Governor’s ICWA
Commission Minutes
October 8, 2005
Day’s Inn (Exit 59), Rapid City, SD
Commissioners Present:
Kathleen Trandahl, Keith Bonenberger, Joni Cutler, Tracey
Manywounds, Rose McCauley, Dave Valandra, Teresa Nieto, Virgena
Wieseler, Sara Olson, Garrie Kills A Hundred, Doug Herrmann, Jim
Bradford, Deb Fischer-Clemens, Raymond Cournoyer, Bob Walters,
Co-chair Janine Kern, Co-Chair BJ Jones, Steve Emery
Commissioners Absent:
Bob Gray, Theresa Two Bulls, Cordelia White Elk, DJ Hanson, Jack Von
Wald, Michael Schad, Renee Eggebraaten, Bill Whitelance, Sr. Mary
Curran, Tami Maroney Bern, Ann Holzhauser
Others Present:
Margaret Bad Warrior, Hazel Bonner, Barry LeBeau,
Dena Palmier, Terrence Veo, Bev Tuttle, Julia Monczunski, Heather
Wood
9:00
a.m. Opening Prayer and Welcome
The meeting started at 9:10 a.m. with Rose McCauley saying the
opening prayer.
9:05 - 9:10
a.m. Approve Minutes
Judge Kern asked Raymond
Cournoyer if he had been able to resolve his concerns with the
Charles Mix County Clerk of Courts. A question had arisen as to
whether he needed to file, in every case, a copy of the Yankton
Sioux Tribe’s resolution appointing him to represent the tribe in
abuse and neglect proceedings. Raymond said he didn’t have a lot of
time to deal with it just yet. Judge Kern then provided a brief
overview of Raymond’s concern which was addressed at the September
9, 2005 meeting. Judge Jones asked if any other tribes are having
problems with tribal representatives being able to appear in court.
Judge Kern said to contact Keith Bonenberger if there are any more
problems. It’s probably a learning issue as it is a new statute.
Steve Emery said he is very
dissatisfied with the response he received from the state regarding
4E Compact negotiations. He was supposed to carry out negotiations
for the tribe, but Virgena Wieseler said that she is getting
requests from other people from the tribe (RST) as well. She was
not sure who exactly had authority to speak for the tribe. It was
resolved that she would be working with Steve Emery.
Motion to approve
minutes:
Motion
made by Kathleen Trandahl;
Seconded by Keith Bonenberger
Ayes: 18 Nays: 0
Motion carries
9:10 - 9:30
a.m. Collaborative Circles – Virgena Wieseler and
Discussion of the commission
Virgena Wieseler provided an
overview of the draft of the Collaborative Circle. The first
section details the background and history of the group. One of the
challenges facing the group is inconsistent attendance which makes
it is hard to develop consistency and continuity. They have asked
for technical support through Adopt US Kids, a national resource
center for foster care and kinship placements which help states with
recruitment and retention.
The Collaborative Circle is a
collaboration between state and tribal entities. The vision of the
Collaborative Circle is to develop
a system of child
and family services and supports in South Dakota that ensures that
each Native child is safe and thriving in a permanent, appropriate
home, that families are supported in their communities, and that
communities themselves take responsibility for ensuring that this
vision becomes a reality.
Membership (discussed on page 8)
is comprised of up to 36 members, including tribal representatives,
families/consumers, state officials and other partner
representatives. Two representatives from each of the nine tribes
and a designated alternative were selected for continuity.
Currently there are no tribal reps from: Rosebud, Cheyenne River,
Crow Creek, or Lower Brule, although Rosebud and Cheyenne River
currently have unofficial representatives.
There are five standing
committees in the Collaborative and anyone can participate on those
committees. A number of suggestions were made by the commission
regarding the criteria for membership. Recommendations/questions
that will be taken back to the Collaborative Circle are: 1) Will
this impede tribal sovereignty?; 2) Why should appointments be
different for the tribes?; Background checks should be required for
everyone; 3) Should tribal members be selected based on
recommendations rather than on formal tribal appointments? Wieseler
said she’d take these issues back to the Collaborative Circle.
Steve Emery requested that the requirement for a member to “have
knowledge of child and family service issues and ICWA” be reworded
to “have experience working with child and family service issues and
ICWA.”
