TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMANCHE BUSINESS COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING MAY 1, 2010, 10:06 A.M. COMANCHE NATION COMPLEX LAWTON, OKLAHOMA __________________________________________________ REPORTED BY: KELLY STOABS, CSR DODSON REPORTING & ASSOCIATES 435 NORTH WALKER, SUITE 102 OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA 73102 (405) 235-1828 ~ (405) 235-1266 (FAX) dcri@coxinet.net A P P E A R A N C E S COMANCHE NATION BUSINESS COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Richard Henson, Vice-Chairman Robert Tippeconnie, Secretary-Treasurer Edmond Mahseet, Committeeman #1 Lanny Asepermy, Committeeman #2 Darrell Kosechequetah, Committeeman #3 LEGAL COUNSEL: William Norman, James Burson Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker * * * * * * INDEX OF PROCEEDINGS PAGE Meeting called to order at 10:06 a.m. 5 Roll call. 5 Invocation. 5 Motion passed to approve amendments 7 to agenda. Motion passed to approve minutes 8 from April 2010. Motion passed to table Resolution 9 Number 30-10/ Elderly Center Advisory Board. Motion passed to table Resolution 13 Number 40-10/Amend Procurement Policies and Procedures. Motion passed to approve Resolution 19 Number 42-10/Requiring Federal Accounting Procedures WIA. No motion on Resolution 43-10/ 23 Establishing Meeting and Stipend Guidelines. Motion passed to approve Resolution 36 48-10/Enrollment List 824 Ineligible. Motion passed to approve Resolution 37 49-10/Enrollment List 825 Ineligible. Motion passed to approve Resolution 38 50-10/Enrollment List 826 Eligible. Motion passed to approve Resolution 43 Number 51-10/Transportation Access Road. Motion passed to approve Resolution Number 45 52-10/NIGA Membership. (INDEX OF PROCEEDINGS (continued) PAGE Motion passed to approve Resolution 47 Number 53-10/Capital Asset Policy. Motion passed to approve Resolution 60 Number 54-10/Approved Changes of Museum & Cultural Center bylaws. Bill Nealy/Quanah Parker movie. 95 Motion passed to approve Adoption of New 113 Caretaker Policy For Community Centers Located in Walters, Apache, Cache. Motion passed to recess and to reconvene on 136 May 20, 2010. Meeting recessed at 1:31 p.m. 136 Reporter's Certificate. 137 Secretary's Certificate. 138 * * * * * * (Meeting called to order at 10:06 a.m.) MR. HENSON: We'll call the meeting to order. Can y'all hear me on this? Roll call. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Michael Burgess? Richard Henson? MR. HENSON: Here. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Robert Tippeconnie? Here. Edmond Mahseet? MR. MAHSEET: Here. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Lanny Asepermy? MR. ASEPERMY: Here. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Darrell Kosechequetah? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Here. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Clyde Narcomey? We have a quorum, Mr. Chairman. MR. HENSON: Roll call is complete. We have a quorum. Bob, would you give the invocation, please? MR. TIPPECONNIE: (Invocation.) MR. HENSON: Thanks, Bob. If you'd like to look at the minutes now for approval. If you'd like to take a few minutes and kind of read over them. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Can I take a minute before we do that, Mr. Chairman? I'd like to amend the agenda. I'd like to add Mr. Bill Nealy as item Number 3 under new and old business. MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Nealy is with the Quanah Parker film project? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes. And also as Item 11 as a resolution. It will be Resolution 54-10, on the museum. And then in the executive session, Number 16, Phil Caddo on the land matter. MR. ASEPERMY: What is it? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Lands, land matter. And then also in new business, the Number 4, caretaker and community center. MR. ASEPERMY: Which one? MR. TIPPECONNIE: It's across the board. It will be Number 4 under new and old business as caretakers and community centers. And that will be Mr. Nelson's. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: I have one amendment, also. In executive session, Number 17, continued discussion on economic development. MR. ASEPERMY: What is it? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Economic development. MR. HENSON: Resolution Number 11, add under resolutions, new and old business; Bill Nealy, Number 3; caretakers and community centers, Number 4. And under executive session, we're going to add Phil Caddo on land matters. He's 16 and 17, economic development. Now we'll go to the minutes. MR. ASEPERMY: I make a motion that we approve these amendments to the constitution. MR. HENSON: Second. We need a second. MR. MAHSEET: What was that? MR. ASEPERMY: I make a motion we approve the minutes to the constitution. MR. MAHSEET: Constitution? MR. ASEPERMY: I mean to the agenda. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: We'll go ahead and throw those in there, too. MR. MAHSEET: Maybe I shouldn't have said nothing. MR. HENSON: Motion made by Lanny. Need a second. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Second. MR. HENSON: Got a second by Darrell. MR. ASEPERMY: Call for the question. MR. HENSON: Call for the question. MR. ASEPERMY: Take a vote. MR. HENSON: All those in favor signify by saying "aye." (Aye.) MR. HENSON: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. Okay. We'll go to the minutes now. Give everybody a chance to read the minutes for approval. MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we approve the minutes. MR. HENSON: Motion's been made to approve the minutes. I need a second. MR. MAHSEET: I second. MR. HENSON: It's been seconded. Call for the question. All those in favor signify by saying "aye." (Aye.) MR. HENSON: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. Okay. The minutes have been approved. We'll go to Resolution Number 1, Resolution 30-10, Elderly Center Advisory Board. "Now therefore be it resolved, that back in 1987 the Elderly Center had an Advisory Board. On March 11, 2010, the Tribal Administrator conducted an in-house survey and the results of the survey were: 75 percent of the guests that day confirmed that an Advisory Board was needed. This survey was given to 51 participants. Based on these facts it is requested that the Comanche Nation Business Committee do adopt an Advisory Board consisting of three or five members. This Advisory Board will have no executive power over the finances and/or employees of the Elderly Center. The Advisory Board will never be assured a stipend and/or monetary payment for their participation. This Advisory Board will be on a volunteer basis only. Objectives of Advisory Board will be: 1. To better serve the Senior Citizen population. 2. To sustain a demographic of the Title VI jurisdiction. 3. To bring forward positive suggestions to Director. 4. To adhere and fulfill the majority vote by proxy of all guests of the Elderly Center and nomination of Board. 5. All proposals will be given to Program Director only." Do I hear a motion? Are there two of them on the elderly center? MR. TIPPECONNIE: There's two copies, but it's the same. She probably has double copies. MR. ASEPERMY: Does anyone in here remember the elder council -- or the elders' center having an advisory board? Do you remember when it was dissolved or it quit working or -- MS. HALL: They're all deceased now. MR. HENSON: Everybody's deceased. MR. ASEPERMY: I saw the names, and they are all gone. MS. HALL: In the '80s. MR. ASEPERMY: The only thing we have is on Wednesday, October 1987, that they met, and it named the people that were in attendance. And they -- I'm assuming they're all gone. Dick RedElk, Sam Tehauno, Frankie Cable, Marie Saupitty and Luther Pohawpatchoko. But we don't have anything in black and white from their policies and procedures that an advisory board will be part of the -- part of the elders' center. MS. HALL: I gave a copy of it to the chairman when we had a meeting. MR. ASEPERMY: The policies and procedures says that there will be an advisory board. MS. HALL: It's in the minutes. MR. ASEPERMY: Well, I got the minutes from 1987. I'm talking about do we have a policy anyplace that says that an advisory board will be part of the elders' center? I haven't seen anything in black and white. MS. HALL: She stayed there one month and she dissolved it. MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman, this is very vague. The only information we have is 1987. I think the elders' center or Mr. Nelson should have presented us something in black and white, a policy or procedure, saying that part of the elders' center protocol is an advisory board. So I recommend that we table this and get more information from Mr. Nelson. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I understand what you're saying. One thing you can read into the resolution, as I'm reading it, is that it spells out what it's to do, how many needs to be there, and then the role. So it does spell that out and, you know, I don't know whether -- I haven't seen any bylaws or minutes. MR. ASEPERMY: Yeah, any bylaws or anything like that. MR. TIPPECONNIE: But, again, it spells out in here what this body will be, how many, and what their role is. It says no executive power over finances or employees. MR. MAHSEET: That's why we need to find out more information about it. MR. TIPPECONNIE: So you'd like to -- MR. ASEPERMY: I'd like to table it. MR. MAHSEET: Just table it. MR. ASEPERMY: Unless you want to bring it to a vote. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Are you going to make a motion we table this? MR. ASEPERMY: Yeah, I make a motion we table it. MR. HENSON: Motion's been made to table Resolution 30-10. I need a second. MR. MAHSEET: Second. MR. ASEPERMY: Seconded by Eddie. Therefore, motion 30-10 is tabled. The next motion is 40-10/To Amend the Procurement Policies and Procedures. MR. TIPPECONNIE: You need to take a vote. MR. HENSON: Oh, I'm sorry. All those in favor signify by saying "aye." (Aye.) MR. HENSON: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. Now Resolution 40-10/To Amend the Procurement Policies and Procedures. MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Nauni, I saw you walk in here. Are you still here, Norman? Is this the final, the final, final for your -- for your procurement policies and procedures? Have all the recommended changes been made? MR. NAUNI: Yes, sir. MR. HENSON: Clarification is needed regarding the expenditures required under the use of stock requisition and purchase order form. Therefore, Section 2.5, 2.6 and 2.8 have been changed to recognize specific expenditures that do not need to use the stock requisition and purchase order form. 2.5 reads -- I guess the part that they're going to amend is that the Comanche Nation Business Committee delegates procurement authority and administration to the tribal administrator, who shall hire the property procurement director and staff. The tribal administrator is responsible for the administration of all Comanche Nation procurement and property contracts as approved by chairman in accordance with these policies is that what yours has? MR. ASEPERMY: Here's the changes on Page 4. Is it a pen and ink piece? There's no initials by the ink and pen change on Page 4. Come up here and look at this. I'm not going to approve anything that -- MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yeah, this page should have been re-typed. MR. ASEPERMY: Yeah, Page 4. You've got a scratch out, you've got a handwritten note here, and you've got CBC. Nobody initialed it. It's not in its final format. Why are we -- it's only one sentence. But, you know, if you're going to give us something, give it to us in the final format. MR. NAUNI: I got this yesterday. I just assumed Nicole was going to correct all this. MR. TIPPECONNIE: She was supposed to get that in there. I know she was pressed yesterday. She was trying to finish that page. MR. ASEPERMY: Can we get a final copy? I recommend that we table this, also. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Well, before -- if you recall, when we had this come forward to us, that was the wording that everybody said to incorporate. So it came from the CBC previously. I know it should have been re-typed, and I don't excuse myself. I know Nicole and I were trying to get all these things done, but -- MR. ASEPERMY: Somebody could re-type it differently, you know. What I'm saying, Robert, is -- MR. TIPPECONNIE: She's going to put these words, as we agreed in the previous meeting, which is striking execution -- not the execution, but the administration of. Remember, we didn't want the -- MR. ASEPERMY: Yes, I understand that this is the change. It's handwritten in, it's not initialed, you've got stuff that's scratched through with no initials. We should have got the finished product. We don't have the finished product. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Well, can we say we approve it subject to having this wording? MR. ASEPERMY: If you make the motion like that, probably. MR. TIPPECONNIE: This is the second time we've held it. And, again, I apologize for this entry this way. But I'd like to see if we could have a motion to approve it subject to -- look at that wording. It's struck as approved and we can re-type that page and insert it. MR. ASEPERMY: It should have already been done. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: So 2.6 and 2.8 have already been adjusted and typed in? MR. HENSON: What are those changes on 2.6 and 2.8. Do you know, Bob? MR. ASEPERMY: The other changes are in. The other changes are written in. MR. HENSON: Do you know which ones they are? MR. ASEPERMY: Right here, William. The 2.6 and the 2.8 changes have been implemented, and they're on here. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Well, they'll be implemented once we pass this. MR. ASEPERMY: What I'm saying is 2.6 and 2.8, it's typed in. MR. TIPPECONNIE: And where's Mr. -- Norman? MR. NAUNI: Yes? MR. TIPPECONNIE: You read those two sections and we incorporated those? We want to be sure you're agreeing, too. 2.5, 2.6 and 2.8. See, they're relative to, you know, stock requisitions. Remember that? We talked about purchase order forms. So if we go to 2.8 -- I want to say this. I want Norman to re-look at this. Lanny? MR. ASEPERMY: Yes, what? MR. TIPPECONNIE: We'll table it. I want him to read it. MR. HENSON: William, did you look at this? MR. NORMAN: We're just seeing it this morning. I believe he's referring to that Norman. MR. HENSON: There's a correction on this, too. When I was reading, it says approved by the chairman, and it's really by the CBC in accordance with the policies. So it's not just the chairman, it's the whole CBC. Bob makes a recommendation that we table it. Lanny makes a recommendation that we table it. Can we hear a motion? MR. ASEPERMY: I make a motion that we table it. MR. HENSON: Motion's been made to table Resolution 40-10. I need a second. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I'll second. MR. HENSON: Bob seconds. All those in favor signify by saying "aye." (Aye.) MR. HENSON: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. MR. ASEPERMY: And Mr. Nelson and Mr. Nauni, are y'all the ones who put this on the agenda? MR. NELSON: Well, the thing is, when we had the debris removal, we had certain criteria we had to do on purchases. It really needs to be looked at some more, it does. MR. ASEPERMY: Then why did y'all give it to us, if it needs to be looked at for another change? MR. NELSON: I think it was carryover from last month, sir, to be honest with you. MR. TIPPECONNIE: It was on the agenda last month. MR. ASEPERMY: And it still needs some revision? MR. NELSON: It needs some work. MR. ASEPERMY: Will you give us a finished product the next time you present it, please? MR. NELSON: You got that. MR. ASEPERMY: Okay. Thank you. MR. NELSON: Yes, sir. I don't even know how it got on there. MR. HENSON: Resolution 40-10 has been tabled. Number 3, 42-10/Requiring Federal Accounting Procedures WIA. The resolution reads: "that the Comanche Nation gaming and taxation revenues distributed to the Nation in accordance with the approved Tribal Council budget and which supplement the federally-funded Workforce Investment Agency (WIA) program of the Nation shall be expended at a pre-planned contract or fiscal year rate." Need a motion on the board. