If you stick by the rules and go 17 through the three-month treatment period, this is 18 set up on three months, too, we'll hire you back. 19 MR. HENSON: What I'm asking is, 20 would that serve as an accreditation for him as a 21 treatment so he can get back to work, or she? 22 MR. YELLOWFISH: I don't know why it 23 would not. I don't know why it wouldn't. 24 MR. HENSON: There's no kind of state 25 laws governing that or anything? 208 1 MR. NELSON: Yes, there is. 2 MR. HENSON: That would be a big 3 question because I can see you getting on our 4 staff -- 5 MR. BURGESS: Let's put it this way, 6 ladies and gentlemen. All of us are affected by 7 the need for this type of organization. We have 8 two entities in the Tribe, and we've asked 9 Mr. Nelson previously to network and coordinate 10 with Mr. Yellowfish here on the technicalities, 11 how the program would be merged, how the funding 12 cycle would run. Let's give that a chance to 13 work. If you have these concerns, you need to 14 come back to Mr. Yellowfish or Mr. Nelson at 15 another time. I've got a long agenda for you. 16 We're trying to accommodate everybody. 17 MR. ASEPERMY: You just asked the 18 question I needed to ask. 19 MR. BURGESS: That's fine. 20 Mr. Nelson, you've been charged previously. 21 MR. NELSON: Mr. Chairman, I charge 22 the CBC to move on a motion, and not only will the 23 feasibility be done and incorporated, but this 24 man's been on hold for a lifetime. 25 MS. GRIFFIN: In the meantime, we're 209 1 losing members. 2 MR. ASEPERMY: My question, Willie, 3 is the question you answered at first. We taxed 4 you with making a recommendation to do we stay 5 with our current substance abuse program, and we 6 also have a New Pathways program. Elton, during 7 one of our conversations, I guess the best part of 8 it was your follow-up, but our substance abuse 9 program has 121 clients. They had four referrals, 10 either to Wichita Falls or there's another place 11 up in the panhandle, where they did the 28 to 12 30-day program. Our New Pathways provides a place 13 for them to be inpatient. 14 Now, is your I-Care program going to 15 be able to do what our current substance abuse 16 program and our New Pathways program, and I know 17 you can't, not with the money you put down here. 18 I think we budget -- 19 MR. YELLOWFISH: Well, that money was 20 approved by the voters. I didn't put it down. It 21 was on the line item for $200,000. We approved it 22 and we put it down. 23 MR. ASEPERMY: Can we have one-stop 24 shopping? Send a person that is in trouble, send 25 a person who has a substance or drug problem to 210 1 one place, either refer them out, counsel, or give 2 them a place to, you know, get on a work program 3 or something like that? 4 MR. NELSON: We don't have follow-up, 5 Lanny. Mike and I dealt with one of our enrolled 6 members yesterday, and he's fearful. He's going 7 to do the three months, he's going to come home, 8 and he just knows he's going to fall off the 9 wagon, you know, and that's what kills it right 10 there, that follow-up. 11 MR. ASEPERMY: With this resolution, 12 does this mean that the current substance abuse 13 program from 1 October will continue and that we 14 will continue with the New Pathways and this will 15 be a third? 16 MR. NELSON: Well, keep in mind the 17 line item reads substance abuse. That's what the 18 Tribal Council voted for. That's the question. 19 So through a motion entertained, do we allow 20 I-Care to supplement that? That's the question. 21 MR. BURGESS: Let me make a 22 statement: That money has been utilized by 23 substance abuse by the federal program guidance is 24 18 and under. 25 MR. NELSON: It entertains adults. 211 1 MR. BURGESS: It's supposed to. 2 MR. NELSON: The grant deals with 3 adolescents. 4 MR. BURGESS: It also means that the 5 people deal with adults have to have a license and 6 follow state guidelines. In our policies we need 7 to change to grant that in, grandfather that 8 policy that deals with adults. So we have to make 9 a policy change in order for them to go forward, 10 if we haven't already done so. 11 MR. YELLOWFISH: Mr. Chairman, let me 12 respond to Lanny's questions about New Pathways 13 and 121 clients. Treatment, we're into 14 treatment. We're into treatment. A structured 15 program is what we're going to bring in. That's 16 the big difference in what we're proposing and to 17 what you got now. We're coming with certified 18 counselors, we are coming with a structured 19 program. We're not just taking Comanche $200,000 20 money and spending it. It's a service, and 21 treatment is the core. It is nonprofit. 22 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Is it already 23 successful in the process somewhere else and we're 24 bringing it here? Is I-Care already being 25 implemented somewhere else and you're going to 212 1 bring it here to the Comanches? 2 MR. YELLOWFISH: No, we're brand 3 new. Help us get a track record. Help us 4 establish a track record. I've been turned down 5 by four -- 6 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I heard your 7 talk with the OIABA wanting to build a facility 8 there. 9 MR. YELLOWFISH: I've been denied 10 almost 10 times. One of the reasons why is 11 because we don't have a track record. 12 MR. BURGESS: We're going to take one 13 last statement here from the audience, and after 14 this, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Nelson has been 15 charged to network with him on the 16 technicalities. You're asking the questions of a 17 technical nature about I-Care, and after we get a 18 report or conclusion from Mr. Nelson, we can't do 19 anything until the budget year begins in the first 20 place. So at this time, Alicia? 21 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: The concern I 22 have is that -- I heard them say not to be under 23 any structure. Not to be under the tribe or any 24 tribe. That's a concern. 25 MR. BURGESS: Okay. 213 1 MR. YELLOWFISH: This is the reason 2 why it's a contract request. 3 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yeah, I 4 understand. 5 MR. BURGESS: Okay. That, again, is 6 a technical situation that Mr. Nelson and 7 Mr. Yellowfish would be working on. You've 8 already got a resolution to work with them on 9 that, I'm told. 10 MR. NELSON: Actually, it's the 11 motion. 12 MR. BURGESS: What we need from you 13 is that feasibility study. Then we make the 14 resolution -- 15 MR. NELSON: On that motion I was 16 charged to get it to you in September for fiscal 17 year 2010. 18 MR. BURGESS: Can you get something 19 worked out by August? 20 MR. NELSON: Well, this is something 21 new with the resolution, Eddie. It's something 22 new, you've got a resolution. 23 MR. BURGESS: I prefer we just go 24 ahead and go with that motion so you can work with 25 the technical situation. Because if we are going 214 1 to do it, we have to wait until October to pass 2 the resolution to contract. That's what it's 3 going to be. And so we need you to work together, 4 see how that funding will be set up. I know you 5 got us a budget, I know what your establishment 6 is. We also need to know the location, and as we 7 get funding, we have to have a contractual 8 arrangement when that funding would flow. 9 MR. YELLOWFISH: Are you aware of the 10 planning that needs to take place so that when 11 October 1 gets here we'll be ready to hit the 12 ground running. You understand that, members of 13 the committee. You just don't start a program 14 first thing tomorrow. I mean, we've got to do 15 some planning, where, how much money allocated, 16 how much money are we going to be able to work 17 with. We've got job descriptions. We've get our 18 own job descriptions, we've got our own personnel 19 policies, we've got our own bylaws. We've got the 20 whole infrastructure in place. 