CALL MEETING TO ORDER: 9:45 by Harrison Plummer, Chairperson

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1 MEETING MINUTES OF THE FORT DEFIANCE NAVAJO AGENCY ROADS COMMITTEE BUDGET AND FINANCE COMMITTEE CONFERENCE ROOM Window Rock, Arizona REGULAR MEETING June 12, 9:00 am I II CALL MEETING TO ORDER: 9:45 by Harrison Plummer, Chairperson ROLL CALL District 7 X Lee Jack, Sr. Raymond Pete Vacate District 14 X Harrison Plummer X Willis Nez Paul Denetdale District 17 X Willie Tracey Thomas H. Bia Martin Begay District 18 X Lorenzo Curley X Raymond Berchman X Roscoe Smith _ TCDC Membership Sampson Begay X Omer Begay, Jr. III INVOCATION: By Lee Jack, Sr. IV RECOGNITION OF GUEST/INTRODUCTION: Christine Wallace, Kinlichee Chapter President; Arnold Begay, Nahata Dziil Chapter President; Marie Dineyazhe, Allan Downer and Nina Swidler, HPD; Alvin Trujillo, Natural Resources. V READING/APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Willie Tracey motioned to accept agenda as read and Raymond Berchman second the motion. Lorenzo Curley requested that item IX. C Bridge No. 666 proposed resolution action item be deleted from the agenda since Harold Riley gave a report on the status on the project in great detail. His second request was to move Alvin Trujillo report to item A under reports. Motioning parties concurred. Willis Nez requested that Fort Defiance Priority Project List be added to IX. C. this item is a carry over from last meeting. Motioning partied concurred. Willie Tracey asked if FDARC was going to meet with TCDC again to discuss priority projects. Omer Begay, Jr., responded that the Naschitti meeting was annual meeting with TCDC/ARC. The full intent of the meeting was not completed. He felt the meeting should have been held with all the agencies to discuss the proposed priority projects. Willie Tracey agreed but also wanted all the involved tribal departments to be involved to. He requested that another round of meeting be held with TCDC and all the agencies. He also requested that Mr. Tulley contact other Planners and discuss this idea. Meeting agenda was adopted by VI READING/APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MEETING MINUTES: May 8, 2008 Houck Chapter House. Willie Tracey motioned to accept the previous meeting minutes and Lorenzo Curley second the motion. Meeting minutes was approved by VII ANNOUNCEMENTS: BIA High Priority Meeting today at 1:00 PM at the Gallup BIA office. Fort Defiance Agency Council Meeting at the Tohatchi Chapter on June 21, Fathers Day June 15, Road Safety Audit Training on July 1 st and 2nd at the Navajo Nation Training Center. ADOT/NDOT Partnership Annual Meeting on July 9/10 in Window Rock. VIII REPORTS: A. TCDC Report: Omer Begay, TCDC Representative Mr. Begay presented Resolution FDARC N15 Overlay. He stated that the road was in deplorable and grave condition. It posed safety risk to the general public and the road is widely used as a commuter route as well as school districts in the area. The road is about 30 years old and need dire need of improvements. He reported that Mr. Harold Riley concurred with his assessment and asked that FDARC passed a supporting resolution making the N15

2 a high priority so that funding can be secured for an overlay. This overlay is not a permanent solution but is to repair the dangerous pot holes that exist. BIA DOT was out recently to patch pot holes but that will only last for a short period. A permanent solution would be is to making the road the number priority and that the project can be rebuilt. The roadway is scheduled for construction in 1017, 2019 and 2021 and will be done in three phases. Lee Jack, Sr. motioned to approve the resolution and Willie Tracey second his motion. Discussion: Lorenzo Curley asked how supporting and changing the priority will affect other projects, for instance, the N9010. He felt the resolution did not represent a fair compromise to other projects slated for construction this year and next year. TCDC made the N9010 a high priority and did not want that status compromised. Willie Tracey commented that he is supporting the resolution because the route is highly used not only by local residents but by other travelers passing through. He also concurred that the road is a safety risk and in deplorable condition. He also understands that the project will be handled in three 5 mile phases. Not a huge impact on other projects. The overlay is to address temporary solution until project is rebuilt in Marcus Tulley confirmed that the project was being proposed in three phases. Lee Jack, Sr., echoed Mr. Tracey s statement and did say that the road is deteriorating rapidly. The overlay will provide safe passage until the road is rebuilt. Omer Begay, Jr., stated that N9010 was in a similar situation and the committee was able to compromise and make the route a priority. N9010 was subsequently funded under the High Priority Project appropriation under Congressman Rick Renzi. He is only asking that the project be listed as a high priority so that the project can be funded for overlay under a safety project He mentioned that BIA was making paved roads a higher priority than dirt roads. Julian Laughin stated that he will have his survey crew check the road alignment. He will also check the ROW status. Willis Nez was concerned that the FD ARC priority listing did not match the TCDC priority listing. Marcus Tulley responded that the TCDC priority listing is done at the annual ARC/TCDC meetings. TCDC will access each project and rank them based on certain factors like clearance, survey, design etc. Harrison Plummer stated that N9010 still a priority and being funded through the High