Arizona Daily Sun
Police: Hopi chairman drunk in hotel
By CYNDY COLE
Sun Staff Reporter 07.25.06
The Hopi Tribal Council has received a misconduct complaint after Winslow police said they found Chairman Ivan Sidney highly intoxicated in a Winslow hotel lobby.
Sidney was staying at the Adobe Inn when Winslow police received complaints from the manager at 10:53 p.m., June 27, that the chairman the Hopi Tribe was highly intoxicated and wouldn't return to his room after having urinated "all over the hall," according to police reports.
Two officers entered the hotel and found Sidney standing at the door to his hotel room, Sidney's hand on the doorknob.
The officer told Sidney to go into his room.
Sidney didn't respond.
The officers grabbed Sidney by the arms and tried to walk him into his room but failed.
"...He was in such an intoxicated state that he could not walk," Sgt. Arturo Zacarias Jr. wrote in his report.
Police called paramedics and Sidney was placed on a gurney and transported to Winslow Memorial Hospital, where his blood-alcohol level read 0.311 percent.
If Sidney had been driving a car, he would have been almost four times over the state's legal limit for intoxication.
Zacarias called the police chief and another member of the force to "inform him of whom we were dealing with," then called Sidney's son and asked Ivan Sidney Jr. to come pick up his father.
Police informed the hospital staff that Sidney was not under arrest, as the hotel manager had declined to press charges.
MORE BEER FROM THE FRIDGE
Zacarias then escorted Sidney, Sidney Jr., and Sidney's wife to the room in which Sidney had been staying so the chairman could retrieve his belongings.
Sidney lay down on the hotel bed.
There were "several" open beer containers and an open 12 pack of Bud Light in the fridge, the officer observed.
Sidney's wife and son asked Sidney to get up off the bed.
Sidney sat up and said he wanted another beer.
The officer motioned for Sidney to get up.
Sidney walked to the fridge and picked up what remained of the 12-pack of beer.
Sidney Jr. pulled the beer away from his father. The family got into the car, with Sidney Jr. driving, and left.
PLEDGE OF OPENNESS
Sidney was sworn into office as chairman for a second time on Dec. 1, having served previously in the 1980s.
The conservative Sidney beat former chairman Wayne Taylor Jr. by almost a 2-1 margin, calling the landslide a mandate to run the government more openly.
He pledged to consult with villages more often than his predecessor, make the tribe's business dealings and finances open to the public, build more schools, add health facilities and develop businesses on Hopi land.
After election, he declined to discuss the tribe's financial situation with the press.
Tribal Council Rep. Clifford Balenquah Qotsaquaha has asked the Tribal Council to consider misconduct allegations against Sidney for not upholding tribal policies that require public officials to "observe high standards of conduct" and "conduct themselves so as to ... reflect credit upon the Hopi people" at all times, regarding the incident in Winslow.
Qotsaquaha has complained to the Hopi Vice Chairman Todd Honyaoma Sr. of a delay in the council's consideration of the matter, saying a hearing on Sidney's conduct has been rescheduled four times already.