Nya:wëh sgë:nö’,
I’m just as excited and nervous as all are regarding schools opening. Covid-19 is a sad reminder of diseases past and together we must now grow stronger and continue to adapt. Physical distancing and hand washings is the new way to protect our history, ancestors’ traditions and our future.
I’d like to update you all on some financial information. A meeting was held with the Executives and Council to review a draft budget for the Treasury- CARES Act funding. Once finalized, a draft resolution is planned for the September 12th Regular Council session along with graphs for the community to view and discuss. We will follow the process in the Treasury Cost Allocation Policy for recording the costs of essential services to the Treasury funding. In addition, we have been directly charging certain eligible costs as they are incurred, e.g. Door Screeners, PPE, and other costs approved by Council.
We are following up on the resolution passed by Council to order two new vans for SNHS for patient transportation. We’ve contacted Verizon and identified an Education program that offers Chromebooks and data in the individual units. The request from the Education Directors (combined) was for 160 Chromebooks. We have ordered 91 so far and once the balance is approved at Council, as it will bring the total cost to over $50,000, we will order the remaining 69 Chromebooks. The stockpiling of personal protective equipment has been processed and made August 21st.
The FY 2021 budget presentation was made to the Executives and Council with the five-month budget estimates for the general and other funds with the exception of Land Revenue, which we have a twelve month budget drafted. In addition, we assisted SG&E with the review and analysis of their draft five-month budget from October 1, 2020 through February 28, 2021. This draft budget was presented to the Enterprise Board and the final budget will be presented for approval on September 15th. One-Stop and Highbanks budgets were also presented to the Board on August 26th and to B&F on August 27th. We still have much to do to finalize the governmental budgets in preparation for the September 24th Special Council
Again as always; stay safe, stay strong and stay connected.
-Matt Pagels