21 MR. BURGESS: That's the whole 22 package then? Can you just give it to Willie? We 23 have to get that by September 1? 24 MR. YELLOWFISH: You know, this is 25 what I'm proposing. I mean, you could say 215 1 whatever, you know, you've got a governing body. 2 I'm here trying to convince you that the sooner 3 you pass this, you know, let me go on with my 4 business and you guys go on with your business, 5 realizing that no moneys can be spent until 6 October 1. 7 MR. HENSON: One question: How is 8 this program going to -- how are you going to work 9 with the program that's already established by the 10 tribe? I understand there's two programs, one for 11 the youth and then New Pathways. 12 MR. YELLOWFISH: Again, this is the 13 same response I give to Lanny. We're dealing with 14 adults, male, female, and sobriety and treatment 15 is what we're doing. Now, is Pathways doing this? 16 MR. HENSON: That's what I was 17 asking. I don't know. 18 MR. YELLOWFISH: They're not doing 19 treatment, are they? 20 MR. GRIFFIN: They're aftercare. 21 They don't have anything for the current 22 treatment. 23 MR. YELLOWFISH: You go to New 24 Pathways after you get out of treatment. They 25 help you find a job, you've got a residential 216 1 place to live. We're placing that in between 2 program. 3 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: A lot of 4 people have burned their bridges with family, and 5 the halfway house is after inpatient treatment. 6 That's what it's about. 7 MR. BURGESS: So this is treatment 8 but not inpatient? 9 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes, helping 10 you get yourself back on your feet. 11 MR. YELLOWFISH: Look at that time 12 paperwork, look at the paperwork. Three years now 13 I've been giving them paper, paper. 14 MR. HENSON: I don't understand the 15 program for one reason. 16 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I used to work 17 for a substance abuse for the Comanche Tribe for 18 the acting director at one time, and that contract 19 is for K-12. People used to come and ask for 20 help. The only place they could go was CASA, but 21 then CASA doesn't have that much money to hire 22 Comanche people. 23 MR. HENSON: So this program of 24 Pathways is for K-12? 25 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It's after 217 1 inpatient treatment which is more restrictive, a 2 hospital. 3 MR. NELSON: The CBC did pass a 4 resolution consolidation effort, and it's really 5 working because all of our health services have 6 held silent meetings, gentlemen. The cooperation 7 factor's already started to benefit our people. I 8 didn't ask them to do this, they just did it on 9 their own. 10 Now, remember, under the tier of all 11 the health care that you guys passed in the 12 resolution, the cooperation effect of prison 13 reintegration and WIA and then hire someone on, 14 gosh, we've had people that's gone through this 15 step and it's worked out. Alicia should be 16 applauded for this. Things are working out. 17 MS. ISAAC: You've hired prisoners 18 and I respect the person that goes to prison and 19 then comes back and does a good job, but I don't 20 respect a person that comes to get a job here that 21 needs to be in prison and has stolen from us and 22 then y'all hire them. 23 MR. BURGESS: Now, Mr. Nelson, you 24 and Mr. Yellowfish come back to us in September, 25 give us a resolution on our letterhead, give us a 218 1 resolution in our format so we can approve it. 2 It's the general feeling here our people say we 3 need it. We're not going to ignore them, but we 4 want to work this out in our situation, and it's 5 going to be a contract. But, you know, that when 6 you propose a contract, you list the service and 7 all that. So if you're going to start looking for 8 office space and all that, then you might network 9 with us and we might rent you office space as 10 well. 11 MR. YELLOWFISH: I don't mind doing 12 that, but what is your official answer to me right 13 now as I look at each one of you? You tell me 14 wait, ignore, or what? 15 MR. BURGESS: I haven't heard from 16 Mr. Nelson. Let's got. 17 MR. YELLOWFISH: What's your 18 recommendation? 19 MR. NELSON: I told Robert, we need 20 to entertain this motion, that you have a 21 resolution in hand. Total acknowledgement. 22 Before it wasn't acknowledged. 23 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I'll make this 24 motion that we acknowledge receiving the 25 resolution, and that we ask the TA to give us an 219 1 evaluation how we can implement. 2 MR. YELLOWFISH: Isn't that what you 3 said the last time? 4 MR. NELSON: It never was moved on, 5 sir. 6 MR. TIPPECONNIE: As a resolution. 7 MR. ASEPERMY: This resolution says 8 on the bottom: Be it further resolved that 9 funding for the project I-CARE shall be available 10 upon approval of the Comanche Nation budget line 11 item of $200,000 for substance abuse. My question 12 is, are we going to continue -- Willie, are we 13 going to continue with our substance abuse program 14 as it is and our New Pathways program as it is, or 15 is this going to be a third? 16 MR. NELSON: Well, this is my -- my 17 feasibility is this: We have working clients. We 18 have got people that are in this mode right now. 19 We can't throw it out there. We just can't throw 20 it out there. 21 MR. ASEPERMY: The way I read this 22 resolutions is, come 1 October, project I-CARE 23 will be our substance abuse program, and that the 24 current substance abuse program will poof, 25 disappear. 220 1 MR. NELSON: My feasibility will 2 include, hopefully, I've talked to Elton on this, 3 we have shared, I've talked to Ronnie Dale, I've 4 talked to Curran Yellowfish. Hopefully we 5 incorporate all of it, but once again, he's the 6 standing CEO, guys. You know, this is a total 7 separate entity. Our people voted on substance 8 abuse. You know, that's where it's going to go. 9 You know, it's not us playing 10 volleyball, Eddie. It's really what's going to 11 work well. He brought this resolution to you. 12 Before there's always talking about it. 13 MR. ASEPERMY: But if we pass this 14 resolution as it reads, then the current substance 15 abuse program that we have on board will 16 disappear. 17 MRS. NELSON: Not today. 18 MR. ASEPERMY: On 1 October, 30 19 September. 20 MR. NELSON: If you guys entertain 21 the motion that you did receive this resolution, 22 it will actually be that this is the route we're 23 going to go. If you don't, go to the true 24 feasibility then act on it then. 25 MR. BURGESS: Let me say this: The 221 1 substance abuse program we have currently is a 2 federally funded program. 3 MR. ASEPERMY: Not all of it. 4 MR. BURGESS: Well, it has its 5 federal funds and it never received money until 6 about four years ago when they put this line item 7 in. Then the question was, where is that money 8 going to serviced, processed, how are we going to 9 get service. Oh, well, we have the youth 10 substance abuse program and the money went over 11 there. However, this money wasn't specified just 12 for that. The idea on the floor was for the adult 13 people that were missing. And so that's why the 14 money went there, and they coexisted with their 15 federal funds, which they still get. Somewhere 16 around 130, 150,000. 