# Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council (2025) > Briefs, arguments, decisions, and more. URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/tribal%3Apyramid_lake%3A2ca3c936a238622b ## Record - **Collection:** Tribal code - **Document type:** Tribal code ## Text Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council Post Office Box 256 Nixon, Nevada 89424 Telephone: (775) 574-1000 Fax (775) 574-1054 SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES Tribal Chambers ~ Nixon, NV January 28, 2025, Special Members Present: Steven Wadsworth, Tribal Chairman Edward Ely III, Vice Chairman Loren Decker, Councilmember Judith Davis, Councilmember Nicholas Cortez, Councilmember Nathan Dunn, Councilmember Georgina Wadsworth, Councilmember John Guerrero, Councilmember Della John, Councilmember Ceira Sampson, Councilmember CALL TO ORDER Chairman Wadsworth called the January 28, 2025, Special Tribal Council meeting of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council to order at 5:00 p.m. ROLL CALL Brenda Henry, Tribal Secretary, took the roll call. Councilmember Davis arrived at 5:08 p.m. and Councilmember Della John arrived at 5:23 p.m. All other Councilmembers were present at the roll call anda quorum was established for this meeting. Councilmember Guerrero attended via zoom. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Chairman Wadsworth read the agenda with no changes noted. Councilmember Cortez motioned to approve the agenda for January 28, 2025. Councilmember Sampson seconded the motion. Votes were seven (7) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED PUBLIC COMMENT No public comment. NEW BUSINESS 1. Discussion and Possible Action Federal Funding Freeze. Chairman Wadsworth explained he received a memo from the Office of Management and Budget which stated grants from the federal government are under a freeze and they are unable to draw down any funds. The Executive Team and him have been working on it since early afternoon. Then it was announced a judge Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 28, 2024, Special minutes placed a stay on the memo until Monday. The reason for this meeting is to update the Council and take formal action because furlough may be required for staff that are on federal grants which requires Tribal Council approval. Councilmember Guerrero asked if a draw down was completed on the federal funds and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) grant in December? Kamilynn Johnson, Comptroller, said they drew down as much as they could, up through January, but because a judge placed a stay until Monday, it gives them more time to keep trying draw downs for some programs which they haven't been able to access. Pamela Wright, Finance Supervisor, said all the BIA grants are forward funded and they all get their funding from them as the allocations are approved by Congress. They have the draw downs completed for the BIA 638 contracts and all the other draws were done with the exception of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Bureau of Reclamations (BOR), and National Park Service (NSP). She was able to fully utilize the ASPA draw down system to get everything else out of there but for some reason, the system would not allow her to draw down those three programs. Councilmember Guerrero asked about Transportation Federal Highway for the Bypass. Ms. Wright said they were able to draw down the first $300,023 and $888,000, the advance that was requested was not because the agency wants details on that funding they want to draw down and the department must provide that detail. Councilmember Guerrero thought they requested a 100% drawdown for that project. Ms. Wright said even if they did it is not allowable. Chairman Wadsworth said they are talking a different pot of funding from the Transportation Planning Department according to their funding agreement. The way most of the Tribe’s grants work are under reimbursement, if they spend the funding, then Finance has to bill them, calculate the IDC and then draw down the funding all at once but they won't be able to do that because they don’t have the Tribal funding to do that for the departments. Sherry Ely-Mendes, Programs Office, said she thinks what Councilmember Guerrero is talking about is their request earlier in December to get their contract funds all drawn down 100% and she believes they have gotten all of that drawn down. The program, itself is okay, they have plenty of funding to run the program for the remainder of the year. For the Wadsworth Bypass, they have two options, one is to provide the funding and then ask for reimbursement, which is what they have been doing. They can also ask for an advance, and Ms. Wright is correct in saying they must have clear numbers of how much it’s going to cost for a month for that contractor and for Transportation’s staff, then they have to put together a budget and then ask for an advance based on those numbers. In discussion with the team, they do have some funding to cover what they have already spent this month, but they don’t have the funding to do the whole project in the program agreement funds. Based on that, they have halted the project as of today and will monitor to see what the government does. The contractor was also in agreement with this decision and was glad they provided them with a heads up and they are still on board with the project. Ms. Wright added she had a discussion with the program manager for the Federal Highways and he said if the department provided the details for the advance, they would look at it. Ms. Mendes said she spoke with their program manager overseeing the project and he said to continue to put in for the advance even though he was not positive they would be able to draw down funds and to continue to put in for reimbursements on a monthly basis until they know for sure what is going on. They are hopeful. Ms. Wright did put in for a portion of it, but they still need to get their estimates put together. -2-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 28, 2024, Special minutes Councilmember Davis arrived at the meeting at 5:08 p.m. Chairman Wadsworth said after he talked to the directors earlier in the afternoon about a furlough, after that meeting is when they heard a judge issued the order to hold the freeze until Monday which still doesn’t help the situation. He then received guidance about what would not be frozen, but it provided little detail. Some programs listed that will continue to be funded are funds for small businesses, farmers, Pell grants, Head Start, Rental assistance and other similar programs. What they consider similar and what the Tribe considers similar are two different things and of course, they can’t get anyone on the phone at these agencies. After his meeting with the Executive Team earlier this morning, they will be cutting back on indirect, there will be a hiring freeze, and they are checking on funding for the senior center because for the meals they deliver, it’s all federal funding