TERO - (Tribal Employment Rights Office)
The Smith River Rancheria TERO has a mission to help improve the quality of life for Smith River Rancheria Tribal Members and other Native American families through opportunities that can assist them in pursuing quality jobs or careers with decent wages and by protecting their rights of preferential employment, training, business and economic opportunities on and near the Smith River Rancheria reservation. Also, to assist business in achieving compliance with hiring Native American qualified workers.
In 2005, the Smith River Rancheria Tribal Council enacted the Tribal Employment Rights Ordinance which is the preferential employment and contracting laws of the land within the boundaries of the Smith River Rancheria reservation.
Smith River Rancheria TERO office requires businesses to:
- Hire TERO qualified and certified workers.
- Give Native owned businesses the opportunity to bid.
- Fill out and negotiate a compliance plan prior to commencing work.
- Pay 2.5% TERO fee shall be assessed directly from employer's engaging in commerce with the Smith River Rancheria.
Everyone:
Smith River Rancheria has contracted with the Local Government Commission (LGC) to conduct a Design Fair for transportation planning at Howonquet Hall Community Center on the Smith River Rancheria. LGC brings with them many years of experience in transportation planning. During the last seven years the LGC has prepared twenty such plans funded by Caltrans Environmental Justice and Community Based Transportation Planning grants, including plans for Hoopa Reservation and Mooretown Rancheria.
The reputation of their staff is unsurpassed having the very best experts on the topics. Their team includes Dan Burden, a national expert on facilitating public workshops and designing for transportation safely; Paul Zykofsky, a nationally certified instructor for Safe Routes to School and Pedestrian Safety; and Michael Sweeney, a Northern California based planner with over thirty years experience in project management public involvement workshops, concept feasibility studies, and master planning.
The activities during the Design Fair include meetings with individual focus groups before the Friday evening public workshop for community input on the status of our roads. That Saturday groups will accompany the design team on a walk audit to sites identified Friday and take part in community design tables to suggest solutions to identified problem areas. After working over the weekend the planners and designers will hold a closing workshop on Monday to present their initial recommendations to community members for final input and confirmation of concepts developed over the weekend.
We hope you will be able to save these dates and join us at the Design Fair June 19 thru the 23rd. This is an opportunity to express your concerns on the status of local roads. Recording public comments and incorporating them into a final report for Caltrans will assure accurate representation of the community’s opinion. Please reply to me at this e-mail address letting me know if you can attend. I need to know ho will attend before I schedule individual focus groups Friday afternoon.
Best regards,
Darrell Moorehead Tribal Employment Rights Officer
Smith River Rancheria 140 Rowdy Creek Road. Smith River, California 95567
(707) 487- 9255 ext. 3190 darrell.morrehead@tolowa.com