17 MR. TIPPECONNIE: They do coexist. 18 MR. BURGESS: So this money is being 19 funneled out of there and their guides have been 20 federal, said youth, when in fact they can service 21 adults because it's separate, but we don't have a 22 policy saying we can service adults. Now we have 23 a possibility of serving that community that's not 24 been served, the adults from 18 and a day to 25 whenever they want to go into the program, and 222 1 it's outpatient care where they don't lose jobs, 2 where they're not lost from families and all. And 3 then the program will have an Indian flare. 4 I've been to places where Indians who 5 were involved with AA get kicked out because they 6 go to Native American church or whatever. So this 7 is a program that's highly needed, but the 8 language has to be our language and acceptable, 9 because if we're going to work the program, we 10 just identified another project that could be 11 worked with it. Many of the people that are in 12 prison are in because of drugs and abuse, 13 bankruptcies while they were under the influence. 14 They would be serviced well by this program, and 15 follow-up care is necessary. 16 That's why we want our language in 17 here to say if we're going to contract with you, 18 we're going to contract at this amount, not the 19 line item that you've identified. 20 MR. NELSON: Can we table this 21 resolution until -- 22 MR. YELLOWFISH: So you're not in 23 agreement with the amount and the way it's 24 written? 25 MR. BURGESS: I'm not in agreement 223 1 with using substance abuse in your line item that 2 identifies this item. You're just going to 3 service us to this contract amount and just take 4 out the -- but we want to read this some more. 5 Because if we're going to have a contract with 6 you, you're not a part of the tribe. We are going 7 through reorganization in the tribe of all our 8 health care programs. So we have to set the 9 system up so that we can contract with you on the 10 outside. I'm saying internally we have to get 11 this designed, and you know that, Willie. 12 We're spending a lot of time on this 13 discussion that highly important, but, again, we 14 got all these other items. Everybody wants to be 15 on the agenda. I'm trying to tell you, this is 16 further discussion that can be done outside of 17 this meeting. 18 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Why don't you 19 just create a position for him and work it in 20 instead of contracting this? Hire him to work for 21 the Tribe and create it. 22 MR. BURGESS: He doesn't want to be 23 an employee. I mean, he's been here for six 24 years. 25 MR. YELLOWFISH: I used to be an 224 1 employee here. 2 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Sounds like 3 we've already got programs in place and they just 4 need to improve on. 5 MR. YELLOWFISH: My approach is to be 6 more specific and to help people that need help. 7 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: To help the 8 people, you need to be the people. 9 MR. HENSON: Let me say one thing 10 before I think we need to close this thing, 11 really. From what I read of his program, it 12 sounds real good. It really sounds good, but 13 there needs to be a little bit more information 14 and going through it. We don't want to do like 15 it's done before. We don't want to get in any 16 trouble by rash decisions. So what we're asking 17 Willie to do right now is to jump in with him, run 18 this thing, make the reports and everything that 19 we asked for, and then we'll take a very serious 20 look at this. 21 But the way he's mentioned it right 22 here, a budget line item, we've already got a 23 budget line item for this much, and his program is 24 separate. So that's something we got to work 25 through when we get all the information. But he 225 1 does have a very good program and I'm all for it. 2 MR. BURGESS: I'm for the program. I 3 do want our format and our language so we're 4 not -- and if we pull it from these line items an 5 add the other one to it, we can do that. But the 6 budget modification, now, that's what you're 7 asking us to do, because if we turn around and 8 pull that out of there and this assistance is 9 planned already, we got to tell them halt that, go 10 back to this budget, do this specifically. So we 11 have internal communication and mechanisms that we 12 have to go through. 13 MR. NELSON: Okay. 14 MR. BURGESS: That's all I'm asking. 15 So that's why I'm saying September 1, we get this 16 hammered out by September 1 and agree it to, then 17 October 1 it's in force. Is that fair? 18 MR. YELLOWFISH: That's okay. Let me 19 say this to the committee. I think the whole 20 committee is here. Is anybody missing? I 21 appreciate this, guys, because you've given me 22 substance right here, response. Heretofore, for 23 three years, I've got zero from you. That doesn't 24 speak very well for a committee where health care, 25 behavioral health ought to have a hell of a lot 226 1 higher priority than what you're giving it. 2 How much money have you spent for 3 lawsuits? How much money have you doled out with 4 no returns? What I'm asking for is give this 5 behavioral health, this alcohol and drug program a 6 higher priority. Put some bugs into it. Let it 7 be run professionally. I bring professionalism to 8 this program, I bring integrity to this program. 9 You have problems with this alcohol program as it 10 exists now. Hasn't he? I bring integrity here. 11 I have no blemishes. Thank you. 12 (Break held.) 13 MR. BURGESS: Come back to order. 14 Reconvene, please. Mr. Nelson, ladies and 15 gentlemen, it's been a very full day. We're going 16 to continue new and old business. What we want to 17 do is reconvene after we finish new and old 18 business, executive session. Those of you who are 19 here for executive session, we're going to 20 reconvene next Thursday in this room. 21 It is now 3:30 p.m.. I appreciate 22 your understanding and following with this. 23 There's just so much going on and a lot of you got 24 a lot of information and want to give us 25 information, and we want to hear that, but I don't 227 1 want to ruin your Saturday. Everybody's got 2 things to do. So next Thursday the executive 3 session we'll reconvene at that time. So after 4 this, we're going to recess. Come back next 5 Thursday at 4 o'clock with all the executive 6 session. That's the only way I can be fair to you 7 and to us. It's getting to be a long day. So 8 those of you who are in executive session, if 9 you'd like to leave now you may. 4 o'clock here 10 in this room. Monday check in, double check. 11 Hopefully we don't have any conflict of activities 12 in this room. 13 MR. NELSON: Mr. Chairman, there's a 14 young lady that's going to be involved with the 15 Walters homecoming, Christine Nauni and group. 16 Could y'all please come forward because it should 17 be just small. It's just a small request. 18 MR. YEAGLEY: My apologizes to the 19 committee. I thought that we were in August. 20 This is my mistake. Plus I thought today was the 21 17th and I've been over at Walters. I stopped by 22 here to use the facilities, and low and behold -- 23 MR. BURGESS: So he's moved to 24 August. 25 MR. ASEPERMY: Do we need to put you 228 1 on the August agenda, Dr. Yeagley? 