that is frozen as well. The 638-contract funding is also frozen, which means everything they have drawn down they can spend but they don’t know when everything will open back up. From the memo, the grant agencies will need to get everything into the OMB by February 10th and 30 days from there which will be around March 15* which is how long this can go on. That’s not official but just an estimate. They will also be pausing purchases over $10,000 on a case-by-case basis. The funding they have from the Bureau of Trust Funds Administration, formally OST, should still be up and running and the PL Fisheries will be able to draw down their funding. Of course, this is only if everyone is still at their desks. They will also consider suspending the committee and board meetings for the month, for the ones paid out of Tribal funds or indirect such as Enrollment, Higher Education, Gaming Commission, Law and Order Committee, Public Utilities Board and Land and Resources as a cost saving measure. Since they won’t be able to draw down grant funds, they won't be collecting indirect, so that means the indirect budgets are going to be shortened to include the Tribal budgets to make room for essential services like the Police Department. They do have funding for the Water Team attorney, Chris Mixson, with the Tribal funding allocated. For the entire Environmental Department, they are all grant funded except for parts of the Irrigation Department. Vice Chairman Ely asked if the Executive Team had a number of employees who would be furloughed. Trisha Conner, Executive Officer, said she would have five or six of her staff that would be furloughed. Ben John, Business Officer, said there would be one or two from the Food Distribution Program since they are grant funded. Ms. Mendes, Programs Officer, said she has about ten staff members, but she is still waiting on the daycare agency and is hopeful they are like the Head Start program because they are totally grant funded. She has a tentative budget that would take them through March 15* or to the end of March and then they might have to shut down and there is no more daycare service. Kamilyn Johnson, Comptroller, said she wouldn’t have to furlough anyone because she hasn't filled the second AP position which she won't fill. Chairman Wadsworth said they haven’t quite reached that point yet, to furlough for the indirect departments. The Natural Resources Department is under the Chairman’s Office, and they might have about 12. Johnnie Garcia, Transportation Planning said the Transportation Department has enough funds that they drew down and has already hit the bank so the Transit Department can continue to operate, along with the project managers and their administration for about a year. -3-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 28, 2024, Special minutes Chairman Wadsworth said the Tribal Health Clinic should be okay, they already discussed programs at the clinic and the only program affected would be the Diabetes Program. Dawna Brown, Pyramid Lake Tribal Health Clinic (PLTHC) Director said they already moved them over to a different fund. He also spoke with Principal Zimmerman from the Pyramid Lake Jr/Sr High School, they are still up and running. The other program under his supervision is the Police Department and they will be okay because they have Tribal funding, however, they are partially funded through the BIA 638 contracts, and they will be moving those officers to keep their services intact for them underneath the Tribal funding. Councilmember Dunn asked if there might be any future brown outs for the Police Department. Chris Parson, Chief of Police, said they have eight sworn officers, five officers through the 638 contract and three under grants, the majority of the officers are federally funded. They had a $150,000 modification a month or two ago which they received from the BIA, but Ms. Wright said it wasn’t there. It is sitting at the draw down website at the clearing house, but it is not released. They received the documents and have modded into their budget, but they have not been able to draw it down. They are still working on what was left over from last year because they have not received this year’s portion. There is also the Opioid Fund for Law Enforcement for this year and the Tribal funds. They are hoping this doesn’t go on too long. For the Rangers, they are fully funded either by the Tribe or with some of the Opioid Funds which is for one officer. Vice Chairman Ely asked if they had to furlough would they be able to bring those employees back. Chairman Wadsworth said a furlough is just a pause, they will be brought back. Councilmember Cortez asked the Chairman how his meeting with the ITCN went. Chairman Wadsworth said it was the same as they are discussing now. They are worried about Head Start but after the guidance comes out, they will be bare bones as well. Without getting any communication from any offices, they are just left with wondering what they are going to do because there is no communication. Constance Athayde, the Victim Services Director mentioned that one of their grants does fund 1.5 FTEs for the police. Councilmember Della John arrived at the meeting at 5:23 p.m. Vice Chairman Ely asked if they do enact furlough for however many days a week, how would that effect full time benefits. Annette Cooper, HR Manager, said insurance would end the following Friday especially not knowing what funds would be coming in. Other than salaries, insurance is one of the items they pay most for. Vice Chairman Ely asked for those who get on unemployment does their health benefits insurance stop. Ms. Cooper said they would be offered Cobra information and would have to pay for their insurance during that time. Chairman Wadsworth said that is the reason they called this meeting to talk about furloughs because if this goes into February, then they will have to pay the insurance for the month out of Tribal funds. This is something for the Council to take into consideration because they are not sure how long this will continue. Jolyn Sander, in the audience, asked if they are furloughed and they come back will their insurance automatically kick back in or will they have to reapply. Ms. Cooper said they will ensure that whatever -4-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 28, 2024, Special minutes coverage they previously had will be continued but if the employee went to the doctor when they were furloughed it wouldn’t be covered. The life insurance and any other insurance the employee had will be started once they come back. Councilmember Davis said it was mentioned if they went into Monday, which is February 3"4, the Tribe would have to pay a full month. What if the employees came back on the 15, does the medical not kick in until the following first of the month? Ms. Cooper said they would have to work with their provider to see if they can kick in halfway through the month. It wouldn’t be until the first of the month but in this situation, they would probably work with the Tribe