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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2016)
S moke S ignals MARCH 1, 2016 11 19 Parazoo wins state title Four Tribal members qualiied for the 2016 Oregon School Activities Association Wrestling State Cham- pionships held at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 26-27. Senior Michael Reyes, junior Justin Fasana and freshman Jordan Reyes wrestled for Willamina High School and senior Justin Parazoo wrestled for Scio High School. Parazoo placed irst in the Class 3A 220-pound weight class beating Noah Casarez of Pleasant Hill. Jordan Reyes inished second in the Class 3A 106-pound weight class, losing to Colton Walker of Warrenton, Michael Reyes inished third in the Class 3A 145-pound weight class and Fasana was eliminated before the tournament began. Parazoo pins Casarez in the inals of the OSAA Wrestling State Championships on Saturday, Feb. 27. Photos by Michelle Alaimo Michael Reyes, top, wrestles Rennie Neider of Lakeview in the quarterinals of the OSAA Wrestling State Championships on Friday, Feb. 26. Reyes won the match. Jordan Reyes, right, wrestles Walker in the inals of the OSAA Wrestling State Championships on Saturday, Feb. 27. Payments will be made in-house MEETING continued from front page Elders’ payments in-house so this will make it easier for us and make it easier for Finance,” said DeLoe. Per capita payments were brought in-house – meaning those distributions are now done by the Tribe rather than an outside con- sulting company – last year. DeLoe said one of the other im- portant reasons for making the change is that many Elders struggle because their rent payments are due on the irst of each month and that many were incurring late fees be- cause of the beneit distribution date on the 10th. She said the change will help with that situation. Hanna said she initiated the change in distribution dates to ease that problem. “The bigger issue in my mind is that Elders have expressed a desire to get it sooner than that,” said Hanna. “I think it will be beneicial to the Elders, so I think it is a win- win situation.” “I think the Elders are very ap- preciative of their payment,” said Tribal Council Chairman Reyn Leno. “It helps them out with a lot of their planning for bills. That was part of the concept to get it to the irst.” Currently, Elders’ pension bene- its are processed and distributed by Automated Data Processing, which used to handle per capita beneit distributions as well until 2015. All per capita processing and distributions are now handled by the Tribe’s Finance Department. “The decision to bring those dis- tributions in-house were to be able to have better control and provide better customer service for the members,” said Finance Officer Chris Leno. “If members have an issue with their check we’re able to respond to that versus having them call an external company like ADP. We can react more quickly if there are errors of any kind. The goal is to save the Tribe money by bringing that all in-house. We can respond more immediately and we have the ability to act and react more quickly than our external vendors.” Hanna said the Tribe has two new dedicated printers to handle the check processing and that the change will save the Tribe money. “One of the major things it does is it gives the Tribe control over the checks,” said Hanna, “Right now ADP processes the Elders’ checks. They are written on their account and they send them out and after we submit everything to ADP we don’t have the opportunity to change an address or a direct de- posit. Now we have additional time to make that correction because we are sending the checks (per capita beneit payments) from here. It will save us about $25,000 a year.” Hanna said the Finance Depart- ment is in the process of setting up the database to make the change for the June Elders’ beneit distribution. “Our intention is to bring ev- erything in-house,” said Hanna. “The payroll, per capita, Elders, SSI, SSD, the inancial statements and processing which will save us thousands and thousands of dollars on audit costs. Right now auditors prepare our inancial statements because the software we have is not capable of doing that. “Over the next year we’re going to be bringing all of that in-house so that we have very little consult- ing fees or outsourcing fees,” said Hanna. “I think it will be good. So, Elders can expect a payment on June 1 and it will be coming from in-house.” In other action, Tribal Council: • Approved an amendment to the cooperative agreement with the Environmental Protection Agen- cy not to exceed $160,000; • Declared the irst per capita pay- ment date for 2016 as March 11; • Approved an application to the U.S. Department of Justice for a Coordinated Tribal Assistance grant; • Approved a memorandum of understanding between the Tribe and Oregon Department of Transportation regarding the Tribe’s contribution to the New- berg-Dundee bypass construction costs; • And appointed Tribal Council Secretary Cheryle A. Kennedy to the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board and Tribal Council member Denise Harvey to the National Indian Gaming Association as a Tribal delegate. Also included in the Feb. 17 Tribal Council packet were autho- rizations to proceed to fund the gathering and maintaining of a supply of wood for sweats at the community sweat lodge, directing the Tribal Attorney’s Ofice to bring forward a proposed amendment to the Marriage Ordinance that would require ceremonies occur on the Tribal Reservation and to move $3 million out of the Government Operations Trust Fund to establish a Cultural Resources endowment. Culture Department employees Jordan Mercier, Bobby Mercier and Brian Krehbiel provided the cultural drumming and singing to open the meeting. The meeting, in its entirety, can be viewed on the Tribal website, www.grandronde.org, by clicking on the News tab and then Video.
