Nygren’s chief of staff described housing fair as (bleep) show: Part III
WINDOW ROCK – The president’s housing fair in June was a “s––t show,” according to his chief of staff.
President Buu Nygren and his staff hosted an inaugural Navajo Nation Housing Fair at the Fire Rock Navajo Casino in Church Rock, New Mexico, on June 28 and 29. It was a gathering for business professionals and community members.
The event was supposed to be engaging, professional, and successful. And a crucial step toward finding sustainable solutions to the housing shortage across the Navajo Nation.
Nygren’s March 6 press release about a “1,000 Homes Initiative” reads that “the initiative is intended to lay the groundwork for building 1,000 new homes across a Navajo Nation.” The administration planned for a housing summit in Window Rock on May 30.
“More times than one, (Nygren) would mention, ‘We need to do something. We should put on a housing summit,’” said Melinda Arviso-Ciocco, a former executive staff assistant in the president’s office. “And I took that, and I ran with it. And I took that initiative.
“I said … to myself, ‘President wants a housing summit, OK. (So) I started pulling resources together. And here comes Patrick (Sandoval, the president’s chief of staff) telling me, ‘I don’t think you can do it. You can’t do it by yourself. You don’t really know what you’re doing,’” Arviso-Ciocco explained. “In retro(spect), the response is, a housing summit coming from the administration is going to be the first of its kind – ever. We’ve (Navajo Nation) never had a housing summit coming from the president’s office – ever. So, yes, it’s going to be brand new, but guess what, we can do it.”
The housing summit evolved into a housing fair scheduled for June 28 and 29. Arviso-Ciocco was in charge of bringing together resources to help organize the event.
“At the end of the entire thing, he (Sandoval) calls me into his office and tells me it was a ‘s––t show’ when in retro(spect), all of the other feedback information that was coming back to the office … that ‘It was amazing,’ ‘It was awesome,’” Arviso-Ciocco said.
Arviso-Ciocco thought Sandoval said the housing summit was a “s––t show” only because it wasn’t under his guidance.
“It was really just awkward,” she said. “That was the first and only big project that I was able to accomplish. So, it was like fighting against all of them (administration team members) just to do something.”
Read the full story in the Dec. 7 edition of the Navajo Times.
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