# Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council (2024) > Briefs, arguments, decisions, and more. URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/tribal%3Apyramid_lake%3A5602ff64267b1412 ## 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 SEPCIAL MEETING MINUTES Tribal Chambers ~ Nixon, NV April 12, 2024 Members Present: Steven Wadsworth, Tribal Chairman Edward Ely II, Vice Chairman Harriet Brady, Councilmember John Guerrero, Councilmember Nicholas Cortez, Councilmember Della John, Councilmember Nathan Dunn, Councilmember Genevieve John, Councilmember Judie Davis, Councilmember Georgina Wadsworth, Councilmember CALL TO ORDER Chairman Wadsworth called the April 12, 2024, Special Tribal Council meeting of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council to order at 5:00 p.m. ROLL CALL Roll call was taken by Brenda A. Henry, Tribal Council Secretary. Councilmember Della John arrived at 5:32 p.m. All other Councilmembers were present at roll call and a quorum was established for this meeting. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Chairman Wadsworth presented the agenda and requested to add under New Business #2. Reapproval of the Secretarial Amendment with Resolution and an Executive Session to provide an employee update, complaint, and an incident. Councilmember Cortez motioned to approve the agenda with requested changes. Councilmember Genevieve John seconded the motion. Votes were eight (8) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED PUBLIC COMMENT. No Public Comment PRESENTATION 1. Bluebird CPA 2022 Audit Report. Jamshed Kudratov, Engagement-in-Charge, Bluebird Councilmember Della John arrived at 5:32 p.m. Kamilyn Johnson, Comptroller, introduced her department in attendance, Pamela Wright, Grants Accountant, John McCauley, Accounting Supervisor and Bluebird CPA Auditor, Mr. Kudratov, Bluebird. Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council April 12, 2024, Special minutes Mr. Kudratov stated his presentation only includes Tribal Departments and not Tribal Enterprises. His report will explain the five (5) sections: audit requirements, reporting options, audit opinions, financial highlights, and questions. Audit Requirements. The audit deadline for the 2022 Audit was September 30, 2023, and there was no extension given for the 2022 audit. If the Council recalls from 2020-2021 there were six-month automatic extensions but those ended in 2022. He was contacted by the Finance Department at the end of November to initiate the audit field work. Mr. Kudratov explained that if more than $750K is spent each year on federal funding in accordance with the OMB Uniform Guidance for Federal Grant Recipients, you must go through a single audit to include the financial audit and then accountability to external users, Tribal Council, and the Tribal membership. Mr. Kudratov explained the Tribe’s financial statement has different sections: the audit report where they issue the audit opinions, financial statements, note disclosures and supplemental schedules. Next is the Single Audit of Grants and Contracts which is required by the Uniform Guidance which includes the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA), and notes on the SEFA, Reports on Internal Control over Financial Reporting and Reports on Compliance for Major Program Requirements, Schedule of Findings and Questioned Costs for the current year and Summary Schedule of Prior Year Audit Findings, where they have to follow up if there were prior year findings to ensure they are corrected. For the calendar year 2022, they selected four programs to test for high risk. The ARPA 21027 Fund, all COVID funds and the CRF Coronavirus Relief Fund, the federal government has told the auditors that even though these have previously been tested with no findings, they must be tested as high risk every year. There were two new programs that were tested because they exceeded the threshold, and those programs were the Childcare Program and Law Enforcement. For the risk assessment they review minutes, talk to management, and look at the trial balances to see if there were significant changes. Mr. Kudratov emphasized the audit is not 100% testing of every program, they just look at where the risk areas are so they can focus more on them. For the items they sampled, they didn’t note any deficiencies on the support documents that were presented, and the policy procedures were followed. Once they complete the substantive testing for the balance sheet and income statements, he completes a financial statement to include any findings which he then sends for technical review which is normally done by a manager. Once the review is completed by the manager, Mr. Kudratov will review any items that need addressing before it is sent to management for their review to respond to audit findings if there are any. At this same time, the draft audit is also being reviewed in detail by a partner. There are different reviews to ensure nothing is missed. Once all the reviews are completed, a draft data report and letter is sent to management with a summary of their bullet points and signed and the report is finalized. The final step is for Tribal Council to approve the report for submittal to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse. There are four audit opinions: unmodified which is a clean bill, qualified shows there are reservations, adverse says there are financials not presented in accordance with GAAP, and disclaimer means they are unable to form an opinion. Financial Highlights. Program revenues decreased about $1.6 million from 2021 in Government