Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council (2025)

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 29, 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 29, 2025, Special Tribal Council meeting of the Pyramid Lake Paiute

Tribal Council to order at 5:30 p.m.

ROLL CALL

Brenda Henry, Tribal Secretary, took the roll call. Councilmember Decker and Guerrero attended via zoom

All other Councilmembers were present at the roll call and a quorum was established for this meeting.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Chairman Wadsworth presented the agenda with the following requests.

Councilmember Davis requested a follow-up discussion regarding the federal freeze.

Councilmember Davis motioned to approve the agenda for January 29, 2025, with addition. Councilmember

Cortez seconded the motion. Votes were nine (9) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions.

MOTION PASSED

PUBLIC COMMENT

Brian Wadsworth, Tribal member. Mr. Wadsworth thanked the Council for scheduling this meeting to have

this important conversation about the gross misconduct as well as gross mismanagement by the Tribal

Council. I just wanted to read some comments from the Facebook page. Earlier as he was going through Little

Nixon, he witnessed a woman looking down on somebody lying on the road and decided to see if he could

help. The woman just called 911 and was describing to the dispatcher the condition of the man lying on the

ground. He immediately grabbed a blanket for him because it was about 35 degrees outside. The barometric

Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council

January 29, 2024, Special minutes

pressure was dropping, and it was getting colder. A male Tribal member was down the road, and he saw a

witness wearing shorts, he was scraped from falling, shivering, frozen, barely able to speak, having a seizure.

They realized, maybe 15 minutes into standing there that day was a so-called brownout. So instead of an

ambulance just driving up the road, the Tribal Police arrived but there was still an additional wait because

the ambulance dispatch was a North Lyon County ambulance. Assuming the Tribal ambulance was in Gerlach,

he was guessing. He witnessed a Tribal member in a hypothermic state seizing and frozen and don’t know

who made the decision to stretch the medical services to a town one and a half hours away, but it was pathetic

to watch. He felt ashamed they have a Tribal Council to allow this. Why can’t they have proper emergency

medical services. Whomever made this decision needs to be held accountable, whether it be the Council as a

whole or the department head. It is wrong. Our Tribe needs to do better. He read some of the comments on

Facebook, “So Sad,” “You're right a person could die before help comes,” “Shame on whoever made this

decision,” What is it going to take for this to be overturned, death. They need a new better Tribal Council.

This is unacceptable and puts the members in danger. Why was this allowed to happen? Sure, hope this

person was okay. This is a shame. Returning Councilmembers should be held responsible. Uncalled for. This

shouldn’t have happened at all. Accountability for the Tribal Council. You guys voted on this, and the EMS

Department did it.

Christy Evans, Gerlach Community member. She thinks their community has been remiss in letting the

Council know how much it has changed their community and how much they appreciate the contract that

has been in place. She understands they already voted to terminate the contract but wanted to let the Council

know the appreciation when it first came into place and Chairman Phoenix came out to their community. She

understands the Tribe is dealing with brownouts and their community is also having brownouts. It was their

hope that Washoe County pays for the Gerlach coverage through the EMS services that the Tribe has and

would be a beneficial arrangement to help the EMS with training and in supporting coverage for the entire

area. They are sad it is not going to be a possibility in the future. They will have to go to bat for their

community to try and get funding and they know that funding is a challenge for the Tribe too. If there is room

for reconsideration, they want the Council to know they would appreciate it. They are hopeful that at some

point they can get coverage in Gerlach for a couple days a week and it can benefit the Reservation since we

are all out here together. Regardless of the outcome, they want to let the Tribe know how much they

appreciate the service that has been provided.

NEW BUSINESS

1. Discussion and Possible Action EMS Brownouts. Chief Don Pelt, EMS

Chairman Wadsworth responded to comments made earlier. There were discussions this past week with

Chief Pelt and his supervisor, Ben John, and he will present to the Council and the public that it’s all

budgetary and not mismanagement. In regard to what everybody reads on Facebook, again this is all

budgetary, the Tribe just doesn’t have the funds to go all around. This was discussed at the Tribal Budget

meetings, which he doesn’t believe everyone attended, where it was mentioned that they need to put them

as a priority. The question he had for the Council was, what departments will they be getting rid of?

Because that is what it takes to run this department at full capacity, they eliminate departments. When it

comes to Facebook and criticism, the Council should have thick skin. There is no right answer, it is all

difficult.

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Chief Pelt said this isn’t anyone’s fault, money is money, and you only have so much, and they are trying to

work with they have and stay within their means. In three months, he will be with the department for 15

years and cares for the department. In those 15 years he never mentioned brownouts until now, it’s not

something he wants to do but it comes down to funding. There are overreaches they must follow in fire and

EMS. With the Indian Health Services (IHS) side, to be in compliance, EMS needs nine full time personnel in

medics, EMTs, ADA/EMTs, or paramedics, one Chief and a billing Secretary clerk. That’s the minimum

personnel, and they must have two ambulances which they are in compliance with. They also must operate

24/7, 365 days a year to comply with IHS. Currently, they are not in compliance because there are only

seven personnel, the Chief and administrative assistant for the clerical items, and six medics/EMTs. In the

Nevada Revised Statute and the Nevada Administrative Code, even though some say they don’t follow

under, but they do. The reason they do is because they don’t just transport to a facility on the Reservation

but the minute, they leave the Reservation to go to the nearest medical facility, they fall under State rules,

so they must be compliant with both State and Tribal. For the State to run EMS, they must run

uninterrupted 24/7, 365 days, have one ambulance which they are not doing right now because they just

can’t due to funding. For the number of hours they work, EMS does not work the standard 80 hour work

week to get a true 24 hour day, 7 day week, 365 day operation, they work what is called 96-120 work hours

pay period which is in two pay periods covering 28 days. Because of this, the federal government has said

overtime for firefighters and EMT personnel does not kick in until they have met 106 hours in a pay period.

If they go back to an 80-hour schedule they will be paying more in overtime than if they remained on the

96-120 schedule that is currently allowable under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Nobody was happy to say

they had to brownout Fridays and Saturdays twice a month but that is running on bare bones, 96 hours

with the current staff being forced to work 96 hours with zero overtime for the year to make payroll. His

supervisor, Ben John, asked him to reexamine options on hours. They looked at several different models.

