Desert Dispatch

State, county added jobs in March

The agreement to allow the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria to proceed with a 3,000-slot machine casino at Rohnert Park sailed through the state Senate Monday.

California State Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, introduces the item to ratify the agreement between the state and the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria that would allow the tribe to start work on the casino it plans to open near Rohnert Park on Monday, May 7, 2012. CHRISTOPHER CHUNG / PD

The 34-4 vote moved the 1,300 member tribe an important step closer to starting a project that has been in the works for nine years but has raced forward in the past month. Tribal leaders and their Las Vegas backers have said they hope to break ground on the site, south of Wilfred Avenue and west of Highway 101, this summer.

The agreement between the governor’s office and the Federated Indians is the “setting of a new bar, a high bar, for future compacts,” between the state and its Indian tribes, said state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who carried the bill in the Senate and whose district currently includes Rohnert Park.

There was no discussion on the Senate floor about the agreement, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed March 27.

Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, who will begin representing Rohnert Park later this year as a result of redistricting, voted. No.”

Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, also voted against the bill. She was not available for comment on Monday but said previously she would vote no because financial arrangements between Sonoma County and the tribe have not been finalized.

The agreement, or compact, pushes the relationship between the state and Indian gambling tribes into new territory by requiring that a range of financial agreements to address the casino’s impacts be in place between the Federated Indians and Sonoma County and Rohnert Park before work on it could start.

Some large Indian tribes have said that gives local governments too much sway over casino projects. But it won key support from the California Association of Counties and others who said it preserved tribal sovereignty while making it possible for local governments to address a casino’s social, environmental and infrastructure impacts.

Leno said the compact was “uncommon” and “reflects nine years worth of negotiation” between the tribe and the surrounding community.

“All the money that will be expended by the tribe (in mitigation) is for local communities,” he said, referring to the $200 million revenue-sharing agreement with Rohnert Park the tribe signed in 2005, and an agreement with the county to negotiate financial mitigations for the casino’s impacts.

The compact needed 27 votes in the Senate as an urgency statute, which means it would take effect this year rather than next. The two other no votes were cast by Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, and Loni Hancock, D-Oakland.

It goes next to the 80-seat Assembly where it needs 54 votes to move on. Political observers said there’s no reason to think it will stall in the Assembly, which could take it up as soon as Thursday.

”It should have smooth sailing,” said Dave McCuan, a Sonoma State University political scientist.

“There’s no reasons to expect that a bill this high profile wouldn’t be coordinated between the two leadership teams” of the Senate and Assembly, McCuan said.

One North Bay legislator whose whose stand on the measure has been closely watched is Assemblyman Michael Allen, D-Santa Rosa, a former organized labor leader who once advocated for the casino. On Monday he reaffirmed a statement last week that he will oppose the compact.

“For economic vitality, from that point of view, it’s very good,” he said Monday, but “my constituents are saying to vote no.”

He said the objections he’s heard primarily deal with assertions that there are not enough measures in place to address the casino’s impacts on the environment and traffic.

“Casino supporters have highlighted the fact that the compact includes mitigations for the City of Rohnert Park, but I have serious reservations about whether those mitigations will have the desired effect,” he wrote in an essay posted on his reelection campaign website.

His leading opponent in the newly-drawn 10th District, Democrat Marc Levine, issued a statement Monday accusing Allen of “political posturing” now that the votes are lined up in favor of the compact.

McCuan, the political analyst, said Allen really has no choice but to oppose the casino — and that his vote would likely not make a difference.

“This really is a radioactive vote in this area so the only place for Michael Allen to go is the “no” side. But I would assume his vote is not critical to the outcome,” McCuan said. “He’s listening to his constituents and Levine is looking for a political issue.”

North Bay labor leaders with whom Allen is close and who have campaigned for the compact’s approval shrugged off his position.

“I think that Michael knows the difference between his role as an elected official and as a union official and labor activist,” said Lisa Maldonado, executive director of the North Bay Labor Council.

“I don’t agree with him on this and I don’t agree with Noreen Evans on this,” she said. “But we won the vote so I can’t be disappointed.”

If the Legislature ratifies the compact, it moves forward to the federal Department of Interior. The department has 45 days to ratify or reject it. That is the last governmental hurdle, although the compact requires an agreement with the county to be signed before work can begin on the casino project.

Following the Senate vote, Scott Nielson, executive vice president and chief development officer for Station Casinos, the Las Vegas company backing the project, declined comment.

“Not yet,” he said.

By Marc Benjamin – The Fresno Bee

Representatives of two eastern Madera County organizations that receive funding from the tribe that runs Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino say they’ve been pressured to come out against another tribe’s casino plans.

The Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians, who operate the Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino (pitcured above) and oppose the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeño Indians proposed casino in Barstow, have been accused of using strong-arm tactics to pressure Madera County organization to oppose another tribe's casino plans.

Members of the Coarsegold Rodeo Association and the president of the Bass Lake Chamber of Commerce both said they’ve been asked to put their organizations on record either opposing or remaining neutral on the North Fork Mono Rancheria’s proposed casino and resort on Highway 99 north of Madera.

Rodeo officials said they felt Chukchansi’s $15,000 pledge for their 60th annual event, scheduled May 4-6, was at stake if they didn’t oppose the Highway 99 casino. The rodeo association eventually told Chukchansi it couldn’t come out against the Highway 99 casino plans, because that would jeopardize its nonprofit status.

Rodeo association officials said they still hope to receive Chukchansi’s financial support.

Roger Salazar, spokesman for the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians, didn’t confirm that tribal officials had made a link between rancheria donations and opposition to the Highway 99 casino. But, he said, the tribe has a right to enlist support for its campaign opposing the casino project, because a new casino would cut into Chukchansi’s revenues and impede the tribe’s ability to assist local nonprofits.

The Highway 99 casino, which has been planned for years, was approved by federal officials last year but requires Gov. Jerry Brown’s support by Sept. 1 for planning to continue. The Highway 99 casino site is about 40 miles from the North Fork Mono Rancheria, so it requires extra government approvals.

Chukchansi officials view the North Fork tribe’s project as a competitive threat to their casino near Coarsegold. Chukchansi is campaigning to stop non-reservation Indian gaming before the governor makes his decision. Last month, 2,500 signature cards went to Sacramento from Madera County to oppose the North Fork tribe’s project.

The rodeo association got a form letter two weeks ago from Chukchansi tribal administrator Ryan Eckstein. The letter asks Brown to oppose the Madera casino; the tribe wanted the association to sign the letter and forward it to the governor.

The connection between the form letter and Chukchansi’s continued financial support was clear, rodeo association officials said.

The tribe’s funding and in-kind donation would offset 40% to 50% of the rodeo’s expenses, association officials said.

And even if the threat wasn’t made in writing, the tribe left an impression with rodeo officials that its funding was at risk, according to minutes from a March rodeo association meeting that said: “In order to get Chukchansi sponsor endorse as Board No on 99 casino.”

On Monday night, the rodeo association voted against taking sides because a political position could jeopardize its nonprofit status, said Dave Strimling, an association board member.

“The association can’t do anything,” Strimling said. “If individuals want to do something, it’s up to them, but Coarsegold Rodeo Association can’t have anything to do with it.”

He said he and his wife, Pat, also a board member, will remain neutral on the issue.

Strimling said he is optimistic the tribe will continue to help underwrite the rodeo; the tribe paid for lumber this week for a fence at the rodeo grounds.

“They have supported the rodeo before and hopefully they still will,” he said.

Another rodeo association member said he was offended by the tribe’s threat.

Jaclyn Trop / The Detroit News

Detroit’s three casinos rolled to their second straight year of improved business in 2011 and are poised to benefit this year from a strengthening economy if they adapt to new gaming competition scheduled to open in neighboring Ohio, a national gaming expert said.

The trio’s revenues rose 3.4 percent to $1.42 billion for the year, lagging other states in the Midwest that opened new casinos last year but well ahead of other gaming areas, including the nation’s second largest market of Atlantic City, N.J., said Frank Fantini, editor and publisher of Delaware-based Fantini’s Gaming & Lodging Reports.

The growth rate accelerated ahead of the gaming halls’ 2.9 percent gain in 2010 and after their first-ever decline in 2009 of 1.5 percent.

“I think it’s really an indication of American consumers going out and spending again,” Fantini said.

MGM Grand Detroit, MotorCity Casino Hotel and Greektown Casino Hotel finished the year on a strong note, experiencing a 10 percent rise in revenue in December, the Michigan Gaming Control Board said Tuesday.

The month’s gains mirrored the performance of most U.S. gaming regions and is due in part to the 2011 calendar that gave the month an extra weekend day. But it’s not clear how much of the revenue increases in Detroit are fueled by promotional free-play credits that customers redeem at casino games.