Activities. Because the Coronavirus had a shorter lifespan where it had to be spent quicker where the ARPA funds end in 2024 and most tribes must spend the funds quicker there is more revenues and expenditures in fiscal year 2021 than in 2022. Expenses decreased about $580,000 or 2%, overall net revenues were down from$2.6 to $1.5 million. The general revenues are mostly sales tax and all possessory interest tax. Investment income and loss is a negative $7 million versus $1.6 million in 2021 and is mostly driven by the fluctuation in investment balance at the end of 2022. The Net position for the governmental departments is negative $5.4 million versus $4 million positive in 2021. Total assets decreased from $222 million to $216 million, this is mostly because of the investment balance decrease and total liabilities decreased from $2.9 million. Deferred Inflow of Resources are new for the fiscal year 2022, GASB 87 and 96 are for leases and -2-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council April 12, 2024, Special minutes businesses. GASB is state and local government accounting regulations, and it became effective for the Tribe in 2022. It is for leases that are tangible assets that is over 12 months that must be recorded as an asset. It is a liability on the books if you are a lessee but if you are a lessor, it must be recorded as a lease receivable for the remaining time of the lease in a Deferred Inflow of Resources. The lease makes payments every year and the lease receivable principal portion goes down and a portion of the payment becomes an interest revenue and Deferred Inflow of Resources amortizes for the remaining life of the lease. This item has a $1 million impact on the financial statements in fiscal year 2022. The net position, which is an equity, decreased from $184 million to $180 million, mostly because there is a negative change in net position. Cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash increased from $54.6 million to $55 million. Restricted investments decreased almost $10 million because of the fluctuation of interest rates. Grants receivable increased to $585,000. Other assets increased $3 million from fiscal year 2021, which was an increase in accounts receivable for $2.2 million which included two components, the clinic receivable for $1.2 million and another $1 million increase accrual of the possessory interest tax and another $900,000 was a lease receivable. Depreciable capital assets were higher than capital outlays in 2022. On the liability of unearned revenues, there was $35 million in 2021 and it reduced by $3 million which $10 million was ARPA funds unspent, $8 million was 93441 which is Indian Health Service, and the Roads Department 2205 had $5 million and tribal government and other small programs about $1 million. Long-term debt, the Tribe is making payments on financing but not a significant change or additions. Other liabilities increased a little because the accounts payable balance was higher at the end of 2022. Amounts related to leases mentioned earlier, deferred inflows, $1 million and nothing in 2021. Most of the revenues are coming from grants and contracts, and charges for services which include clinic services and permits and fees increased by 2%. Interest investments were negative 38%, direct cost recoveries didn’t have a dollar amount change and others were small. The Expenditures by Source, for Government Expenditures, the General Government spent the most with 22% in 2022, Health and Welfare was also a big spender at 27% and indirect cost was at 12%. For Liabilities and Equity, the total assets are owned department wide, the Tribe owns 84% and 16% is payable to outside parties and in comparison, to 2021 there was a 1% increase. For the financial statements they issued an audit opinion of unmodified which is a clean opinion, but for the compliance side, the major program compliance they have issued an audit opinion of qualified. Finding #1, Third Party Revenues and Accounts Receivable Reconciliation. This is a repeat finding from a prior year when the revenues posted for the clinic claims on a cash basis. When the deposits are made, the checks are received in accounting, the transactions are posted but there is a time lag between when the cash is received and when the services were provided and billed. Their recommendation is on a monthly basis; the outstanding claims be reported to the accounting department to turn cash basis revenues to accrual basis revenues. When they reviewed it looked like the accounts receivable for the clinic were not touched, there was no posting, there was no entries done in the 2021 balance or 2022. They contacted Greenway to get the reports for the outstanding accounts receivable. Once they did the testing on those reports, the listing came up to $1.5 million and they had to post an adjusting entry to correct the accounts receivable and the other side of the accounts receivables is revenues. Again, their recommendation is to ensure the reports are sent to the accounting department monthly so they can post the entries and if there are any significant fluctuations, they can address them. Finding #2, Capital Asset Inventory. It is a requirement of the federal government and the Tribe’s policy to perform an annual physical inventory of the capital assets. It was mentioned an inventory was not performed in 2021 or 2022, the last one was done in 2020. Recommendation for them to conduct an annual capital asset inventory. Finding #3, Equipment and Real Property Management Capital Asset Inventory. This one is related to finding #2 which is for financial