on it, the providers are very helpful. Chairman Wadsworth said Councilmember Dunn asked about the cost. If they were talking about 40 employees at $1,200 a month that would be $48,000. Vice Chairman Ely asked if there were any programs that are Tribal funded/grant funded, are those employees also furloughed. Chairman Wadsworth said it depends on their budgets. For instance, Numaga has a Tribal funded budget, 089 which is $140,000 after IDC, so they will have to figure out how to keep that department running for the seniors to still get their meals. It’s a lot of planning that every department is going to have to do now and then attempt to get reimbursed for it later. Vice Chairman Ely asked how much funds they had in the bank now, how long could they be Tribally funded? Ms. Johnson said she wouldn’t have her cash balances until the next day, so she didn’t have an answer for him. Councilmember Della John said for those programs they looked at previously, there were a lot of unspent funds since December 31, 2024, and was told those funds carried over but they don’t budget those funds, correct? They budget for whatever funds was held for the year, so that extra savings goes back to the General Fund. Wouldn’t those funds be available? Ms. Johnson confirmed that those unspent funds that was budgeted, that was unused, would be available, depending on what it is, and once everything has been finalized. They are still waiting for invoices to come in and for everything for 2024 to be reconciled. Councilmember Della John asked for the federal funding, did they draw it all down? When they had COVID, the federal funds never stopped but they furloughed and weren't able to run the program. With no staff, they shot themselves in the foot because they couldn't collect indirect because they didn’t spend the funds, but the funds were there and they didn’t get the reports that were provided at that time. Ms. Johns said they did draw downs; they worked on December and January’s that day. Chairman Wadsworth said the original draw down deadline was that day at 2 p.m. Councilmember Davis said they just started the Housing Authority meeting, and the director informed her the Housing funds are sitting there but they are not able to draw down also, this is across the board with the federal funding. A question for the Executive Team, do they have any suggestions going forward? Chairman Wadsworth went over the recommendations that were made earlier in the meeting since Councilmember Davis arrived late: cutback on indirect, a hiring freeze, stop committee and board meetings, stop purchases over $10,000 and the furlough since the biggest expense is employees, almost $11 million a -5-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 28, 2024, Special minutes year for employees. Councilmember Della John said they also need to protect the employees’ rights as well. Chairman Wadsworth reaffirmed they won't be firing, just furloughing, they are still guaranteed a job. Councilmember Cortez asked when it comes to unemployment benefits, would the employees still be required to do the three job searches for reporting purposes? Ms. Cooper said that is a DEER requirement, doesn’t know if that is required or not but for COVID they laxed that requirement, but she hasn't heard directly from them yet. Councilmember Della John asked if this just applies to the federal programs, not the State or Tribal programs. Chairman Wadsworth said it depends on the State programs because some of the State funding that the Tribe has comes from the federal government. The State is just a pass through, so it affects those as well. Medicaid is not affected; it’s listed in the memo they received. He read a part of the memo that stated, “Is this freeze on benefits to Americans like SNAP or student loans? The answer was no, any program that provides direct benefits to Americans is explicitly excluded from the pause and exempted from this review process. In addition to Social Security and Medicare already explicitly excluded in the guidance mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP will continue without pause.” He also explained to Councilmember Della John who said it just impacts all of the children and women since she was not yet in the meeting, that Head Start is excluded from it and funds for small businesses, farmers, Pell Grants, Head Start, Rental Assistance and other similar programs will not be paused but they don’t know yet if that includes daycares because they can’t get anyone to respond or pick up the phones. Councilmember Decker stated that once they do find out it affects the daycares then the Council will go ahead and assist them, correct? Chairman Wadsworth said they will have to take a hard look at the budgets to see if they can fund the daycare minimally because they still must think about the staff at the high school and the entire clinic staff which utilizes the daycare services plus the elders. Ms. Mendes said there is specifically two programs which they are looking at funding for at least a nine-week period which she has come up with a budget for each of those programs, the daycare and Numaga Elder program. Councilmember Davis said she was hoping to have a spreadsheet that provided information on how much funding they have, a list of programs that are essential and non-essential, for example a spreadsheet that was provided during COVID so they have a bottom line of what they are supposed to be looking at. Ms. Mendes said after working on the numbers for the Numaga Elder program, she came up with a tentative budget of $56,000 to cover food, salaries, fringe, and fuel for vehicles. She is not sure they can waive the policy that says they have to use the federal funding first and then use the Tribal funding because if they have $140,000 Tribal funds they are not using yet, they might be able to get by using it. For the daycare centers, this is shutting down the Wadsworth daycare, opening up the Nixon daycare, having a manager and two staff at Nixon because they are all reliable and something she hates to say but they don’t pay them benefits, they keep them on-call and they keep the doors open. They have good staff there and good oversight from the manager. The funding for daycare would be around $29,000. What revenue they generate goes back to the program and they are not self-sustaining. The families pay regular scale, nobody is on Children’s Cabinet or any sliding scale. They provide a service for those members that are still working which was an issue during COVID. Councilmember Wadsworth asked if she goes by seniority and not keeping on-calls, they should keep permanent staff before the on-calls because they could hurt the permanent employees. Ms. Mendes said if it’s in the policy, they will do that but for her it’s about funding now. Councilmember Wadsworth stressed they still must follow a priority list. Ms. Mendes said they will if -6-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 28, 2024, Special minutes it’s in the policy, but it will cost them more in terms of