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Let me explain something to you on this. When we get the federal contracts, we have a standard in the contracts. So we have to conform to the standard, how we spend it, how we report, all those kinds of things. So we're saying here -- well, go ahead. I'll reserve my comment at this point. MR. ASEPERMY: Say it. MR. HENSON: Basically what he's saying is we fall in line with the federally- funded workforce agency as far as the program shall be expended or pre-planned, basically what it is, fall in line. Willie? MR. NELSON: Yeah. Guys, you know, honestly, we have a lot of programs. We've got 31 programs that get funded by gaming money. A lot of these programs don't have policies. Now, we're trying our very, very best, very, very best to safeguard this money. Now, the federal procedure and the policy and the guidelines for the WIA Investment Act itself has some very stringent policies. What we found in our audits, you know, that's back there, that we didn't follow too good a policy when it came to gaming money. So what we're trying to do is sure up, sure up this gaming money. Bottom line, we got some carryover money from our federal. I'd like to tell your audience, all your young children, everybody else, everyone, elders: We've got 55 slots we've got to get filled for jobs before August. 55 slots. What does that mean? Hey, we got jobs, bad economy. Tell your brothers, sisters, anybody. Come see Keith, Keith Yackeyonny, in the WIA office. We're trying to do this because we got a corrective action plan going over there, Lanny, Eddie, Bunky, Robert and Darrell. With that corrective action plan, we want to stay in the guidelines with the federal government. If somebody's working for us, we don't say, oh, yeah, we'll fix your car; oh, yeah, we'll get you a suit; oh, yeah, we do all these other things. You know, that's frivolous. We can't do things like that no more. So I hope you gentlemen look at it, it's good business, and do adopt it. MR. TIPPECONNIE: My comment again, I couldn't go further because I wanted to comment on it, so I reserved it for a minute. What it says to us is WIA, in the past, had two standards. When we use gaming money, we use it with some flexibility; and then when we use the 638 contract dollars, it's very stringent and it's under guidelines. What this says is it makes it easier for the WIA program, these programs under the Workforce Investment body to be consistent with the standards. So we're going to apply the standard of the federal to the gaming dollar. The WIA staff and the tribal administrator all support that, because it makes it very easy to administer the program. There's not two kinds of things where, oh, you can give a little over here. You live to the same standard. MR. HENSON: To further explain this, it says, "Be it further resolved that all Workforce Investment Agency (WIA) expenditures of Comanche Nation gaming or taxing revenues which supplement the federally-funded program of the Nation shall be expended in accordance with federal programmatic guidelines and accounted for in the same manner as federal programmatic funds, unless Workforce Investment Agency (WIA) has a specific written policy adopted by the Comanche Business Committee that provides different expenditure guidelines or accounting procedures." Is there a motion on the floor? MR. TIPPECONNIE: I make the motion to approve. MR. HENSON: Motion's been made by Bob to approve. We need a second. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Second. MR. HENSON: Seconded by Darrell. All those in favor signify by saying "aye." (Aye.) MR. HENSON: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. Resolution 42-10 has been approved. Number 4, Resolution 43-10/ Establishing Meeting and Stipend Guidelines. A resolution of the Comanche Business Committee establishing meeting and stipend guidelines for Comanche Nation boards and committees. I'll go down to the: "Therefore be it resolved that the Comanche Business Committee shall establish for each fiscal year the meeting stipends to be paid to members of boards or committees of the Comanche Nation which are supported by gaming and taxation revenues distributed to the Nation in accordance with the approved Tribal Council budget, unless otherwise prescribed by law. "Be it further resolved that said meeting stipends as established for members of boards or committees of the Comanche Nation shall be paid only if said board or committee meets at least once during a month and shall be paid no more than once during a calendar month without regard to the number of meetings convened by said board or committee during the same calendar month." Any discussion? MR. ASEPERMY: Yes. It says the board or committee meets at least once during the month. You've got two boards: The liquor board, you've got the gaming board, you've got the gaming commission, which we are sub-advisory committees to. The gaming commission, we meet once every other month; the liquor board, quarterly; and the gaming commission, we meet with them every other month. So if you put it like this, I think the wording needs to be changed on that be it further resolved that meets at least once during a month. I think it should say meets as scheduled instead of once a month or once during the month. I'd like to strike out that on the last be it further resolved meets at least once during the month to change that to meets as scheduled. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: I believe this one is carried over from last meeting, also, correct? MR. TIPPECONNIE: It is, it is. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: At that time, we tabled it and I expressed my opinion on it at that time, and that is we've already cut them down to where they can only spend, what is it, 250? We did pass that. Now, this is the one saying they can only meet once a month, where, in my opinion, with the capacity that they have to cover in business, once a month doesn't cut it. So they're going to have to meet more than that, some of these entities, and they should be compensated for it. We shouldn't ask people to work and give us advice and oversee our business for free. I don't believe in that. Now, if we have a problem with them overspending, then we should address that and address them as a board individually; but to cut them down like this, I don't agree with it. I think it's bad business. Second of all, most of these, if this went through, they'd have to go back and amend their bylaws that talk about how they're compensated. And then there's also the federal charter one, which would have to go through a federal amendment. But, overall, I don't agree with it. MR. HENSON: Any further discussion? MR. WHITEWOLF: Does this stipend, does it also apply to the business committee? MR. ASEPERMY: Yes, on some of the meetings. MR. WHITEWOLF: You know the constitution only specifies 250 a month for the business committee. MR. ASEPERMY: Salary. Salary. We are part of these boards. MR. WHITEWOLF: It says you are to be compensated 250 a month. MR. ASEPERMY: Salary. MR. WHITEWOLF: They didn't talk about stipends. MR. ASEPERMY: Well, if you are part of the board and the board pays you stipends, and we are part of the advisory boards -- MR. WHITEWOLF: Yeah, but you're being hypocritical when you say that each board is going to pay you. You talk about one person a month getting a stipend, but then he's talking about when -- if you're on one or two or three or four boards, then you get paid for each one. That's -- you better make up your mind what y'all are going to do. MR. ASEPERMY: The boards that the CBC sit on, we are the subadvisory board for the gaming. We're part of the gaming board as a subadvisory committee member. We are a subadvisory committee to the gaming commission. We are part of the tax commission. We are part of the -- as a matter of fact, we are the liquor board. We have one member that serves on the economic development board as a non-voting officer. We have one member that sits on a college council as a non-voting member. And the other boards, we have a member that sits on the museum board. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: But when we meet as a CBC, whether we meet this Saturday, is the only time we get paid. We get 250 for this meeting. If we reconvene, we don't get another 250. If we do another one, a special meeting, we don't get 250. We only do get one per month. MR. ASEPERMY: We don't get paid for special meetings, we don't get paid for reconvened meetings. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Tribal council. MR. ASEPERMY: We don't get paid for. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Tribal council? MR. ASEPERMY: Informal meetings. We don't get paid for tribal meetings or tribal council. Now, we do get paid -- and I put this out. We do get paid $250 once a month from the gaming board. We do get paid $250 every other month from the gaming commission. We do get paid $331 from the tax commission for meeting once a month. We do get paid $250 for once-a-quarter meetings with the liquor board. Bunky is our representative at economic development, and his stipend is 200 -- MR. HENSON: 250. MR. ASEPERMY: 250. Darrell's part of the museum board. They meet every quarter. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Monthly. MR. ASEPERMY: Is it monthly now? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: But it's only $200. MR. WHITEWOLF: You're not talking about salaries. You're not talking about your stipends. MR. ASEPERMY: A salary and a stipend are two different things, Roderick. MR. WHITEWOLF: I agree that they're two different things, but you're talking about a set fee that you get every month. Stipend is -- MR. ASEPERMY: Is there something wrong with that, Roderick, can I ask? MR. WHITEWOLF: You better change the constitution if you're going to start getting salaries. MR. ASEPERMY: Why? The constitution doesn't say anything about that. It says we will be paid a salary of $250. MR. WHITEWOLF: Complex factor and all that extra -- MR. ASEPERMY: But the ordinances for all of these things I just mentioned. MR. WHITEWOLF: It's got a bad look. It's got a bad feel about it. MR. ASEPERMY: Well, I disagree with you totally. MR. WHITEWOLF: You're welcome to disagree with my opinion, but I have my opinion, too. MR. HENSON: Let me see if I can clear this up a little bit. What happens is that we have people put on the boards who run programs, supposedly. What the CBC does, in turn, is go to each one of those meetings as kind of like an advisory board. They don't do nothing outside what the CBC can see. So they're all meeting once a month, we're meeting with them once a month. When they meet a lot more than once a month, and some of them do -- I think the gaming commission meets -- gaming board meets more than once a month, several of them do, and they get the stipend. They come from all over for that meeting and that's the reason for it. And all the stipend means is it's money to cover the expenses and things that they have for that day. Some of them are working, some of them are not, some of them have to miss work, some of them have to travel a long ways. So that's all it means. Now, on 43-10, do I hear a motion on the table? MR. ASEPERMY: Before we do that, I agree with Darrell. The gaming board meets a minimum of three times a month, once with the gaming commission, once with the CBC advisory board, and once with their staff. They are paid a stipend of $250 per each meeting. Now, some of those meetings last two hours, some of them last 10 hours. And in addition to that, most of the gaming board and gaming commissioners are visible at the business center anywhere from one to five times a week. They don't get paid any mileage, they don't get paid a stipend for that. And for us to put every one on the same $250 stipend regardless of how many meetings there are, I personally disagree with that. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I don't understand you clearly. You made some wording suggestions here when it comes to meets at least once during a month. And your wording was, you know -- MR. ASEPERMY: As scheduled, meet as scheduled. MR. TIPPECONNIE: So let me ask this question: If they meet as scheduled, are you saying they should get additional stipends for those meetings? MR. ASEPERMY: Yeah, because they meet more than once, Robert, the majority of these boards. MR. TIPPECONNIE: So you're not thinking of the CBC, per se, you're -- MR. ASEPERMY: No, I'm not thinking of the CBC. This resolution has absolutely nothing to do with the tribal government. It has to do with our gaming entities, our college, our liquor board, our museum and things of that nature. MR. TIPPECONNIE: So you're saying that if you make the wording change, then if they have to have a scheduled meeting beyond one a month, then they are entitled to a stipend? MR. ASEPERMY: Yes. Is that what you're saying, Darrell? MR. TIPPECONNIE: If they have four a month, then they'd be entitled to a stipend for each of those? MR. ASEPERMY: Yes, if they're scheduled, called meetings. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Right now, the previous motion we had, you know, we set the amount, and I wish -- anyway, what you're saying, then, they could have five, six meetings, and each time they could be entitled to that amount that we approved? MR. ASEPERMY: And it's highly unlikely that they will have anything outside of what they normally have. The gaming board, three meetings; the gaming commission, twice a month, three times every other month; the college, once a quarter; museum is on a monthly thing now. Monthly meeting instead of quarterly? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Yeah. MR. BIGBEE: Our bylaws calls for a quarterly as a minimum. We find it necessary to meet on a monthly basis, and there are some occasions where we've had to meet more than once a month. I'd like to point out that our bylaws, the way we handle -- the way the stipend is talked about, is that it's determined on a budgetary basis. So if we have the money, then we pay it. If we don't have the money, we're going to meet anyway. I'd also like to point out that our board isn't there for the money. We want to see the museum function and be run well. That's the point. And if we have to meet once a quarter to do it or we have to meet twice a week to do it, that's what we're going to do. And the money doesn't have anything to do with it. MR. HENSON: And I do understand that y'all have had several meetings without getting paid, right? MR. BIGBEE: That is correct. MR. HENSON: Any other discussion? MR. TIPPECONNIE: I think his wording -- MR. ASEPERMY: Well, keep it as it is, Robert, then. MR. TIPPECONNIE: No, if you look at the -- MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: He's not going to approve it anyway, so why reword it? He's already expressed that. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I know, but I'm just trying to get his wording. Because if you get his wording, you have to read the rest of that, because it says shall be paid no more than once in a month. MR. ASEPERMY: Yeah, and I disagree with that. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Okay. Do you want to amend it? MR. ASEPERMY: No, let's bring it to a vote. MR. BURSON: Hold it. Do you have a motion and a second to even consider it? There's no need to vote. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Okay. MR. HENSON: We haven't got a motion on the board yet. MR. BURSON: You have to have a motion and a second to consider the passage of it before you can vote. MR. TIPPECONNIE: He hasn't called for the motion. MR. HENSON: Yeah, I did call for the motion and went into discussion. There wasn't a motion on the board. So we need a motion on the board. MR. ASEPERMY: So we can vote? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: If there's no motion, it dies. MR. HENSON: No motion on the board? Okay. Resolution 43-10, no motion on the board. Resolution 48-10/Enrollment List 824 Ineligible. "Now therefore be it resolved, that each applicant named on the attached List No. 824 is determined to be ineligible for membership with the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma because he or she does not meet the provisions of Article III, Section 3(c) of the Comanche Nation's Constitution. "Therefore be it resolved, that each applicant on List No. 824 be officially notified of their rejection for membership, stating the reason for such determination and including the appropriate appeals provisions." It lists one person on there, Tammy Blanton. Motion on the floor? Call for a motion. MR. ASEPERMY: I make a motion that we approve. MR. HENSON: I need a second. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Second. MR. HENSON: Motion made by Lanny, seconded by Darrell. Call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying "aye." (Aye.) MR. HENSON: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. The ayes have it. The Resolution 48-10 has been approved. 49-10/Enrollment List No. 825: "that each applicant named on attached List No. 825 is determined to be ineligible for membership with the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma, "Be it further resolved, that each applicant on List No. 825 be officially notified of their rejection for membership, stating the reason for such determination and including the appropriate provisions." There are three people listed. And do I need to -- MR. ASEPERMY: They're all enrolled with another tribe. MR. HENSON: Yeah, all three are enrolled in another tribe. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Motion to approve, Mr. Chairman. MR. HENSON: Motion been made on the floor to approve. MR. ASEPERMY: Second. MR. HENSON: Seconded by Lanny. Call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying "aye." (Aye.) MR. HENSON: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. Motion 49-10 has been approved. Motion 50-10, Enrollment List 826: "That the Comanche Business Committee accept the verification of eligibility for the applicants as shown on List 826 by the Comanche Nation Enrollment Office. ... "That the Comanche Nation Enrollment Office notify the eligible applicant by letter of their approved membership and further that the enrolled member be provided information concerning their enrollment, including name, birth date, roll number, Social Security number, and degree of Comanche blood." There are -- MR. ASEPERMY: Thirty-four. MR. HENSON: -- thirty-four applicants that have been approved by membership. Call for a motion. MR. ASEPERMY: I make a motion that we approve. MR. HENSON: Motion's been made to approve by Lanny. I need a second. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I second. MR. HENSON: It's been seconded by Bob. Call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying "aye." (Aye.) MR. HENSON: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. Motion's been approved. MR. ASEPERMY: And for the record, our enrollment is now 14,733 enrollees. If we continue to enroll or people are added to the tribal rolls at the rate of today, at 35 per day, we will attain a population of about 15,000 by year's end. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Per month. MR. TAHKOPFER: I got a question. What's the idea behind increasing the amount of the enrollment of the tribe? If it keeps increasing without any stoppage, we'll lose our identity as a tribe. What's the idea behind this? I'm not against it, don't get me wrong. I'm just asking why. You won't have any more Comanches half blood. They're all disappearing in the coming years. What advantages does that give us to be down there at 1/32, 1/64 Comanche? Does it mean anything? MR. ASEPERMY: We don't have -- the minimum blood quantum is 1/8, Karl. MR. TAHKOPFER: I know that. MR. ASEPERMY: That was voted on by the people to lower our quantum from 1/4 to 1/8, and I believe that was in 2003. MR. TAHKOPFER: I'm aware of that. MR. ASEPERMY: Well, it's going to take a constitution amendment if we want to change the blood quantum from 1/8 to increase it or to decrease it. MR. TAHKOPFER: When was this change? MR. HENSON: 2002. One of the reasons it was changed is because the Comanches as a whole now are inter-marrying and it's decreasing the blood quantum. So I'm thinking that the reason it was done was to put on a lot of the grandchildren and things that were only in the name Comanche, and the general council voted that in. MS. AITSON: And those that are approved don't even want to come and vote when they become of age. They don't want to have nothing to do with the tribe. MR. TAHKOPFER: All they want is the money. That's all they want. MR. ASEPERMY: Well, for whatever reason. I will say this: There's only 817 full bloods in the nation now. That's about 5 percent, 5 1/2 percent of our nation is full blood. Our nation, as of April the 7th, had 3,897 members that are 1/8. So right now our nation is about 26.4 percent 1/8 degree of Comanche blood. MR. TAHKOPFER: What was that number again? MR. ASEPERMY: 3,897. About 24.6 percent of our nation is 1/8. And we will hit 15,000. We will hit 15,000, I would say, by 1 January of this year. Now, in -- we only had -- we have increased our enrollment. It has really increased considerably. I believe, in 20 -- and by the way, the oldest Comanche, living Comanche now is Josephine Myers Wapp, who turned 98 on February 10th, 2010. But I had some numbers here and I -- since our enrollment has increased 21 percent since 2004. We were around 11,500 in 2004. MR. TAHKOPFER: Don't get me wrong. MR. ASEPERMY: Yeah, I know. I'm just saying we are becoming a bigger nation. And one reason is we dropped the blood quantum from 1/4 to 1/8. MR. TAHKOPFER: I'm not against it. I'm just simply saying does it give us an advantage monetarily or socially? What do we gain? MR. HENSON: At one time the federal government recognized and gave more money to those that had large enrollment, so that's -- I'll give you an example. The Cherokee, all they have to do is show descendency somewhere. I know that there are Cherokees that's only 1/1000, and that's the reason why. They started after that money. At one time, that's what it was. I think now with the Comanche Tribe, it's just to recognize our grandchildren that need to be on the roll. We've been having to -- we was at one time 1/2, then we went to 1/4, now we're at 1/8. Maybe sometime in the future -- and I see this sometime in the future, not immediately, but at some time in the future -- when our young ones and our grandkids grow up, they're going to be 1/8, and they're going to want their kids on the roll, too, to be Comanche. And maybe in 30, 40 years, our tribe is going to be the same as Cherokees. MR. TAHKOPFER: That's right. We'll no longer exist. MR. HENSON: Everybody wants to be Indian now. Okay. Let's move on here. Resolution 51-10/Transportation Access Road: "there exists a need for construction for an 'Access Road' ... and parking area South of the Comanche Visitors Center, approximately .08 tenths of a mile South connecting to Hwy 7 (Lee Blvd.), Lawton, Comanche county, Oklahoma. "Therefore be it resolved, that the Comanche Nation wishes to enter into PL93-638 construction contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, SPRO (Southern Plains Regional Office) for construction of said "Access Road", Route #6865." MR. TIPPECONNIE: I make a motion to approve. MR. HENSON: Motion's been made to approve. Need a second. MR. MAHSEET: Second. MR. HENSON: Seconded by Eddie. All those in favor signify by saying "aye." (Aye.) MR. HENSON: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. Motion's been approved. MR. ASEPERMY: Just for your information, this access road that is 8/10 of a mile, there will be an exit off Lee Boulevard. You know, the only exit to get to our casino in Lawton is off Gore. You've got to exit off Gore, turn right or left and then turn into the casino. This would allow people to exit off Lee Boulevard, drive on the east side of the interstate, and enter our casino and exit our casino, also. So this is a good thing. And it is federal money to pay for this road. Is that correct, Robert? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes. MR. HENSON: Yes. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Isn't there a floodplain through there? MR. ASEPERMY: Yes, the BIA, when they do the contract, that floodplain will be taken under consideration and they will build it up so it meets a standard to where it doesn't get flooded. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Six feet. MR. ASEPERMY: They probably have to raise, I'd say, a minimum of 18 to 24 inches. MR. MAHSEET: They're going to raise it six feet. MR. ASEPERMY: Six feet? That much? Wow. MR. HENSON: For your information, almost everything south and east of the casino is in the floodplain. Resolution 52-10/NIGA Membership. Resolution states: "that the Comanche Business Committee authorizes the payment of dues for Comanche Nation's NIGA membership of $15,000 as a permitted operational expense under the approved Gaming Board of Directors; FY 2010 Budget; and "Be it further resolved that the Comanche Business Committee hereby appoints Chairman Michael Burgess as the Tribe/Nation's representative to NIGA, with Secretary/Treasurer Robert Tippeconnie as alternate." MR. TIPPECONNIE: Mr. Chairman, before we act on this, the title needs to be changed. It needs to be stating resolution to approve, you know, the NIGA membership. It's a mistype. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: I'll make the motion we pass this pending changing of -- we don't need to table it, do we, Bob? MR. TIPPECONNIE: No. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Changing title to the document. MR. HENSON: Motion's been made on the board by Darrell to approve this with the changes of -- on the title. MR. ASEPERMY: I have some discussion. Bill Voelker, let me ask you a question on this board. You're the chairman of the board, right? No, this is a different board. MR. HENSON: Motion's been made. We've got a motion on the board to approve. We need a second. MR. ASEPERMY: Second. MR. HENSON: Second by Lanny. Motion -- call for a vote. All those in favor signify by saying "aye." (Aye.) MR. HENSON: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. Motion passed. Motion 53-10, Capital Asset Policy. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I'd like to make a comment here, Mr. Chairman, just so the audience hears something. A few years ago the tribe was designated high risk because we had a lot of things out of compliance with our federal contract, basically. And, also, we had audits in the past that showed that we were not in -- up to standard in different places. So what we've been attempting to do is to get us up to that so we get out of high risk, so we've done a lot of policy changes. Part of it is to get new policies in place. So in the last few years we have been gung-ho, we've been moving with fast pace, to get all policies up to date. You heard one earlier when we talked about property. You know, that's one that we really need to get in place. So we've done a number of them. They are a lot of work, they're a big job, and I'm really happy that the nation has really moved with speed to get us in compliance. We're about to receive our 2009 audit findings. There's a draft out, but we haven't seen the draft yet, but we got some preliminary information on the draft. But if you recall, a year or so ago we were four audits behind. So we moved those audits real fast. And I can tell you, when you move audits like that, you're always going to find a lot of findings, because you can't correct them that quick. But the good thing is, we know what they are, so we're working hard to get all these audit findings in order. This draft proposes that we may have something like 10 audit findings. It bothers me to even hear that we have any findings. But I'm reminded by others that, wow, last year we had 20-some. So we have come down considerably within the one year. And when we get this, we'll share this. But it seems like in the audit findings, now, it's a matter that we're not making timely reports. So it's not as significant in the past as where we're really violating the way we're expending money. So I'm really tickled to see now that the audit findings are saying get on with your reporting on schedule. So we have time frames to make reports, and some of those audit findings are out of scope of time frames. Now, one of the things, too, that's really standing that's very important for us, we have to provide, you know, information on all our assets. And you saw us talking about asset policies and procedures, which we're talking about right now, capital asset policy. This policy is very significant to us, because it says when we have anything of monetary value, you know, that's an asset, or that's a value to the Comanche Nation. In the past, there were a lot of things that we were not identifying as assets and we were not, consequently, reporting them. So now this policy puts us in order to say let's get on with this asset matter and identify them. They're going to be things like property, land, all those kind of things. Everything with a monetary value. And some of these matters of assets have a depreciation. If you get in the financial world, you know things can depreciate over time. If you bought a home, maybe it depreciates, if you are familiar with that. But this asset policy is one of our last big policies in addition to that property and procurement. We need to get that property procurement done as quick as we can and get this asset. And I might say to you, it's been a lot of hard work. It's not a simple thing. Another thing that we've gotten and we've gotten that done, too, is we have to have accounting principals. We have to work under good accounting principals. So we've gotten that task done. And I'm glad to say, you know, that we have some support from our financial partner, Finley & Cook, to get some of those things like accounting principals in order. So what you're going to see, in my opinion, the nation, yes, we still have little mistakes. No one's perfect. But the point is, we're going to have policies and procedures and guidelines. And if we will comply with them, we're going to see the Comanche Nation government move up to a high standard. Because I know a lot of the nations are struggling with the things that we are getting in order here, policies and procedures. So the big thing, once they're past, is to abide by them, do them. So we're going to have to really discipline ourselves to do them, to live to them. Because once we do, I'll tell you, we can get -- like in the business world, we can get a rating up here with a high standing in the financial world. As an example, there's only one Indian tribe in the whole U.S. that has the top-notch bond ratings and financial ratings, and that's our cousins, in a way, the Utes, the Southern Utes in Colorado. They're at the top there. There's no other Indian nation that has that, except they, to my knowledge at this point. The Mississippi Choctaws were almost there, but now they've lost a little because of the economy and other matters, but because of its investments and everything. But I just want to say with pride, you should look at our nation with pride because we have -- there's a number of people that have really worked hard to get things in order and put policies in order. So our next step is going to be to hold ourselves accountable to uphold these policies and procedures. And once they're in place, you know, all the members should say, look, you have a policy, follow it. And when we have audits -- that's the thing on an audit. These 10 findings that's in the draft that's coming up, they're looking at are we following our own policies and procedures. Yes, Roderick? MR. WHITEWOLF: When are we going to get shed of Finley & Cook? When are we going to stand on our own two feet? MR. TIPPECONNIE: I can't answer that, except that I can make this point: I think the whole CBC has to be addressing this, and we have. A couple of years ago, maybe it was a year ago, we asked them, in their estimation, to give us their perspective of when we could take it over. Now, that's a hard question to ask Finley & Cook because, you know, they may want to keep it. But the good thing is, we built some rapport and some relationships with them, with certain ones in the company. They're very honest with us. So they're telling us if we put this kind of structure in place -- when I say structure, we start to put certain employees like CPAs in place, and we begin to get ourselves skilled, like this asset policy and some other policies. Then we build a workforce to implement this. So we're looking at that now and I can't answer it fully, because this whole CBC is looking at it. And it's, I think, in the minds of some of us, at some point, we want to assume that. Okay. When we assume it, we want to have all these in order. We want to know our accounting principals, we want to have CPAs, we want to have accountants. One thing we're trying to get is a chief financial officer at the moment, you know. You get some chief financial officers in, you get accountants in, certified public accountants, and you get a good team. Now, I'd like to say, along with that -- and I'm speaking for the TA. He can jump on me if I'm out of order; but the TA then must -- because he overlooks, he over administers the day-to-day business of the nation. He then has to be sure all these policies are followed, and that we have all this structure to follow the accounting principals and all that. So once we get that all lined up, I think we can begin to say let's start marching to take it back. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Does the tribe, will it be assigned a rating? Will it be a number rating or a letter rating? MR. TIPPECONNIE: In the audits? We get a rating in the audits, yes. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: What is it? Is it a letter or a number? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Well, Mr. Asepermy can read our past audits. He has them down -- MR. ASEPERMY: Going back to 2004 -- and by the way, the 2004 audit was four years late, the 2005 audit was three years late, the 2006 audit was two years late, the 2007 audit was a year late, the 2008 audit was turned in on time, the current audit is due back to us on May the 31st, it was turned in on time. And there's four classes of grades. If you get an unqualified, that's like getting an 'A' in school. If you get a qualified, it's like getting a 'B'. If you get an adverse, it's like getting a 'C' or a 'D'. And if you get a disclaimer, it's an 'F'. In 2004, our audits -- and we found there were 10 findings in 2004 -- we got an unqualified. We got an 'A' grade. In 2005, our grades were for overall in funds was an 'F'; compliance, a 'B'. We had 26 findings in 2005. In 2006, we had 26 findings. In 2007, we had 28 findings. In 2008, we had 19. I don't know what this year's grade will be, but I'm hoping -- MR. NELSON: Five, five small ones. MR. ASEPERMY: Five small findings. That's unofficial. So that's a drastic improvement from, especially 2005 and '06 and '07. 26, 26, and 28 findings. We dropped to 19 and now he says five. I'll believe it when I see it, and I think it will probably be down there. MR. WHITEWOLF: That means that Mr. Nelson did his job then, right? MR. ASEPERMY: That means that Mr. Nelson did his job. That means that, I think, the CBC is doing their job a lot better. MR. WHITEWOLF: Thanks to Nelson. MR. ASEPERMY: However you want to put it Roderick, that's fine with me. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I want to say this: It's a lot of people. It's not just Mr. Nelson, it's not just the CBC, it's a lot of people. It's a lot of people that put their work into meeting these needs. You can see -- I tentatively thought it was 10 that I saw, but it may be five; but regardless, you can see how far we've come. And the thing is, it's a lot of good work on a lot of good people. MR. WHITEWOLF: But I'm saying under Mr. Nelson's leadership. He's still got to coordinate it. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes, his leadership. But I want to say that we've been doing this now for a couple of years even before Mr. Nelson. It's Mr. Nelson, it's our directors and, yes, CBC. It's Finley & Cook. So there's a number of principals, it's not just one; but, yes, he has a very responsible job to minister and get us into compliance. MR. HENSON: I might want to say one thing to you people: Since I've been on, I was very -- I was overwhelmed when I came on. And Roderick, at one point, made a statement to me that was very hurtful. He said, "Shut up Bunky, you don't know what you're talking about. You're not from here." MR. WHITEWOLF: I never used the word "shut up". MR. HENSON: Well, something like that or you didn't want to hear me. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to make you look bad. But that really hit me in my heart. And the further along that I went along and saw everything that was going on, he was right. I had missed some of the ways of the Comanche people when I was gone, and it's taken me a while to learn. But I want to say one thing: Since we have been in office and all the experience that we have from all over the place, and all the lawyers, all the accountants, everything that we've got, that's still not enough to make -- to put us where we need to be. But a lot of things that's been put in place now that are -- that we've been accountable for, like our assets, our cars, our buildings, our gaming commission, everything that we got, we're beginning to control that to where it's going to help the Comanche Nation. And that's what the big thing is, is to help the Comanche Nation. We've been on high risk for three or four years, and -- well, even longer than that. And what it means to be on high risk is that we're not getting any government funding or we're not -- we can't get any contracts or grants. It takes us off. When they find out we're in high risk, they don't want to give us any money to throw away again. So all of this has been working toward that. Once we get off high risk, we're going to get a lot more money into the programs. You're going to see a better Comanche Nation as it comes along. Willie, just one more. Go ahead. MR. NELSON: Robert will never take credit for anything, but Robert got us current on all our audits. It was Robert. And the CBC, for the last two years, has been very proactive. It doesn't take someone overnight. It's a 'we' thing. Eddie, Lanny, Darrell, they work so hard, you guys don't even know. You wouldn't even know. The thing about this capital assets, our nation -- I want every member to understand this: Our nation did not actually capitalize our buildings, so we don't have a barometer to follow. Now, with the great help of Norman, we did a full capitalization of all our assets. So this year, we got a barometer to match for. Our buildings are 20, 30 years old, but we're paying a premium of new. So this year we get to claim the 30, 30-year clause, so we got a savings of half that money. Good stuff. Land, buildings, equipment, leasehold improvements, donated assets, sensitive items, vehicles, furniture, fixtures, infrastructure network subsystems, all of these are now -- if the gentlemen today adopt this, Eddie, right today, when you talk -- ask a question, Mr. Whitewolf, about Finley & Cook, it gave us time to put these policies in order so that we can come to our own accounting principal. It takes all of the political aspect out of it. MR. HENSON: Thank you, Willie. Norman, before we get started on this next resolution, have you looked at these policies and procedures? MR. NORMAN: The more important question is whether your accountants are comfortable with it. MR. TIPPECONNIE: We worked with Finley & Cook on it. MR. HENSON: Let's pass this resolution before we go. Resolution 53-10 states, "Whereas, the BIA monitoring report identified a need for the Nation to update its management system policies, including the capital asset policy, to be in compliance with PL93-638 contract requirements. "Now therefore be it resolved, that the Comanche Business Committee hereby approves the attached Capital Asset Policy." I need a motion on the floor. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I make a motion. MR. ASEPERMY: Second. MR. HENSON: Motion's been made by Bob and seconded by Mr. Asepermy. Call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying "aye." (Aye.) MR. HENSON: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. Okay. Motion's been approved on 53-10. Right now we'll take a 10-minute break, and we'll be back here at 11:30. (Break held.) MR. HENSON: Can I call the meeting to order, please? The next thing on the agenda is Resolution 54-10. It's dealing with the approved changes of the Comanche Nation Museum & Cultural Center bylaws. Do you want to stand up and address this? MR. ASEPERMY: Here you go. MR. BIGBEE: This resolution is submitted -- this resolution is being presented due to subsequent -- MR. ASEPERMY: Tell everybody who you are and what your position is. MR. BIGBEE: My name is Dan Bigbee. I presently serve as the chairman of the board of the museum. Other board members present are Pat Whitewolf, who serves as our secretary/treasurer. Working with the CBC on getting board vacancies filled, the recommendation coming from these gentlemen was to reduce the number of seats on the board from seven to five. And the purpose of the resolution here today is to make the necessary changes to our bylaws to change that number from seven to five. There are several articles that are in question here, but they all pertain to the notion of the changing from seven members to five. That is what is before you. With the passage of this resolution, we'll be able to proceed with filling the vacancies. And, Bob, are those names still in the resolution? MR. TIPPECONNIE: We didn't put it as a part of this resolution. You'll have to make that motion on that for the members. MR. BIGBEE: Well, today, in addition to considering the changes to the bylaws, the seven to five members, we'd also like you to consider appointing two members to the board to fill some vacant seats that we have. I believe those resums were submitted earlier, and I hope that you still have copies. The names we'd like to recommend are Bill Shoemate and Ron Ewing. MR. ASEPERMY: Who? MR. BIGBEE: Ron Ewing. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Is it Evans? MR. BIGBEE: I'm sorry, I don't have the name with me. I think it was E-U-R-I-N. His name is recommended through the -- we received his application using an advertising process that has been recommended by the CBC. We had a number of applicants, and Mr. Eurin's name came up through our selection process. The board put together a committee, reviewed the resumes that were submitted, and are recommending this young fella to join our board. Bill Shoemate presently sits on the board and we'd like to recommend that he be re-appointed. In addition to his experience and wisdom, another benefit is the fact that he presently sits on the Lawton City Council. As you all are aware, the building lease that we currently have, the building that houses the museum at present, is leased with the city. Having a city council member on our board has proved beneficial in solving any number of problems that have come up in terms of maintaining the grounds and that sort of thing. It's a great benefit to having Mr. Shoemate on the board and we'd like for that to continue. MR. ASEPERMY: So, currently, you are the chairman, Ms. Whitewolf is the Secretary/ Treasurer. Who are the other current members? MR. BIGBEE: Currently, in addition to Ms. Whitewolf and myself, Bill Shoemate, of course; Clark Southard is currently serving a three-year term; Darrell is serving a three-year term; and since his election, his seat became vacant. We'd like to fill that seat and move Darrell to ex-officio status. MR. ASEPERMY: Well, right now you've got yourself, Ms. Whitewolf, Clark Southard, Darrell Kosechequetah. Darrell, is your time up? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Yes. MR. BIGBEE: What we're trying to do is move Dan to an ex-officio status. MR. ASEPERMY: So you would actually have a six-member board? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Five-member with an ex-officio. MR. BIGBEE: Five voting members and one ex-officio. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Non-voting. MR. ASEPERMY: Pat, can I ask you a question, since you're the secretary and you've been on the board a number of years? Are you good to go with this recommendation to cut the membership of the board to five and have a CBC member as a non-voting member? Are you in concurrence with this? MS. WHITEWOLF: Well, the board's okay, and we communicate with the CBC as it is. I don't know why we have to have someone from the CBC on the board. MR. ASEPERMY: Well, he would be a non-voting member, like Bunky is a non-voting member of economic development, like the chairman is a non-voting member of the college council. MS. WHITEWOLF: But then if it has to be, I guess -- MR. ASEPERMY: And Clyde is the liaison for the elders' council. And what Darrell tells us is, besides your monthly report, if there's anything pertinent, or something going on at the museum that we should know about, Darrell informs the committee of any ongoings other than outside the perimeters of the report. MR. BIGBEE: Darrell's already been instrumental in that communication and the liaison between the CBC and the museum. MR. ASEPERMY: The other question I have for Pat is, I'm assuming that the board reviewed the applicants for this committee, right? Did y'all review all the applicants? MS. WHITEWOLF: Well, the first time, yes, we did. When I say the first time, I believe it was when Clark Southard was going to fill that spot. LaNora and I went through the applications; however, what we decided didn't get to your table at all. MR. ASEPERMY: What about what Mr. -- MS. WHITEWOLF: And this one -- this one, Lanny, you're asking me and I'm going to tell you. I think I told several people around here, is that there are enough -- now, this is just only my opinion. There are enough Comanche people in all areas, and I'm saying, you know, like Walters and Apache and here. And there are Comanche people that are craftsman. They make buckskin dresses, they make leggings. Now, how many people can do that? There's not that many. And they have a knowledge of things that go on exhibit in our museum. And some of them that we borrowed from them are our Comanche people, what I call our Comanche people that know, that don't have to be taught. And that's what I was wanting, someone from around this area, maybe in this room, to be on our board with us. That will help. And I'm for education all the way, but I think that our Comanche people around here are just as smart, as intelligent, as someone with three degrees over here that could help our museum. And also the way that announcement came out is that you don't have to be a tribal member or you don't have to be Indian. I mean, that's how that announcement came out. And that's what a lot of people didn't like. MR. ASEPERMY: Well, according to your bylaws, four have to be Numunuu, one can be non-Comanche. And then it says the experience and capabilities you must possess or demonstrate professional experience and capabilities in one of the following disciplines: Finance, fundraising, education, marketing, organizational management, the arts and museum work. Those are the qualifications to sit on this board. You're saying that y'all have reviewed -- was there 24 applicants? MR. BIGBEE: I don't have an exact count on the number of applicants. There were at least 20. We've advertised at lease three times to fill these two vacancies. MR. ASEPERMY: And then we got the secretary/treasurer who is on your board who said -- MS. WHITEWOLF: Excuse me, Lanny, I did not go through these applicants. MR. ASEPERMY: I was fixing to say, you've got one member of your board that hasn't -- you've made two recommendations here. You've got one member of the board who hasn't been part of the process. Who was part of the process? MR. BIGBEE: A selection committee was put together. And actually Ms. Whitewolf was afforded the opportunity to join that committee and declined. MS. WHITEWOLF: But I'd like to say why I walked out of the meeting, and I did. Because I didn't agree on how they were looking through the applications. The applications were supposed to be -- come to the museum and then turned over to you, CBC. But that night, that night -- what did you say, Delores? MS. AITSON: I was talking to Eddie. MS. WHITEWOLF: And that night, the board, the museum board looked -- was going to look over those applications, and I said I didn't think that was right, that we should just turn the applications over to you and let y'all look through them, then tell us your choice. MR. ASEPERMY: And you turn it over to us since we do the appointing, right? MS. WHITEWOLF: Right. MR. ASEPERMY: Okay. MS. WHITEWOLF: And I'm okay with that, hoping that you would pick a Comanche from around this area. MS. ASENAP: I have a question. I have a comment. I have applied for the museum board several times. I volunteered at the museum for the last two years. I have a master's degree in guidance and counseling, and I was in education for 20 years. And I'm a full-blood Comanche, so I have expertise to give. But I have never -- never been appointed. And, you know, I am from Lawton and I'm concerned about the education aspect for all the area schools. So, you know, I feel I'm qualified to be on the museum board. MR. ASEPERMY: For the record, could you state your name? MS. ASENAP: Arlene Asenap. MS. WHITEWOLF: Excuse me, Lanny. My time goes out in June, June the 1st. MR. ASEPERMY: June the 1st? MR. BIGBEE: Yes, sir. There are two more vacancies coming up as of June 1. So we'll have to go through this process once again where we advertise for applications, selection committee, unless the CBC would like to take on the chore. Then the board would go through the selection process and recommend some people to fill the seats to the CBC. MR. HENSON: Darrell, is there a process? Are there bylaws on how they select or recommend members? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: I don't think it states exactly. MR. BIGBEE: It's not specific. There isn't a specific process outlined. In the bylaws, the qualifications are outlined. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: But what we've done with other committees, such as the enterprise, various others, economic development, they bring those recommendations to us in some cases. And in some cases, we advertise out here and Bob receives all of them. So it's done two different ways. MR. HENSON: And then, in the past, it's been done by the museum sends us recommendations? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Recommendations, absolutely. MR. HENSON: So that process, your process for what you've done with the board has been by -- MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: It was no different. It was the same way. MR. BIGBEE: Same as we'd done before. MR. WHITEWOLF: I'd just like to mention to the CBC board that they have a very capable -- very, very capable director in Phyllis Wahahrockah. She could handle all the expertise portion of the program. She's very capable. MR. ASEPERMY: Well, I agree with you. I think she's a good one. MR. HENSON: Delores? MS. AITSON: I'd like to say something on behalf of what Pat was saying a while ago, and I wasn't saying anything about her. Because she had mentioned to me they were having a meeting, you know, and they were going to select new people. And I agree with her. I think that Comanches should be placed on that museum board and it's our museum. And I have tried so many times, and Phyllis told me to come down and put in an application, but I don't have a degree, I don't have a -- you know, a lot of things that they qualify -- you have to qualify for. I'm not no degreed person, but I make leggings, I make buckskin dresses. Delores Sumner's picture that's at the museum, I made that dress that she had on. I made leggings. Phyllis bought a doll that's dressed in buckskin clothes. She bought that from me for the museum. I do a lot of things that Indians need to put in that museum. MR. HENSON: I think the way Lanny read that, that you would qualify under arts. MS. AITSON: I've worked for the museum there on Farris. MR. HENSON: I've just got one thing to say about the whole process. He said that it's been advertised three times. Now, it seems like what's going on at this point is that our Comanche people does not know exactly what qualifications are needed to be on the museum board. MS. WHITEWOLF: I say the only qualification we need is that you're a Comanche tribal member, Bunky. MR. HENSON: Well, it's already stated in your bylaw, that's done by -- MS. WHITEWOLF: I made that statement before we did the bylaws, also. I think -- you know, the Comanche people in here, they live -- they live this life. They know. You put something in the museum, they know the story behind what we put on exhibit. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. They live this life, they know this life. MR. ASEPERMY: Dan, I thought I read somewhere here that -- and I can't find it right now -- four of the members, is there a -- am I missing something here? Is there -- MR. BIGBEE: One of the changes to move from the seven to five? The clause -- MR. ASEPERMY: Yeah, I'm looking for it. Oh, four members of the board shall be enrolled members of the nation. So that means the fifth member can be a non-Comanche. This is the recommended change right here. MS. WHITEWOLF: I think they should all be Comanche. MR. BIGBEE: Let me say, at present, everyone on the board is Comanche. Part of the thinking behind leaving one seat available to a non-Comanche is that at some point -- well, taking Bill Shoemate as an example. We're fortunate that he sits on the city council, he is enrolled, he's also sitting on the museum board. There are any number of issues that have come up where his position has proved valuable. He probably isn't going to sit on the city council forever, and it would be beneficial to the museum, because of the lease situation, to have that seat open to possibly having a city council member sitting on that board. There are advantages to this, guaranteeing that four members are tribal members and are never going to lose control of that museum. One thing that I'd like to address is, I believe that -- hearing that there are all sorts of people with all sorts of talents and cultural experiences and knowledge, people that want to sit on the board, I think that's a good thing. It's what the museum's all about. And why I hesitate to go along with this reducing the number from seven to five, that's two less seats that we have to gain that knowledge, that cultural perspective, put people on the board. We're limiting that opportunity. However, that's how the board feels, that's how general membership feels, and so we'll go along with it. MR. WHITEWOLF: Of course, a very valuable resource -- but he probably doesn't have time to -- but a capable person would be Mr. Voelker over there. He's got his own museum. It's fabulous. I'd like to see him on the board. MR. BIGBEE: I would like to see that, too. Unfortunately there's rules in place that one board is all you're allowed to sit on. He chairs the NAGPRA board at present. MR. WHITEWOLF: Why don't you put it to a vote to the tribal council and let them elect? They're the people. Let us elect him. MR. BIGBEE: The board seats? MR. WHITEWOLF: Yes, uh-huh. MR. MAHSEET: Dan, can I ask you a question, if you don't mind? MR. HENSON: Excuse me. Hold on. MR. MAHSEET: Can I ask you a question? MR. BIGBEE: Sure. MR. MAHSEET: I've had a little experience with the museums, with the Cheyenne- Arapahos. And they had one person in there who was very capable, went all over the United States and everything, but he was only one. And what hurt them is they didn't have enough people on that board that knew about museums. Do we have capable Comanches that could go in there, look and see what needs to be done as a museum? When they acquire artifacts from other places, do they know what they're supposed to do with those artifacts? Do they know that they're supposed to be climatized, encaged every day, adjusted every day? How many people do we know that have that knowledge? MS. WHITEWOLF: Excuse me. Eddie, that's where our director comes in. Yes, she knows all of that. MR. MAHSEET: Excuse me, Pat. I mean, I understand that. But there should be other people, as well. I mean, if you're gone, you get sick, who else is going to run that? So there should be more than two or three that knows what goes on in a museum. And, you know, for our people to say, yeah, this is correct, you know, maybe you shouldn't change from seven to five. Maybe you need all seven, you know, to be able to get a rounded knowledge, you know. I mean, there's people in here like Ms. Asenap that, you know, has provided. I know she taught school there in Apache, she did real well. But maybe they shouldn't change from seven to five. Maybe you need seven, and the biggest part of them are Comanche members that know or that, you know, can qualify through your listing. Because, you know, for a museum to be done, it does take quite a bit. And you need thorough knowledge to be in a museum. MR. BIGBEE: There's two schools of thought on the point you're making. Ms. Whitewolf makes one point in that it's an expertise that you have to have on your staff to handle things in -- at the level and at that standards that one would want to expect. The other side of the coin is to also have that expertise on your board so that the board understands when staff needs something. A lot of the materials and techniques for safeguarding our feathers, that's expensive things we're talking about. Climate control is not just putting in an air conditioner, it's an air conditioner that takes care of the dust and the humidity at prescribed levels. Those are things that the board has to understand when the bill comes in front of them for approval. MR. HENSON: I think basically what goes on -- I've sat on a lot of boards throughout the United States, and basically when you make up a board, you try to find people that's very knowledgeable and everything on what you're going to do. One of the other things, which is kind of like an exception, when you find a board member, a lot of times they look at a board member where they can bring some expertise money-wise. And our museum, I know it's our museum and what we got here, but at some time or another, we're going to go national. In fact, we want to go national with it now. We not only want our people there, but we want everybody to know we're there. So when you go and you pick a board member -- and maybe that's the reason why that one board member is non-Comanche. Because that board member might be able to bring in millions of dollars some way, some how. So you need to think about that. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I have a question. He told us what Bill Shoemate's expertise is. What is the other gentleman that you're recommending, what's his expertise? MR. BIGBEE: His expertise is pretty much involved in managing non-profit, fundraising, finance and managing those sorts of things. One of our goals and objectives here is to write the grants, to do the fundraising, so that eventually the museum could conceivably go off the tribal budget. Putting those things in place and having people with that sort of expertise are something that the board felt was necessary. MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Bigbee, I will not vote for someone who I've not seen a resume on; and your recommendation of Ron, however you say his last name, I can't do with that. I need to ask Darrell a question since he sits on the board. I did talk to Phyllis, our director down there, and asked her what is the right size for a board. Is it seven, nine, five, whatever? And she said that she could probably do with a five- or seven-person board. Darrell, you've been on that board for the last three years. What's your recommendation? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: I didn't necessarily agree with cutting the board back, but that was kind of the consensus of the CBC at the time, so I don't have a problem with it. There's also opportunity for the chairman to construct committees, whether they're cultural committees, finance-raising committees, what have you. So we have those opportunities available, the financing, in order to get the money back to fund those. But I don't have a problem with a five-person board. I'd like to see seven, but we can do with five. We're trying to do this all across the board on all our entities is what I'm seeing here. MR. ASEPERMY: And I think it was the business committee who wanted to do the changes on our boards, commissions, councils to cut them back to save on stipends. That's not necessarily a good thing. MR. HENSON: One of the reasons that the board, the CBC, actually went into looking at all the boards was all the excess money and all the excess meetings that were spent. All the monies that were being spent that didn't need to be spent. Did we need that many people on each board? We looked at it very closely and we looked about where those people that are going to be setting on the board, whether they'll be able to operate at that level. And that was our recommendation. And our recommendation to the museum was five. So that's how that came about. It's actually -- MR. ASEPERMY: That was not all of our recommendation. MR. MAHSEET: That wasn't my recommendation. I didn't recommend it. MR. ASEPERMY: That wasn't mine. That might be yours, but we have never sat down as a committee to discuss the boards. You've had it in your possession since September of '09. We've never had a formal discussion on how many people belong on each board, what the stipends will be. We've never had that discussion. So that's how we stand with that. If we added and we kept two members of your board -- you meet quarterly or monthly? MR. BIGBEE: Presently we meet monthly. Our bylaws are quarterly. MR. ASEPERMY: If we meet monthly -- if we have a seven-person board versus a five- person board, that would equate to $2400 more a year. Now, is $2400 going to help us raise money? Is it going to help us with the marketing? Is it going to help us with the arts? We could probably get $2400 for two expert museum people. You know, their contribution could be great. So I think the CBC needs to re-look at the number of people on this particular board. And with Pat saying what she said, and Darrell saying what he said, I think we should keep it at seven. I think that we have enough Numunuu who fit into the finance, the fundraising, the education, the marketing, the organization, the arts and the museum work. It says you only have to be an expertise in one of them, you know. So you bring us education, you know. Pat, apparently you helped with the financing. You were selected as the secretary/treasurer of that organization. And how come you're not going to keep doing this? MS. WHITEWOLF: Well, I will if I'm re-appointed. I think it's a great museum. I am so proud of it. But I want others to share in it. We have our meetings monthly now, so everybody knows and can come and listen in and ask questions. Be acquainted with us and know us. That's also our slogan that I came up with. MR. HENSON: Well, let's do this, then. It sounds like maybe there's two or three people that might want to change the number on the board. The resolution on the floor is to change the -- basically change the members from seven to five. So at this time, what I'm going to do is say that the motion on the -- the resolution on the floor to change the seven members to five, and basically that's what it is. The motion's on the floor. I need a motion to approve. MR. MAHSEET: No motion. MR. HENSON: No motion? Okay. Then it dies. The next thing we're going to do is go into old business. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Wait, wait. We have two things. We had the motion, which doesn't talk to the persons that they would like us to consider. You haven't addressed that. You haven't finalized that. One thing I would like to comment, is if there are two board member vacancies occurring, you know, we stated that all those things, when they become vacant, they will be advertised. So I think we should be consistent with that because it gives other persons an opportunity to apply. And it also gives the people in place opportunity to re-apply, but we made that so that all tribal members would have an opportunity to be on some of these boards and such. So the two vacancies that are upcoming, is it June? MR. ASEPERMY: Yeah. MR. BIGBEE: Well, let's back up a minute. Now, we're still talking about seven board seats -- MR. ASEPERMY: That's gone. MR. BIGBEE: Right. So, as it sits, we have seven seats on our board. Right now, out of those seven, I have four vacancies. MR. HENSON: And you only gave us two recommendations. MR. ASEPERMY: If we keep it at that. MR. BIGBEE: Right. So for those four vacancies, these vacancies have developed over the last year. Two of them became vacant in June of last year, last summer. We've advertised three times to fill those four seats. Three times. MR. TIPPECONNIE: All four seats? MR. BIGBEE: Yes. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Pat, did you look at all four seats when you were looking at these vacancies? MS. WHITEWOLF: No. Like I say, I didn't have anything to do with what you're looking at. Well, I know Bill, but this other guy, whoever he is, I don't know. The only one that we reviewed was when we were going to get Clark Southard on the board, the other board member, and I looked over the applications then. But the ones we recommended didn't even get to your table. We went to the next meeting and here's a guy out of left field coming. He's -- that's how we got him. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Let me ask this question: Do you have all those nominations yet in hand? MR. BIGBEE: I still have the resums in hand, yes. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Maybe it would be smart if they re-group and come back to us with four. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: He did bring them. He brought four, and then whenever -- we were going to cut them back to five, took two of those. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Pat is saying she wasn't involved in the process. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: No, Pat opted out of the meeting by choice. MS. WHITEWOLF: By choice, by choice. MR. HENSON: Let me make a suggestion at this point. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Hold on, let her explain. Based on the fact that we were considering a non-Comanche to be placed on the board, she said, "I will excuse myself from the meeting." That was her choice. Was I right, Pat? MS. WHITEWOLF: The whole thing, Darrell, if you'll remember, is that we were only supposed to collect the applications. Our director was supposed to collect the applications. From then on, the applications were supposed to come here to the CBC. And when we went to the meeting, and we had all our business part taken care of, then Dan says. "Okay. Now we're going to look over the applications for the board seats, to fill the board seats." And I said, "Well, we're not supposed to do that." I said, "We're supposed to just hand the applications over to the CBC and let them look at it and let them choose whoever they want to for the board." But, no, this -- MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: It was never done like that before. MR. BIGBEE: That's basically our frustration at this point. We've been trying to fill these seats for almost a year. MR. HENSON: Let me try to clear it up at this point. It seems like some of your board members are not out of it. You got the applications. You've advertised and everything already. I might suggest that you just go back to the board, see the ones that want to sit on it, and then re-recommend to the CBC. Is that going to be a problem? MR. BIGBEE: We've done that since last summer. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Several times. MR. BIGBEE: We'll go back, come up with some names and re-submit. Pat's telling us that she's of the opinion that we should take all the resums, hand them to you guys, and you guys make your appointment. So we need to figure out which way we're going to go here. MR. HENSON: Your precedence has already been set. You made your selection and you recommended to the CBC. MR. ASEPERMY: That doesn't make it right. Now, I'm not going to sit up here and tell y'all that we haven't done a great job on our boards and appointments and things like that. I think we have probably half the time; and I think now that we understand the process, that we do advertise, and we advertise with qualifications for any of these boards or commissions or councils. I think we're doing it right. And in order to do it right with your board, since we do the appointments, I think that you should -- and I know the problem is us -- that you should give us all the resums, we should reconvene and review the resums and reconvene on the 20th, since we're meeting with the tax commission, and then have our short list, our recommendation of four members to put on that board. And then come to a consensus and do the appointment on May the 20th. That's my recommendation. MR. HENSON: Let me say this -- MR. WHITEWOLF: Like you say, it's hard to appoint somebody you haven't met. MR. ASEPERMY: At least we have a piece of paper. MR. BIGBEE: Ultimately, it's the CBC that makes the appointment. MR. ASEPERMY: That's why I say give us -- and Darrell, Darrell -- MR. HENSON: Let me say this right now: The boards that are in place now has a lot of experience in knowing what they need and what they're going to do. And if you're going to go back and give us all the applicants, we, except maybe Darrell there, are not experts in knowing who needs to be on that board. So if you're going to do that, I would like to see your recommendations on who you recommend and the reasons why, if you give us all 20 of them. Because I'm not one -- I'm just me. But I'm not the one that really knows about who needs to be on that board and the knowledge and expertise that they need to have. And since you guys have been on the board already, you're the ones that's going to know. So I think your recommendations are going to be very, very instrumental in us making a decision on who is going to be on that board. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: What you just said is exactly what has taken place. Exactly. MR. HENSON: Well, it seems like there's a -- have you got a problem with this, Pat? MS. WHITEWOLF: Well -- MR. HENSON: Of going ahead and getting the board members on? MS. WHITEWOLF: How I feel -- and Dan and Darrell, I have felt this from the very beginning, and I've said this over again, that we should have all Comanches. I mean Comanches. I mean Numunuu. I don't mean taiboos that's going to have to come and learn. Taiboos calling themselves Comanches and coming in here and learning. I spoke to Clark, our other board member. I said something to him in Comanche and I said, "What did I say?" He said, "Pat, I don't know. I didn't understand a word you said." That's not Comanche to me. That is not Comanche. I don't care what you say. But what I'm saying is that if this CBC got all the applications, let them tell -- you know, they're in charge here. Let them look at the applications and tell us. MR. HENSON: Well, let's do it this way. Let's go ahead and cut this off. MS. WHITEWOLF: Excuse me, Bunky, you asked me how I felt, I'm giving you my answer. Keep it short and sweet. You get the applications, y'all look it over -- and because Darrell's sitting over there, that's why I said I don't think we should have a CBC member on there, because he knows a lot of people and maybe he's pushing this Ron somebody. Darrell, that's what I heard, I'm sorry. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: I don't know the man. I have no clue who he is. I looked at his resume. MS. WHITEWOLF: You don't know him either? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: I don't know him personally. I've never met him. MR. WHITEWOLF: How did his name come up? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: He applied. MS. WHITEWOLF: So that's how I feel. You guys get it, you guys tell us who. And I hope all these people back here, I wish some of them -- I hope their papers are in there. MR. HENSON: The suggestion I made, let's do that, go back, get them all together again, bring it back to us with your recommendations. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I'd like to make a comment, you know, the way we've been looking at, my perspective, other boards, not just this board, but other boards on their nominations, they make recommendations to us. You know, they review the applicants and then they make the recommendation. And I think there's strength in that, because the board, again, as you said yourself, they're the ones that have a sense of the skill and the mix and the interactions of that body for the purpose and the mission of the museum. It seems to me that it's best that they make recommendations to us. For us to go through all of those, I don't think it's -- MR. HENSON: No, my suggestion, Bob, was for them to go back, look at all of them, and then the board needs to make their recommendation to us. That was my suggestion. MR. WHITEWOLF: Bob, you've got a little kinship. I never knew you to be a Comanche until, bam, you came on the scene three or four years ago. I don't know if you're a wannabe or you really are Comanche. MR. ASEPERMY: Show him your CDIB. MR. HENSON: Let's go ahead and do this. MR. ASEPERMY: Dan, can you give us -- to Darrell to give to us, can you give us -- I know there's four vacancies. Can you give to us what the sitting board considers the top eight applicants instead of just saying I recommend these four? Maybe the top eight based on your bylaws and your experience and capabilities? It explains this is what you've got, your experience and your capabilities have to be in finance -- one, only one of these -- finance, fundraising, education, marketing, organizational management, the arts, or museum work. Can you -- is that all right with you, Bunky? MR. HENSON: Sure. MR. ASEPERMY: Take eight, the top eight. MR. HENSON: It doesn't make any difference whether it's four or eight. But, again, I say again that the board has to know who needs to be on there and we need the recommendations of the board. Because us, the CBC, not all of us have the knowledge of what really needs to go on the museum. So if you will do that -- is that the consensus of the board? Does the board agree? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: That's fine, yes. MR. HENSON: The board agrees to it, and you can bring us that recommendation. MR. ASEPERMY: By the 19th, or earlier if possible. MR. BIGBEE: By the 19th? MR. ASEPERMY: I'd like to read it. You know, the 19th is on a Thursday. I'd like to see something on Monday or Tuesday so it will give me time to at least review them. And I think Darrell can provide that to us. Darrell, can't you? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Yeah. MR. ASEPERMY: And put it in our boxes. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Yes. MR. ASEPERMY: Okay. MR. HENSON: The resolution that was on the board -- MR. BURSON: Mr. Chairman? MR. HENSON: Yes. MR. BURSON: I just have a clarification on my notes here. Was it proposed for you to adopt bylaws that are to reduce the number from seven to five on the board? MR. HENSON: Yes, and it died. Not the bylaws, but to change the membership. MR. BURSON: I didn't catch the wording. MR. ASEPERMY: So the bylaws stand as they are. MR. HENSON: Okay. We go into old and new business. John Devine, energy conservation? MR. NELSON: I think John didn't make it today. He is coming, he is a Comanche Nation member. John was instrumental in the $250,000 grant. I think he was wanting to show us some savings in energy, but he didn't make it, so there we go. MR. ASEPERMY: No show? MR. NELSON: Yes, sir. MR. TIPPECONNIE: And Number 2, the second one, I don't think is going to be here as well. MR. HENSON: Let me call that, Bob. Vickie Biazzo, tourism center? MR. ASEPERMY: No show. MR. HENSON: Okay. She's a no show. We'll go into Number 3. Bill Nealy? MR. NEALY: I'm Bill Nealy. A lot of you know me. If you don't know me, you know my book. I understand that Chief Quanah Parker is not particularly popular with all of you, but he is certainly well known in the non-Indian community. I'm trying to make -- I'm trying to -- can you hear me? Here we go. I don't take to this too well. I think the cow must be here, you know, the cow joke, the jokester in the old Comanche world. I think he's here playing tricks on this taiboo up here. You know, I'm attracted to the Comanche culture. I'm from Amarillo and I grew up with all the stories about the Comanches in the panhandle. So I was not captive, like a lot of people were in the old days; but, you know, I -- they became attracted to the Comanche way and didn't want to leave, so I'm attracted, too. And my professor from the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Andrew Horton, would you stand, please? Dr. Horton is here from the University of Oklahoma, a distinguished professor of film and video, and he's going to talk to you just a moment, too. We want to produce a feature film about the Comanche people, a film that will preserve your language, that will show your culture. I'm interested in the discussions about the museum because I used to be education director at the Museum of the Great Plains here, and the Comanche Language & Cultural Preservation group met there regularly. I sat in on many meetings. And being Comanches, of course, they were very generous and always provided me with lunch. So I brought gifts today for all of the members of the business committee. I brought each of you a signed copy of my book. I've been interviewed on Australian public radio about this book. 30,000 copies have sold around the world. And, now, it's not my writing. Okay? It's about you. People are interested in you. You're a very famous tribe. I've sold more books in the United Kingdom than I have in most parts of the United States. So -- and I want to say something about the people that are no longer with us physically. I feel their presence today. I think Woogie's with us. James Cox wrote the forward to my book. I think those people are with us today. So what I would like to do is to ask the business committee if they'd consider funding the development phase of this film. And Dr. Horton is going to talk about that a little bit more. We have not finalized the budget at this time. I think Dr. Horton is going to speak to that and how we can get that done and get you some specific numbers. I'm thinking in terms of a half million to a million for development. And that means that you get the director, the casting director, you attach the stars. Now, one of them is already planning to be in the movie if we can get the funds raised for it. Larry Hagman was here in 2001. Delphine Nelson and I worked together to plan a reception for Mr. Hagman. We also honored Marie Cox and set up a scholarship in James and Marie's memory. So this is really a tribute to your culture. I've been working on this since 1983. When I first came to the complex, nobody would talk to me, because the taiboo from Amarillo nobody wanted anything to do with. But some way or another, I wound up at Woogie's house, and Woogie took me under his arm and he advised me and helped me throughout the rest of his life since I've worked on this project. So I'd like to turn the microphone over now to Dr. Andrew Horton, who is the co-author of my screenplay, by the way. MR. ASEPERMY: Are you going to tell us the name of the film and what it's about, or is he going to? MR. HORTON: Thank you. It's a great honor to be here. Kia Ora. Kia Ora is a Maori language in New Zealand. I have lived and taught in New Zealand, and I've loved being at OU, the most Native American state. And the two are very popular. Let me just say: In New Zealand, many of the Maori films -- some of you may have seen Whale Riders. It's available in so many of the video shops. Maori films have done well around the world. Very popular, very strong, keeping the Maori culture alive. By the way, our children, it's required to learn the language in school. Can you imagine if America said you can't graduate from high school unless you know at least one native language? I'm in favor of that. Watching our daughter come back to stay with Maori language and say, Kia Ora, good day. I have strong connections there. He's mentioned I'm a professor. I'm also a screen writer. My credits include award- winning films including -- I discovered a guy named Brad Pitt from Shawnee and made his first feature film. And we're getting several copies of the film to -- I guess I've got them in here. They're here somewhere. We've got several copies of Dark Side of the Sun. It's the first film that Brad Pitt made. I wrote it, and he's done okay since then. And I've enjoyed helping people make their films. One of my students is Sterlin Harjo, Seminole, and his two feature films have done very well at Sundance and around the world. Standing ovation in Venice. And he's working away making films here. Bill came to me, hearing that I was a screenwriter, and I got very interested in the project, so I co-wrote the script with him on Quanah Parker. The title, at the moment, is Eagle of the Comanches. It meant a lot for me to help work on the script. I would love to see this script turn into a feature film. Next week at the Warren Theatre in Moore they're having the world premiere of Pearl. The Chickasaw Nation helped finance that one. It's the story about the young girl who is taught to be a pilot by Wiley Post. Big smile on my face. Any time a good story like that can get made, that's great, and reach out to the world. So part of what -- I've been offered jobs in Hollywood, and I say, "No. I'm enjoying Oklahoma, I want to help people tell their stories." And so what Bill is asking for is development money to get this going. We have connections with a lot of different people, including the producer of Sterling Harjo's films who is Native also in Tulsa. He can help with budget and connections. And I'm so happy to hear about Sunrise, your son, who is now teaching -- will be teaching for us, again, at OU And I would love to have him involved in this project, cinematographer or something. That would be so wonderful. Thank you. MR. NEALY: I'd like to pass out -- MR. ASEPERMY: Before you do that, I have a couple of questions. You want a half a million to a million dollars -- MR. NEALY: Yes. MR. ASEPERMY: -- for this movie, Eagle of the Comanches. And it is about Quanah? MR. NEALY: Yes. MR. ASEPERMY: Okay. How much would it cost, roughly, to -- for me to go into the theatre and there it is right there? How much would it cost to do the whole thing? MR. NEALY: Probably 5 million. That's what we're estimating right now. But Dr. Horton is going to have that checked out a little bit more in detail by someone who knows a lot about budgets. MR. ASEPERMY: In order to get this on the silver screen, it would cost about $5 million? MR. NEALY: Roughly. MR. HORTON: The Chickasaw film that opens next week was 3 1/2 million, I think. MR. ASEPERMY: Do y'all have any money set aside already? MR. NEALY: No. MR. ASEPERMY: No, zero. MR. NEALY: We have the screenplay ready to shoot, and we have the book, and we have -- Larry Hagman is going to help us raise money, if we can get the development money. Larry is interested in playing the part of the elder, Charles Goodnight, who was an enemy of the Comanches before the reservation period. And he and Quanah became friends and business associates later on. So it's going to be how they came together. MR. ASEPERMY: Does everyone know who Larry Hagman is? J.R. MR. NEALY: J.R. has a lot of appeal. He goes to Europe. He just got back from Germany. They're crazy about him over there. And in Texas, which is my home state, there's a big market for this project, because -- I hope you'll be proud that Comanche is on the list of the 100 greatest Texans of all time. Quanah Parker's on that list with Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, and all those people. But, you know, the -- there's a very, very prestigious Native American actor who has the screenplay and the book and wants to play the part of Quanah. I can't mention his name because he has not attached as yet. He told me when the development money came in, that he would probably sign on. And he is such a big name that it would help. He's a Native Oklahoman, as well. He's not a Comanche. But one of the things that I've heard about the museum, we want Comanches to be involved in this production. We want you to make the dresses, the leggings. We