Council to debate Kirk’s fate today
Submitted
Pearline Kirk
WINDOW ROCK
The Navajo Nation Council will deliberate today (May 14) on legislation to remove Navajo Controller Pearline Kirk and have President Jonathan Nez appoint an acting controller during a special Council session.
Speaker Seth Damon was excused from the session, and Resource and Development Chair Rickie Nez stood in as Speaker pro-tem. Health, Education and Human Resources Committee member Pernell Halona and Edison Wauneka were sponsors of the legislation.
Navajo Times broke the news yesterday that a cease and desist order was given last Friday to Agile Technologies Group, a company that was contracted by the Office of the Controller to administer COVID-19 tests throughout Window Rock.
According to the order, an emergency sole-source contract between the Navajo Nation and Agile was executed Nov. 20, 2020 with an expiration date of Dec. 30, 2020, but the company continued to give COVID-19 tests until it came to the attention of the attorney general’s office nearly five months after the expiration date.
“Agile devised a COVID-19 testing and mitigation plan for the Office of the Controller and its employees, including rapid testing, antibody testing, PPE, air filtration system installation, and other mitigation technology,” stated the order. “The Navajo Nation Health Command Operations Center and the Navajo Department of Health were not consulted about this COVID-19 testing contract nor was there any coordination of the testing activity with the HCOC before testing began.”
Agile at one point was administering COVID-19 tests to Navajo Nation employees in front of Administration Building 1, where the controller’s office is located. During the Spring Session, and when First Lady Jill Biden had visited the Navajo Nation, Council delegates had utilized Agile’s unapproved testing, according to an anonymous source.
According to Navajo Nation Code the Controller works at the pleasure of Council, but is appointed by the Navajo Nation President.
“The Navajo Nation Council no longer desires to retain Ms. Kirk in the position of Controller of the Navajo Nation and finds it to be in the best interest o the Navajo Nation to remove Ms. Kirk from her position as the Controller of the Navajo Nation,” states the legislation.
Kirk was appointed as controller in 2017, after the 23rd Navajo Nation Council voted to remove then-Controller Jim Parris. Kirk, a member of the Navajo Nation originally from the community of Kin Dah Lichíí, Arizona, is a licensed Certified Public Accountant whose professional experience includes serving as a partner with the Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLC law firm, assistant attorney general with the Navajo Nation, tax auditor for the Office of the Navajo Tax Commission, and several other posts.
The order stated that Agile was misleading employees and the public to believe that its ongoing testing was affiliated with the Navajo Nation, which it was not. The testing was not legitimate or authorized.
The concerns lie with what Agile is doing with the personal health information of the people tested and how Agile is handling blood and other samples and disposing of medical waste. Agile allegedly is not reporting test results to the HCOC or to the state health departments in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, and lacks a clear plan for case management and contact tracing through the public health system.
“Agile’s continued disapproved testing activity is putting Navajo people at risk and jeopardizes the health, safety, and welfare of the Navajo Nation,” stated the order.
Around 1:45 p.m. the Council added the Kirk legislation to an agenda that had only one item: a report by the Navajo Nation Department of Justice and chief legislative counsel.
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow