8 OCTOBER 15,2013
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The Tina Miller Community Center Thrift Store, 110 B. St., Wil
lnmina, helps fund the after-school and weekend youth community
center located in the old Willamina High School gym.
The thrift store is seeking volunteers who can help run the store, in
addition to donated items and customers. The store accepts clothes,
books, knickknacks, etc., as donations. It is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuesday through Saturday and closed Sunday and Monday.
Donations also can be left at the Wildwood Hotel and Restaurant
in Willamina. For more information on volunteering, call 503-876-7897.
The youth center and thrift store are nonprofit and 100 percent
self-sustaining and volunteer-run. D
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The information includes:
Everyday life
Math and money 1
Computer training
Online classes
Work and career information
Check it out at www.gcflearnfree.org D
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Photos by Michelle Alaimo
Rick George has been named the Tribe's new planning director.
EMPLOYEES continued
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outcomes desired and deciding who
is responsible for getting that work
done. The Tribe is a multi-faceted,
complex organization that requires
some planning focus. It requires
coordination around common goals
and objectives."
George did similar work for the
Confederated Tribes of the Umatil
la Indian Reservation for 21 years
from 1989-2010. He was program
manager of environmental plan
ning and treaty rights protection.
"If you look about how the Tribe
goes about its work, much of it is
to protect, expand, exercise and
restore the rights derived from
treaties, executive orders and
restoration acts; all of the things
that define the rights of Tribes and
Tribal peoples," he said.
At Umatilla, George oversaw
$100 million in congressional ap
propriations to pay for a stream
flow restoration project. It restored
three stocks of salmon and allowed
the Tribe to exercise its Tribal
fishing rights after 80 years of not
fishing.
George also wrote strategic plans
that allowed the Umatilla to en
ter formal legal negotiations to
settle their Tribal water rights in
stream water rights and consump
tive use for the whole Umatilla
River Basin.
In 1986, he co-founded and was
the first executive director of the
Oregon Rivers Council.
"That was a learning experience
for me," he said. "I got to know all of
Oregon's rivers, and in the best way
by floating them and hiking them
with people who know them best.
It led to a 40-river federal omnibus
wild and scenic rivers bill passed by
Congress in 1988."
Starting in 2010, George served as
a vice president and first executive
director for Portland-based Eco
trust, a for-profit and not-for-profit
organization serving Portland pri
marily, but also with a small office
in Alaska. Ecotrust operates in
Alaska, British Columbia, Yukon
Territories and across the Pacific
Northwest.
The staff of 100 and a $10 mil
lion budget enable the 20-year-old
group to do much of its work with
Tribes, First Nations and Alaska
Natives in that region.
George was raised in La Grande
and has lived all his life in the
Northwest. He attended Lewis &
Clark College where he majored in
biology. He is married to Kathleen
George, the Tribe's Spirit Mountain
Community Fund director. Togeth
er, they have three children: Dylan,
21, Noah, 9, and Sean, 6.
"We love to fish and hunt and raft
rivers. We live on a small five-acre
plot that has a great deal of poten
tial yet to be realized," he said.
Greg Azure, 63, was hired this
month and is the first TERO direc
tor for the Tribe. He joins the Tribe
to implement the TERO ordinance
now being considered by Tribal
Council. It will launch a new Tribal
program aimed at creating more
jobs suited to Tribal members.
The ordinance creates a five
member TERO Commission as
the enforcing regulatory body. As
TERO director, Azure will report
to the commission. Recruitment for
commission members begins once
the ordinance is approved.
"A TERO ordinance defines who
is eligible, how preference is ap
plied, the jurisdiction of the prefer
ence and how it is enforced," Azure
said.
The Employment Rights Office
will aim to reduce joblessness for
Tribal members looking for work
and for those already working but
looking to make a change.
"TERO is about Indian prefer
ence, Tribal preference," he said.
TERO promotes Tribal self-governance
and shows Tribal sovereignty
in action.
To meet employment goals, the
program will identify and define
jobs so they are suited for Tribal
members.
"I'm working with businesses to
define positions in a way that helps
Tribal members meet qualifications
and requirements for these posi
tions," Azure said.
In support of this goal, the pro
gram also offers mentoring, on-the-job
training and job shadows.
It will develop a picture of what
the Tribal workforce currently looks
like and make projections about fu
ture employment, Azure said.
Having worked with Tribal TERO
programs starting 20 years ago,
Azure says that TEROs have had
an overwhelmingly positive effect
on Tribal hiring.
The program applies preferences
to all Tribal positions as well as
employment at all of the Tribe's
businesses and contractors working
in the Tribal community.
TERO also will certify contract
ing firms owned by Tribal members
for participation on Tribal construc
tion projects.
As the result of a Memorandum
of Understanding with the Oregon
Department of Transportation,
TERO preferences also will apply
to that department's work in the
Tribal community.
'Tribal governments have become
more stable and have additional fi
nancial resources," Azure said, but
even with that support and Tribal
funds established for employment,
jobs for Tribal members continue
to lag.
For the moment, Azure is the
program's only employee, but "we
will be adding staff as we launch
the program," he said.
Azure comes from a human re
sources background, including four
years leading the TERO program
for the Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation. In
2006, under his leadership, the
Umatilla program was recognized
as the national TERO Program of
the Year from among more than
300 TERO programs operating in
Indian Country.
Most recently, he was the Em
ployee Civil Rights and Diversity
manager at ODOT for more than
five years.
Azure is a member of the Santee
Sioux Tribe of Nebraska. He was
born and raised in the Northwest,
and attended Eastern Washington
University.
He comes from a family of eight
children and now lives in Wil
lamina with his wife, Carol. He
also has two daughters and three
grandchildren. B
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Greg Azure has been hired as the Tribe's first Tribal Employment Rights Office
director.