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.