They looked at the beginning of the budget year with Friday and Saturdays off twice a month for the pay

periods, so their staff could get 96 hours because if they drop below that they risk losing personnel and

they were already down four. They looked at an eight, ten (two options for a ten-hour) and a twelve-hour

schedule and with the eight-hour schedule they ended up browning out more time than they would with

any other schedule. The same with the ten and twelve hours, which makes them not practical. They looked

at the option they are trying now which is browning out twelve hours, four days a pay period a week

instead of two full days. Doing it this way, they brownout only 8pm to 8am. They are still out of compliance,

but this is the best they could do and still maintain a full year’s worth of service under the current budget.

Councilmember Dunn said he didn’t see Chief Pelts name on the documents. Chief Pelt said he is not there,

he only comes out when he is needed at night and works four days a week, 10-hour days for the

administrative work but will come out if they need any medical services or to fill in for any personnel.

Councilmember Dunn noted Chief Pelt is not included in the schedule but should be and not just Monday

through Friday because emergencies don’t happen just Monday through Friday. Chief Pelt said he can’t

operate an ambulance by himself if the crew is browned out. Councilmember Dunn said the reason they are

having this meeting is because of the brownouts, and to come up with solutions. Not to mention the budget

because it’s obviously an issue and has been an issue before they even came here plus the brownouts were

occurring before they even told him to post what was going on and his supervisor, Mr. John, didn’t know

either. They must work on this because this is putting the Tribe, the people, the departments...Chairman

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Wadsworth interjected stating they have had this discussion. This is budgetary, adding Chief Pelt to a

brownout does not mean he will be able to cover because he needs two, if you add Mr. Pelt to one of the

brownout dates, where is the second one coming from? There is no overtime budget. The solution is not

there. Just because you say Chief Pelt you need to work 80 hours a week instead of 40, where is the other

person coming from. Councilmember Dunn asked if they reached out to Washoe County about funding

because that funding would help, they didn’t ask specifically for funds for Pyramid Lake but for Gerlach too.

Chief Pelt said they are drafting a letter but haven’t completed it yet. He discussed it with the Chairman, but

he can’t speak for the County on whether they can provide funds, they are like the Tribe, they don’t have

any funds either.

Vice Chairman Ely asked if they cut the contract with Washoe County and Gerlach, would those employees

be coming back to the Tribe? Chief Pelt said they would be laid off. Vice Chairman Ely asked about Mr.

Pritchard, if he were the employee who was at Gerlach, would he be laid off. Chief Pelt said the position is

going to be laid off, whether it would be him specifically he is not sure. There are three employees there

now and those three would be laid off from the payroll once the contract is gone. The Tribe will not gain

any personnel, those positions in Gerlach are totally funded by Washoe County. Chairman Wadsworth

explained the employees in Gerlach get paid out of the Washoe County budget. As they rotate, they do

rotate the funding source they get paid out of either through the Tribe because they are working in Nixon

or Washoe County if they’re at Gerlach. Mr. John said they don’t rotate anymore because that was causing a

lot of problems in the beginning.

Chief Pelt said they were asked to look at the call volume times. He provided data from 2022 through 2024.

The number of calls in 2022 was 401, in 2023 it was 559 and for 2024 it was 454, the number decreased

because of brownouts. He confirmed that Councilmember Dunn was correct, they were browning out last

year because of budget issues and he was advised he could not go over budget. To remain compliant with

the directives of the Executive Team they had to do brownouts. Most calls were during the day, but

emergencies know no time. Councilmember Decker asked if this would be the same during the summer and

the Fourth of July weekend? Chief Pelt said for the Fourth of July, with current staffing levels and budget,

there will be three people out on C-shift, which is two staff and himself. They also get help from the Bureau

of Land Management, they come out on the holiday weekend to help them. Normally, he would bring all his

staff out for that weekend because it is the busiest weekend of the year, but there is no funding to do that

this year.

Vice Chairman Ely asked how Gerlach is doing it when they are not in compliance with NRS either. Why do

we have to follow this city plan? Chief Pelt said this is a rural plan. Mr. John said Chief Pelt is talking about

state certification; they are not certified by the state, these are state rules, but they are not certified by the

state. Chief Pelt said they are, they are licensed. Mr. John continued what Councilmember Della John

brought up about Duck Valley and their EMS, they don’t have to have EMTs, because they don’t have a

waiver to have a driver and one EMT on an ambulance. It’s still a two-person crew but the second person

doesn’t have to be EMT certified but they had to get a waiver from the state to allow that to happen. Chief

Pelt said they can’t get that waiver because they have paramedics, they are advanced life support. If they

were intermediate or basic life support, they could have drivers, but the state rule is, if you have

paramedics, you must have at least an EMT, basic or advanced EMT or another paramedic with them.

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Cannot use a driver only and they are licensed, both here and in Gerlach and they have a state license which

they must renew every year. All their personnel must be state certified and renew their licenses every two

years. The reason is because they leave the Reservation, the minute they take a patient to a hospital, they

must have the state requirement. Vice Chairman Ely asked for verification on this. Amy Carpenter,

firefighter /paramedic, stated under the NRS statute 450B which is all EMS and fire, it breaks down into the

NAC codes 450B, under 580, number 7, it talks about the ambulance operations as well as 578. To run, you

have to be permitted every year, you must have at least one running apparatus at all times, you can report

any apparatus that is broken down within 48 hours to the state and like Chief Pelt said they were ALS, they

have a paramedic and have to hold those standards. It must be at least one paramedic and an EMT or an

advanced EMT that runs with paramedics 24/7, 365 days and those are state codes.

Councilmember Sampson had a question regarding the medical director, since this is a budget issue, how

much are they paying the medical director since the clinic has a medical director. Chief Pelt said he has

obtained two medical directors for the Tribe, one is a Tribal person, and the other is not a Tribal doctor but

both do their work pro bono for them because they are a Tribal agency. They do not pay the medical

directors. They are both licensed in Nevada, have DEA licensing and have signed letters stating their work

is pro bono.

Councilmember Davis said they keep mentioning their personnel follow NRS, if that is correct why aren't

they getting state funds? Chief Pelt said the state doesn’t provide any funding for it; they only license the

services. They pay the state to license their services every year, then they must file and be under

compliance of their guidelines. Councilmember Davis said they should be going after the State of Nevada or

Washoe County because not all the homes within the Reservation are Tribal homes.

