OCR Text |
Show Wednesday, August 22, 200T A3 Lite meet i ngs have 083 t9 Vernal Express different results ErbflgLlttiTrs Uintah Basin News Servfci . TwofactionsoftheUtelndian , Tribe at odds with each other held meetings last week. One group listened to their elected leaders answer questions and came up with six "recommendations" "recommen-dations" they will submit to the governing Business Committee for possible adoption. The other group, identifying identify-ing themselves as a "coalition'' of concerned tribal members, turned to the tribal financial advisor John Junius for instruction. instruc-tion. After hearing from him they vowed to seek the removal of their elected leaders, going so far as to collect money to pay for an attorney to jumpstart the process. "Official" Meeting The Aug. 14 meeting, which Ute eaders maintain was held at the request of tribal members who correctly followed procedures proce-dures to petition for the special gathering, clarified issues that needed answers and addressed concerns, said tribal Business Committee Chairman Curtis Cesspooch. Tribal leaders told the gathering gather-ing of about 80 people that they do support the tribe's "financial plan" authored by Jurrius. Cesspooch Cess-pooch said "the most pressing issues" dealt with Jurrius and the financial plan. Three new members of the Business Committee were sworn into office in May. The three - Cesspooch, Steven Cesspooch and Phillip Chimburas - each said they would call for an audit of the all of the tribe's financial dealings authored by Jurrius since he came to work for the tribe in 2000. That audit is currently cur-rently underway and it has upset Jurrius and his supporters. "In the beginning we weren't getting any answers (from the Jurrius Ogle Group). Now the questions we asked are being answered and the documents we asked for are coming," said Curtis Cesspooch. According to Cesspooch, the Business Committee continues . to find past resolutions giving . Jurrius power-that, they believe does not lie within the scope of his duties. ,tj ' i . "There was a question if we could find all those resolutions and rescind or amend them," said Cesspooch. Allegations that the Business Committee won't meet with Jurrius Jur-rius are not true, the chairman said. What is up for discussion is whether they have to meet with him and his entire entourage. "It was a big show of force. We don't need all those people there. He still doesn't recognize the council as being his boss," Cesspooch said. The status of the memorandum memoran-dum of understanding the tribe entered into with Calumet Specialty Spe-cialty Products Partners to ex- plore potential refining solutions for the tribe's black wax crude production was also discussed. Cesspooch said the Business Committee supports the investigation inves-tigation into the possibility of a refinery on the reservation, but that rumors were making people believe they opposed the project. "We are still looking into it and we haven't nixed it," he said. "I told them it is still in the study phase. The land has not been selected. It is not going to Officials conduct response review BtEeoft Lect Uintah Basin News Service A group of about 25 people representinggovernment, public utilities, and the private sector sec-tor gathered Wednesday in the Duchesne County Commission chambers to conduct a post-incident review of the deadly Neola North Fire.. The review-which amounted to a postmortem on the blaze that killed three men, destroyed a dozen homes, and scorched over 43,000 acres - was an opportunity op-portunity for officials to identify what worked and what didn't in responding to the fire. . "A big portion of that fire was a learning process that everybody went through," said Duchesne County Emergency Management Director Mike, Lefler, who assumed as-sumed his job two weeks before the Neola North Fire began. '.. Communication was the primary pri-mary strength identified during the review. Almost all of the fire crews responding to Neola, Farm Creek and Whiterocka were carrying programmable radios. A specified channel had been selected for fire use beforehand, allowing nearly everyone on the incident to switch to that channel and talk to one another. Still there were some break- -" ' . u ; happen overnight. Is still being discussed and we have to make sure that we have enough oil to make it work." -: Cesspooch said that more information on the status of the refinery will be available from Jurrius at a quarterly business meeting set for Aug. 30. All tribal members are invited to attend, the chairman said. ' Upon taking office three months ago, Cesspooch said the new leadership found many important aspects of government had been ignored. He explained that now Business Committee members were attending meetings, meet-ings, trying to boost the tribe's presence statewide in the areas of health, education, and transportation. trans-portation. Accordingto Cesspooch, grant money - including funding to help tutor tribal students at Todd Elementary in reading-has also . Recommendations: The following motions were accepted and will be passed on to the Ute Tribe Business Committee for the consideration and possible adoption: 1) Two separate motions recommending that John Junius' contract be reviewed. 