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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (May 15, 1995)
Smoke Signals May 15, 1995 Page 3 . .,,,,,,,, .,, , ,,,., ,,,.,., ,, , ,,, lmimmiimmmmMW, . , ,, , ,,.,..,, , . .,,. ,,.,,.,,, ,,! ,, Review of administrative activities The following report is to provide tribal members a summary of Tribal Ad mini'stration activities during the first three months of 1 995. Tribal Administration includes the Executive Office, Planning and Policy, Legal, Human Re sources and Fiscal. The infor mation is tied to the Strategic Plan activities and goals for the year. Strengthen the Center at Grand Ronde Site Use Plan: In coordina tion with the Public Works Di vision, the Executive and Legal staff and Tribal Council repre sentatives have been involved in the selection of firm to com plete a site use plan for all tribal lands. The plan will review potential uses and constraints of Tribal lands and provide recom mendations for uses. Land Acquisition: The Ex ecutive Office continued to par ticipate in the land acquisition working group to review land purchase options and to make purchase recommendations to Tribal Council. The group made recommendation to pur chase the Strawberry patch property. Legal Office: The legal team assisted in preparation and ob taining of the construction loan from John Hancock. The staff worked closely with Spirit Mountain Development Corpo ration (SMDC) and the Tribal Council to secure the $18 mil lion loan. The team also has worked closely with the Public Works Division t6 meet the fed eral requirements related to leases, lands into trust and pro curement related to the water storage and pipeline project. The Tribe has received about $ 1 million in grants from Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Economic Development Administration (EDA) to pro vide additional water storage to meet community and tribal needs for the Gaming Center and community development. The staff worked with SMDC and the Tribal Council to de velop Articles and Bylaws for the tribally chartered corpora tion (a subsidiary of SMDC) that will run the gaming center. The legal staff also worked to de velop and implement the agree ment between the Tribe and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to pro tect the threatened Nelson's Checker Mallow plant that re sides near the Gaming Center. The legal staff also worked with the Tribal Council to up date the Election Ordinance to encourage more voter turnout and to provide clearer election procedures. Also, they have developed a Cultural Board Charter that would establish a tribal board to help promote and protect the cultural resources and history of the Tribe. The Tribal Council is expected to adopt the charter by the end of May. Improve organizational efficiency and employee empowerment to achieve tribal goals, meet client needs and provide effective services. Organizational Development: In cooperation with Human Re sources, the Executive Office developed a position description for an Organizational Develop ment Specialist and advertised and interviewed finalists which resulted in the selection of Chris Leno for the position. The po sition is designed to facilitate the strategic assessment process across the organization and sup port organizational develop ment and systems reengin eering. All parts of the Tribal Ad ministration participated in ad ministration team training and projects resulting from team is sues discussion. The Executive Office and Human Resources department coordinated the de velopment of an Organizational Climate Survey of all tribal staff, Tribal Council and com mittees to assess customer atti tudes and perceptions of admin istrative services. The Administration has began a series of forums held twice a month and open to all staff and Tribal members. Topics cover day-to-day operating systems of Tribal staff support group, in cluding budgeting, Tribal Con stitution, self-governance, staff compensation system, etc. De signed to improve communica tion and understanding between administration and direct-service staff. The Administration has began regular team meetings for all ad ministration support staff. The purpose of these meetings is to promote communication a iu understanding of on-going events and to involve all staff in making important decisions effecting employees, customers or services rendered. With more open communication and participative decision-making ' we hope to build more trust . within the organization. The Executive Office has sup ported the development of a ' Family Services Reengineering' Team and, a Health Services Reengineering Team to review our basic assumptions of fam ily services and health services and to make recommendations for change. The Executive Of fice provided an initial work shop on concepts and principles of reengineering to each team. Team Building: During the past quarter, the Human Re sources Department has con ducted "Partnerships for Im provement" training with all staff. Staff have learned about working in teams to identify opportunities for improvement in their everyday work and par ticipate as a team to find and implement permanent solutions to chronic problems at work. Feedback from employees par ticipating in the process have been very positive. Chris Leno is continuing to meet with con tinuous improvement teams as they work through problems. . Planning and Policy Office: In early 1995, the Operations area was redefined into the Plan ning and Policy area. This area includes Planning and Policy (formerly Operations), vital sta tisticsenrollment, grants devel opment, contract management and the newsletter areas. The Policy and Planning area responsibilities will be to coor dinate data collection, policy de velopment and assessment and measurement of tribal services. Initial activities have included establishing baseline and his torical data on all tribal pro grams and services. The infor mation will be used to identify service gaps. The EnrollmentVital Statis tics area has also worked hard to get updated addresses for the Tribal membership. Approxi mately 300 member addresses have been updated since this effort began. The Planning and Policy area has also been involved in the Health Insurance Questionnaire activities that will help identify tribal member households and provide vital insurance informa tion on all members so addi tional health care benefits and service options can be explored. In January, the newsletter office added a part-time person to help with the newsletter and publi cation went from once per month to twice. In the Grants Development area, the following grants were applied for and awarded to the Tribe: Environmental Protection, General Assistance Grant -$75, 000. The grant from the En vironmental Protection Agency will be used to hire an Environ mental Specialist in the Natural Resources Division to work on environmental assessments and assist the Tribe in complying with federal environmental laws and regulations. Water Reconnaissance Project - $80,000. This project is funded by the Bureau of In dian Affairs and the U.S. Geo logic Survey. The Geological Survey will analyze water re sources within the local commu nity. Watershed Restoration Project - $66,000. This project is funded by the Bureau of In dian Affairs for fish habitat res toration on the Reservation. In addition $166,000 will be administered by the Polk Soil and Water Conservation District for the Tribe on fish habitat res toration activities. The grants were developed in coordination with the Fish and Wildlife Pro gram. . The Tribe also received a grant from REI for $2,000 of tents and sleeping bags for Nanitch Sahallie for recreation, activities. The Hugh & Jane Ferguson Foundation awarded the Educa tion Division $1,000 for envi ronmental education activities and the Environmental Protec tion Agency has provided the Tribe tentative approval for $40,000 to look at recycling opportunities.