statements, but this one is specifically for the major program, one of the major programs had fixed real equipment which isn’t applicable and was a repeat finding for the compliance side of it. Finding #4, Matching, Level of Effort, Earmarking. The Childcare Program was one of the newer programs they tested in fiscal 2022 and a compliance requirement is a certain percentage of the finding funding, that must be spent on quality activities. They must show those spendings so it can be tested that they met the threshold. -3-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council April 12, 2024, Special minutes Also, for reporting purposes, when the accounting department sends their financial reporting to the DHHS they must show how much of that spending they have been on equality activities. During the testing of the accounting department, they were not able to say which GL specifically was used for those activities. For other tribes they audited, they have a specific GL account for those activities to track. For this specific test they were unable to see if the compliance requirements were met. Their recommendation is to create a separate GL account under the Childcare Departments and track separately. Finding #5, Period of Performance. This one is related to Law Enforcement who signed a new contract in 2021, their prior contract was signed in 2016. In the 2021 funding, they spent more than they were budgeted or how much the grants allowed them to spend which came up to $211,835. There were some funds that were not spent from 2016, if the department proactively would have asked the agency because he has seen in the past where funds were unspent from a prior contract, they can carry over to the new contract. If they would have done that there would have been a little negative but it wouldn’t have been $211,000, it would have been around $53,000. Their recommendation is to reach out to the granting agency and make sure the 2016 contract can be carried over to 2021 and if there is a shortage, unfortunately it would have to be covered under the general fund. Finding #6, Reporting. The reason they had to issue a qualified opinion for the major programs was because the governmental department did not submit its single audit report ina timely manner. In addition, there were some findings on the department or programs itself. With Law Enforcement, there were four out of eight reports that were late, the Coronavirus annual finding progress report was late and almost every program they tested had some late reporting. Without proper reporting, the governmental department was unable to comply with the applicable federal requirements and their federal funding could be at risk of termination. Without timely and accurate reports, the governmental department was unable to ensure that the goals and purposes of the grants had been achieved and accounted for properly. As a follow-up to the findings from the 2021 audit, third-party revenue, accounts receivable reconciliation was unresolved. Refer to the 2022-001 findings. Payroll Controls. They didn’t note any deficiencies on parallel testing and this one is resolved. Payroll Controls Allowable Costs/Cost Principles. This is not a financial finding but a compliance finding with the same payroll controls. This one is resolved. Reporting. This is a repeated finding for timely submission and some reports were unresolved, Law Enforcement and the Coronavirus Relief Fund. The GASB statements became effective for the Tribe with GASB 87 Leases having a significant effect on the financial statements. Sensitive estimates allowance for doubtful accounts, depreciation, and the lease receivable and Deferred Inflow of Resources were noted for investments and fair value measurements and interfund and related party transactions and balances. Difficulties encountered was not timely reconciling of the books and the delayed start of the audit just took time. For corrected misstatements, there was an overstatement of interest receivable by approximately $400,000 and an understatement of clinic receivable by approximately $1,212,000. There was an unrecorded misstatement accrued liabilities understated by approximately $31,000., but since it is not material to the financial statements, management wanted to pass on it, and they agreed. This was the end of the 2022 audit presentation. Councilmember Davis asked at the beginning of the presentation he said there were four departments they tested for 2022. The ARPA, Childcare, Law Enforcement, and he gave a number. What does the number mean? Mr. Kudratov said it is a code for Indian Health Service for the clinic. Councilmember Genevieve John asked what does the grant or governmental department consist of? -4-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council April 12, 2024, Special minutes Mr. Kudratov said it includes all the grants, grant funds, and general fund indirect. It doesn’t include the Enterprise stores or NUMU Inc. It is everything that is managed by the Finance Department. Councilmember Ely asked about the clinic and their lag time of billing, and their recommendation was to get the documents submitted in a timely manner. There is the clinic finance or record keeper, Greenway, and the Tribe’s Finance Department. Which one was he talking about? Mr. Kudratov said Greenway has access to the reports and needs to generate a report to the clinic. This way they will know what the report looks like, and they can ask Greenway to generate the report for them monthly. The posting, of course, will be done by the Tribe’s Finance Department. Ms. Johnson stated they need to work