2 DR. YEAGLEY: I'm praying for that, 3 yes. 4 MR. TIPPECONNIE: I will do that. 5 MR. NARCOMEY: This is Francine 6 Jones. She's on our new and old business, she's 7 number 38. It has her turn now. She wants me to 8 read this paperwork to you: 9 "I am writing to appeal my eviction 10 from the casino. I have attached a copy of the 11 eviction for your reference. On Wednesday, 5-20- 12 09, at approximately 8:30, I was trying to get to 13 the restroom and the aisle was blocked by two 14 people which prevented me from passing in my 15 wheelchair. I said excuse me several times. The 16 lady moved, but the man just looked at me and 17 continued to stand in the way. 18 "I became frustrated at the time and 19 yelled, could you get the hell out of my way. He 20 still would not move out of my way. Instead he 21 snarled at me and said something that I didn't 22 hear clearly. So I just rolled my wheelchair 23 forward to try to get by. I accidentally hit the 24 man's toes, at which time he struck me on the top 25 of the head and called me a bitch. I went on to 229 1 the restroom, and when I came out, came back out, 2 the floor manager called me aside and asked me 3 about what happened. 4 "I told him exactly what happened, 5 and he asked me whose fault did I think it was. I 6 told him that I thought it was both of our faults 7 because of the way he acted. The floor manager 8 then said I heard enough and I don't want to hear 9 anymore. Then I went on my way and remained at 10 the casino for a couple more hours. 11 "I also went to the casinos the next 12 day for a long walk. On the 5-27-09 I went to the 13 casino and played games for a while. Right after 14 I cashed out, the security guard told me they 15 wanted to see me, and he escorted me to the bingo 16 hall. That's when I was given the eviction notice 17 and was escorted outside. I feel this eviction 18 was unjustified and would like to appeal to the 19 Gaming Commission." 20 Now, I don't know too much about it, 21 except what y'all know now, so I'll let her do 22 whatever she wants to do. 23 MS. JONES: Darrell is not the 24 manager there, and he -- and I told him, I said I 25 had to leave, and he said yeah, I know. You know, 230 1 real smug. 2 MR. NARCOMEY: It's got Ms. Francis 3 Jones, notice of eviction, type of eviction it's 4 got circled, one, temporary or permanent, and they 5 have circled temporary. Temporary date ending 6 eviction 90 days, so she won't be able to go back 7 till the 22nd of August '09. This was signed by 8 office manager, Darrell Chrismon, and he's the 9 operations manager, not the general manager. He's 10 the one who gave you this and told you you was 11 barred for 90 days? 12 MS. JONES: The security gave it to 13 me, the Gaming Board gave it to me. See, and they 14 should -- if they was going to do anything, they 15 should have did it the same day that it happened, 16 or talked to both of us, instead of wait till two 17 or three days later and evicted me only. Because 18 the man that I ran into, he only comes there on a 19 Tuesday. He never plays games there, he only 20 comes and gets his $10. That's all he does. 21 That's all he -- he sits at a table and they call 22 his name, you know, to get some money. In other 23 words, he won't play. He doesn't play at all. 24 I think that was not right for them 25 to do this to me. You know, at least 30 days 231 1 would have been okay. I've been accused of 2 begging people. I came up here and asked -- what 3 is that, used to be the security? Mr. Anderson 4 for some little handcuffs to give to the security 5 out there. I thought they were cute. Y'all 6 probably seen these little handcuffs and I took 7 them down and I gave them to security. And guess 8 what? I had to leave because they said I was 9 trying to -- how do you say that? Yeah, I was 10 panhandling security down there. But if I'm going 11 to ask for something, I'll flat out ask for it. 12 I'll say it. You know what I mean? I don't beat 13 around the bush. 14 I don't know why, you know, but I 15 want to tell y'all something. That casino is 16 losing a lot of customers, good paying customers. 17 I see them at the Apache casino now. The good 18 playing customers are at the Apache casino. Even 19 the cab driver who brought me out here today, she 20 said there's no way in the world I'd go back to 21 the Comanche. She said they're so rude. They are 22 very rude. They need some learning from the 23 Apache tribe. They do need some very much. 24 And another thing, too. That heat 25 was -- they've had heat before I had to get out of 232 1 there. That heat was broken then. They had, you 2 know, no cool air. It's freezing over in the 3 bingo hall. It's freezing in there and it's 4 burning up down here. Somebody really needs to 5 see about that. 6 MR. BURGESS: Is that why you got so 7 violent? 8 MS. JONES: Me? Hell, I stay 9 violent. What do you mean? 10 MR. BURGESS: All right, Francine. 11 We know that you have the pending meeting with the 12 Gaming Board and it's still in their hands. 13 MS. JONES: No, I've done it twice 14 and I can't -- it's on a Saturday and I told the 15 Gaming Board to come up here. They said -- that 16 lady said we can't hear you because we're part of 17 it. I refuse to go anymore to their meetings 18 because it's going -- it costs me $10 to get up 19 there and $10 back. You know why mean? And I 20 can't afford it. 21 These buses need to run -- I want to 22 talk about the buses now. They need to be running 23 on a day like this, you know, when we have 24 meetings and stuff like that. Because a lot of 25 people can't make it today because they didn't 233 1 have no way. The rudeness of some of the bus 2 drivers and the rudeness of -- how would you like 3 to be on the bus and the bus driver tell you, 4 well, Francine, I've got to go pick up this 5 person. I'm going and when I come around back, 6 I'm pick you back up. Well, I wait. I had to go 7 pick up that letter from the Gaming Board at the 8 post office on 82nd or somewhere way out there. 9 I went and he said, well, I got to go 10 pick up somebody and I'll be back to pick you up. 11 Well, I waited. 11 o'clock came, 11:30 came. 12 See, I called in and they said, well, he said that 13 you gave him a certain time to pick you up. I 14 said, no, he didn't. When he got back I said. He 15 picked me up about 11:30, almost 12:00. I said, 16 Joe, you said you would come back around to pick 17 me up, you know, and he said I didn't say that 18 goddamn thing, shut your goddamn mouth. I don't 19 like to be told like that. 20 And seeing Willie, when I told Willie 21 about it, Willie said you must have been mean to 22 him. No, I was nice to him. I said I'll just 23 wait for you, but I don't need to be talked like 24 that, too. 25 MR. BURGESS: You're right, you're 234 1 right. Mr. Nelson, I guess she's already talked 2 to you about her situation on the bus? 3 MR. NELSON: Yes. 4 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I would just 5 take an opportunity at this moment about this 6 particular subject or kind of in reference to it. 7 I want to bring something to your attention as 8 leaders. Our Comanche casino, the employees there 9 are very rude to our tribal elders. Francine is 10 not the first tribal elder. I have personally 11 witnessed -- I worked there at the time, and I was 12 told not to wait on certain ones and not to do 13 things. So I have firsthand knowledge of how 14 these Elders have been treated, not just her. 15 MR. HENSON: Can I kind of cut this 16 off a little bit and tell you one thing? That is 17 definitely being looked into. There's been a 18 couple of meetings already held on it, and I can 19 assure you -- 20 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I understand 21 that, Mr. Henson. I just want to make an 22 expression really quick and let you move on. I 23 want to make sure that I make it a point to voice 24 something on their behalf. Please, these are our 25 Elders. We have that because of them, because 235 1 they were before us, and if they want to go and 2 sit and drink coffee and visit with one another, 3 if they want to get a soda or whatever, they don't 4 have to be playing the machines. It's our 5 casino. It's their casino. Treat them special in 6 there, you know. 7 Many times our Elders have been -- 8 and I, you know, Francine, I have seen them be 9 rude to you in there, and she represents a problem 10 that we have with our Elders. They need someplace 11 to go, something to do, people to be around. She 12 goes down there just to sit and visit, and they're 13 treated rude. So I just wanted to take that 14 opportunity to bring that to all of y'all's 15 attention. 16 MS. JONES: May I say one more 17 thing? People say my mother's in a wheelchair, my 18 father's in a wheelchair. I said bring them down, 19 get them out of the house, and they bring them 20 down there, you know. I mean, they got to get 21 out. I'm not going to stay home and feel sorry 22 for myself. I start to. You know, I say well, 23 I'm not going to go, I'll start going to Apache, 24 but it's just a little bit too far for me. But 25 their people are very kind down there. I still 236 1 would like to go to my Comanche Nation Games and 2 spend my money there. 3 MS. MCDANIEL: What I heard, 4 Mr. Chairman, is that that guy slapped her in the 5 head. 6 MS. JONES: Yeah, and called me a 7 bitch. 8 MS. MCDANIEL: That should never -- 9 that should not be allowed. Whoever that person 10 is, they need to go to jail, far as I'm concerned, 11 for striking an Elder. 12 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Our tribal 13 Elder should have been looked after. 14 MS. MCDANIEL: They need to go the 15 jail. And just as an apology, they need to just 16 let her go back. I think that you as our stewards 17 need to direct them to apologize to her and do 18 something about who did that to her and ban them, 19 ban that manager who evicted her, because our 20 people should not be allowed to treat that way, 21 not an Elder. 22 MR. BURGESS: We concur and that 23 similar situation was brought up. We don't have a 24 CBC meeting when we brought that up in discussion 25 with them, and we'll be meeting with them again on 237 1 that issue. 2 MR. HENSON: I met personally with a 3 general manager concerning this. Not this 4 particular incident, but the way that those 5 overall people and employees are acting. 6 Basically what they told me right away was there 7 is a core that's been there prior to that the CBC 8 backed them up and they couldn't do nothing with 9 them. My basic response to them was who in the 10 hell is the boss here? Your core that won't do 11 nothing or you? So they are looking at it. And 12 believe me, they are going to be doing something 13 about it. I'm going to spearhead this myself. 14 MR. NARCOMEY: It wasn't the CBC. 15 I've been on the board for four years -- 16 MR. HENSON: They didn't say the 17 CBC -- they did say CBC, but they didn't mean 18 CBC. These people had a backing from a certain 19 person. 20 Who I blame is Sharrod Tabbytite is 21 who I blame, because he's over them four casinos. 22 MR. BURGESS: That's coming up. 23 Mr. Narcomey, thank you, because that is going to 24 be on the agenda. We have a meeting set up with 25 some of the management next week. 238 1 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I wanted to 2 make a statement. Our Elders go to our casino on 3 Tuesday because they give them a free meal, and 4 $10 free play, and my sister takes my mother every 5 Tuesday. Almost the same incident happened to 6 her. She was sitting in a chair -- possibly could 7 have been the same person. The man got her stuff, 8 she had her walker sitting there, got her walker 9 and throwed it down. Well, they took my mom to 10 security and made her stand there an hour- 11 and-a-half. She was very upset. She come home 12 and she told my son I got in trouble at the casino 13 and I can't go back. 14 He called me and he said what 15 happened, and I said I don't know. But, you know, 16 it shouldn't be allowed in our casino. Our Elders 17 should be taken care of. It's our casino. 18 MR. BURGESS: There's a gentleman who 19 is an employ and has a statement. 20 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Like you said, 21 I'm an employee. I think you guys should really 22 look into the morale of the employees at that 23 casino in Lawton. It is below zero. Find out 24 why. You know, nobody's gotten raises, or even 25 considered. You know, it could be top of the line 239 1 employee. As I said before, the heat, you know, 2 people are overworked in that casino because 3 they're short-handed. 4 Understanding we're cutting back and 5 we're going to get some new technology, but people 6 are overworked, they're not even being considered 7 for raises. Look at the morale of the bottom line 8 employee. It's an issue. 9 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It's no excuse 10 for treating Elders bad. 11 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: That's 12 unacceptable. 13 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I seen them 14 sitting around doing nothing. 15 MR. HENSON: Let me say one thing 16 about that. Any time, I don't care who it is, 17 especially an Elder, if anybody touches you, you 18 have a right to file assault charges, I'm talking 19 about with the police, and that's what should have 20 been done. I don't care if they touch you, you 21 can call it assault. They don't have to touch you 22 at all. 23 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: The morale and 24 the conduct reflects the leadership. 25 MR. BURGESS: Last comment on this 240 1 subject. 2 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I have a lot 3 of tivo friends, and they tell me when they go to 4 Comanche they're not friendly at all, so they 5 won't even go. They go to Fort Sill Apache. 6 MR. BURGESS: Okay. Thank you. Duly 7 noted. We have a meeting scheduled next week. 8 Mr. Mason is not here at the time, or is he here? 9 Steve Mason? 10 MR. NARCOMEY: No. 11 MR. BURGESS: Rebecca Paddyaker, 12 please? 13 MR. NARCOMEY: No. 14 MR. BURGESS: Delores? 15 MR. NARCOMEY: Right over here. 16 She's coming up. 17 MR. BURGESS: Heather Devine? George 18 Mope, Jr.? Melissa Jackson, is she here? Is 19 Michael here? No, she's not here either. 20 Mr. Yeahquo, Aaron Yeahquo? 21 MR. NARCOMEY: We sent him to IHS, 22 remember? 23 MR. BURGESS: Is Heather here? 24 MR. NARCOMEY: Geneva's not here. 25 MR. BURGESS: Ladies and gentlemen, 241 1 as I mentioned earlier, we're going to go into 2 executive session. We will have a short report 3 from the Shoshone Reunion Committee, and then 4 we're going to -- motion will be made to recess. 