funding. The funding is for a full 40-hour week so they are available to everyone, and they would stagger their schedules. Councilmember Davis said if they find the funds for the daycare, they will only be using one daycare and they will be having the kids from Wadsworth coming down. Ms. Mendes said they will be looking at their transportation to see whether they can afford to come down. She is hopeful she gets a call from ACF to tell her the freeze doesn’t apply to daycares. Chairman Wadsworth said in response to Councilmember Davis about having everything broken down, it was so difficult with the minute by minute waiting because like he said earlier for the indirect costs, they won't be collecting any of it, the amount of calculations will be astronomical at this point because they have to go back and look at every budget to see what exactly they're getting calculated on for IDC versus contracts which aren’t getting IDC, for example the Tribal Attorney fees for the Water Team is $205,000 but none of it is IDC. With so many unanswerable questions they can’t dive into anything but for sure they will be shutting down because it’s what they have now. If they wait for Monday, they could be on the hit for more money later, it’s not easy. Ms. Sander wanted to go back to the insurance, when the Council looks at the funding, and she does understand it’s quite a bit of money that the Tribe pitches in for their benefits but for some they need those benefits. For her, she has worked for the Tribe for 14 plus years continuously and her health benefits have always been there, it would hurt her and her family to lose the benefits and life insurance. It could be months and it’s a long time for somebody who has medical conditions and depends on their benefits to pay for their medication. When the Tribe starts looking at whatever funds are available, they need to think about the employees. Even if they must look at who has medical issues, who has been employed with the Tribe for a certain amount of time, they need to look at keeping the benefits going to protect the employees. Some of them have been with the Tribe a long time and endure a lot with the different Councils and everything else that goes on along with it. She would appreciate it if the Council would take that into consideration. Pilar Thomas, Tribal Attorney provided an update on what is coming out of Washington DC and what is happening with other Tribes. In regard to the OMB memorandum that came out and froze all federal funding across all the agencies, the purported purpose of this federal pause on disbursements is also a pause on amendments and modifications to existing agreements and entering into any new agreements. For example, if the Tribe applied for a grant and you got a notice that you were awarded the grant, you have to go through the process to enter into that award agreement, which is now all on pause. Notice of Funding Opportunities that are out there, they are all on pause. Anything that looks like spending federal funds is on pause. The purported rationale for the pause, and if you've seen the Q and A, first of all, nobody knows that’s even an official document where they say only these types of programs, the Head Start or the rental assistance, nobody has been able to verify that document. From a legal standpoint, they are not relying on that document as the actual position of OMB. Right now, the only formal document they have seen is the original memorandum itself. There are approximately 2,700 federal programs, about 150-160 that are tribal specific programs and then a host of other programs that tribes are eligible for, and that the Tribe received, like the Transportation Grant to build the Bypass Road. All those programs have been paused. There is a series of questions that OMB has asked the federal agencies to address for every program -7-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 28, 2024, Special minutes including the Self Determination Act programs, all the other federal funding the Tribe is getting and all the non-BIA funding. They are looking for the connection of the program to diversity, equity, and inclusion and whether any of those programs would be considered unlawful discrimination. There is a legal argument that every single tribal program is unlawful discrimination because they’re tribal only. There is a real concern under this administration, tribal specific programs would run afoul of the President’s purported anti-DEI policy. They are also looking for issues related to what is termed gender ideology. If you havea Victim Office of Justice, victim assistance, sexual assault assistance and you look at the specific terms of that agreement, you cannot discriminate on the part of gender. In fact, they are non-gender, their gender neutral, that runs afoul of the President’s new position that there are only two genders. These types of awards would run afoul of the new policy. They are looking for anything that is related to green energy or clean energy and the Tribe has received some energy funding that would fall under that. It’s not entirely clear that all the Tribal programs or other programs that the Tribe is receiving would even be covered by this new series, so it’s not clear whether the Tribal programs are safe from any of those. She knows everyone is looking at the OMB documents, but they are not well written, they are internally inconsistent in some ways, and this has led to what some people might think of as agency overreach. Some parts of BIA are allowing draw downs on the 638 contracts and others are not, so there is not a consistent application within the BIA. It’s unfortunate that we are in this uncertain position on whether the programs are covered or whether they will survive a review. There was a comment earlier about how the Tribe has legal agreements with the federal government, we do, but they can terminate those agreements at any time, and they will. They have already cancelled grants for universities. There are several tribal nonprofits that have had their grants canceled by the National Science Foundation because they fall under the DEI policy. It does not matter legally, one of the rationales for them to be able to terminate your agreements are a change in administration or agency policy or priorities, and that is an explicit termination reason under the regulations. If they do terminate the Tribe’s agreements, it doesn’t mean we are without recourse, but if they do terminate any of the agreements, they do have to pay you for any expenses incurred under those agreements up to the date of termination. They must be allowable costs expended up until the date of termination. Those are their lawful rights. As the Chairman said this is expected to last through at least the middle of March and that is in part because they have asked the agencies to provide an answer to about 10 questions per program. They must provide an answer by February 10‘ and the OMB will be giving itself 30-35 days to review the responses and decide about the programs. There