Vice Chairman Ely asked what does the state require for them to be in compliance? Chief Pelt said they

must have safe and operational ambulances that must be certified by a mechanic annually and must

provide a report to the state on the condition of the ambulances. Written directive protocols outlining :

medical procedures they provide, both online and offline, online procedures are where the medic would

call/radio the hospital to get medical directions from a doctor to provide a procedure, offline procedures

are procedures approved by their two medical directors that allow the paramedics to do procedures

without calling in. They are required to have a base hospital which is Renown on Mill Street, who they've

had since 2014, they sign an agreement every year stating they will be their base hospital and provide

those services, 24 hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year of medical direction if they need it. Vice

Chairman Ely asked if this costs money. Chief Pelt said the employees pay for their own recertification

every two years. The Tribe pays for their state license for the service which is a state inspection of the

ambulances to ensure they are in compliance.

Councilmember Della John asked about their protocols if they puncture their skin. Mr. Pelt said they must

be an advanced EMT or paramedic to do an IV or give an injection. All their basic EMTs and above

personnel are certified for immunizations or vaccinations by the State. Councilmember Della John asked

about the drugs fentanyl and morphine. Chief Pelt said the doctors approve those injections and they are in

their standing orders and protocols.

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Councilmember Dunn asked how much the third-party billing for the vendors is. Chief Pelt said they pay

their third-party biller 10% of what they collect, not what they bill but what they collect. The national

average of EMS collection is about 30% of what is billed nationwide. Councilmember Dunn asked if they

could keep the third-party billing at the clinic to keep the funds locally. Chief Pelt said they tried that at one

time with the clinic, but EMS billing and clinic billing are two different types of coding, and it didn’t work.

For 10% he couldn't hire and pay them any benefits.

Councilmember Decker asked why they couldn’t put EMS under the clinic and run it like Walker River

Paiute Tribe. Chief Pelt mistakenly thought the EMS was run by Indian Health Services and not their clinic

but was told it was run by their clinic. If that is the case then they would have to give their budget to the

clinic, but they are not set up for 24-hour, seven-day-a-week responses. The other issue is fire, currently

the budget covers both EMS and fire, they are getting two for one service, but it is possible. Councilmember

Decker asked if this could create more jobs. Mr. Pelt said yes it would be because they would be splitting

EMS and fire and would also create two budgets. Currently their personnel are both state certified in both

fire and EMS. And he personally cannot operate an ambulance by himself because he is only an EMT basic

and not a paramedic.

Brian Wadsworth, a Tribal member, asked what other sources the Tribal Council has looked at. There is the

tax use plan which the Tribe could tap into and rearrange how that’s structured. The Enterprise is the

business for the Tribe and historically has taken money from the Tribe and had it forgiven. Why doesn’t the

Tribe tap into its own resources? Chief Pelt said he included in the packet the possibility of tapping into the

Economic Development Fund (EDF) which allowed use for public safety. In the documents provided he

provided three columns which showed their 2025 Budget, 80% of his total budget is for payroll; another

column showed where they are fully funded with 24/7 365 service for 12 personnel with no brownouts

and another column utilizing the Economic Development Fund to pick up the remaining four employees

including the three in Gerlach who would be retained in Nixon, using the EDF would allow them to cover

operational costs as well. Most of his current funding is for payroll. They are trying to keep overtime down;

they looked at 2024 overtime and transferred that number into 2025 using EDF.

Councilmember Cortez asked Dawna Brown, Pyramid Lake Tribal Health Clinic (PLTHC) Director, about

exploring the option of absorbing the ambulatory services. Ms. Brown said they just had a meeting the

previous day about the pros and cons about the benefits for the clinic take over ambulatory services: they

are an 8am to 4:30 operation, however, to do an ambulance services doesn’t mean they have to be open but

the ambulance could be there, you would just have to have the facilities for living quarters. She recalled

back in the 70s, Fernley provided ambulatory services to the Tribe with volunteers in the community, and

they survived. She is familiar with how the Walker River Tribe runs their program, with two EMTs and the

rest are volunteers from the community. They run their program for about $200-250,000 a year with two

ambulances, however the big question is funding, no matter where you put this program it will still bea

funding issue. Currently PLTHC doesn’t have the infrastructure to take this on, they are currently starting a

process to take over their PRC program, the purchase and refer care or referrals. It’s a huge undertaking

that they are taking over from IHS and speaking with the Indian Health Service there are requirements that

wouldn't be conducive to assume this program, which is language in their annual funding agreement for

revenue ownership. Once they start making money, it comes in as a tribal because they get tribal funds.

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Once they start billing insurance, at some point it turns into CMS funds, and the revenue is federal and

becomes the clinics where it can’t be place anywhere else. It can’t go into the General Fund, there are

liability concerns, housing of staff and garages for ambulances and again they are a 24/7 program, and they

are 8-5pm, 5 days a week. At some point, since they are looking at taking over their PRC, there might be a

way they could do his billing for him instead of them using a company back east. That is an option they can

investigate later down the line but right now that is the best the clinic can offer.

Chief Pelt added that the Walker River ambulance is an ILS Service, it’s an intermediate life support service

and not a paramedic licensed ambulance. The Tribe has the best service in the State and Tribally.

Councilmember Della John said she has a possible solution because of budgetary issues, they must stick

with this number, but on those brownout days why can’t they make some type of agreement with Lyon

County REMSA and Care flight to cover those brownout days for the Tribal membership. She is sure they

will cover the Medicare rate for the Tribal patients like they did in the past or accept whatever their

insurance is paying but they don’t go after the patient because of the agreement they have with rural

Nevada and that is how that operates in that reimbursement with Indian Health Services. To ensure the

Tribal membership has full coverage, she thinks they can try to initiate some type of agreement because

they are closer than Gerlach. Ms. Brown said these agencies had an issue with IHS because they are not

paying.

Trisha Conner, Executive Officer, said she recently spoke to a billing person with REMSA, and they have no

agreement with IHS. Councilmember Della John said it’s not IHS, it’s local Nevada, it could be in

Winnemucca, Elko or anywhere in rural Nevada, they accept the Medicare rate for the patient, and they

consider whatever they receive paid in full and don’t go after the person. Chief Pelt said he doesn’t know of

any ambulance service in this country that doesn’t go after what is owed for the full amount. They don’t bill

Tribal members, but they do bill non-tribal members. If their insurance doesn’t pay the whole bill, they

invoice the patient for the remainder of the bill. Every ambulance must do that; they can’t survive on $200

for transport under Medicare. Before they got their agreement with REMSA, everyone paid an additional

$2,500 an ambulance call to transport for being out of franchise district because the Tribe was not included

in REMSA’s agreement and is still not but with his agreement for mutual aid, they are not billing the $2,500

anymore but they still bill for whatever their total is.