5 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: All of you 6 have received our -- we do two-month reports for 7 you all about the Shoshone Reunion, but I want you 8 all to know that we're progressing well. We have 9 our Web site up with our registration form and our 10 vendor application is on there now and contact 11 information. What's not on there and won't be 12 until probably August 1st or thereabouts is our 13 agenda. We're having -- the Comanche Nation is 14 hosting the Shoshone Reunion September 22, 23, 15 24. That's right before the Comanche Nation Fair, 16 so that our folks from the -- from out west and up 17 north can come and stay over if they want to. 18 We're so happy because we had really 19 great response from tribal programs and 20 committees. The CIVA will help us honor the 21 veterans that will be there. The princess 22 sorority will be hosting a reception for a book 23 signing. We're going to have book sales during 24 the reunion. Comanche and Shoshonian language 25 authors or writings about our people. So the 242 1 princess sorority will have a reception. We're 2 going to have an exhibit about the Medicine Lodge 3 treaty families. 4 So we've got a lot of things going 5 on. We've got some contests, we have teepee 6 contests, a fry bread contest, a hand drum 7 contest, archery. Lots of things going on. We're 8 trying to change it up a little bit this year so 9 it will be more family friendly. So it won't be 10 just one guy up in front talking at an audience of 11 people. It's more interactive and more like an 12 opportunity to visit and share stories as opposed 13 to just listening to a speaker. 14 So we're going to try to pair up 15 groups of people from different tribes to talk 16 about specific topics, and one of the topics that 17 is of great interest to all of the folks that were 18 at last year's reunion is gender specific topics. 19 Like warrior ways, like raising families, things 20 along those lines. The passing of age, how those 21 things happen. So those are topics we're going to 22 be talking about. 23 One of the things about the Shoshone 24 Reunion is it's totally volunteer. There's about 25 30 of us that meet every other week on Tuesday 243 1 nights here in this room. Nobody gets paid to 2 come to the meeting. They come because it's their 3 desire to be a part of it. One of the things I'd 4 like for you all to know is we're trying to be 5 very careful with the dollar, just like you all 6 are. We decided not to take any trips out of 7 state to meet with our executive committees from 8 the other tribes but instead to do conference 9 calls. 10 So we've had one, we'll have another 11 one this month, and one in August. That's saved 12 us about $9,000 right there. We've been doing 13 some fundraising, and that will go towards our 14 giveaways, because we want to host them in a big 15 way, because Comanches are proud people. 16 The other thing is, Fort Hall 17 Shoshones have donated salmon and potatoes. The 18 Fort Washington Shoshones have donated elk and our 19 tote bag. So that helps us cut costs as well. 20 The Smithsonian Institution will help 21 us do documentation this year. They have assigned 22 five folks to come out and help us with that. So 23 we'll document our discussions that we have, but 24 also our contests. For me, the thing I advocated 25 for this year and I'm most excited about is a 244 1 portrait studio. So if you all have folks from 2 Fort Hall or from Hopi or Fort Washiti or Reno or 3 somewhere that come in for this, you can get 4 together and we're going to take your family 5 portraits. The family will get a picture and 6 we'll keep one so we are continuing with our 7 archives. So that's my big highlight, I think. 8 The other thing that you should know 9 is that we have three families that have 10 volunteered to provide three meals on their own. 11 So that also is helping us cut costs. The first 12 morning, the Cable sisters, along with Keith 13 Yackeyonny will provide a mean. The second 14 morning, the Sapcut family will provide a meal, 15 and the third morning the Chibittys will provide a 16 meal. So we're pretty excited about what's coming 17 along. 18 We welcome and encourage all of you 19 to come and help us before, during and after. We 20 always need cleanup help. We would request that 21 our Tribal Council people be present, especially 22 at our opening ceremonies, so that we can 23 introduce you all. Be with us as much as you can 24 during that time that our folks are here. 25 MR. NARCOMEY: Have we got a nurse? 245 1 If we wait till Thursday for her situation, it's 2 too late. So if there's any way we can talk to 3 her now. 4 MR. ASEPERMY: Same thing. I was 5 going to bring up the same thing. If it's now or 6 we need to do something now. 7 MR. BURGESS: Okay. Last statement 8 back there was -- 9 MRS. GALLEGOS: She was just saying 10 that we have our next meeting on Tuesday at 6:30 11 in this room. 12 MR. BURGESS: Ladies and gentlemen, 13 that concludes our new business. At this is point 14 in time we're going to accept one question. 15 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I was just 16 going to tell you that we appreciate y'all 17 listening to our comments. You know, a lot of 18 times we get cut off and a lot of this is what we 19 needed to say. We appreciate it. 20 MR. BURGESS: Thank you very much. 21 While we might seem like an old committee, we have 22 a new attitude, and we want y'all to bear with 23 us. Please don't let this fail us next year at 24 this time. Thank you. 25 MR. HENSON: I want to say one 246 1 thing. One of the things that Mike and I both 2 talked about is that you people are not getting 3 the information you need. You don't -- you got a 4 lot that you need to know about, and we're here to 5 tell you. I really appreciate you coming, and I 6 hope next time you bring a lot more tribal 7 members. I would like to see this monthly, I 8 really would. You know, they don't have to get up 9 and talk, but I think they need the information. 10 I'd like to see a lot more attend. 11 MR. BURGESS: One last comment. 12 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I'm being told 13 that we had no director last year. 14 MR. ASEPERMY: The American Indian 15 Exposition has an election of a tribal director, 16 we in turn, once the director is selected, our 17 roll is -- a stipend is voted on by the people, 18 and also for the princess. Now, the princess, is 19 she getting her stipend? 20 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Just primary 21 princess. 22 MR. ASEPERMY: Yeah, just the 23 primary, not the junior. 24 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We wanted to 25 know why don't we elect our own director and 247 1 during the fair we have our application. We don't 2 even have applications for new princesses. We do 3 have nothing out for them. September our princess 4 is going to be elected. We have nothing. It 5 should already be in the paper announced for 6 somebody to start bringing applications, but we 7 wanted to start voting at the Comanche Nation 8 Fair. Bring our princesses before our people at 9 the dance. Let them vote on them. 10 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: There's a lot 11 of things that are in this that some people are 12 not handling right. But Thursday night, Wednesday 13 night, the princess sorority is going to meet 14 here, maybe with Beth, and then we're going to try 15 to find out what the deal is. 16 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: If you can 17 talk to her, but see, seven months has already 18 gone by. We done missed everything. We done 19 missed parades. 