The December performance capped a year that saw the three casinos negotiate a new four-year contract with workers that reins in costs by requiring workers to pay more for health care coverage and favors bonuses over pay raises.

The new labor agreements also will help prepare the gaming halls for increased competition from the south, as Ohio plans to open four casinos during the next two years. In addition, casino projects put on hold during the recession are being built all over the country, Fantini said.

MotorCity Casino Hotel was the big winner in Detroit in 2011. After squeezing out a meager 0.1 percent increase in revenue in 2010, the city’s second largest casino posted a 5.7 percent increase to $471.9 million in 2011. It had a solid December, when revenues rose 5.1 percent to $40.4 million.

Greektown Casino Hotel had the strongest December, with year-over-year revenues rising 24.5 percent to $31 million.

The late surge helped the smallest of Detroit’s casinos finish with $352.8 million in receipts. It generated the smallest annual increase at 0.9 percent after losing revenue during most of the year.

It was Greektown’s first full year with new management following its emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2010. Its revenue picked up after September, when it opened a refurbished and consolidated gaming floor known as the “superpit.”

MGM Grand Detroit, the largest of the city’s casinos, finished the year up 3.1 percent at nearly $600 million. The gaming hall reported a strong December, with revenue up 6.5 percent to $52.3 million.

“Starting the year, we weren’t quite sure what to expect,” said the property’s General Manager Steven Zanella. The automotive sector was still searching for footing, and unemployment in Michigan was in the double digits.

Even starting 2012, “the economy is not solid by any stretch of the imagination,” Zanella said. But people are loosening their purse strings for entertainment, he said. “They want to go out and have fun,” Zanella said.

The gaming industry is heating up in the Midwest. Metro Chicago’s December revenue rose 32 percent thanks to the opening of a new gaming hall, Rivers Casino, Fantini said.

Iowa saw a 16 percent jump, followed by Missouri’s 5.4 percent increase. “There’s definitely a recovery in the Midwest casino market,” Fantini said.

The proposed Los Coyotes off-reservation casino for Barstow received a new breath of life when the federal Department of the Interior decided to re-evaluate the reasons they rejected the plan in 2008.

In 2008, the Department of the Interior rejected the proposal because the San Diego-based tribe members lived too far away to commute to jobs in Barstow.

An environmental impact report for the proposed casino was released in July and a large crowd attended a hearing on the report later in the month to express support and opposition.

The federal government has not yet made its determination on their role in the process. The tribe and the casino’s developers would still need to sign a new agreement with the governor and have the agreement ratified by the state legislature to move forward.

Katherine Siva Saubel co-founded the Malki Museum near Banning to preserve Cahuilla history and traditions. (Irfan Khan, Los Angeles Times)

It is with great sadness that we report that Los Coyotes leader Katherine Siva Saubel has passed away. As the Tribal Spokesperson, Mrs. Saubel lead the effort to join with the City of Barstow to build a enterprise that would provide jobs and economic benefits for both communities. Her dedication and perseverance were an inspiration to all those who knew her.

By Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times

Katherine Siva Saubel, an elder of the Cahuilla Indian tribe of Southern California, once described herself as “just a voice in the wilderness all by myself.” She meant that she had few people with whom she could speak the Cahuilla language or sing the songs that conveyed her people’s ancient stories.

“My race,” she told The Times in 2000, “is dying.”

Now Saubel, long its feistiest guardian, has died.

“It’s a huge loss … the end of an era,” said Nathalie Colin, an ethno-historian at the Malki Museum near Banning, which Saubel co-founded more than 45 years ago to preserve Cahuilla history and traditions.

Saubel, 91, died of natural causes Tuesday at her home on the Morongo Reservation near Banning, said her nephew, Kevin Siva.

One of the last fluent speakers of the Cahuilla language, Saubel worked with linguists and anthropologists to produce a Cahuilla dictionary and grammar book as well as historical accounts and studies of medicinal plants known through tribal lore. In 1964, she helped launch the Malki Museum, the first nonprofit museum founded and managed by Native Americans on a reservation.

She was also an activist, who in 1998 brought electricity to the Los Coyotes Reservation in San Diego County, where she was born and later served as tribal chairwoman.

“Dr. Saubel was truly remarkable, both as a leader and as a fierce defender of Native American culture, from the preservation of the traditional Cahuilla language to the protection of sacred sites,” Robert Martin, chairman of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, said in a statement last week.

