The Cherokee Nation Tribal Council passed legislation Monday to convene a panel that will determine annual salaries, benefits and non-monetary compensation for the tribe’s elected officials.
The Citizen Committee on Compensation, composed of five members, will meet on a biennial basis beginning in the 2025 election cycle. According to the legislation, the chief will appoint one member to a one-year term and one member to a three-year term; the Council will appoint one member for two years and one for four years; and the committee will appoint one member for a five-year term.
District 14 Tribal Councilor Keith Austin said during Monday’s Rules Committee meeting that the previous version of the citizens compensation board was flawed.
“It was an attempt to depoliticize the process, but by sending it back to us it basically put it right back in the politicians’ hands,” he said. “So it didn’t depoliticize the process at all. And then it didn’t give any way for us to send it back, because they only had one chance to do it. We didn’t have the opportunity to tell them this is not acceptable, go back to work and bring a difference package to us.”
Austin said the new version of the panel strips the politicization and makes it a standing committee.
Earlier in the day Monday, Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner announced the tribe will launch a comprehensive study of its government workforce pay, and intends to raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025....
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