"the People's Paths!" Cherokee News Path - Tribal Employees Receive Bonus Checks

TAHLEQUAH, OKLAHOMA - As called for by the 2007 tribal budget, every Cherokee Nation employee received a bonus check on Oct. 12.

About 2,100 tribal employees received the check for $570.13, after taxes. The bonuses were a part of the $360 million budget Tribal Councilors passed in September. Approximately $2.1 million was used to fund the employee bonus.

"I am very pleased to present you with this bonus check to acknowledge your hard work during the past year," Principal Chief Chad Smith wrote in letter to employees that accompanied the checks. "You worked together with your colleagues to bring the Cherokee Nation and its programs and services to new levels of efficiency and effectiveness. This check is a reward for your teamwork."

"It allows me to get some much-needed clothes shopping done," Gwen Morton, Asset Management program account clerk, said. "It also lets me get a head start on Christmas shopping and pay a few bills. Who can't use an extra $570?"

Smith originally earmarked the $2.1 million as an increase to the merit pay pool, which would have gone only to employees eligible for merit pay raises.

"I have long said the best service we can provide a Cherokee citizen is to provide meaningful jobs for our citizens, with good benefits," Smith wrote in an Aug. 30 letter to employees. "So this year, because of the record success of our businesses, I have asked for an extra $2.1 million in the budget, to be used to fund lump sum payments to our employees who are eligible for merit increases."

But Smith's plan to increase the merit pay pool became a bonus for all CN employees during the council's Executive and Finance Committee budget meetings.

At a Sept. 21 meeting to pass the tribal budget, Dist. 8 Councilor Bill Johnson proposed an amendment to put the money back into the merit pay pool, which already figured in the budget at about 3 percent of salaries. The motion failed 10-7 with Councilors Johnson, Buel Anglen, Jack Baker, Don Garvin, Jackie Bob Martin, Cara Cowan Watts and Meredith Frailey voting to amend.

When the budget passed, some councilors dubbed it a $1,000 bonus for each employee thinking the $2.1 million would be split equally among employees.

But Communications Officer Mike Miller said that was incorrect. According to federal regulations, funds such as fringe benefits, federal indirect costs as well as state and federal taxes needed to be paid.

"That amount was to cover all the costs associated with payroll," Miller said. "That's why he (Smith) proposed $2.1 million, to pay for those costs. The tribe had to pay for the fringe (benefit) rate, which we have to pay as part of federal regulations. We had to pay for the indirect costs, which we have to charge to everything."

Treasurer Callie Catcher said $777,000 of the $2.1 million was used to cover fringe benefit and indirect costs. The remaining $1.3 million was divided by the 2,143 employees the tribe employed as of Oct. 2, which equaled $617.35 per employee. After withholding state and federal taxes, each employee received $570.13.

However, Bill John Baker, Dist. 1 Tribal Councilor and Executive and Finance co-chair, said the administration didn't have to pay indirect and fringe benefits costs. He also said he wasn't happy with the amount employees received.

"I mean $500 is more than they've ever gotten, and I'm happy for them from that standpoint," he said. "But I really think we shot ourselves in the foot by not taking advantage of the loophole and passing it through to the employees where they would have gotten $380 more."

Because the administration paid fringe pool costs, Baker said employees should be given an extra vacation day and sick day. He also said he would raise the bonus issue at the next Executive and Finance Committee meeting on Oct. 26.

Travis Snell can be contacted by e-mail: travis-snell@cherokee.org or by telephone: 918-453-5358.