together, and she did contact the clinic regarding the finding. They do have a plan to move forward and will be starting next week. Councilmember Della John asked how many third-party collectors is there? She stated it is a weakness when they don’t know how much is billed, how much is owed, or what the rates are. Mr. Kudratov said Greenway handles most of the claims and they send the claims to the third-party payers. Greenway does all the billing processes, so the clinic should have a designated person who makes sure Greenway is going after all the dollars because there is a timeline, like six months if you don’t bill or don’t respond on a timely manner the money is lost. Greenway does the billing process, and the clinic should be monitoring them. If they provide the reports monthly to the accounting department, they might see significant changes or maybe they can provide it to their board as another layer of oversight. Councilmember Della John mentioned the same thing is occurring with the EMTs with the third-party billing. Mr. Kudratov said when Greenway started in 2021, they were behind in the beginning, then they had a significant increase in accounts receivable because the biggest payer is Medicaid. They got an extension and that is when he saw a lot of claims where funds were coming in fiscal year 2023 when the accounts payable were significantly higher. So, the revenues were higher in 2022 because there was a lot of money received that belonged to 2021 and 2022 but monitoring is key to making sure everything is correct. Councilmember Brady asked if that tied in with the understatement of the clinic? Mr. Kudratov said yes because the comparison of last year’s 2021 outstanding claims receivable, the net allowance, and the account itself was about $300K at the end of the year so they had to bump it up by $1 million. Councilmember Genevieve John asked where they can find out how much revenue the Tax Department brought in? Mr. Kudratov said it would be on page 5 of the draft financial statements under general revenues for the sales and possessory interest taxes, which was $1.8 million. Councilmember Cortez asked what else is included under the general revenue section for other? Mr. Kudratov said it could be donations or some other reimbursements like insurance payments. NEW BUSINESS -5-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council April 12, 2024, Special minutes 1. Request for Approval 2022 Audit. Kamilyn Johnson, Comptroller Councilmember Cortez motioned to approve the 2022 Audit. Councilmember Dunn seconded the motion. Councilmember Wadsworth said she is hoping the Comptroller can work with the Health Clinic because she was on Tribal Council in 2021 and has seen the same findings just about every year. Ms. Johnson acknowledged it does need attention and she has already started planning to work with the Clinic. Councilmember Cortez asked if the plan can be forwarded not only to the Health Director but also to the Board, so they are aware of what the plan is supposed to be and what role they have in it. Votes were nine (9) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED 2. Request Approval to Reapprove the Secretarial Amendment with Resolution. Steven Wadsworth, Tribal Chairman Chairman Wadsworth reminded Council this was originally approved on March 1, 2024, and due to everything that occurred in the last month, this was put on the backburner. The documents were forwarded to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), but they were concerned with the dates of when it was received and when it was approved. BIA would like the Tribe to reapprove the resolution and resubmit with the official 18 and over list. This will be hand delivered on Monday. There was one error they found which was just a missing comma in the original document. Also, BIA was not sure about the gender inclusive language in this one because it wouldn’t match the rest of the Constitution. He told them the Council was adamant about it, so they will leave it in there, and they will deal with it in another election. Councilmember Brady motioned to reapprove the Secretarial Election Amendment submission with resolution. Councilmember Wadsworth seconded the motion. Votes were nine (9) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED. RESOLUTION NO.: PL 043-24 SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR SECRETARIAL ELECTION EXECUTIVE SESSION Vice Chairman Ely motioned to move into Executive Session. Councilmember Cortez seconded the motion. Votes were nine (9) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED Tribal Council moved into Executive Session at 5:57 p.m. Councilmember Cortez motioned to move out of Executive Session. Councilmember Wadsworth seconded the motion. Votes were nine (9) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED Tribal Council moved out of Executive Session at 6:23 p.m. ADJOURNMENT With no further business before the Tribal Council, Councilmember Cortez made a motion to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by Councilmember Dunn. Votes taken were all in favor, motion carried. -6-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council April 12, 2024, Special minutes The meeting adjourned at 6:23 p.m. Submitted by, 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 34 day of May 2024, 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: EEE Steven Wadsworth, Tribal Chairman Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council // // -7-|Page --- Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/tribal%3Apyramid_lake%3A5602ff64267b1412. Public record. Not legal advice.