June 10, 2021 at 1:12 p.m.
Cass Board, Leech Lake Band extoll cooperation in joint meeting
He said his only regret was the meeting was limited by the arrival of lunch the band provided for the session at Northern Lights Event Center by Walker.
There should not be a time limit on discussion, Jackson said. "It was so informative," he added.
County Board Chair Jeff Peterson said working together "just makes sense." County Commissioner Dick Downham said it is county and tribal employees who make the cooperation work on a daily basis.
LeRoy Staples Fairbanks, tribal council member, noted other counties and tribes do not have such a good working relationship. Others in the state keep asking at statewide meetings how they make it work-often without formal written agreements.
There are 20 years of experience cooperating between the two government bodies, Administrator Robert Yochum said.
"Communication is key," Jackson said.
Leech Lake Reservation and Cass County do have a memorandum of understanding stating: "The governing bodies direct each of their staff to consult with the other at least 14 days in advance of requesting final governing body approval of the focus areas identified (in an attached list)." But cooperative projects much preceded that more recent agreement signing.
The Leech Lake Police Department has long had a cooperative agreement with Cass County Sheriff's Office.
In the last year, tribal police have been enabled to directly enter data into the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension records without going through the county. They share information monthly between the police and county sheriff.
They cooperate on drug enforcement. They are trying to get a grant to jointly buy an armored vehicle to use for such situations as hostage rescue. They share training.
Cass County Emergency Services Director Kerry Swenson helped Leech Lake successfully apply for a federal grant to add two more emergency warning sirens.
The National Weather Service now can activate warning tribal and county warning sirens for severe weather events without anyone in the county or on the reservation having to manually flip a switch, Swenson said.
Tribal Judge Paul Day reported Leech Lake's new justice center will open by October. It includes a wing for the police department and another for tribal courts.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the tribal court and 10th anniversary of the joint county-tribal wellness court.
With the success of the tribal-county wellness court, District Court Judge Jana Austad said she likes the concept of specialty courts and would like to see more of them. Because of poor public transportation in Cass County, Austad would like to be able to have county traffic court hearings in the new Leech Lake judicial center.
"So many good people have a bad problem with methamphetamine," District Court Judge David Harrington noted, adding everyone wants to see people succeed. Adding a specialty court for drug addiction could help some of these people turn their life around, he suggested.
Michelle Piprude, Cass human services supervisor, said her agency works with Leech Lake Human Services on child protection and out of home placement cases.
The goal should be to keep families together, Staples Fairbanks said.
Harrington suggested the methamphetamine problem likely affects parenting skills, which in turn leads to more children being placed in foster care and making it more difficult to keep families united.
Three Cass County income maintenance employees currently work from a Leech Lake Band building in Cass Lake. Cass Director Reno Wells said he hopes the band will include more office space for county employees, so he could move more intake workers and some social workers from Walker to Cass Lake.
Transportation for the public is a problem for people using county services, he said.
Wells also suggested the county could seek permission to offer merit system testing at Cass Lake, so reservation residents could apply for jobs in the county human services department.
Art Chase, Leech Lake roads director, reported the band currently has 11 road paving projects scheduled. One nearly completed project is a walking-biking trail by Bena along Highway 2. Some of the new county sales tax dollars will be used to upgrade the road on Sugar Point by the east side of Leech Lake.
In several road project cases, the county has contributed some funding and Leech Lake has contributed the balance or added a pedestrian feature to a county road project. One such pending project is a walking-biking trail for the road past Leech Lake Bingo Palace, which the county recently repaved.
Leech Lake also has applied for a Bureau of Indian Affairs grant to make a 3-mile bike trail between Old Agency and Onigum along Onigum Road (County Road 13) on the south shore of Leech Lake. Grant funding is being sought for a pedestrian bridge to be placed next to the county's bridge over the river at Federal Dam.
Chase and Enblom serve on a Minnesota Department of Transportation Indian Advisory Board to consider county and tribal transportation issues statewide. Enblom said he hopes the county's new county engineer, Darrick Anderson, will be selected to replace him on that state board when Enblom retires next April.
Cass' agreement gradually to add Ojibwe language to Cass County road signs on the reservation has drawn the attention of MnDOT. That agency now plans to start doing the same for state highways, Enblom said.
County Environmental Services Director John Ringle reported he and Levi Brown, Leech Lake environmental director, are working together to obtain funding for community sewer systems for the Stony Point and Sugar Point areas on the east side of Leech Lake.
The government entities also cooperate to remove abandoned buildings. Leech Lake supplies labor to remove the buildings. The county provides funding to haul away debris, Ringle said.
The two environmental offices exchange information on zoning permit activity for the county and reservation, Brown said. He praised the fact that all state, county and reservation public lands are open to the public without barriers.
Only the federal government posts "No Trespassing" signs on public land in the county, he said.
"We need each other," said Josh Stevenson, incoming county administrator, summing up the attitude of Cass County and Leech Lake officials.
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