There will be four quarterly
meetings of the Collaborative Circle. The standing committees will
be meeting more often. The tribal ICWA directors were contacted and
if there was not a response from them, contacts were made with
tribal leaders to obtain representation.
Legislation is not necessary to
formalize the Collaborative Circle. However, the standing
committees may introduce legislation as needed.
9:30 - 10:00
a.m. Outline and Discussion of draft report to
the Governor
The Commission went through the
National Center for State Courts’ recommendations. As the
Commission received the finalized recommendations a week before it
expired in 2004, they did not previously finalize the report that
was submitted or respond back to the review team.
·
Recommendation 1:
·
Recommendation 2: ND is going to be working on an ICWA bill
·
Recommendation 3: DSS can implement through policy and UJS through
judges
·
Recommendation 4: DSS through policy; UJS through enforcement.
This should also include the private adoption agencies
·
Recommendation 5: Legislature has passed already and it is a
statutory fix (state’s attorneys). A form has been created and will
be sent out to the commission.
·
Recommendation 6: State’s attorneys issue (HB 1226) was passed.
Courts, DSS, and state’s attorneys need to assure new form is being
utilized.
·
Recommendation 7: The DSS website now contains a list of ICWA
directors and tribal judges. Commission members indicated there
could be a problem as the person assigned to the case is not always
the ICWA director. The issue has not been raised in court yet.
This fits in with Raymond Cournoyer’s problem – it was decided that
he should attach a copy of the resolution of appointment to each
motion to intervene.
·
Recommendation 8: UJS thinks this has been accomplished but will
check for verification (register of actions). Judge Jones asked if
this applies when a tribal judge talks to a state judge regarding a
case. Keith Bonenberger did not think so.
·
Recommendation 9: Within the next year UJS will be doing ICWA
training for all judges.
·
Recommendation 10:
·
Recommendation 11: it is on UJS’s to-do list as well as the
training. The clerks of court will be getting training on this
issue this fall.
·
Recommendation 12: UJS and DSS have designated ICWA reps (Teresa
Nieto and Keith Bonenberger). Information has not yet been received
from the private adoption agencies. Virgena Wieseler and Keith
Bonenberger will compile what’s been accomplished in the final
report.
·
Recommendation 13: Needs to be completed in order for training to
start.
·
Recommendation 14: It would be helpful if the tribes could develop
standardized motions for intervention. Dakota Plains Legal Clinic
is redoing some forms. Cheyenne River has developed legal forms.
Peg Bad Warrior will send those to Judge Jones and Judge Kern. The
Collaborative Circle has an ICWA component to it and that could be
the venue for tribes to sit down and standardize the forms.
·
Recommendation 15: UJS – Every judge has received this. The Bench
Book needs to be updated also. Judge Gors has agreed to work on
this.
·
Recommendation 16: Accomplished.
·
Recommendation 17: The clerk of courts has this list. The
attorneys either received the training directly or viewed training
tapes that were sent out by the Supreme Court.
·
Recommendation 18: Training issue.
·
Recommendation 19: Who is an ICWA expert witness? DSS caseworkers
should not serve as ICWA experts in their own cases.
·
Recommendation 20: DSS should contact people on the reservation to
set up cultural activities for kids in foster care to learn more
about their heritage. There are activities that are not on the
tribe’s websites that are part of community life.
·
Recommendation 21: Accomplished. There have been two family
locators hired – one in Rapid City and one in Pierre.
·
We
recommend that the Governors’ office appoint a statewide workgroup
with representatives from above listed agencies to address this
issue and update the “Bench book” and “green book” where appropriate
and develop appropriate training. Doug Herrmann would be willing to
chair this group as DOC representative.
·
Judge
Kern briefly went through the rest of the recommendations.
10:45 - 11:00
a.m. Break
11:00 - 12:00
p.m. Breakout sessions: UJS, DSS, Legislation, and
Tribes
The Commission decided to skip
this as it was done in the previous session. The Commission also
decided to work through lunch to finish the meeting by 1:00 p.m.
11:00 - 1:00 p.m. Additional recommendations to
include in report
The commission went
through their top 30 recommendations and decided what had been
accomplished, what remains to be done, and which agency should take
the lead. The executive report also needs to be condensed.