An unidentified employee with the EMS Department said he spoke with people in North Lyon to set up a

contract with them including REMSA and TMCC Fire, and for a contract the Tribe could be paying up to $1

million. Councilmember Sampson said she would like to see it in writing because it could be different from

what a person says to what is actually on paper. The employee said they could get a proposal.

Councilmember Sampson said she understood what Councilmember Della John was trying to say, they are

trying to make sure the Tribal membership is safe and well and it’s an issue having brownout days on the

weekends which are the busiest times. She understands it’s a budget issue but it’s life and safety and if they

are not putting life and safety first then they are not doing their jobs as a public safety department. Chief

Pelt said at the request of his supervisor, Benjamin John, they re-examined the brownout times and are

currently trying a brownout time from 8pm to 8am four days a week. They are still browning out 48 hours

unless they find more funding. He can contact the other agencies and see what a contract would cost for

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those 48 hours they are browned out for them to provide services on the Reservation. IHS only pays for life

and limb, they get calls from people who have a tummy ache or don’t feel good and are taken to the

hospital, but IHS doesn’t pay them, they refuse to pay them because they are a Tribal entity. He

understands and read the Facebook comments, they are being blamed along with the Tribal Council, this is

not a finger pointing issue, it’s economics and he is only giving the best service they can for the funding

they have. He is unable to ask paid personnel to volunteer their time, it’s against federal law. The

community said to get volunteers, they have put it out on social media advertising for volunteers, and he’s

received two applications, one from Reno, the other from Sparks and none of them Tribal.

Vice Chairman Ely thanked Chief Pelt for his passion. With a possible request from the Economic

Development fund, it sounds like they either put with the brownouts or they come up with more funding.

Chief Pelt continued with an explanation of the Safer Grant which has changed since the last time they had

it. It would pay 75% for the first year, 50% the second year and 25% the third year and then the Tribe

would have to pick them up for the fourth and following years after, which the Tribe did. Currently, they

have changed the rules for the Safer Grant, it now pays 100% of the employee’s cost. However, the caveat

is, it’s for new employees. He can’t take the seven people they currently have and put them on the Safer

Grant, but he can add to it. Councilmember Della John said it’s because they don’t think it’s going to be a

sustainable program, they should be set up to sustain themselves at some point, instead of being more and

more in need. Chief Pelt responded that it is his goal, but he doesn’t know of public safety anywhere in the

nation that is self-sustaining, they are a cost to the community.

Vice Chairman Ely asked if EMS puts in for the Safer Grant. Chief Pelt said he spoke to the Chairman about

it, but the consensus was no, because it adds employees. He would love to open the Wadsworth station but

is unable to without funds for staff. He is not asking for funding, it’s an option for the Council to consider.

He currently has $1.2 million, the request would be for an additional $1.3 million which would total $2.5

million, with half a million going back to IDC. It would be $2 million budget that would cover 24/7 365 days

a year. It would all be for salary for this community not for Gerlach.

Councilmember Davis asked how his schedule looked back in 2018. Chief Pelt said it was run with the Safer

Grant; they had four full-time employees plus they received seven with the Safer Grant which is how they

got eleven employees and ran their schedule on the 48/96 which is the same way they are now.

Vice Chairman Ely asked for the programs supervisor’s comment. Benjamin John, Business, said prior to the

Safer Grant the Tribe did not have 24/7 coverage and their budget was around $403-415,000. They

received the Safer Grant, and the program started to get fully staffed. Costs started to go up and when they

assumed 100%, that was when the budget went to $1.2 million, it was a double increase from the year

before when they were at 75% and then everyone got used to the 24/7 coverage. All they are doing now is

removing the Safer Grant situation and going back to how they were prior without the 24/7 coverage. All

the pressure and comments everyone is getting is because everyone got used to having that coverage. The

idea behind what Councilmember Della John was saying are they going to be able to sustain it?

Unfortunately, they are not, so this is a natural consequence of that. If Mr. Pelt stays with his Gerlach budget

the way, it’s set up now and Gerlach funds provides the funds he can use and have that guaranteed ~

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coverage from that area for the times that Nixon is browned out. They wouldn’t have to get an agreement

from Washoe County or REMSA because Washoe County would attain that bill and Chief Pelt would just

stagger the two schedules so there is always somebody there or here. They are still in the agreement; they

amended it so the Tribe is legally protected to provide a certain amount of service in Gerlach which can be

shifted to cover the Tribe’s brownout times in Nixon. All of this is contingent upon Washoe County funding,

if they say they can’t fund in whatever year, the Tribe just says no to the agreement which the Tribe has

already said no. If they come forward with more funding than their money is paying for the service that

they are not getting in Nixon. The other solution is the Safer Grant but looking at the requirements with the

additional staff can possibly start planning for it in four years. Vice Chairman Ely said he was in the

audience when the Council was talking about its years back and thinks the conversation was it'll be good

now but later they will have to cross that bridge and will take a hit and here they are crossing that bridge.

Chief Pelt said it is a competitive grant, there are no guarantees.

Councilmember Davis didn’t think it was just the Safer Grant, when they received that grant was when

COVID started and the Tribe started receiving funding, then there was the ARPA funds, the Cares Act funds

and they are trying to stay at that same budget but now they don’t have those fundings.

Chief Pelt said that is the same problem everyone is facing, North Lyon is asking for another $3 million on

top of the $3 million they currently are getting. They are in the same situation as the Tribe. Tragically

COVID was good for local government financially but then the funding ending and everyone is scrambling

trying to figure out how to do it without federal funding.

Councilmember Della John said they must adjust somehow to provide the service. Chief Pelt said

unfortunately, that is what they are doing by the brownouts is adjusting to stay within their budgets and to

still provide service as best they can for the community. Councilmember Della John mentions the wildland

and structure fires and training, what have they done to provide those services. With TERO they tried to

provide first aid in every home, but they didn’t reach that goal. Chief Pelt said they offer those classes, but

he can’t make people sign up for them. They try to be at every event in the community, they are

everywhere, they are trying to be a part of the community.