20 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Well, we're 21 going to go over all that and we're going to let 22 Mr. Nelson know. 23 MR. ASEPERMY: We need to hear both 24 sides, too. 25 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: That's what 248 1 our question was, too, do we need to be heard 2 today, wait till Thursday? 3 MR. BURGESS: Wait till Thursday, 4 bring the other party in. 5 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Because you 6 guys already have resolutions in place for 7 guidelines for the princess election, and when we 8 first talked to Mr. Nelson, he had called me and 9 asked me what I knew. That's the only reason I'm 10 here is because the calls that I got, do you have 11 information, so that's basically what I'm doing is 12 bringing this to you. 13 When I was in in 2005 and 2006, the 14 committee then asked us to put resolutions 15 together just for this so that there could be a 16 black and white guidance for any director to go by 17 or the princesses to go by, and there is a 18 resolution. I have a copy here and I'll give 19 several copies to the office. Whether or not 20 they've mailed it to y'all, I don't know that. 21 I'll make those and bring them again because I've 22 done a resolution. I have done two. One was to 23 address the princess and one was to address the 24 directors to give them guidance. 25 Now, I know they discussed both of 249 1 them back in 2005, and they passed the one for the 2 princesses. They had discussed -- and I believe 3 they've also passed the one to have the director 4 elected by y'all because of all the problems they 5 were having at that point with the Expo, and they 6 did not know whether or not they were even going 7 to have one when they were having trouble getting 8 their Expo. don't shake your heads no, because I 9 have them right here. Now, whether or not you guys 10 are privy to that information, I don't know. 11 MR. BURGESS: That's why we're 12 shaking our heads. 13 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: That's what 14 I'm saying. And for a long time I guess they 15 weren't found because I guess when they switched 16 over our different treasurers, because I believe 17 Joe Wahnee was in at this time. He had the 18 original, I guess, to them or the copies, some of 19 the copies that they could not find up here. So 20 we went back and got in touch with him, and that's 21 how we got some of those, you know, turned back. 22 I have kept mine. 23 My only concern time-wise is because 24 you have an election for your princesses coming up 25 in September at the fair, but they need -- the 250 1 advertisement for that needs to be put in the 2 paper. I know the committee met, I want to say 3 last September or it might have been in August, to 4 get some things implemented as far as to give the 5 princesses time to put the application in. 6 There was a question when Natalie 7 come aboard because at the time there was a lot of 8 gripe they thought I just appointed her. But I 9 did not. I had three girls apply, two dropped 10 out, and she was the only one that was still 11 there. I felt that because she took the time to 12 put the application in, met the deadline, it would 13 be unfair to her to say no, we're going to throw 14 all of these out and open it up again, because she 15 took the time to apply. She wasn't Comanche, and 16 you know, she didn't have no record or nothing. 17 She had represented our tribe well. 18 That's the only reason she come in by 19 appointment. I brought that notice to the 20 committee at that time, Eddie was there, and I 21 asked them because they were having to prepare for 22 last year's fair, because there was a question 23 about how the princess came about. They okayed 24 her, that's how she came in. 25 So now we're to the point where they 251 1 have implemented the Election Board to do the 2 ballots and do the background checks and that for 3 the princesses to help the director out so that 4 there's not so much load on the director. 5 MR. BURGESS: If you would give us 6 your documents or copies of them for our 7 Secretary/Treasurer to follow up, and then we 8 invite you back next Thursday. We'll put you at 9 the bottom of the list, so you'll have the latter 10 part of it and bring -- we want all parties here. 11 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We're supposed 12 to have a meeting Wednesday night here, the 13 sorority, and we put it in the paper. We haven't 14 been to our meetings since I don't know how long, 15 and we are discussing this particular thing that 16 you're talking to them about. We told Mr. Nelson 17 that we would get back with him to figure out how 18 we're going to deal with this problem. 19 MR. BURGESS: Please, we'll put a 20 call out to Mrs. Giles as well and the sorority. 21 When we come out of this meeting next Thursday, I 22 want a compromise everybody's going to accept 23 because we don't need to have this any further. 24 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Because I 25 think basically these girls are just looking for 252 1 where they need to go. 2 MR. BURGESS: When we come out of 3 that meeting Thursday, that's the way it's going 4 to be. 5 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: So Shelby's 6 not going to go out until September? 7 MR. BURGESS: As far as I know, the 8 changeover is always done in September. They 9 changed that back when? 10 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: So y'all can 11 help out if y'all want to. 12 MS. ATTOCKNIE: I have a question. 13 When did the tribe -- I know we have a Comanche 14 princess, but when did the tribe also have a 15 Comanche Junior princess? Was that by a 16 resolution? 17 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It's not what 18 I did. The committee at that time, the same time 19 they asked me to get these resolutions together, 20 this was in '06 and '05, because I did my term and 21 I finished the year previous, director's term. 22 That's why I started in 2005 is because the 23 previous director before me did not finish her 24 term. 25 MR. BURGESS: Are you saying the 253 1 Business Committee or the powwow committee over 2 there? 3 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Business 4 Committee. Business Committee requested us to go 5 ahead and get Junior princesses, because at that 6 time the senior princess was obligated in so many 7 different places she was not able to make all of 8 them. That's what this one is now. 9 MR. BURGESS: Bring all those 10 documents. 11 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Do you have an 12 approved resolution that states that? 13 MR. BURGESS: Motion or resolution? 14 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I gave it to 15 Mike. 16 MR. BURGESS: Well, you give me -- 17 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: On that Junior 18 princess, Phyllis, last year who led y'all's 19 powwow down here at the Comanche Nation Fair? 20 Fiona got throwed from a horse and hurt herself. 21 She couldn't lead it, she had to lead it, and then 22 they had to keep calling on Shelby because during 23 the Walters homecoming, Fiona lost her kinfolk, 24 and Shelby had to lead us again. That's what the 25 Junior princess is for. When the other one can't 254 1 fulfill her obligations, this one has to step in, 2 and she carried a big load this last year. I'm 3 very proud of her. 4 MS. ATTOCKNIE: I was just curious. 