Hazel Bonner asked
if OLC could contract with DSS to provide the training for licensure
of Indian foster homes plus an additional 15 hours of college
credit. Virgena Wieseler responded that it depends on what the
budget will be for 2006 and that she’d know more by the end of
February.
·
Recommendation #4: Roger Campbell and Virgena Wieseler will set up
meetings with the tribal leadership to discuss 4E agreements. It
will be done by next week.
·
Recommendation #5:
·
Recommendation #6:
·
Recommendation #7:
·
Recommendation #8:
·
Recommendation #9: done through statute
·
Recommendation #10: recommend need for funding to utilize contract
dollars with universities.
·
Recommendation #11: ties back into #4
·
As
indicated from recommendation #22 earlier, we recommend that the
Governors’ office appoint a statewide workgroup with representatives
from above listed agencies to address this issue and update the
Bench book and green book where appropriate and develop appropriate
training. Doug Herrmann would be willing to chair this group as DOC
representative.
·
Recommendation #13: because of funding issues, it’s still
unresolved; the report should emphasize this still needs to be
accomplished.
·
Recommendation #14:
·
Recommendation #15: Judge Kern thinks it is very important
·
Recommendation #16: Funding issue – will need either FTEs or
contract dollars.
·
Recommendation #17: UJS has NICWA brochure and could draft one to
make it more detailed. Hazel Bonner’s class at OLC is currently
updating one. It should be done in about a month and she will send
it to the Commission.
·
Recommendation #18: Goes with numbers 4 and 11 – still needs to be
done. DSS and ICWA directors could draft a model to the delineate a
protocol for transfer.
·
Recommendation #19: Funding issue – FTEs or contract dollars. Has
not been accomplished yet.
·
Recommendation #20:
·
Recommendation #21: private agencies
·
Recommendation #22: State and Tribes should have their own list of
experts available to litigants in cases.
·
Recommendation #23: Accomplished.
·
Recommendation #24: Working on.
·
Recommendation #25:
·
Recommendation #26: A letter should be sent to the Governor
updating him on the South Dakota Supreme Court rulings (Judge
Jones). Also goes with #18. 4E money should apply if everyone
follows compact rules, if no one follows compact rules, no money.
·
Recommendation #27: Collaborative Circle.
·
Recommendation #28:
·
Recommendation #29: Has been mailed out to the judges. Will also
go into the Green Book and Bench Book updates.
·
Recommendation #30:
The Commission discussed the
mechanics of the final report to the Governor. Wieseler agreed to
provide a narrative draft. Jones, Kern and Trandahl will review the
draft. They will send out draft to the Commission and they will
e-mail back any changes. A second draft will be sent out again and
Commissioners will respond with suggestions or changes.
Jones, Kern, Trandahl – 1st
draft to be done by November 8, 2005. Changes to draft to be
submitted by November 15, 2005. Finalized draft out for one last
review by November 22, 2005.
Deadlines:
Wieseler – October
25, 2005
Motion to approve
minutes by e-mail/electronically:
Motion – Emery,
Second – Herrmann
Aye – 18, Nay
– 0
Motion
passed.
Kern asked if there were any
other issues. Emery would like #9 (uniform notification) to be
rewritten to include a requirement that the ICWA director receive
notice. Fischer Clemens asked that SDCL 26-7A-15.1 be rewritten to
include a requirement for certificates of mailing that delineate the
documents sent. Bad Medicine suggested that Kinship be put under
#19. Jones suggested that the report also work in the
recommendations of the review team.
Motion to approve
putting in recommendations of review team
Motion – Emery,
Second – Fischer Clemens
Aye: 18, Nay: 0
Motion approved.
1:00 - 1:15
p.m. Discussion regarding press release
Because there has been much
progress towards improving ICWA compliance, there should be a press
release summarizing the work of the Commission. A copy of the final
report should be sent to everyone who attended the public hearings.
Bradford suggested that Tom
Van Norman be recognized in the press release as he was the one who
initially suggested the Commission.
Campbell’s office will put out
the press release and will also mention the Collaborative Circle as
the body now working to further the Commission’s objectives.
Steve Emery said the
closing prayer and the meeting adjourned at 1:15 p.m.
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