Priority Project funds. Roscoe Smith was concerned that N9010 and N15 if approved will take more than 40 million in project funding. He asked what will happen to the other projects. He said that since BIA is funding projects based on project readiness, a lot of the projects listed were not project ready and had several required items missing or incomplete. Marcus Tulley clarified that N15 project was being constructed in three phases and N9010 had a separate appropriation under Congressman Rick Renzi special project funds. Lorenzo Curley disagreed with the assessments and he stated that the 2 million dollar appropriation will not cover construction cost for N9010. He did not support the proposed resolution. Willie Tracey stated the N9010 project was through Renzi effort and he was part of the negotiations. The project is being funded in three appropriations of 2 million dollars. He said that the project could be fast tract if bond financing was considered and pursued. He further stated that the committee should consider doing away with priority listings. It was too confusing. He proposed that N15 pursue Fuel Excise tax to get all the clearances done. He was willing to help in that regard. Omer Begay, Jr., reiterated that the project is in dire need of repair and will not affect other projects if approved. He stated that N9010 and other projects were approved by the US Senate and House. Money is available to start those projects. N15 Overlay is a temporary solution and possible. He asked if HPD concurred and Nina Swidler concurred as long as just overlay. He stated that 3 sites need to be mitigated on N15 but that s another issue that needs to be resolved if the project is going to be rebuilt in stead of overlay. Lee Jack, Sr., stated that the projects should all be in readiness status. He was successful in getting other resources and entities to assist in getting his project to readiness status. It can be done. Don t have to rely on HPD or NAD. Raymond Berchman motioned to table the resolution and Lorenzo Curley second the motion with a vote. Mr. Omer Begay, Jr., continued with his monthly report. He told the committee that he didn t have time to do a written report and in all the years of working with ARC he never had to generate one. Besides he thought oral reports were more effective. He told the committee that the Fuel Excise Tax is still a dispute with some ARCs. The 638 Maintenance Contract is in motion and establishing a 3 year plan. NDOT still working on acquiring the 12 maintenance yards and will be receiving training through LTAP for their operators. The major item being disputed is the purchase of the heavy equipment to start the maintenance program he thought the purchase was a worth while investment for the tribe. Otherwise where were they going to get the money to purchase the equipments? As it was the BIA maintenance dollars are being decreased by half. Fuel cost is also on the rise. Although, the basic concept of using 25% of the IRR funds is in effect, the Navajo Nation is still opposing the use. It would rather receive maintenance from BIA still. Also Q10 is still the main concern for larger land based tribes. If approved as the

3 smaller land based tribes are lobbying for, the Navajo Nation stands to lose millions of dollars. NDOT are still working to complete their road inventory for new non-system roads and at 5020 miles at this point. TCDC is also working on getting the tribe direct funding. He reiterated that he was too busy to generate a written report. Harrison Plummer asked if the 638 maintenance contract will allow upgrading in road classification like a dirt road to a gravel road. Omer Begay, Jr., stated that no improvement other than maintaining same classification can be done. If it s a dirt road then it must remain a dirt road. Willie Tracey asked for copies of the laws and 638 plan of operation for the committee. B. Road Clearance Report: Alvin Trujillo, Executive Director Division of Natural Resources Division. Alvin Trujillo introduced his staff members that were in attendance with him. Marcus Tulley gave a brief update on the committee, its purpose and why Natural Resources invited to give a report. Allan Downer, HPD Manager reported that Historic Preservation Department (HPD) is a tribal department dealing with cultural resources and recovery. Navajo Archaeology Department (NAD) is also a tribal department that does most of the recovery work. HPD subcontracts work to NAD. HPD has a 638 contract with BIA. Robert Begay is Manager for NAD. Raymond Berchman interrupted Mr. Downer and asked if Mr. Robert Begay can also be in attendance. He was told that Robert Begay was on travel to Flagstaff. Mr. Downer continued his report stating that confusion may exist on how the 638 contract is being handled. The 638 contract is with the Navajo Nation and HPD is doing the cultural resource work with NAD. When NAD is available, BIA negotiates task orders with NAD on recovery work. Task orders are scope of work. For each task order, BIA inputs ending dates. Expiration dates were never part of the task orders before and now being required by BIA. This has created some problem with the 638 contract. Several projects are pending because the task orders have expired. Request for extension have not be renewed. Gave a brief history on HPD program. He was not aware of any concerns or differences between the HPD and NAD. Alvin Trujillo stated and confirmed that some internal differences do exist between HPD and NAD. They are working to resolve those issues internally. He thought that the internal department differences had no effect or was not aware of any road projects being delayed