2) Motion to rescind a water disposal pit which may pose a conflict of interest. 3) Motion to appoint a committee to amend the Ute Constitution. 4) Motion to go forward with legal procedures and to put people in the "big house" for criminal actions. 5) Motion to protect the independent oil and gas . auditor from harassment. 6) Motion to evaluate performance of tribal judge Daniel Sam. been lost because tribal leaders failed to take advantage of it. The tribe is now participating in meetings with the members of the other Utah tribes to change that. "So much was left undone," Cesspooch said. "When funding would come our way we" missed out. Now we are starting to take advantage of anything we can use, that is where we start coming com-ing into play. "And UDOT (Utah Department Depart-ment of Transportation) was . glad to see us and told us about the sidewalk safety program," said Cesspooch. "We told them we were interested in that too, there are a lot of things that we can use." Coalition Meeting Attendance at the Aug. 15 meeting called by the coalition also had nearly 80 people in attendance at-tendance to listen to financial advisor John Jurrius, who was the "guest speaker," accordingto minutes of the meeting delivered anonymously to the Standard. downs in communication that hampered operations and left the public wondering what they should do. . Jeremy Raymond, executive director of the Uintah County Fire Suppression Special Ser- vice District, said a few of the firefighters in' his agency and some of their vehicles lacked the programmable radios. Raymond said he is working with the district dis-trict to address the problem. Raymond also discussed the "evacuation order" that came one day into the fire for Lapoint and Tridell. He said some members mem-bers of the Lapoint-Tridell Fire Department engaged in fighting the fire were contacted by their families and told they were being be-ing evacuated. It took several minutes and a few radio calls to clarifythatnoofficialevacuation had been issued for either community. com-munity. . . f Uintah County Sheriff's Lt ' John Laursen, representingboth the sheriffs department and Central Dispatch, said dispatchers dispatch-ers were inundated with calls fromthepubhcseekingthelatest fire information or the location of evacuated family members in addition to the other emergency and non-emergency calls they . typically handle.' But no one was passing along information Attempts to interview two coalition member's about the meeting were unsuccessful. Jurrius' main message, the minutes show, was that without him and his advisors, the tribe's financial future is certain to be bleak. He also alleged that the current Business Committee was refusing to work on his terms and at times had prevented him from doing his job. The minutes stated that Jurrius Jur-rius told the group his job began in 2000 by creating maps and surveys of the tribe's resources. He noted that he went back to the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to thoroughly study the reservation. He reviewed the history of his contract and his list of accomplishments ac-complishments from 2000 to 2007, which included the return of the Naval Oil Shale Reserve II mineral rights to the tribe, boosting tribal revenue to the millions both in savings and in dividends to tribal members. Other achievements includ- edi The identification of some 1,500 rights-of-way, where the tribe was losing money The return of money held in the government trust "506 account" for the tribe The formation of Ute Energy En-ergy Restructuring "revitaliza-tion "revitaliza-tion funds" and A lease agreement with the state School Institutional and Trust Lands Adminstration The AltamontBluebell oil field is in decline Jurrius told those gathered, according to minutes min-utes of the meeting, adding that he is workingon promoting natural natu-ral gas projects for the tribe. He said he has not drawn his salary - which began at $50,000 and now stands at $62,500 a month - for the past year-and-a-half. In addition to that salary, the minutes reported, he draws an additional $40,000 a month -for running Ute Energy. Jurrius maintained that the Business Committee wants to "stall" the progress being made when it comes to the possible refinery and is blocking his access to the tribe's financial records at Bear Sterns, according to the .minutes.; ' . When tine floor was open to questions Junius continued to conduct the meeting and heard praise for his work for the tribe from those in attendance. He exited before the meeting adjourned ad-journed to cheers and cries to continue to "hang in there." After Jurrius departed, former for-mer Business Committee Chair Maxine' Natchees and others expressed their objections to actions ac-tions of current tribal leaders, Stewart Pike, a coalition organizer, proposed a resolution to hold a referendum to remove the entire Business Committee. The