5 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: They have 6 bylaws. Isn't that what we were supposed to start 7 with? We've always -- whatever laws they say, 8 that's what we went by, the Exposition. 9 MR. BURGESS: As I understand it, you 10 can correct me, that princess that was identified 11 was the American Indian Expo princess. It did not 12 always carry over to our Comanche Nation Fair 13 which came later. So in retrospect, they just 14 picked up helping with our fair and the princess 15 and that effort. So we want to iron this out. 16 Let's define this. As I said, when we come into 17 that meeting Thursday, when we come out of it 18 that's the way it's going to be, because we can't 19 continue to do this. Our Comanche Nation Fair is 20 coming up. We're going to give a call to 21 Ms. Giles and you bring your princess sorority 22 officers. Please come forward. We're going to 23 define it then and when we come out of that 24 meeting, we don't need to hear more of this. We 25 need to go forward. 255 1 MS. CRAIG: Way back in '85, '86 and 2 '87, I was the first Comanche woman to be elected 3 to the Exposition as a director. At that time, 4 when your term was up, they had an election the 5 first Saturday prior to the fair. After the 6 exposition, then you took over. The princess 7 election was usually March or April, and that's 8 the way they always did it. 9 When they changed it to Comanche 10 Nation Fair, I didn't understand why. Then I was 11 told, well, it's because a lot of Comanches come 12 and they're going to be there. They're going to 13 vote for their princess. We had no problems 14 having Comanches come to the Exposition 15 fairgrounds and vote if they really wanted to 16 campaign for somebody. We always had good 17 representation. So now all this trouble has 18 started. 19 MR. BURGESS: Let me say something. 20 I know that that was what it was, but the last few 21 fairs I attended, we have very low attendance. 22 The time they vote is in the morning, and I 23 remember being there, being asked to run for fair 24 director. By the time I heard about it, it was 25 already closed. There's a lot of 256 1 miscommunications going on. I understand that, so 2 would you bear with us. Let's come to that 3 meeting Thursday. You're welcome to be there. 4 As a former fair director, give us 5 that background again. These ladies will 6 understand, and our young girls, we don't want 7 them to be injured by any of this. We want these 8 ladies to be understood and accepted. So when we 9 come out of this, then we'll go forward with that 10 discussion. You're more than welcome. I want you 11 to be there. 12 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Just one more 13 thing and I won't say no more. When this was all 14 going on, there was the princess sorority doesn't 15 want to hurt nobody's feelings. They have nothing 16 to do with the Junior princess. We are 17 concentrating on the Comanche Nation princess, and 18 that's the way it should be. 19 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It's not what 20 I want. It's what the CBC at that time come to me 21 and asked me, because the princess that was going 22 in had so many obligations she was not able to 23 make all of them. That's all that was. If she 24 had to be over here and over here, where one could 25 not be, that's where this -- whether it's her or 257 1 whoever, in that capacity. Thank you for hearing 2 us, because this has been something that's been 3 brought to my attention since September of 2008. 4 There was 100 and some odd Comanches 5 sign a petition to have this worked on, and we 6 brought it up here like we were supposed to have. 7 There was never any action taken, which is why it 8 went this far. We went and we took those names 9 over there and give them to her, and the 10 enrollment director took copies of everything we 11 had. I still have the originals to those because 12 she didn't take the originals, she only took the 13 copies. We filled out that petition like we were 14 supposed to, and we never got the papers back that 15 you actually circulate to the point of all the way 16 up to when the last chairman, MR. BURGESS, was 17 in. Now it's come to y'all. So I very much 18 appreciate y'all giving us the five minutes. 19 MR. BURGESS: Every member here, 20 you're going to hear from community people. 21 Somebody's going to give you ideas. When we come 22 out of there, let's have all those ideas son the 23 table so we'll have a general rule. When we go 24 forward, we don't want to have this controversy 25 following us with the next group, two or three 258 1 committees. So everybody's ideas, put them down 2 because when we move forward, we don't want to 3 have this haunting you in the next four or five 4 years. One last statement, we're going to go into 5 executive session. 6 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: When y'all 7 have that meeting, y'all need to let the directors 8 or the directors of past, they should know their 9 responsibilities, because a lot of people don't 10 know what the responsibilities are. So have that 11 in your guidelines. 12 MR. BURGESS: All right. Thank you, 13 ladies and gentlemen. Please, motion to go into 14 executive session? 15 MR. NARCOMEY: I make a motion to go 16 into executive session. 17 MR. HENSON: I'll second that. 18 MR. BURGESS: 19 Motion has been made to go into 20 executive session by Mr. Narcomey. Second has 21 been done by Mr. Henson here. Ms. Carlotta 22 Knowles, you're the only one on the agenda that 23 we're going to keep. Those of you who are not on 24 this agenda at this time, please reconvene with us 25 on Thursday at 4 o'clock on the 16th right here in 259 1 this room. Thank you very much. 2 (Executive session held from 3 4:22 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.) 4 (Meeting recessed at 6:00 p.m.) 5 6 7 * * * * * * 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 260 1 R E P O R T E R 'S C E R T I F I C A T E 2 3 STATE OF OKLAHOMA ) 4 ) 5 COUNTY OF OKLAHOMA ) 6 7 I, Kelly Stoabs, Certified Shorthand 8 Reporter for the State of Oklahoma, certify that 9 the above and foregoing meeting transcribed by me 10 is a true and correct transcript of the meeting; 11 that the meeting was held on July 11, 2009, in the 12 State of Oklahoma; that I am not an attorney for 13 nor a relative of any said parties, or otherwise 14 interested in the event of said action. 15 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set 16 my hand and seal of office on this the 31st day of 17 July, 2009. 18 19 20 __________________________ Kelly Stoabs 21 Certified Shorthand Reporter for the State of Oklahoma 22 23 24 25 261 1 S E C R E T A R Y ' S C E R T I F I C A T E 2 3 I, Robert Tippeconnie, Secretary- 4 Treasurer of Comanche Nation Business Committee, 5 certify that the above is a true and correct 6 transcript of a meeting of CBC Members held at 7 10:04 a.m. on July 11, 2009, and that the meeting 8 was duly called and held in all respects in 9 accordance with the charters and bylaws of the 10 Comanche Nation and that a quorum was present. 11 I further certify that the votes and 12 resolutions of the CBC Members of Comanche Nation 13 at the meeting are operative and in full force and 14 effect and have not been annulled or modified by 15 any vote or resolution passed or adopted by the 16 CBC since that meeting. 17 18 19 Signed:_________________________ Date:____________ Robert Tippeconnie 20 Secretary-Treasurer 21 22 23 24 25