Tribal Council makes board, committee appointments

By Dean Rhodes

Smoke Signals editor

Tribal Council continued its springtime tradition of making numerous appointments and reappointments to Tribal special event boards and committees during its Wednesday, April 7, meeting.

Tribal Council reappointed Michael Cherry, Peter Grout, Michael Herrin and Chris Mansayon to the Education Committee with terms expiring in March 2023.

Debi Anderson and Angela Schlappie were reappointed to the Enrollment Committee through March 2023 and Alan Ham and Charlene Westley were put back on the Health Committee with terms expiring in March 2023.

David Leno and John Clarke were reappointed to the Timber Committee through March 2023 and Dan Stroebel, Lori Sterling, Michael Mercier and Joann Mercier returned to the Election Board with terms lasting through March 2023. In addition, Jennie VanAtta was appointed as an Election Board alternate through March 2023.

Dana Ainam, Shannon Simi and Anthony Quenelle returned to the Powwow Special Event Board and were joined by new member Janel Lara all with terms lasting through March 2023. Brian Krehbiel also was reappointed to the Tribal Employment Rights Commission with a three-year term expiring in March 2024.

Simone Auger, Patti LeClaire, Shayla Myrick-Meyer and Harris Reibach were reappointed to the Housing Grievance Board with three-year terms expiring in March 2024.

Tribal Council Chief of Staff Stacia Hernandez said a second batch of appointments and reappointments will occur during the April 21 meeting.

In other action, Tribal Council:

• Approved a grant application to the Environmental Protection Agency that would bring the Tribe $473,287 over two years to primarily monitor water quality on Tribal lands;
• Approved the second supplemental budget increase of 2021 that will allow the Natural Resources Department to purchase a $319,000 wildland fire engine with a 500-gallon capacity. Tribal General Manager David Fullerton said during the Tuesday, April 6, Legislative Action Committee hearing that the funds will come from fees paid to the Tribe for firefighting crews and equipment use and not from casino dollars;
• And approved the voluntary relinquishment of membership of one adult.

Also included in the April 7 Tribal Council packet were approvals to conduct an audit of the Tribal Housing waiting list process and procedures and to permit the Grand Ronde Tribal Police Department to hire an additional full-time officer using unspent CARES Act funding received by the Tribe in 2020. The additional officer is needed because Spirit Mountain Casino has seen an increase in guests because of the COVID-19 pandemic and that has resulted in an increased number of calls to the department, the authorization to proceed states.

The entire meeting can be viewed by visiting the Tribal government’s website at www.grandronde.org and clicking on the Government tab and then Videos.