as a result. The differences of opinion are relayed to program process and internal program agreements. Raymond Berchman asked if it were true that the Navajo Nation was adding more requirements than what is required in the CFR. He remarked that the two departments need to resolve their indifferences immediately and move on. Stated that there were more important issues to concentrate on and address. Allan Downer stated that the Navajo Nation follows the National Historic Preservation process and everything is done in accordance with the codes of that process. BIA is required to comply with that requirement and should know the regulations. Several projects that BIA reported as being delayed because of the Navajo Nation are in fact being delayed by BIA for lack of Environmental Clearance. Harrison Plummer asked if the Navajo Nation had an internal process or procedure that can be reviewed. Allan downer said that no internal process or policies exist, only the Federal regulations. Willis Nez remarked that while Riley and HPD/NAD point fingers at each other, projects are being delayed. Fort Defiance Agency has 40 road projects and 12 bridge projects, to his knowledge none of them are project ready. In his opinion, the two agencies spend too much time trying to blame that other instead of getting the clearances done. If HPD is not able to get the work done then they should get someone else to do it. Services are being paid and we have no results. Alvin Trujillo responded by saying that the BIA has been changing task orders and funding on projects it was difficult to complete projects. When the Navajo Nation first began the 638 contract, there was a lot of latitude in accomplishing the work and had the understanding that work would be accomplished within a specific timeframe and funding level. Now the BIA is expecting the Nation to front the funding to complete the projects. The Nation does not have the resources to front all the projects and wait for reimbursement. Same situations exist for other departments that work on 638 contracts. Its gotten o the point where projects are being piece milled. The Nation has to juggle funding to make ends meet especially when due dates are being required when no money is available to accomplish the task. He mentioned that there was a time that HPD was actually way ahead in project clearances. Willie Tracey commented that the concerns were coming from the grass root level. He also served as ITA Vice President and he heard several comments that the Navajo Nation Archaeology department were charging too much for services. He thought that it was only fair that if the Navajo Archaeology department was unable to meet certain deadlines than those services should be contracted out to individuals or companies that can meet the deadlines. He also stated that when information is requested for certain projects, updates are not readily available. This concern also applies to BIA too. He strongly recommended that a process be developed and/or improve upon the existing

4 process. He expressed that delays were not good for the Nation. He also disagreed with the statement that HPD was ahead of project clearances at one time. As far as he has been involved in the Transportation business, HPD was always behind. Alvin Trujillo commented that discussion was very helpful to them. It helps him reassess his programs and provide improvements. He is also willing to use his program as a pilot project to address other issues. Lee Jack, Sr., echoed Mr. Tracey comments and concerns. He stated that change and better coordination is needed to improve the program. The committee is being pressured from the locals to get projects out to construction. Alvin Trujillo reiterated that he willing to sit down with his program managers and reevaluate the programs and improve the coordination. Thanks the committee for their input. Willis Nez stated that funding is a major issue for a lot of the tribal program. He asked how much money does HPD annually from BIA to do the clearances. Allan Downer responded that if HPD and BIA agreed to a $ on a project, BIA has only been paying $ Not all the funding is received upfront to do the work. Some of the projects are being held up because there is not enough resources to complete the project. They have to wait for BIA to allocate more money before they complete the project. This has been an on-going process with BIA. The status of this date is the HPD or NAD cannot go out and work on road projects because the task orders have not been reapproved. Roscoe Smith stated that the project were standing on three legs and BIA being the forth leg needed to be in attendance to complete the discussion. He motioned to the Chair to make a directive to the NDOT staff to invite Harold Riley to the next meeting. C. Construction Status Report: Julian Laughlin, BIADOT Rep. Julian Laughin made his update report of behalf of Calvin Castillo who was attending a training session in Gallup. He reported that the Whitecone project is on-going. Grading and drainage work in progress. Four other projects are slated for construction in 2009 which are: Pine Spring, Whitecone, Kinlichee Bridge and Tohatchi Bridge. The survey crew were out surveying N31. Raymond Berchman asked if the preliminary studies have been completed for the existing BIA routes. Julian Laughin responded that not all routes have been completed due to the discrepancies and coordination concerns and as discussed earlier. Willis Nez expressed his dismay and stated that this will go on if not corrected and addressed immediately. BIA and HPD/NAD are pointing fingers at each other. One person should be designate to coordinate