On Nov. 2, the Orutsararmiut Native Council and Bethel City Council met together for the first time in over three years. Among the agenda items were how to jointly combat violence in Bethel, the transfer of city land to Tribal ownership, and creating a pedestrian path between the Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation.
The discussion about how to combat violence in Bethel turned into one about how to combat crime. Both Bethel City Council members and ONC council members want the two entities to work together more to address crime in town. Bethel City Council member Rose "Sugar" Henderson, who is also a member of ONC, said that she would like to see the creation of a task force. ONC Chairman Walter Jim agreed and mentioned potential participants:
“Somebody from the City of Bethel, somebody from the police department, somebody from our tribe, YKHC, AVCP, TWC,” said Jim.
No city or Tribal council members voiced opposition to the idea that the two bodies should be working together to address common issues.
City council member Perry Barr floated the idea of cross-deputizing Tribal and city police officers. And ONC Council member Gloria Simeon said that she’d like to see more cases handled in Tribal courts. She said that ONC is working on getting their justices trained up to be able to handle misdemeanors, in addition to the Office of Children’s Services cases that they already handle.
Simeon also said that some sort of cultural sensitivity training is needed for Bethel police officers, but she wasn’t sure it would work on transitory personnel. Almost half of the Bethel Police Department does not permanently reside in Bethel, but travels to town on a two-weeks-on, two-weeks-off schedule. Simeon said that system poses a problem.
“It’s really critical for people to have that connection, rather than just coming in, doing their job, and leaving without any sense of connectivity to who we are and how we are,” said Simeon.
The city council also discussed the transfer of land from under the ONC Multipurpose Building. The city says that it owns the land and wants to transfer it back to the tribe, but there might be a technical problem. City Planner Ted Meyer said that he recently discovered a potentially federally owned section in the plat that the city wants to transfer. Mayor Mark Springer said that the ordinance was working its way through the city’s political processes, including within the planning commission, and it wouldn’t be appropriate to discuss the item further.
And finally, the Tribe and city council also discussed building a path between the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation and the cultural center. Members of both entities were concerned that people without vehicles have to walk on the side of the highway in the winter after dark to get to the hospital.
Bethel’s city manager, Pete Williams, said that the city is ready to work on the path, but that he has not been able to get answers from YKHC on where the path would end. Several ONC council members said that ONC could use its influence at YKHC to get the path built. ONC Chairman Jim also serves on the board of YKHC.