Councilmember Dunn agreed they need to provide training to households throughout the community. Chief

Pelt said he would like to provide that training but currently has two people working a shift and doesn’t

have overtime for instructors to come in on their days off to teach. It’s a double edge sword for him but due

to the budget he is unable to at the time being. It was recommended TERO can provide those training

courses. Mr. John said with TERO, they have the funding and EMS has the instructors they can work

together.

Dave Paulton, EMS, said he would volunteer to provide training, there have multiple times he paid out of

pocket to keep their equipment, their department running. He’s a Sutcliffe resident and it bothers him that

he can’t respond to calls he hears on the radio, he knows the community/Tribal members but if it’s a fire he

will do what needs to be done. They take care of everybody; they don’t discriminate against anyone.

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Councilmember Wadsworth asked for confirmation they are not having brownouts on Friday and

Saturdays anymore. Chief Pelt said only during the week from 8pm to 8am.

Councilmember Davis said Chief Pelt came before them in December and said he was going to have two

days of brown outs and then in January when they received new budgets they didn’t expect to have any

brownouts at the beginning of the year but they might at the end of the year. It’s now January with

brownouts. Mr. Pelt said it’s to get them through December, if they don’t do brownouts now they won't

make it through June. He can provide 24/7 probably until June and then there will be zero people because

they will be completely out of funds. He is doing what he can to limit the brown out times they have. He

doesn’t like having to do it and knows it puts the Council in a tight spot having to make these decisions.

Councilmember Dunn asked if the staff were getting paid while they slept. Chief Pelt said it’s normal

practice in the firefighting world, but their firefighters are paid half of what other surrounding area

firefighters are making. They pay their paramedics $23-24 an hour, they are not getting paid to be here the

whole time, they go home and won't be coming back for a call since most of their personnel live in Reno and

Sparks. They are not trying to be a big city fire department; they’re just trying to cover everything they can.

Vice Chairman Ely asked with that in mind, would he recommend a better time for brownouts, for instance

seven to five. Mr. Pelt said they get as many calls during the day as nighttime but most of their life saving

emergencies like heart attacks, strokes, fires occur at nighttime.

Councilmember Davis asked about the Clinic CHRs they used to transport before they had a paid

ambulance. Ms. Brown said they’re mostly drivers for appointments but the CHRs did transport back in the

80s.

Chairman Wadsworth said back in the 70s and 80s, the population was a lot lower, and they did not have

all the homes. Chief Pelt added that the requirements from back then also changed, a 32-hour class to

become a certified volunteer firefighter is now a 150-160 hour course. The liability falls on the Council

when they put people out there that aren’t qualified, and when someone gets hurt, people sue now a days.

Councilmember Davis said that is where TERO would come in with training because there are a lot of guys

in the area who are wildland certified. Chief Pelt said he is unable to get them to volunteer because they

want a paycheck. Councilmember Davis said they are not asked, you show up but you don’t know who they

are, you may work in the community but you don’t know the community and you're going to tell them,

“stand over there” because you’re not certified? Chief Pelt said all they ask is they volunteer with them.

Councilmember Sampson said she would like them to work with TERO and let them know these are your

requirements for volunteers. It provides the membership with standards and protocols for volunteering.

Go out and encourage people to participate, because if you don’t there is a disconnect and part of being ina

community is camaraderie. When putting out flyers, it’s not about posting one time, it’s word of mouth,

letting people know there is this training coming up. Include food, because we know Indian people will

come when there is food, it just creates a better atmosphere. When you attend events, you need to mingle

and network and get engaged with the community. Ask them questions, what do they want to do, do they

want to be a firefighter, well there are different types.

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Councilmember Della John said the 22-29 years would be great candidates for the wildland fire school

because they’re physically fit, but they never had the training here, it was in Carson City. Hopefully, they

can get the membership interested so they can travel like the Navajo and Apache Hot Shots. Our Tribe can

do that too if they believe in the kids.

Chairman Wadsworth said they have veered off topic, but these are good discussion points, but they have

two for one deal here, firefighters and EMS, and singling out the firefighter aspect but they are talking

about the EMS part. It’s their job to look at the budget and see if they can split it with the Health Clinic and

split the firefighters out but like Chief Pelt said that there would be more money they will need to put out

which they don’t have. It’s going to take time and there are no immediate answers tonight, the Council still

needs to look at the budgets which they don’t have in front of them and which was already approved.

Ms. Brown commented that it’s sad because this goes back to when she was working for the IHS and would

see tribes building homes and to them that meant more people coming back to the Reservations, more

people living here, and more people needing transport for ER visits. They saw the budgets weren't keeping

up with the growth, which is the dilemma the Tribe is having now. It’s common knowledge that her and

Chief Pelt bump heads but they basically have the same goal to see an adequate ambulance service for the

patients; to be able to provide good care for the membership but it’s the funding issue they can’t resolve.

One thing she would like to see is for Chief Pelt’s billing service, for him to get what he deserves when he

bills but it must be done correctly and it has been untimely. That is where his program might be lacking,

she doesn’t think he is billing Medicaid correctly. They have a meeting with PRC and it’s going to be brought

up on why they haven't done that. There are no more contracts, IHS does Medicare rates with everybody,

but they are requiring that of Chief Pelt, and she doesn’t understand that, so they are going to ask that

question. The Health Clinic is venturing into taking their own PRC so this can possibly help the EMS, and

they can start getting some revenue for his program.

Chief Pelt added they used to put the third-party billing funds they received back into their program but

that is no longer the case, it was taken away from them a couple of years ago, now it goes straight into the

General Fund.

Councilmember Dunn asked if they approached Enterprises about increasing the safety fee given to

departments. Chief Pelt said he can talk about that with his supervisor.

Karen Shaw commented about an item that was brought up at the Health Board regarding billing. There are

no contracts but most services like REMSA, Care Flight, Fernley, Fallon, and all the outside areas, they can

bill IHS at a federal rate and they collect from that, and it doesn’t go any higher. If Care Flight came out and

it was a $250,000 charge, IHS will pay the $2,500 and paid in full. It’s because those services are not under

the Tribe, whereas Chief Pelt’s services are under the Tribe and that is why it is not covered by IHS and

they are not covering those bills, which is what they were told. People are being told they will be stuck with

a big bill but that is not the case, IHS will cover them along with Medicaid or Medicare. People think they

are out there with no coverage but that is not true because they are covered. When it’s a brownout day and

REMSA responds they are covered, and the community needs to know that.

