OST Chief of Staff terminated

PINE RIDGE – The Oglala Sioux Tribe Council held a January 15 hearing at the Lakota Dome at Prairie Wind Casino and terminated the Chief of Staff, Cindy Giago, over a complaint from Justin Pourier. Pourier, who was the Director of the Motor Fields program of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, was terminated last year and the complaint was accepted late in November just before a new tribal administration was sworn in.

After the complaint was accepted by Tribal Council, Giago received dozens of letters of support which she passed on to the new Tribal President, Kevin Killer, before the January 15 hearing. Giago claims that Pourier’s offense did qualify for termination and that she would have been terminated if she did not take action. Since all policy and procedure was followed during the termination of Pourier, Giago claims that he cannot qualify for future employment with the tribe for one year.

“I don’t have anything bad to say about him,” said Giago, “but he made a lot of bad decisions and put a lot of people’s jobs at stake.”

At the beginning of the hearing, Cora White Horse made a motion to rescind the action of entering into a hearing based on not following the correct procedures. Representative White Horse’s claims were based upon the fact that there would have been administrative remedies for Pourier’s complaint which were not followed.

A tribal attorney, however, confirmed that the correct process was being followed because the Chief of Staff position is a political appointee and therefore subject to discipline of the council.

The council then went into executive session. After resuming regular session, Garfield Steele motioned to terminate Cindy Giago from her position as Chief of Staff saying “based on the information that we reviewed, based on the discussion we held and everyone can vote as they may but I am going to entertain a motion to terminate the Chief of Staff.”

Steele’s motion received a second from Craig Dillon and the motion passed with 15 voting yes, 5 voting no, and 1 abstaining to vote.

After the hearing, Giago took to Facebook and posted a response to the outcome. “I appreciate those individuals who stood up for righteousness, ethics, and integrity,” she said. “I walked out of that room with my integrity, no one can take that away from me. I followed and respected tribal law and made decisions based on those laws.”

(Contact Travis at travisldewes@gmail.com)

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