is a process, supposedly, for exemptions and the exemptions from the OMB memorandum. There is a substantial push by a group of tribes who happen to be relatively well connected to the Republican Senators who are on the Appropriations Committee and as well as an effort to work with OMB to negotiate for tribal exemptions for the tribal programs. They have identified 150-160 programs that are specific to tribes and only for tribes like 638, DOJ programs, HUD, NAHASDA, IHS, Transportation, Commerce, and EPA, there is a whole host of agencies that have tribal specific programs, and they are pushing to have all those exempted. Hopefully, they will know more midday tomorrow or later tomorrow, there is supposed to be a meeting on how things went. If there is no solution to exempt tribes from this pause, then there is currently litigation pending. It was referenced, the National Council on Nonprofits filed a complaint first and they filed it in the District of Columbia. The order which some of them (legal) argue that it has no legal impact on your ability to your funding, it’s unclear whether you will still be able to access your funding between now and Monday but would encourage you to keep trying. There are some legal flaws in the complaint and in the order so it is unclear whether the order really will have any effect on the pause and the failure to disperse funds. With -8-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 28, 2024, Special minutes that being said, the States have now filed a complaint in which the State of Nevada has joined in the complaint suing the federal government. In her view, they have filed a better complaint because they also named the agency heads themselves and the complaint asked that the court order the agencies to ignore the OMB directive and continue to disperse funds. They also asked for a temporary restraining order. So, there may be movement on that complaint and if it’s granted, based on how they have asked the agencies to pay because the other case doesn’t order the agencies to pay, it just asks OMB to not implement its own memo. For this complaint, the State asks the court to tell the agencies to pay their bills. There is a lot of legal activity that is trying to keep this from happening but there are a group of tribes that are working through their Senate delegations on the Republican side and trying to get a meeting with the White House and OMB to try and resolve this for Indian country writ large. Councilmember Della John said the tribes have all these laws in place, like our Citizenship Act and all these different laws, 638 law, what happens to all those laws if they declare we’re not Americans. They are trying to get this issue in front of the Supreme Court. It goes back to birthright, that they are not citizens of America. They don’t owe Natives anything. What are tribes going to do to assert this political relationship that can’t be ignored, how is that going to work overall, are the tribes going to be terminated. Ms. Thomas said she hopes not but this has happened three times before, legally terminated as opposed to just genocidal extermination. With the birthright citizenship issue, there is not a consistent view in Indian law. The 14* Amendment which established what we call birthright citizenship which says that anyone born in America is a natural born citizen and is automatically a citizen. There are exceptions to that and one of those is defined by the term Indians not taxed. For those of us who remember the Constitution, the term Indians not taxed is used in one other place in the United States Constitution and that is in the census provision. At the time, the United States was formed, Indians were not citizens of the United States, even though they may have lived within the 13 states. When they set up the US Constitution and they were trying to figure out how to count people for purposes of the census, they said everybody counts, except for slaves who counted for three fifths and Indians not taxed. That term has come to be meant as Indians who are still living. It’s a horrible way to say it but this is the legal term of art in their tribal relations. Members of tribes who are still part of their tribe were not considered citizens of the United States and the way they express that is because the United States, or the states could not tax Indians. Just like today, a state cannot tax a tribe. You live on a reservation, work on the reservation, the state cannot tax you, so you are an Indian not taxed in the constitutional term. In the 14*" Amendment they use that same term, and it means that you are a member of a tribe, and as a member of a tribe, you are not a citizen of the United States. That is why in 1924 Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act, and that is what made every tribal member a US citizen. It’s a complicated history and she is not sure why the United States would invoke that in their birthright citizenship argument, but everyone born in the United States is a US citizen and the Indian citizenship Act makes tribal members US citizens. They are not going to take it away, first, we don’t have birthright citizenship, if we are tribal members we have it under the Indian Citizenship Act. They are not going to repeal the birthright citizenship act, and it was a bad argument for the DOJ to make because it created all this confusion. Addressing the political relationship, this one she would be more cautious about, as mentioned earlier any program that is specific to tribes, could be viewed as a discriminatory program. In 1970s there was a case that was decided by the United States Supreme Court that said that tribal citizens were not minorities for purposes of the Equal Protection Clause, where everyone must be treated equally -9-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 28, 2024, Special minutes under the law but instead were political entities. The Supreme Court said, the United States can discriminate to the benefit of the tribes and to the benefit of tribal members. That is why we have in the BIA Indian preference. Title Seven of the Civil Rights Act has a provision that allows people to discriminate in favor of Indians. That would otherwise be completely illegal. It is not unfounded fear that this administration could take an opposite position of all the administrations before it and say that tribes and Indian people should not be treated differently and should not have what would be otherwise discriminatory laws in our favor which is why she raised the specter that all the tribal programs could fall under their DEI policy of being discriminatory programs. This is an area the Tribe should be vigilant about and pay attention to the policies of this administration. The last time Mr. Trump was in office, he did not reaffirm, unlike everybody else, the government-to-government relationship with tribes, he really didn’t do any tribal consultation. He did zero consultations; he did nothing for tribes and now he may not only not do anything but may actually take stuff away. This