all projects. Lee Jack, Sr., stated that the preliminary clearances are taking to long to keep projects on schedule. In his opinion the Navajo Nation Fuel Excise Tax money was to be used to get the necessary clearances done instead Navajo DOT is using money for purchasing equipment. A lot can be done with the FET. Just need to be adamant about how the money is used. This money can be used to solicit outside sources to get projects cleared and project ready if HPD is taking to long in completing this task. He encouraged the committee to seriously consider making this an option on the FET use. He stated that Navajo Nation is losing a lot of money because it can t get the clearances in time. Harrison Plummer echoed Mr. Jack s comments and encouraged the committee to get supporting resolution from the chapter to effectuate this. Julian Laughin stated that projects need to be updated. Raymond Berchman sated that Mr. Irvin Bekis should address the delays in coordination issues with HPD immediately. Harrison Plummer suggested that the projects be revised based on project readiness. He understood that several FET projects were at a stand still due to contractor not bidding on projects. He suggested that all projects be lumped together and bided out. Lee Jack, Sr., stated that in his first term on the council, the Fuel Excise Tax was initiated. The Council had to negotiate and reach agreements with the 3 states. At the time Council agreed to have Navajo DOT administer the funds for road improvement projects. He felt that using FET to enhance the projects were in line with the FET requirements. Roscoe Smith commented that the FET was not enough to address the transportation issues. He was also of the understanding that the IRR 25% option to use for maintenance purposes should address equipment purchases as well. He stated that in order for the projects to move forward, the Navajo Nation needs to change its priority to have Transportation as one of the top priority issues. Right now, Transportation is at number 8. Willie Tracey felt that trying to change the law would be a difficult task. He suggested that trying to maneuver within the system would be a better and easier process to change the FET usage. He agreed that FET should be used to get projects to readiness status. Gave an example of how FET can help get projects to readiness: first year request FET for Centerline, archaeological and environmental clearance and survey; the second year request Right-Of-Way and Design. He recommended that the committee meet again to discuss the priority projects and establish the project specifics and where they are at. D. Maintenance Report: Julian Laughlin, BIADOT Rep.

5 Mr. Laughin stated that most of his maintenance report included in the above. He gave a grading service schedule to Harrison Plummer. Willis Nez asked when the grading services were to be completed for Mexican Springs. E. TPP/NDOT Report: Marcus Tulley, Senior Planner Mr. Tulley reported on the following: US491 dedication: May 29, Project will be handled in two separate phase. Rehab for North and South corridors. Construction to start in June US264 and N15 Roundabout Junction final public meeting was held on June 10. Construction to start in Spring N157 Grading concerns were corrected by BIA. N15 road patching on-going. This also includes Morgan Blvd in Window Rock. Road Inventory due date is June 16 th. ARC meetings to be kept in Fort Defiance Window Rock area until the end of the year. July 10 th ADOT Navajo DOT Partnership Annual Meeting at the Navajo Nation Museum. Accident Forum meeting with BIA, NDPS, ADOT, NMDOT and UDOT on June 23 in Albuquerque, NM. E911 Meeting June 26 and 27 at the Navajo Nation Museum. F. Inventory Report: Thomas Benally, Principal Eng. Tech. Thomas Benally is working on the road inventory submission and is not in attendance. G. District Road Reports: Agency Committee Members: Willis Nez commented that he was still concerned with TCDC and Navajo DOT deciding to use FET for equipment purchase without notifying the chapters. He stated that Mexican Springs, Tohatchi and Naschitti chapters are opposing the 7 million dollars contribution. He recommended that the ARC develop a resolution for the upcoming Agency Council meeting opposing FET use. Lee Jack, Sr., concurred with Mr. Nez s statement. He mentioned also that the Navajo DOT maintenance proceeding with out any policies or procedures. He sees no direction and leadership in the Maintenance program and felt that equipment be a little premature since the maintenance program did not have the staff to operate the equipment and facilities to store them at. He recommended that a special meeting be held immediately. Willie Tracey, motioned to accept all reports and second by Lee Jack, Sr., with a vote of All reports were accepted. IX OLD BUSINESS: A. Resolution: FDARC Supporting N15 Overlay-Omer Begay, Jr. (Item was tabled B by vote) Status Report: N157 Road Grading Request. Julian Laughlin. This report was given by Mr. Tulley in his report. C. Fort Defiance Agency Road Priority listing: Item was deferred to be discussed during special meeting. X NEW BUSINESS: A. Resolution: FDARC Supporting Resolution US264. Marcus Tulley gave a brief report on the purpose of the resolution. Lee Jack, Sr., motioned to approved resolution and Willie Tracey second his motion with a vote of Resolution was approved. XI ADJOURNMENT/NEXT MEETING DATE, LOCATION AND TIME: Lee Jack, Sr., motioned to adjourn meeting with Willie Tracey seconding his motion with a vote. Meeting was adjourned at 3:16 PM. Next meeting will be July 10 th at the Budget and Finance Committee Conference Room if available.