want you to make the costumes. We want your drummers and singers to be there. We want the dances, your dances. We want your language preserved. We want everything -- we want you to be involved in this. I started this project in 1988. I had an option with a producer of the Waltons at that time, and he became gravely ill with liver cancer and passed away during that period. So that was a golden opportunity that passed by. This is my third presentation to a Comanche business committee; however, I did not have Dr. Horton the first two times as my partner, and the screenplay was not quite ready to shoot the first two times that I was here. I think Dr. Horton is passing out know CDs of -- DVDs rather. You know, this modern stuff, I get all the terms wrong. Anyway, DVDs of the Brad Pitt film, which -- so Dr. Horton is -- I have -- I'm going to give each one of you a packet. It's got Columbia College on there. They were -- the college was kind enough to let us use these. It's got my business card inside and my cell phone number. But there's some documents in there and a picture of two of Quanah's grandsons putting a blanket around me, which is something I'm very proud of. Andy, could you pass the books out, too, please? And then we're going to give each one of you a copy of the screenplay. They're all signed for you. Do you have any other questions? I know we're giving you a lot of information all at one time, and obviously you're going to need time to look at everything. MR. HENSON: When are you expecting this to be started filming? MR. ASEPERMY: If we give them the money? MR. BURT: Actually, that will depend on getting the development money. Not only do we need your funding support, but we need your spiritual support as well, your prayers. We -- as soon as we can get something going on the development, if we get the funding for that, I have talked to a major producer in Texas. He's now producing Friday Night Lights. He's been wanting to do a movie on Quanah for years and years and years. And we do, incidentally -- and then Andy has given it to two Native American producers. So there are actually three production companies right now looking at the screenplay. And we would certainly like for Sunrise to be involved in the production. He's a cinematographer. He is going to be teaching with Andy at OU And we would like for other Comanches who have expertise in any way to be involved. Now, I have a Comanche name, and I probably can't pronounce it correctly. It was given to me by James Cox. It means good writer. So I do want you to know that in my national radio interviews and my international ones, and the -- I've been on A&E Network talking about Quanah as well. I am very respectful of the culture, and I'm very careful about what I say about you, because I have a lot of respect for you. And we -- we want to make this -- if you find things objectionable in the screenplay, and you might, these are things that Andy and I can correct. When the director gets ahold of it, the director is going to change the screenplay however he or she wants to. But we are hoping that with the input that we have from you, that we want things to be right, culturally, linguistically. Now, of course, there will be Comanches who will be benefiting financially from the movie. We need extras. I mentioned the people making costumes. We're going to need all kinds of people in the movie, in the background scenes. And we have a ranch out in the Wichita Mountains. Charles Ellenbrook has found this place where we can film here. We do want to film in this area. And I'm from the Palo Duro Canyon area and I want to film there. These are my only two requests about the locations. I want the locations to be authentically Comanche, because the land is like a character. The land is a part. Your feeling for the land, I can't imagine how deep it is, because mine is very deep as well, and that's our connection. Our connection is the land. My love for it, my regard for it. What's helped me right now with this oil spill -- physically and emotionally it hurts me, and I know it does you, and that's not even our area, but that is Mother Earth, being attached. It's a very bad thing. MR. HENSON: Have you got another extra copy of this book? MR. NEALY: Yes, right here. MR. HENSON: I need an extra copy here. And the only requirement I'm going to see is that we're going to need two leading roles for Lanny and Eddie. MR. NEALY: Well, the casting director -- I'll tell you what, if you say to the casting director, "hey, part of this is Comanche money. You got to think about us, remember us." Okay? MR. ASEPERMY. Mr. Nealy, I think what we need from you is a proposal with a breakdown of your request, how it will be used. How are you going to come up with the other 4 million, things like that. And the sooner you present it to us, the sooner we can act on it. And how many wives did Quanah have? MR. NEALY: He had six at one time at the most. MR. ASEPERMY: Six? I thought he had seven. He had seven and he run the Kiowa Apache back off over there, right? MR. NEALY: Yeah, the Apache wife decided to leave and he let her go. MR. ASEPERMY: Oh, that's not what I heard, I heard he ran her off. MR. NEALY: No, the Comanche wives ran her off. MR. ASEPERMY: We need seven Comanche women -- six Comanche women to be Quanah's wife. MR. HENSON: Let me make this further suggestion -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I have a question, Dr. Nealy. Will the tribe receive any royalties from this? MR. NEALY: If -- well, certainly, if there is an investment, we're hoping it's going to be profitable and we're hoping there's going to be a profit. And that's the only way I would feel successful. MR. HENSON: My suggestion -- go ahead, Eddie. MR. MAHSEET: Who is the Numunuu Productions, LLC? MR. NEALY: Okay, this -- I hope you will forgive me for that, but that was the name I chose for my production, for the company that owns the screenplay. I did not ask permission to use Numunuu, and I meant that as a compliment. It's -- I didn't mean -- that's not associated with the tribe. That's just a name that I gave this little company that owns the screenplay. MR. MAHSEET: Well, thank you, but I thought we already had a production. MR. NEALY: Oh, really? MR. MAHSEET: Yeah, I thought that was ours. MR. NEALY: Okay. It's a company chartered in Oklahoma and my attorney is Blake Dutcher, Jr. in Lawton for that. There are a lot -- I've talked with Mr. Nelson, and would you like for me to take this business proposal to Mr. Nelson? MR. HENSON: No, you need to bring it back to the CBC. But there's one thing I want to say, along with what Lanny is saying, we need something in your proposal to where -- how can I put this? Where we know that you're going to produce this where you have the money to do it. We need some kind of assurance that we're not going to give you a half a million dollars just to not see this go on. So some kind of assurance in your proposal, either when you raise the money or when you raise the amount of money, where you're going to get it, then come back to us, or we need something in that matter. We don't want to give away a half a million dollars. Okay? MS. MCDANIEL: I have another suggestion. That if you, for some reason, default, can you give that money back to us? MR. HENSON: That's going to be in the proposal. Thomas? MR. TOM NARCOMEY: Seems like the tribe could do a proposal with federal funds out of -- I don't know who, Education, ANA, some federal funding agency. Since we're going to get off of the high risk, well, maybe we'll have some money to do that. Do a proposal on this project, if the Comanches want it. MR. HENSON: Thomas, that's an excellent idea. Would you get back with Phyllis on that, see if there's any monies available? And Bob's going to be on that, too. MR. NELSON: I've got a question for you: Have you guys ever tried to contact, let's say, DreamWorks? That's Steven Spielberg. Any of these big production companies from California? I never did ask you that. MR. NEALY: The person I'm working with in Texas is not that big, but he's pretty big. He's producer of Friday Night Lights. And he's working on another episode right now. He will be through in August. One of the things I want to do is to get in touch with him, with Mr. Hagman, and, of course, Dr. Horton has a lot of connections. So we will be getting in touch with these people and getting back to you with a proposal. MR. HENSON: This here is going to be a screenplay and not -- a movie and not a documentary? MR. NEALY: Right, it's not a documentary. MR. HENSON: It's a movie? MR. NEALY: It would be the equivalent of the Whale Rider that the Maori's did. It would be that type of movie. I was at the screening for Whale Rider in Oklahoma City. Bob Boerne is the -- owns New Market Films that distributed The Passion, for one thing, he distributed the Whale Rider. So we already met those people, they already know about this project. It seems like there's a lot in place; but obviously you're business people, we're talking about business here. We're talking about preserving culture and language, but we have to do all the business part, too. I understand that. MR. HENSON: Thank you very much. Are there any other questions? Next thing on the board is Caretakers at Community Centers. MR. NELSON: On the board you'll see we've got some situations, guys. The Laurenzana family, they came forward; the Martinez family from Walters came forward; Ed Eschiti is all coming forward. Everybody's coming forward. I'd like for you guys to hear what they're about to say, and possibly we can go to this adoption. MR. HENSON: Okay. MR. NELSON: They gave you guys all a hard copy for everybody here. I'll run it down, you can read it. MR. ESCHITI: I'd like to just address the CBC and the chairman and the people that are here today. I know there's some people here from Walters about the community center there at Walters. MR. HENSON: Excuse me, Ed. Why don't you take this. MR. ESCHITI: -- about the community center we have in Walters. A couple of weeks ago, I went down there to set up a meeting for -- I'm running for CBC Number 2 place there, and I set up a meeting for the local people in Walters. One of my challenges to get this thing set up through the committee, I guess, running down there is Ms. Mata over it right now. I run her down, I went to her home, I seen her come out the door, I seen her go in the door; but when I knocked, she wouldn't come. I went out to the center to see if I could find somebody out there who would have an idea about who I needed to talk to about renting it, or just getting the facility for the people. Terrence that works out there, you know, I have to write everything for him. He said he would get ahold of her by phone. So he used the community phone there, and, man, she picked up just, "Hello." So I asked her, you know, if I could rent it, to use it. Well, she said, "Well, Mr. Nelson said there will be no activities out here going on unless you pay for it, you had to pay for it. And he said your fee would be $50." And I said, "Well, I don't have a problem with that, Ms. Mata. I'll pay that 50, and I'll also call Mr. Nelson and see if I can get that $50 reimbursed since it's going to be a community activity for the Comanche people." She hung up on me. So I went ahead and filled out my spot on the calendar and told Terrence what I wanted, and he said fine. And then she called back and I answered the phone. She said, "Are you still there?" I said, "Yes, I am." I said, "Terrence has put me on the calendar for the 20th" -- I think it was the 22nd. And she said, "Well, I talked to Mr. Jerome Howlingwater, and he said being what you are going to use it for, there'll probably be no one show up anyway. We'll just give you the 30 minutes and you don't have to pay anything." I said, "Well, that's fine. That's fine." And she said, "Well, we ain't going to run this, and we ain't going to have you like them Yackeschis and the Martinez running this thing out here." And I said, "Well, Phyllis, I just want it for the building, for this deal, my candidacy." I said, "That's all." I said, "I'll clean it up, I'll mop it up, whatever it takes. I'll get it back the way it was," and she hung up. So about 2 o'clock that afternoon, Thursday, I went back out there. I had some men that work for me. We were going to go out and set up the chairs so the guys, the caretakers there, wouldn't have to do that. Mr. Valdez was out there and also Terrence was. When I walked in -- Well, first of all, I got those posters out there in my truck, I didn't bring them in. But Phyllis had on the doors -- and I don't know if Mr. Valdez put them on or not, but it said, "Ed Eschiti, your meeting will be in the conference room." I don't know if you guys have ever seen the conference room, but it's probably 16 by 25 foot, something, like that. There was approximately 35, 40 people. Is that correct, roughly, Geneva? So it would have been very cramped. So I asked Mr. Valdez, "How come she's got us meeting here?" And he said, "Well, I don't know. She just said you would have your meeting in here." I said, "Well, I'm going to have my meeting out there. There's no construction going on in there." That's what the paper said, was that there was ongoing construction. So these gentlemen were nice enough to go ahead and set the tables and set the chairs up in the gym so we could have our meeting out there. But come to find out here -- I let that slide, because I didn't want to get involved with Ms. Mata, because she's just -- she has always been that way, and I just didn't want to be involved with her. But, anyway, come to find out here recently, come to find out she not only expended their amount that they had to run this facility. And we're only six months into the fiscal year, if I'm not mistaken, and I think they're over the $30,000 budget. I guess Mr. Nauni or Mr. Nelson can vouch for that, or have comments on that. We was talking about -- Mr. Robert Tippeconnie was talking about procedures. You know, I don't know what all the procedures is for things like this that are happening, but I think we really need to address this problem. And I hope this ain't going on in the other community centers that we have. You know, it's a really good thing out there. I've had the Chamber of Commerce in Walters, which I'm very active in the Walters community. I'm very respected in Walters as a Comanche person. They look to me for a lot of things, and they ask me why they can't bring it out to them. I said I don't know since Ms. Mata's took it over. So I think we lose a lot of business. That could be a little thriving money maker for the people, and activities we could put on for our kids. You know, we got a lot of kids in our town. Martinez and Yackeschis, I never had no problems with you guys when I wanted to rent that building for any reason. They took good care of it when they were there. I have no problem with them. But I think we really need to address this, and I think we need to address it today. Because the money's all gone. We're looking at six months. Who's going to fund that? Are y'all going to bring some money out, the tribe's going to take care of the rest of that? So I think I'm not the only one that's talking about it. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We left it there with his secretary, a copy for him and a copy for the TA, and it listed a page-and-a-half of complaints and how we were treated at that time back in 2007. When I gave her that $100 deposit, she told me she would hold the check, and after she viewed our cleaning of the building, she would return the check to me. It didn't happen that way. There were seven members in our family. We cleaned that building up, and she was there. She made my other brother go into the bathrooms and clean the commodes with a gloved hand, and she made the rest of the members go outside and pick up all the cigarette butts in the parking lot on both sides of that parking lot, and they did. And she viewed that building and still would not give me my $100 deposit. She wouldn't return it. And that's when we brought it in writing, the complaint, and we left it here at the tribal office, and nothing was ever done. Nothing was ever said, they didn't call me to try to explain anything or nothing. Nothing was done. MR. HENSON: Hearing about two of the community centers, it's very apparent that we need some policies and procedures. MR. NELSON: Right there, adopt that. What this does right here -- sir, what this does right here, these people that want to use these buildings, you give the check to this caretaker. Whenever y'all clean it up, we shred it. We just shred it. We shred it. I don't want to charge our members a dime. I don't want to charge them a dime. When you go up to the C&A's, they got a guy employed for all weekend long. That's his whole job, cleaning it up. And boy, does it look good. He's a caretaker. We got 30,000 for each one of these, gentlemen. And I don't want to be insubordinate here, but, boy, the complaints keep coming in and it's just bogging me down. MR. HENSON: Okay. Willie, thank you. Eleanor? MS. MCDANIEL: I used to be the building manager for Cahoma. I still get calls for the keys. But I kept that place clean. And then they changed the community group, the community committee. And those groups, those committees are dysfunctional. Because what they did was they put another person in there over me and that person kept that place just filthy. I remember in one of the storerooms we found a litter of kitty cats back there, and they just pooped and peed all over everything. And then I went into the men's room when we were holding our election down there, and the men's commode had naro?i in it, and it had dried so hard it was like cement. That's how well they took care of that Cahoma building. It was filthy, it was nasty. There were mattresses laying in those rooms, had dog poop right in the middle of it. I mean, you know, that's who they selected over me. So these communities -- and I took real good care of that building. And these community groups are dysfunctional. What I think Willie needs to do, and we don't need no big policy, he just needs to be responsible for putting a responsible person in there to keep it clean. And when you've got complaints like this, they know exactly who to -- whose feet that needs to be held to the fire, you know, and made responsible. It's just as simple as that. You know, making one person responsible, knowing who it is, and when we get complaints like this, you know who to go to. And like he said, Willie said, we don't need to try to charge our tribal people for the use of the facility that we vote on a budget every stinking year. And the other thing is, is that we don't charge our people for the use of those facilities. Those community groups in those communities, like in Cache, they don't want powwows, they don't want hand games, so there hasn't been a powwow or a hand game in Cache for I don't know how many years. And that's wrong. That's our way. And we need to have the opportunity to do that. MR. HENSON: Okay. Thank you. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: She's right. She's been one of the best persons at Cache. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: When we first started at Walters, the captain from the BOC center came out and we got free labor, but someone has to be there at all times. But they kept the building looking good. So it helps the caretaker whenever someone's there. And the DOCs can't be around children. So he would -- my husband would go get the boys, two or three of them, then come. There's mowing to be done, mopping to be done. They did all the cleaning. Before the kids got there, he took them back. And that was a big help to the caretaker. MR. HENSON: Okay. Thank you. CBC, I need to hear a little bit from the CBC. Have you read the policy that's intended? MR. ASEPERMY: Are you talking about the duties of the caretaker? MR. HENSON: The duties of the caretaker, yes. MR. ASEPERMY: And also the policy? Aurilla, I know you were our manager in Apache for a number of years, and I know you did it free. I know it was time consuming. Of course, there wasn't a budget for that. I think it's only fair that -- I guess the question is, how are we going to select a caretaker? We don't meet no more in Apache, do we? MS. CRAIG: May I say something about Apache? When I was there, the phone was on all the time. We never neglected the telephone. I had the answering service on. If I couldn't be there, I had the machine on. And when I came in, I took notes that people wanted to rent the building, I let them know when it was available. And some people came by and said, well, they saw my car there every day. The comment was: Well, what did she do, move her clothes down here? Well, I was proud of that building, and I was proud to take care of the community when they wanted to use it. I wasn't there to make money. And the most faithful person I had to help me was Albert Clark. He was there every day with me. If I had something to do, he stayed there. If he had something to do, then I stayed there. But we were partners taking care of the building. And we had no complaints from the community. My family came and helped me, Beverly came and got on the rider mower. She cut the grass every week. My sisters and my brothers and my sons came in, and they mopped the floors and they waxed it. They took care of it like it was their home. You don't see that now. And there's money coming in, but what are they doing with it? If we got anything at all it was $50 for gas. Well, you know what $50 can do now. Can't even see $50 for gas. But what I'm trying to get at is these people have legitimate complaints. And if you have complaints in your community, you need to get out there to your people and let them know these problems exist, you want it taken care of. And if they're not interested enough in your building, then I'm sorry. But if you're interested enough right now to take care of it, then go for it and do it. And if Willie can help you and do all he can -- At one point, Willie made a statement. He made a comment. I came in late and I heard him say, "I would like to take over the community buildings." Well, I didn't hear the reasons why. And I opened up my big mouth, and I said, "Well, why should you take over our buildings? We can take care of it." But now that I've seen more going on, and I'm hearing the complaints about Cobb and the things in the past has come back to me. And I still get calls: "I want to use the building." "Well, I'm not in charge of it. I'm sorry, but you'll have to call Sandra." Well, they can't reach her. MR. HENSON: Hold on just a second. MS. CRAIG: So, you know, "Who do we call?" And I said, "I really don't know, unless you go see her at her home." And Willie, like I said before -- where is he? MR. ASEPERMY: Behind you. MS. CRAIG: Like I said before, when you said you wanted to take care of the community buildings and put somebody in charge that could take care of it, I'm 100 percent behind you now, because I don't appreciate the way my building and our building is being taken care of. I love Sandra, I take her as a daughter, but she's not doing her job. MR. HENSON: Let me make a suggestion. Let's see if we can cut this off a little bit. There's a problem out there, we all see it, and you have produced a Duties of Caretaker and Outreach Center. And in there it states that keys and property will be given to the tribal administrator, no tolerance, and that the contract hires will be needed to be approved by the tribal administrator. And since the tribe is funding each community center, I think at this point, if the CBC agrees with me, that you could send out a letter of the new policies and choose the caretaker by whatever means that you have, like nominations, applications. MR. NELSON: Well, you have to advertise to the communities. You guys come together as a community. You know, that's your choice. MR. HENSON: That would be my suggestion at this point. What do you think, CBC? MR. ASEPERMY: Well, what Eleanor said and what Aurilla is saying, is that -- Eleanor is saying in Cahoma that we don't have a community center committee. And Aurilla, we know we don't in Apache. So may I suggest that we do have a caretaker, and that these are the caretaker's responsibilities, and that they will come under the supervision of the tribal administrator, and that they will be paid a stipend. And they don't expect to be there all the time. But like Aurilla said, at least have your phone on, to come in on a daily basis, listen to your messages and return your calls. And also on the outside of the building, put the number of that caretaker, and if you can't get them, the alternate number would be the tribal administrator. Now, how much of a stipend would you pay this person? I don't know. I would say $400 to $800 a month. It depends on how much time they spend there. MR. HENSON: Willie, do we have some past figures on what it costs for the buildings, electricity and utilities? MR. NELSON: Yes. MR. HENSON: How much money is left just for possibly paying a caretaker? MR. ASEPERMY: Well, it's part of the budget. MR. NELSON: There's usually about $18,000 left. Honestly, just upkeep is about 12,000. Walters, at one time when you guys were running it, y'all would raise up how much money, $6,000, $7,000 a year? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We had our bank account there in Walters. MR. HENSON: Okay. Why don't you put -- MR. ASEPERMY: Here's a power, heating and air, $308. MR. HENSON: Why don't you put together a proposal and get it back to us, if you want us to approve it. Actually, you got the authority over that, so I feel that you should be able to run it. MR. NELSON: I need a blessing, fellas. It's only a motion. It's only a motion. MR. WHITEWOLF: Make a motion. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Let's hear it. MR. ASEPERMY: Well -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Make a motion. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Pass it. MR. HENSON: I can see -- the motion's on the back, Adoption of New Caretaker Policy For Community Centers Located in Walters, Apache, Cache. It will be exempt from all previous motions. CBC, a motion's on the floor. MR. ASEPERMY: Well, wait a minute. Let me tell the people: On the caretaker policy, it says the applicant, the caretaker, must live within 15 miles of the community center. Well, if you live 15 miles from Apache, you live in Medicine Park. I think that should be cut to a five-mile radius. MR. NELSON: Make your addition, sir. MR. ASEPERMY: So with that change. And also -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: If you got a problem, you got to call them five or six times. MR. ASEPERMY: And then also, the policy doesn't say who selects, nor does the -- the policy doesn't say who selects -- where does it say? MR. HENSON: The tribal administrator. MR. ASEPERMY: As the tribal administrator, do you select the person there, based on advertising? MR. NELSON: Yes. MR. HENSON: Number 8. MR. NELSON: We'll follow the policy and procedure of human resources, yes, sir. MR. ASEPERMY: So this would be a contract hire, Willie? Number 6? MS. MCDANIEL: This is a simple thing. Why you got to make a mountain out of a mole hill? MR. ASEPERMY: What are you talking about? MS. MCDANIEL: Going through human resources. All he has to do is -- he's here, I'm here. MR. ASEPERMY: We didn't say nothing about human resources, Eleanor. MR. NELSON: They just threw it out there, Eleanor. MR. HENSON: Just a minute. One of the things that we've had, and you're seeing it right here, is because we didn't go through business correctly, and that's what we're trying to do. So it's not a policy out of a mole hill. We're trying to keep it later where it won't be -- MS. MCDANIEL: What I meant was him going through human resources. MR. ASEPERMY: I don't think he needs to do that. It should be your selection. MS. MCDANIEL: That's right. MR. ASEPERMY: Okay. MR. HENSON: Motion on the table? MR. ASEPERMY: All right. I'll make the motion, then. MR. HENSON: To accept? MR. MAHSEET: To adopt this motion as it is or are we going to make some changes? MR. ASEPERMY: With the changes. I make a motion that we adopt the caretaker policy with one change, that the caretaker live within a five-mile radius of the community center. Could it be 10? I make a motion that we adopt the caretaker policy with a change on bullet number 1, that the residence needs to be located within 10 miles of the community center, and that the motion also includes adoption of, not only the policy, but the duties of the caretaker of the outreach center. MR. HENSON: Motion on the board. I want to hear a second. MR. MAHSEET: I'll second. MR. TIPPECONNIE: May I ask a question? MR. HENSON: Question? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Well, do you have a second? Did you have a second? MR. HENSON: Seconded by Eddie. MR. TIPPECONNIE: A question of the motion. The motion I see, are you looking at the back page, there? MR. ASEPERMY: I'm looking at the caretaker policy. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I know, but are you looking at the motion? MR. ASEPERMY: Yes. MR. TIPPECONNIE: The way I see your motion, the first sentence is okay, and then you've added to live within 10 miles? MR. ASEPERMY: Right. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Of the respective center. Are you going to allow -- leave the last "adoption will exempt"? MR. ASEPERMY: Oh, okay. "This adoption will be exempt from all other previous motions." MR. HENSON: He did say that. The only thing he added was the 10-mile radius. He wants to exempt all other policies or resolutions, that's in the motion. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I'm just asking him. He didn't read that. MR. ASEPERMY: Okay. You want me to do it again? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes. MR. HENSON: No, you only have to read that. MR. ASEPERMY: First is to adopt the caretaker policy, and then to adopt the duties of the caretaker of the outreach center, which tells how you -- that they will report directly to -- everything's spelled out right there. MR. NELSON: Okay, sir. MR. HENSON: And to amend the five to 10 miles. MR. ASEPERMY: And to amend the 15-mile radius to 10. MR. HENSON: And the motion has been made by Lanny and seconded by Eddie. Call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying "aye." (Aye.) MR. HENSON: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. It passes. You've got your -- MR. ESCHITI: Chairman, can I ask one question? To me, I still think we have a problem with Ms. Mata being in control down there. It states, I think, in the policy, doesn't it, if they over expend their money, it's grounds for termination? MR. ASEPERMY: Well, Ed, come Monday morning, pick up the phone -- MR. HENSON: Hold on just a moment, Eddie. What are you saying? Termination of what? MR. ESCHITI: If they overspend their budget, it's grounds for termination. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Or make them pay it back. MR. HENSON: That is all in the normal policies and procedures that we have established already, HR policies and procedures, so that's in there already. Any employee is under those policies. MR. ESCHITI: Is she still going to be in control, is what I'm asking, sir. MR. HENSON: No. I suggested to Willie earlier that he put this out as an advertisement and get all the people. All the communities out there can nominate or put in who they want or whoever wants to, but he'll advertise that this is open. So there will be new or old people that was in there before. We're just going to follow -- we want to nominate someone or you want to put in an application, that's up to you. MR. ESCHITI: So Mr. Nelson will be in control? MR. HENSON: Mr. Nelson will be handling the whole thing. Eddie is leaving, so we're going to lose our quorum, so we cannot conduct any more business after this. But did you want to say something? MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we recess, and that we reconvene on Thursday, May the 20th, after our Finley & Cook meeting. MR. BURGESS: There's a motion on the floor that we recess and reconvene on May the 20th at the business center. Do I hear a second? MR. MAHSEET: Second. MR. HENSON: Motion's been seconded by Eddie. All those in favor signify by saying "aye." (Aye.) MR. HENSON: All those opposed, same sign. All those abstain, same sign. (Meeting recessed at 1:31 p.m.) * * * * * * R E P O R T E R 'S C E R T I F I C A T E STATE OF OKLAHOMA ) ) COUNTY OF OKLAHOMA ) I, Kelly Stoabs, Certified Shorthand Reporter for the State of Oklahoma, certify that the above and foregoing meeting transcribed by me is a true and correct transcript of the meeting; that the meeting was held on May 1, 2010, in the State of Oklahoma; that I am not an attorney for nor a relative of any said parties, or otherwise interested in the event of said action. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set hereunto set my hand and seal of office on this the 18th day of May, 2010. __________________________ Kelly Stoabs Certified Shorthand Reporter for the State of Oklahoma S E C R E T A R Y ' S C E R T I F I C A T E I, Robert Tippeconnie, Secretary- Treasurer of Comanche Nation Business Committee, certify that the above is a true and correct transcript of a meeting of CBC Members held at 10:06 a.m. on May 1, 2010, and that the meeting was duly called and held in all respects in accordance with the charters and bylaws of the Comanche Nation and that a quorum was present. I further certify that the votes and resolutions of the CBC Members of Comanche Nation at the meeting are operative and in full force and effect and have not been annulled or modified by any vote or resolution passed or adopted by the CBC since that meeting. Signed:_________________________ Date:____________ Robert Tippeconnie Secretary-Treasurer 21 2