is an area she recommends paying close attention to and being prepared to advocate politically with our Congress, Senators, States and with other tribes. This pause has a lot of people concerned. If the tribes that are going to talk with them tomorrow are successful in getting a tribal exemption then that would be a good sign because that means somebody recognizes the tribes should be treated differently because we have a trust relationship, we have treaty rights, we have a different relationship with the United States both legal and political, than anybody else but will see what comes out of that meeting. Councilmember Davis wanted to get back to the issue of furlough due to the number of employees present. Chairman Wadsworth thanked Ms. Thomas for the history lesson because it all ties together in many aspects. With his trip to Washington for the NCAI Executive Winter Session, they already have plans to take groups to Capitol Hill to talk about this issue. Also, during that week is the State Legislative Day on Tuesday which is the Tribal Day, and they do need representation there from Council to voice a lot of these issues. Any other thoughts on what they can do? Because again, a lot of this is unknown. They've heard from staff about trying to keep the employees’ medical insurance and something for their consideration of the budgets. Marvin Johnson, a concerned community member and as someone who has been furloughed by the federal government a handful of times over a 23-year federal career and knowing how they do furloughs, he’d like to ask if this is possible they don’t furlough because as Councilmember John said during COVID people were furloughed and the funding was never taken away. The judge’s refusal to let the Trump administration take this funding is in effect until Monday, when another hearing will take place, it might never take effect. That is something for which they can hope. What he is hoping is that the wording for the furlough can done in such a way that it is contingent upon the judges’ ruling. That is what they did with them in the federal government, they just went to work until the final decision was made. This deferral is only based on the nonprofits lawsuit and like the lawyer said, several Attorney Generals have also filed a separate lawsuit that could strength your case. Ms. Thomas responded to a question in the audience about Congress obligating every treaty with tribes into which they entered. -10-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 28, 2024, Special minutes Ms. Athayde, VS Director, asked if it was okay to ask Finance to do a double check on the grants, if they were reimbursable or not. It seems like a couple of them may have been missed and they just want to verify which ones are reimbursement and which ones are not. Chairman Wadsworth said they could do that since Finance has been reviewing grants all day. He asked Ms. Johnson, Comptroller, how many grants they had. Ms. Johnson said way over a hundred. Ms. Wright said they have a total of 187 programs including the Tribal programs. Vice Chairman Ely said it’s a dire, tough situation and it’s nobody’s fault in this room. Is there a possibility they can, after hearing Mr. Johnson’s comments, make a motion to approve furloughs if these cuts are enacted and retract them if they are not, but how do they know the hammer has dropped with this Executive Order? Chairman Wadsworth said it’s a minute by minute, day by day wait until the judge rules on Monday. Acomment was made from the audience that if the Council waited until Monday to furlough and they file for unemployment, unemployment asks you, did you work this week? People won't be getting paid for that week because they worked on Monday. Something for the Council to think about. If they made the decision to furlough on Friday, and the coming Monday it did go into effect, employees can claim that week is not work. Ms. Cooper also reminded them if they go into Monday, then they must pay the insurance. Councilmember Wadsworth said she didn’t think they needed a motion, they just kept working until they heard otherwise. Vice Chairman Ely asked for Friday, would the Council need to enact the furloughs. Chairman Wadsworth said they would per policy, they would need that action because part of the policy covers the time frame. They will have to get the Council to approve waiving that time because it is a seven-day process in the policy. Notification of a pending furlough must be made at least seven days prior to the effective date of furlough. For that part of the policy, they would have to figure out what they would do about that. Vice Chairman Ely said if they approve the furlough, they wouldn’t furlough until seven-days as of January 28", so that would be Wednesday, into the new month, and they would have to pay the insurance, and they wouldn’t be eligible for unemployment for that week. Chairman Wadsworth said when they had the director’s meeting, they said in the event of the furlough, Friday is the day they would like to do it, then payroll would get them their paycheck for this week next week. If they hear something and they go until next Friday, it’ll just be the normal payroll schedule for the following week. If nothing happens on Monday or if the “hammer” comes down, then the Tribe will have to pay with Tribal funds. Vice Chairman Ely said in clarifying, if they enacted a furlough on the employees that day, they need to give them seven-days notification before the furlough starts. In that case, it would already be in February and the Tribe would be paying their benefits, which would help the concern of Ms. Sanders for that month in the amount of $48,000, do they have that amount? Ms. Cooper said that the reason for the meeting, is to see if the Council would waive the seven-day notification. Chairman Wadsworth said in speaking with Councilmember Davis, it was literally that day, everybody was furloughed, you signed your papers, and you were laid off the next day. It was noted at that time they didn’t follow the policy. Chairman Wadsworth said it was an emergency circumstances, the documents said it was in effect April 17, 2020. -11-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 28, 2024, Special minutes Councilmember Guerrero said they had one for COVID and one for the federal shutdown. They can look at the resolutions and the one for COVID was just 24 hours. Lesley Hawley, former HR Manager, said they had a couple of shutdowns, some of them were related to the budget where they did give the seven-day notice which was in 2018 and for COVID it was immediate based on CDC recommendation they did continue insurance. In responding to Vice Chairman Ely’s question, Chairman Wadsworth said they approved a budget of $8.1 million. Ms. Johnson is still getting numbers that the Council asked for earlier in the meeting about the cash reserves. If they start taking money out of the departments, everybody starts feeling the squeeze. She said the carryover funds were not included. Councilmember Sampson said