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Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council

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Mr. Paulton commented whether you have Medicare, Medicaid, IHS or any third-party or nothing at all, they

will respond.

Chairman Wadsworth said it brings up an interesting point for the Council to consider what Ms. Shaw says

is true and it costs $250,000 to get Care Flight out here and then IHS pays them the federal rate of $2,500,

Care Flight is eating the cost which is what Chief Pelt said earlier, all of the EMS services everywhere are

hurting because they can’t cover those costs.

Chief Pelt said they get the federal rate for Medicare transport, they pay $200 whether they take you 10 feet

or 10,000 miles, it doesn’t matter, it’s $200. If you’re a Tribal member with a Tribal ID Enrollment number,

like it states in their ordinance, they take $200, and the rest of the bill is zero. They are making sure Tribal

members are not getting those high bills, they don’t go after them but if it’s a non-Tribal member and

Medicare pays $200, they will go after the remaining that is owed. There are instances where the Tribal

member will get a bill; all they must do is contact their office and they will take care of the bill.

Ms. Brown said people don’t understand that EMS is not a money-making operation. Whatever they are

making is put back into the operation. This includes the PRC program they are going to be taking over, they

don’t make any revenue off of it, they are paying bills with it.

Joyce McCauley, a community member, commented when this program first started it was to save money

for the people not having to use the other ambulances. She remembers when both ambulances were

showing up on her street, REMSA and Pyramid Lake EMS. Her question is if they call and ask for REMSA,

will they come? Chief Pelt said people can request any service, but they will always be the first unit to

respond because its on their geographical response area, which is the Reservation. If they ask the 911

operator for a REMSA ambulance, they will stand by the patient until REMSA shows up and they can take

you to the hospital if that is your wish. Unless it’s a life-threatening emergency, they are not going to wait

45 minutes for REMSA to show up, they will take you. Ms. McCauley said all the talk about brownouts puts

fear into the people that if they have an emergency, there is not going to be anybody there for them. Chief

Pelt reassured us that if they call 911, there will be a fire truck, an ambulance or a police car that shows up,

it doesn’t matter if they are browned out, they will get emergency services. Ms. McCauley said the point she

is making regarding the talk on Facebook is that the people are afraid and getting upset at the Council

because they think the Council is cutting the budget but now, they are hearing they will still have service

even on brownout days. For Chief Pelt to put this on Facebook and make the Council look bad she doesn’t

agree with that, it’s like he’s trying to blackmail the Council into giving him more funding. And the increase

in the budget from 2018 to now is over $2 million dollars. Chief Pelt explained the reasons behind the

increase in the budget. The reason for the posting of the brownouts was a request by the community ata

previous meeting to post those dates. He also met with the Chairman and his supervisor to discuss how

they would proceed with that. He did not make a directive to send out anything on behalf of the Tribe to

force the Tribal Council into anything, that was a request from the community that they notify them and

that is why they put it out there. He did it with the Council’s approval through the Chairman. Ms. McCauley

said she was not saying he directly did that, what she meant was the posting that was put on Facebook gave

the impression it was the Council's fault. Everyone needs to work together because they have been

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listening to the meetings for months with Chief Pelt coming to the Council regarding budgets and they have

asked him for months to stop being over budget. The budget needs to be managed especially now with

what is going on with the government. Yesterday was a scare of Trump freezing all budgets and the

directors of all programs need to manage their funds the best way they can. As managers they need to be

diligent in managing the dollars they get.

Chairman Wadsworth confirmed it was the Councils decision to have Chief Pelt post the brownouts dates.

As for the budget, what Chief Pelt was talking about was, they as a Council, not specifically this Council but

various Councils over the last four years, who have decreased the EMS budget almost every year. At the

height of the Safer Grant, it was $1.6 million, his budget today after inflation’s taking place is down from

$1.6 million to $1.285 million. That is what they can afford which leads to the brownouts. It’s not

completely up to management, they just don’t give him enough funds, it’s just bare bones. The EMS

program is not the only program that’s been cut, they have all had to adapt. They had to cut all Tribal

funded budgets by 20%.

Brian Wadsworth stated for the record that this is the Tribal Council’s fault. They knew about the

brownouts going into last year because he attended those meetings. Nothing was done and it only came out

because Chief Pelt mentioned it. There was no public announcement, and it wasn’t until the community

came here before the Council and said to put something out. It wasn’t at the Council’s will. They were told

to do it and by account of Chief Pelt, it sounds like the Council is trying to figure out whether to hide it or

not, let the community know, it’s been going on for months and the Council knew about it. Now here we are

at the end of January and still there is clearly no answer and they are still going to have brownouts for the

community and the safety of the communities is at stake and it’s in the Council's hands.

Ms. Shaw said there was a directive for the Chairman to have him do that, to notify the community but it

took two months. Chairman Wadsworth said it was the January 3"4 meeting when he received the directive

to post and notify the community. Councilmember Della John said they thought it was the local community

and not the whole Northern Nevada community, it was on TV. Chief Pelt said they picked it up from the

Tribe’s social media page and the TV stations picked it up and called his office, but he referred every single

call to the Chairman’s office per policy.

Councilmember Della John stated how the program operates, as the Council, they don’t have authority to go

into their departments and tell them what to do. They have a supervisor, and they trust them to manage

their own budgets. It was around November or December when Chief Pelt told them he was browning out,

she thought it was the whole month of November and December and at that time she said they should

notify the local community but she doesn’t have the power to tell him to go post it but the community

needs to know they are not out there and to let them know they do have coverage if they need it. Chief Pelt

stated the flyer with the brownout dates does specifically say call 911 and services will be rendered, it

never said anybody was coming, that was individual interpretations.

Ms. Brown said going forward, something everybody has to keep in consideration is they have locals who

call Chief Pelt directly, they call his cell number. They need to make sure they call 911 instead because the

clinic made the same mistake because one of her staff called him on a brownout date and they had to call

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North Lyon instead. This information needs to be put out there also, not to call Chief Pelt’s cell number but

call 911. Chief Pelt said they run into that problem a lot in their department because people know them and

they don’t want to talk to 911 because they ask a lot of questions, but they really do want them to call 911.