resolution passed; however, it is not binding on the Business Committee, which maintains the meeting was not officially recognized. Even motions passed at official meetings of the membership mem-bership can only be given to the '" Business Committee in the form of "recommendations:" Pike said that money for an attorney to help the coalition would be collected initially from individuals, the minutes of the coalition meeting show, but that the attorney could eventually be paidfromthetribe'smembership fund. to Central Dispatch because the fire was being managed by the Uintah Basin Interagency Fire Center. "Central Dispatch didn't know anything on this fire," Laursen said. "They were flat out in the dark." -. Firefighters and dispatchers weren't the only ones battling the rumor mill spawned by the fire. Uintah County Animal Control Con-trol and Shelter Special Service . District Officer Rick Bell said he was sent on numerous "rumor-driven" "rumor-driven" calls in search of animals that had been injured or killed by the fire. None of the reports were true, he said. . "To this day I don't know of ' , any livestock that were lost," Bell said. ' . Lefler said one of the things that emergency planners identified identi-fied as a primary need for future incidents is a public information officer. He said getting information informa-tion out about what areas people should avoid, where they can go for help, and what they can do to . help others is imperative. Lefler said plans are already underway in Duchesne County to train a public information officer. , Other suggestions made during dur-ing the review included: Compiling a list of churches SEE FIRE RESPONSE on A7 - T m - Rob Behunin; Utah State University - Uintah Basin assistant to the president for special projects accepts the paperwork representing a land contribution made by Vonetta Searle and Searle Trust counsel Gayle McKeachnie in behalf of of Woodey B. and Vonetta S. Searle. The nine-acre property is located on 500 West across from Basin Clinic. Nine more acres donated to USU at 500 West from Searle trust "Giving has always been a way of life for Woodey" said Vonetta Searle. She noted she was proud to be able to make suchacontributiontoUtah State .University. The contribution made by Searle was a nine-acre parcel of land located on 500 West, directly across from the Basin Clinic. The prime piece of real estate was conveyed con-veyed to Utah State University from the Woodey B. and Vonetta S. Searle Trust. GayleMcKeach-nie, GayleMcKeach-nie, counsel for the Searle Trust, was instrumental in securing the transaction. "Without adoubt, this is what Woodey would have wanted, and he talked about such a gift before he died," said McKeachnie. "He would want it to help benefit the young people," said Searle. - ' . v "Searle's gift will be focused onbusiness faculty," said McKeachnie. McK-eachnie. The specific language JUST ANNOUNCED: DEST APR 1 $ i : : i ft ON ANY ALL-NEW BttT mil ARI F FHFI fCONDMY ttMC.1M.Ka HILEV5-TEARTlWKflRASLPB7rj(IKAill IGiiU BEST EXPECTED RESALE BEST COVERAGE OF ANY FULL SIZE PICKUP' 0 APR FOR 60 MOUTHS' FOR WELL QUALIFIED BUYERS THAT'S $5,938 IN AVERAGE FINANCE SAVINGS . 07SInrtASLE muh 07YCC:i mm, mm Urn m " uifii s . 4 J (f ' v-' n of the gift agreement, as crafted by McKeachnie, specifies that "the money generated from the earnings of the fund created by the sale of the real estate shall be. used to hire faculty to teach business busi-ness management,' accounting, finance, marketing and related business subjects at the Uintah Basin Campus." When asked about why she felt inclined to make such a generous bequest, Searle simply replied, "Woodey and I have always wanted to help theyoungpeople, and this is a way we can help for a very long time." This gift comes at an opportune op-portune moment as Utah State' University continues to expand its business programs and other offerings in the Uintah Basin. USU-UB is now offering three business degrees: general business, busi-ness, accounting and entrepre-neurship. entrepre-neurship. Searle noted that she liked mmmm ' J-fJ J MOS. FOR 2007 SIERRA 1500 CREW VALUEt lon sso kile-teax f I V . 07Yu:x:icis 4 F4 JSr 'lt MAW MEW . -. mmmnm. - .. ' the notion of an entrepreneur-ship entrepreneur-ship degree stating, "I don't think there was a business that Woodey didn't own at one time or another." McKeachnie corroborated corrobo-rated saying, "Woodey had an eye for business, for opportunities and for people." "We are extremely grateful grate-ful to Vonetta and to Woodey for their generosity and their ongoing commitment to higher education," said Robert Behunin, assistant to the president for' special projects. "This gift is a significant contribution to the Utah State University Uintah Basin Faculty Endowment." The Uintah Basin Faculty Endowment, explained Behunin, is an ongoing campaign to raise $15 million dollars to support students, programs and faculty and to put in place a viable revenue rev-enue stream to support higher education. OFFER EMI. CAB OR EXT. CAB costest TSPCSTA7:t 07 S!T.XS? 07vu::c:vp. k 4 11 1 tt y |