In January 2016, Tribal Council passed a law (Resolution No. 87) that did away with verbatim written documentation of Council sessions as a matter of course. In other words, the exact words of the Council no longer had to be made into a written record and minutes of the sessions could be summarized.

Part of the discussion and reasoning was that because we have an audio/video recording of the proceedings, there would be no need for exact documentation. It was a cost and time savings measure that would remove some of the burden and tedium of direct documentation of the proceedings. The paraphrased and condensed versions are available online, as are the video replays of sessions. At any request, a verbatim report may be generated through the use of the video recordings of sessions. This law applies to “Budget Council, Tribal Council, working sessions and committee meetings”. The recordings are used to confirm the documentation process that is being used.

Unfortunately, throughout the course of a typical Tribal Council session, much of the discussion is missed by the microphones and not recorded because a Council member neglects to turn on the microphone when they are recognized to speak. Even in the gallery, it is very difficult to hear the discussion without the microphones on. It is impossible to hear on the video playback. There are times during the discussion and debate of a resolution that conversation among Council members will go for several minutes and at the end, an apology will be offered and the public will be advised of the pass/fail of the resolution. At other times, silent conversation will go on until someone calls in to the Council House to request that the microphones be turned on.