Vice Chairman Ely said if somehow, they do approve the $1.363 million plus, will they be asking for it again

next year. Chief Pelt said they would, because this year is next year, the costs are going to be even more

expensive because costs go up, they don’t go down. Unfortunately, they are all seeing this with this

Presidential election and he would be less honest if he said they wouldn’t be asking for more just to keep

the program running at peak efficiency. They are always looking for grants, the unfortunate part of grants

is they are drying up. There are not a lot of public safety grants, the ones out there are more for equipment

and don’t cover personnel costs or building costs. They are working on one now to replace a slip-in tanks

on their trucks.

Councilmember Sampson said there is the Bric Grant, the Building Resilience Infrastructure and

Communities grant but you must have an updated Hazard Mitigation which the Tribe does have, so why

haven’t they applied for it? They have lots of funds and they can’t give it away. Chief Pelt said he was not

familiar with it. Councilmember Sampson said it’s for buildings to get them up to par in the current building

codes, there is the Tribal Homeland Security grant that is specific to tribes. Chief Pelt said he is aware of

this grant but some of the problems with those grants is the match, the department must cover it and if it

doesn’t cover IDC, they can’t put in for it. Councilmember Sampson said part of her full-time job is looking

for grants to take care of emergency management. These are the things that are out there that are available,

and they can’t give it away fast enough, because tribes aren’t applying for them. They are available to tribes

so they can be more resilient and handle things locally instead of going to state, federal or straight to the

federals because of the Stafford Act, it gives them the opportunity to take care of it. When it comes to

emergency responses, if you want to put these types of training on, it’s free, you just contact the state, and

they will send a state certified person to come here to conduct trainings. The state has a new tribal liaison,

and she would like them to come to present before the Council to explain more of what they can do for

tribes and what options they have. Even Washoe County Emergency Management is willing to come before

the Council to do a presentation because Pyramid Lake sits on their LEPC. Invite them here to inform the

Council and the community of how they can assist. Paramedic Carpenter asked was the type of training was

being referred to when she was talking about someone coming in to provide training on the EMS side. Was

she referring to CPR, BLS training or something else specifically? Councilmember Sampson these are

Incident Command Courses they can provide training on. If you don’t have funding to provide these

training courses, contact the various liaisons (state, FEMA and tribal) and they can find the funding to offer

these trainings to the community. Chief Pelt said they put in for the state EMS grant every year to train EMT

or advanced EMT, but it doesn’t pay enough in IDC, so they are denied by the Council. Councilmember

Sampson said to work with the liaisons to look for those extra things they cannot pay for, and they will

assist in finding revenues to cover.

Councilmember Davis said Chief Pelt hasn’t brought any grant to the Council that had anything to do with

IDC. He doesn’t make it the Council so he can’t say it was denied by the Council. There could be a match

somewhere else. Mr. Pelt corrected if it doesn’t make it through the Executive Team, it doesn’t get to the

Council. Chairman Wadsworth confirmed the Executive Team’s understanding if it doesn’t meet IDC, it

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won't make it to the Council. He further asked if the Council wanted to change that process. Councilmember

Davis said she didn’t think it was a standard; Chairman Wadsworth said it was a standard for a while.

Councilmember Davis said the Executive Team doesn’t have the authority to deny them from applying for a

grant, it’s the Council decision to say that. Chairman Wadsworth said it was a directive at one time where

the Council stated do not apply for anything that has no IDC. Councilmember Della John thought it wasn’t

right because with the cost fix carried forward method, if you don’t collect IDC on a certain thing, it will be

carried forward two years from now and then impacts the rate and we just end up paying more. There is a

formula for it but it ends up being a really high rate. You must be careful about it but it could be done

because it’s been done in the past. Councilmember Cortez said he remembers multiple times in the past

where programs would bring in grants that can only cover a certain limit, say 10-15%, but they still

approved them because they were still collecting some level of IDC. It never stopped a grant from being

passed up on this level. Chairman Wadsworth said these are grants specifically with no IDC.

Chairman Wadsworth reminded Chief Pelt to provide the firefighter stats to the Council. Councilmember

Cortez would also like to see stats when medication is administered. Paramedic Carpenter said she

administers medication on almost every single call that she is on shift but it varies depending on the 911

call but there are a lot of patients who are in pain. Chief Pelt said they carry 23 different medications on

board the ambulance and will see about pulling the data for the Council. Paramedic Carpenter noted for

them to have permits there has to be a set number of medications and equipment on each ambulance, it’s

standard. Councilmember Davis asked if the Enterprise fee which was initiated and approved by the Tribal

Council, if the Chairman and Business Officer and relook at it. Chairman Wadsworth asked if it was

specifically for the EMS or to include the Police Department, Rangers and Lake Maintenance.

Councilmember Davis said this program was approved in 2011-12 and it hasn’t been updated. The

Chairman and Business Officer will relook at this program.

Councilmember Della John stated she would like a public statement to go out to the public to let them know

they have ambulance coverage when they call but that other ambulances may respond as well to make

them feel less fearful. Councilmember Wadsworth suggested, Chief Pelt update his contact information, the

reason she called him was because she has the magnet on her refrigerator which has his cell phone number

on it. These magnets were made before the fire station had their own phone number.

2. Request for Approval Amendment to Motion Regarding Washoe County Gerlach Contract

Termination.

Chairman Wadsworth said the original motion was to send a letter to Washoe County for 120 days’ notice

of termination which was going to be on that Monday. After the Councils discussion here, the Council felt it

would be better if they rode out the rest of this year for that contract until June 30, 2025, which will be 160

days. You all remember hearing Washoe County Manager Brown say that if they did cancel it before the end

of the year, the Tribe would lose out on a portion of the $200,000 grant. After discussion with the Executive

Team, they felt it would be best course of action just to finish up the contract for this year. The $200,000

should zero out the Tribe for this year.

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Vice Chairman Ely commented the advantage would be that the Tribe would have an ambulance 70 miles

away on a brownout day. What advantage would there be if they kept the contract. Chief Pelt said to keep

the contract whole, it provides additional personnel because there are two personnel in Gerlach and two

here in Nixon which helps them to equal the two in two out. It also maintains the mutual aid agreement

with other partnering agencies like North Lyon, Truckee Meadows and REMSA because when they get a

call, the Gerlach ambulance starts its way down, along with either North Lyon, Truckee Meadows or REMSA

knowing they will get to Wadsworth quicker before the Gerlach ambulance does to take care of the call.