she understands this issue is immediate, but they do have employees with extenuating health issues and it’s not fair to just say sorry. Speaking on the health side, because there is membership that works for the Tribe, it is unfortunate this is happening, but they must take that into consideration as well. So, if they have the carry over why can’t they look into it? Councilmember Wadsworth said they can’t count on that carryover money they don’t even know what that amount is or if there is going to be any since 2024 hasn’t even been closed out yet, that won’t happen until late March or April. Leona Collins, in the audience, asked about furloughs, would that mean every employee is going to be furloughed or will there be essential services open? Chairman Wadsworth said initially it will be those working under federal grants because the Tribe can’t draw down any of the funds. Then when it comes to indirect services and Tribal budgets, however long this carries out, those will start to feel the squeeze as this is prolonged. Initially it’s only the grants programs but the longer this draws out, the more the Executive Team will have to plan to shut down certain parts of administration, because they will have to allocate funding elsewhere, for instance the Police Department for police services. Councilmember Dunn said it was mentioned there were about 30 employees, what departments are they. Chairman Wadsworth said anybody under a grant, the Numaga Elder Program, all of the Environmental Department is practically under a grant, Victim Services all under a grant, parts of the Tribal Court, 638 contracts, which is the Police Department, Social Services, Roads, JOM, and Enrollment. Ms. Sanders asked what happens to these programs, the Tribal Court where you have people incarcerated waiting for court, with Social Services, what is going to happen with the adult and minors who need care. Trisha Conner, Executive Director said there are four programs that have BIA ARPA funding still, that the Tribe has funding in the bank, they are Social Services, BIA, Tribal Court, Enrollment, and higher Education. They may have to move funding around for salaries. The three departments under her are the BIA, Tribal Court and Social Services and they are good until the end of the year in addition to their Tribal funds. Enrollment is good for two years. Chairman Wadsworth added for the clinic, the diabetes program is under a grant but as they heard from Ms. Brown, PLTHC Director, they have already made plans to move them -12-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 28, 2024, Special minutes under their other funding, their third party. Ms. Brown said she was talking to her Business Office Manager about Ms. Sanders’ question and what happens when you get furloughed, and all insurance goes away. There are a couple of ways that they might be able to help. Since Medicaid is still going to be in business, they can see if they can exempt people from looking for coverage. That is something they can look to see if they can get expedited eligibility for employees furloughed but then they would also have people who are not qualified due to income, and they could work with Silver State Health Exchange on the health link to get people covered even for 30-60 days. This is something she will be checking on and will get back to the Chairman and the Council. This will also include medication. Cody Nish, Parks and Recreation Manager, said he has so much left over in his budget and knew it was going to go back into the General Fund but for his budget he would like to know what is going back to the General Fund and not wait until February or April. Ms. Johnson said they do have an estimate and the last time she recorded it was approximately $1 million that was unspent on the budget, but everything is not in yet to close out the year, they just have estimates and no final number. There was a question from the audience that asked if the Tribe was a domestic dependent nation, and we have no sovereignty. Ms. Thomas asked if they knew the term domestic dependent nation is a term developed or used by the United States Supreme Court in an 1834 decision. Almost 200 years old, your sovereignty, the Tribe’s sovereignty, is obviously limited in many important respects but in many respects its not limited. It depends, the Tribe doesn’t have no sovereignty, but you do have limited, the Tribe has limited sovereignty. A comment from the audience said since we're dependent upon these federal grants, we have no sovereignty, until we move toward self-determination, we have no sovereignty and we're dependent. Ms. Thomas said she would not necessarily, from a legal standpoint, equate sovereignty with federal grants. Every state in the Union, which are also sovereign states, to a certain extent, also rely on federal grants, some more than others. The State of Nevada gets several billion dollars in federal grants, which does not necessarily impact their sovereign status. The United States, of course, as the federal government can impose any terms and conditions that it wants to on federal dollars, and Congress does that all the time. The grants themselves might have certain terms and conditions that you must meet but it doesn’t have an effect on your sovereign status. If you have zero federal grants, you would be just as sovereign, with or without those federal grants, so she wouldn’t necessarily confuse the two or conflate the two ideas. Vice Chairman Ely asked when they would know when there is stay on it. Ms. Thomas said with respect to when you will know for sure, she thinks when the State’s case gets resolved. She doesn’t think the nonprofit case will resolve the issue because they sued OMB and not the agencies as the agencies are the ones making the decision on the funding. OMB is just saying pause and doing all this stuff and they don’t have authority over the agencies. They have no legal control over the agencies. The case to watch is the States case who sued the agencies telling them they must follow the law and pay their bills. Hopefully that decision will be soon. Ms. Collins said she was wondering about the school. Chairman Wadsworth said the school is fine, he spoke to the principal and was told the Tribally run BIE schools are fine, but BIE run schools are running into a big problem. Our school is a Tribally Run BIE school. -13-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 28, 2024, Special minutes Ms. Sanders asked if the Nevada Tribes are getting together to work with the State to take a stance on any of this? Chairman Wadsworth said they talked about it and had a meeting at four o’clock with ITCN, not all tribes were there, it was just discussing what they are doing now because everyone is in the same boat. It was all about waiting and seeing. He didn’t hear about anyone else going to the NCAI in Washington DC. There was a comment about Tribes issuing memorandums saying they disagree with this and asserting their sovereignty. Chairman Wadsworth said he spoke with Ms. Thomas about this