Council Dispatch #150      March 14, 2023

 

Natural Resources Department

 

  • Council approved PMP#15 Change Order 3 to Agreement No. 16-141 with the Bureau of Reclamation to increase the budget by $542,995.00 and extended the completion date to November 15, 2023.

 

Society for Wilderness Stewardship

 

  • Representatives from the Society for Wilderness Stewardship met with council for a meet and greet. The National Wilderness Workshop is scheduled for April 17-22, 2023. The workshop will be primarily at the University of Montana campus, and they are hoping to visit the CSKT. The workshop is organized around holding conversations on centering tribes and Indigenous people in wilderness and bringing Indigenous perspectives, traditional caretaking methods, and kincentric relationships into wilderness management.  They requested a tribal representative be designated to welcome the workshop participants and join the conversation and add a tribal contribution. Chairman McDonald volunteered to participate.

 

Mission Valley Power

 

  • Council approved by resolution the submission of a grant application to the Department of Energy, by way of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, for preventing outages and enhancing the resilience of the electric grid through formula grants to States and Tribes. The CSKT qualify for $359,908.00 for the first year with an estimated $1.8 million over a five-year period.

 

  • Staff gave an update on the supply chain issues. Bing Matt requested an update on having a transformer at the Arlee Pow Wow grounds before the next pow wow. Craig Morigeau and Joe Caye responded if any additional power is needed at the grounds, Mission Valley Power can have a staking technician view the grounds to determine what the service upgrade needs are. MVP needs more information from the Tribes. Council will have Rick Eneas follow up.

 

Tribal Executive Office

 

  • Council took action to approve a letter authorizing CSKT staff to take action regarding the Ronan Health Center Complex, Inc.

 

  • Council approved a resolution so that CSKT can take advantage of adding outside capital to leverage the tribal dollars committed to the Ronan Health Center project.

 

Tribal Council

 

  • Carole Lankford gave a trip report. She attended the National American Indian National Housing Conference in Washington, DC and the HUD proposed rulemaking meeting to go over 184 proposed rules. That deals with vacant homes to give tribes more authority over those homes. The Lands Department should be part of it; there will be impacts on those rules. On March 8 Carole attended the Montana Delegation meeting with Mr. Zinke’s Chief of Staff. Carole provided testimony to the subcommittee. She met with the Interior folks to discuss Public Law 280 jurisdiction issues.  They are doing a study and looking at options for the Tribes. There will be a meeting with the Bureau & Tribes about funding and different concerns.  Carole talked about the funding for firefighters. It is going to be retroactive to 2022. Ron Swaney was concerned about not having any input on how this money is coming down; the Chief BIA Forester is going to set up a consultation in April. The firefighters may be hired on full time status since there are fires year round. There was a fundraiser for Jon Tester at the Sonosky chambers. There was dinner with Boyd Azure. On Thursday the group met with Christopher Chaney, Justice Department, regarding Public Law 280. He has funding options for us to apply for.

 

  • Council took action to approve a waiver of the personnel policy to allow Roberta Kay Decker to continue to receive leave donations through the leave sharing program until she is able to get on the disability program.

 

 

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