With mutual aid, they must be responding but technically they’re giving the call to them. Under the mutual

aid, the first 24 hours are free as long as they respond to the call even though they know they not going to

make it out of Gerlach and they won’t pay extra for the ambulance that comes out of Fernley. Vice Chairman

Ely said it seems like the Tribe is in full service with them to get 15% of the service here and it doesn’t

equate to him.

Vice Chairman Ely made the original motion to discontinue the service, so he rescinds his motion.

Councilmember Guerrero said the advantage is the Tribe gets the indirect out of the $250,000 (not the real

amount) for the contract which means $50,000 comes to the Tribe in indirect. That is one of the reasons

they need to finish this contract out or else the Tribe will lose the indirect.

Chairman Wadsworth said what he is asking is to rescind or modify the original motion to say we're going

to terminate the contract on midnight June 30, 2025. There is still two more years in the contract so they

would have to terminate it within 120 days. He is sure the Council has already made up their mind to

terminate the contract, but this would extend it for that extra couple of months.

Vice Chairman Ely amended his motion to terminate the Washoe County Gerlach Contract on June 30, 2025,

at midnight. The motion was seconded by Councilmember Della John. Votes were nine (9) for; zero (0)

opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED

3. Discussion Follow-up Federal Freeze.

Chairman Wadsworth stated they received the memo from the OMB Office of Management and Budget this

morning rescinding that memo, then later they received notice that it still doesn’t get rid of the funding

freeze.

Councilmember Davis said she thought she read somewhere it wasn’t the whole funding freeze but just for

OMB. Chairman Wadsworth said what they are trying to say now is the funding freeze was through the

Executive Order. He doesn’t think they are out of the woods yet, but they still have to wait for the court

cases to come out. From a couple of emails from directors, their funding agencies are telling them to draw

down and continue operations as normal.

Councilmember Della John said the Attorney General needs to keep the lawsuits going and the Tribe needs

to support that because we need to limit what he can do because she thinks he’s pushing it to try to find out

what he can get away with. Chairman Wadsworth said what Councilmember Della John is talking about is

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Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council

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the Nevada Attorney General joined 22 other Attorney Generals in the country from various states in suing

to try to get the block. He gave the directive for everyone to continue business as normal which is all they

can do since there is no furloughs on Monday. Councilmember Davis said she would like to see them be

more proactive, if it doesn’t go the way they are hoping on Monday, she doesn’t want to see employees

come in on Tuesday and they're told you're gone. They need to be ready for whatever it is and at least give

the employees that courtesy. She would like to see something from the Executive Team because they sat

here discussing what programs would be cut, they didn’t know who was or wasn’t essential, they didn’t

have any information. Councilmember Della John said the Governor sent out a memo that they should send

to the membership telling what is still in place. Chairman Wadsworth said he was seconds away from

sending out a memo to the Tribal membership when they received the notice that the memo rescinded the

previous memo. Councilmember Davis said the question is still out there from the membership, is it cutting

off food stamps or Medicaid.

Ms. Brown said patients were afraid they weren’t going to be open on Monday; they were cancelling

appointments. They tried to explain it didn’t affect the clinic or their operations, but they cancelled

anyways because of what they heard through social media. She thinks this is a good time to make sure they

are current on their draw downs, so they are not scrambling to do many at one time. They’ve identified

some holes they need to plug to be ready for something instead of being just reactive. Chairman

Wadsworth said the Finance Department is pretty much caught up with all their draw downs.

Councilmember Davis said when BIA was here in front of the Council, they were saying if the Tribe has the

638 contracts, draw them down now and let them sit in the bank and draw interest because those funds are

the Tribes. Chairman Wadsworth said the one big problem is that they are not on a full budget, the federal

government is not a full budget, we’re on a continuing resolution, so the draw downs, the paperwork only

comes in every couple of months and that is all they are able to draw down.

Vice Chairman Ely said there are some grants that they qualify that you can get advances for and they need

to start getting those advances. It’s cumbersome for Finance because they must manage that. For the

Wadsworth Bypass they can draw down two months of funds, project money and that would have carried

them through. The list could have been put together either by an engineer’s estimate or the contractor.

They are spending almost a million dollars on modeling that could have sustained them for a little while.

Councilmember Della John said they also had a relationship with their bank quite a while ago who offered a

letter of credit. The Tribe puts all their money in their bank, and it qualifies for a certain amount of letter of

credit that could be looked into in case they have to get a loan and are waiting on reimbursement funds, but

you must have a plan.

Councilmember Sampson asked if the Tribe has a active continuity of operations plan if something like this

happens. Chairman Wadsworth said he didn’t think they did, the only thing they had was the COVID

policies. Councilmember Sampson said it’s something the Tribe needs to look into in case something like

this happens again because federal shutdowns are something that happens every year. It allows the Tribe

to keep operating and the Tribe is proactive instead of reactive.

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Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council

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Councilmember Della John said she drafted a lapse in appropriation or procedure and provided it to Trisha

Conner a year ago, but she could bring it back to the Council for review.

Vice Chairman Ely mentioned the wake-up call to Tribal Sovereignty. We can still be sovereign as a Tribe

but we’re financial dependent.

Chairman Wadsworth said they will just keep operating as normal. One of the things he did put out there

when asked by a reporter was without proper notice, proper guidance, everybody was left holding the bag.

It’s only been 10 days for this new administration, and they have already shown them they are committed

to doing things the wrong way.

Councilmember Davis said she would like them to have their plan ready. People were saying it’s just the

grants, but what they don’t realize is that those grants pay the IDC that fund the programs, so they need to

be ready.

Chairman Wadsworth said with his discussions with the Executive Team, they’ve been asking themselves

questions, who do they keep open, the police, finance and departments that service clients, they need to

keep people on staff. One of the big departments is Food Distribution, which has grown. The PUD for trash.

COVID showed them to be a little more prepared.

ADJOURNMENT

With no further business before the Tribal Council, Vice Chairman Ely made a motion to adjourn the meeting.

The motion was seconded by Councilmember Cortez. Votes taken were all in favor, motion carried.

The meeting adjourned at 8:18 p.m.

Submitted by,

nuda ue,

Brenda A. Henry

ry

Tribal Council Secreta

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 6% day of June 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:

Steven Wadsworth, Tribal Chairman

Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council

//

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