earlier and they are submitting documents on how this issue is impacting the Tribe. Ms. Thomas explained she received a notice from the Tribes who are trying to meet with the OMB, they have asked for examples of the effects of this pause, and they have asked for some specific examples. She asked the Chairman to identify the 638 funding that the Tribe can’t access anymore and the implications of not be able to pay people. In this case, the Tribe is considering furloughing because of it. There is the daycare program that is impacted, there is the Tribe’s issue of covering health care issues and the environmental programs. Just provide a couple of different examples. They also asked if the names of the Tribes be anonymous since the information will be provided to OMB. They would just say a Tribe in Nevada. They would also make sure to let the State’s Representative Amodei know, since he is a Republican and the push on Congress to get more Republicans aware of what is happening. She also sent the Chairman a request from the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs that if tribes wanted to submit information to them, they could do so and keep it anonymous as well. Chairman Wadsworth said he wasn’t able to get a hold of any of the State’s Senators but before the ITCN meeting today he was on the phone with the Tribe’s lobbyist who was texting Congressman Amodei at the same time he was on the phone with him. He had to get to the ITCN meeting so he wasn’t able to finish his conversation. Councilmember Della John said she was thinking about a letter about some of the policies and how it’s impacting the Tribe and what our stance is on what he is saying and doing. Chairman Wadsworth agreed but for this one they need t focus on the funding freeze only because, for the record, he doesn’t think he can think about two things at once. Ms. Sanders asked if the Chairman will be putting out a public notice to the communities about what is going on. Chairman Wadsworth said he will probably be sending something out after this meeting. Councilmember Della John stated the Tribe’s position is to not approve furloughs until the final hammer falls and everybody is to keep working and try to cover the insurance in case it goes past the 4". Chairman Wadsworth said if it goes past the 4th, then they will have to have the difficult conversation because there is no way they can keep everybody running at full operations. They will deplete their reserves and not be sure how long Finance can sustain that. Councilmember Davis said it is hard to say, she agrees with paying the insurance for their employees and then doing the furlough as soon as they find out. If they find out on Monday, they do the furlough, they have -14-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 28, 2024, Special minutes that week to finish up and then start the next week but it is hard to say that they can’t keep them on until the middle of the month without having numbers in front of them to look at. Chairman Wadsworth said having the numbers is going to be difficult especially without the IDC paying for the staff here. Ms. Wright had an issue with Councilmembers Davis’s statement about the insurance if they go into February, fed state pays for a lot of it and if they are getting shut off now from the draw down websites, they won’t be able to get reimbursement for that money until something is decided by the government. Councilmember Della John said they would have to take the money out of the General Fund instead of the Fed State during this time. Chairman Wadsworth said that’s right but it’s a lot of money, especially if you think about not just the grants that are impacted, all the IDC programs, like Ms. Wright said, when they bill for it to get reimbursed. Now they are not talking about grants specific, but all the indirect, all the employees in HR, IT or Finance. They won’t be reimbursed for any of that, they will be taking it out of the Tribal budget again. And for insurance every year it’s about $2.2 million according to their last budget meeting. It was asked if the paperwork was done for everybody yet. Chairman Wadsworth said they were just notified because they had to have a meeting because they need the Council’s permission to do all of this. The employees are just on notice. Ms. Hawley asked if they had the conversation with ITCN on how the unemployment system is going to be able to support this and the turnaround. Previously, it was a headache, and that is something to keep in mind because it’s not just going to be furloughed Tribal employees, its going to be federal and state as well. Chairman Wadsworth said unemployment was not mentioned at all during the meeting with ITCN, but he will email the Executive Director to give her a heads up. Ms. Cooper said she looked up unemployment and it is federally funded but it is not affected by the pause. Ms. Brown, PLTHC Director said she called a meeting for the Tribal Health Directors for Northern Nevada just to see, even though the clinics are not really directly affected through IHS with this, they have some of the smaller tribes who receive less money from IHS and they rely more on grants and that will have more effect on them than the bigger clinics do. They will be meeting on Thursday at Reno Sparks. The Chaiman is welcome to attend, and she will provide an update to the Council. Chairman Wadsworth notified the Council he will be cancelling his travel to San Rafeal for his meeting with Stetson Engineers. Chairman Wadsworth recapped there will be no furloughs, and they will play it by ear until they know hear something through the State, the State temporary restraining order which hopefully comes sooner and then whatever happens on Monday with the federal judge. -15-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 28, 2024, Special minutes Councilmember Davis asked for confirmation that with no furloughs that means they will be paying insurance for February. Chairman Wadsworth confirmed that yes, they will be paying for insurance. It was confirmed they will still be having a meeting on Wednesday regarding the EMS. ADJOURNMENT With no further business before the Tribal Council, Councilmember Cortez made a motion to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by Vice Chairman Ely. Votes taken were all in favor, motion carried. The meeting adjourned at 6:58 p.m. Submitted nung nund A. Aad Tribal Council Secretary CERTIFICATION The foregoing minutes were adopted by the Pyramid Lake Tribal Council, governing body of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, at a meeting duly held on the 7 day of March 2025, having ten (10) members present, constituting a quorum, by the vote of nine (9) FOR and zero (0) OPPOSED, with zero (0) ABSTENTIONS. Minutes attested and concurred by: _? 77 Steven Wadsworth, Tribal Chairman Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council // // -16-|Page --- Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/tribal%3Apyramid_lake%3A2ca3c936a238622b. Public record. Not legal advice.