The Cahuilla (pronounced ka-wee-yah), once one of the largest California Indian tribes, are concentrated in Riverside and San Diego counties. Among the more prominent Cahuilla bands are the Morongo and the Agua Caliente band in Palm Springs.

Born on March 7, 1920, Saubel was the eighth of 11 children. She lived on the remote Los Coyotes Reservation until she was almost 4 and then moved with her family to Palm Springs.

She entered public school there at 7, knowing not one word of English. Some Indian children were beaten when they were caught speaking their native language in school; Saubel was just ignored. “I would speak to them in the Indian language,” she told The Times in 2000, “and they would answer me in English. I don’t remember when I began to understand what was being said to me. Maybe a year.”

She was believed to be the first Native American woman to graduate from Palm Springs High School, in 1940. That year she married another Cahuilla Indian, Mariano Saubel.

Desert Dispatch

By SARA MITCHELL, staff writer

BARSTOW – Paul Cook, California’s 65th District assemblyman and a retired Marine from Yucca Valley, threw his hat into the ring for 3rd District Supervisor on Thursday.

Cook is the third candidate so far running for the open seat for the San Bernardino County 3rd District, where Barstow will be moved because of county redistricting. Incumbent Neil Derry is running for re-election and James Ramos, chairman of the San Manuel tribe, announced his candidacy in May.

After he lost his district in the latest California redistricting plan, Cook decided to shift his attention to the county level. Before representing Yucca Valley, Big Bear Lake and Yucaipa in the legislature, Cook was the mayor and councilmember for the Yucca Valley Town Council and served on the San Bernardino Associated Governments alongside former Barstow Mayor Lawrence Dale.

He recently visited Barstow to participate in a Sept. 11 anniversary tribute ceremony, where he spoke as a former colonel in the Marines.

“I think I understand Barstow,” he said Thursday afternoon, adding that he is aware of the difficulty of desert towns to be heard in San Bernardino.

“You got to be able to stand up for your communities,” he said.

After serving in the Assembly for five years, the biggest issue he sees on the state and county level is confusing legislation and policies, especially regarding small businesses.

“We’re not user-friendly,” Cook said. “If we’re going to write legislation, we’ve got to make it understandable to those it affects.” When businesses move to other states where it’s easier to succeed, he said, “it’s a county problem.”

Cook also said that he would support the proposed Los Coyotoes casino in Barstow, as long as the residents and local government approved of its impact.

“If it’s favored by the majority of people, I think you have to support the community,” he said.

Cook had previously received support from Ramos’ tribe, whose San Manuel PAC gave $3,900 to Cook’s 2010 campaign.

The 1st, 3rd and 5th District seats are up for election in 2012.

By EDWARD SIFUENTES

It’s pretty easy to judge people you don’t know, it’s much harder to get to know them.

Prejudging people publicly is easy these days. Read a news story on the Internet and feel free to judge away, safe from the comfort of an anonymous blog.

A common target for many readers these days are the so-called “rich Indians.” The people that own casinos out in the backcountry. The people living large off casino riches.

But reality is, as always, much more complex than that.

Since tribes started building them, casinos have improved the lives of many. Many others have been left behind.

Of the 8 tribes in North San Diego County, only four have achieved some measure of success through gambling: Rincon, Pala, Pauma and San Pasqual. The rest live on reservations far too isolated to attract enough customers even if they built casinos.

Santa Ysabel, near Julian, is the only other tribe to try its hand at gambling. The tribe appears to be struggling to make payroll, let alone pay its members handsome monthly dividends.

The La Jolla tribe near Palomar Mountain is reportedly looking to build a casino, but the plans have not made it off the drawing board. Mesa Grande, also near Julian, has no plans to build a casino.

Los Coyotes, whose reservation burned for nearly a week last month before firefighters were able to bring the blaze under control, dream of building a casino in Barstow, but they have been doing so for nearly a decade.

Each time a story appears in this newspaper about local tribes, you can bet someone will write about the greedy, abusive, inconsiderate and power hungry tribes. Those are easy labels to throw around. There are worse ones that are outright racist and bigoted, but getting to know why things are the way they are on reservations is hard.

Local tribes like to keep to themselves, as much as they can. When they build casinos, they often rely on public relations people to advise them on how much to talk and what to say. As sovereign nations, they don’t have to say much.

So, why bother trying to get to know them?

Because maybe then we’ll learn how to live together a little better. And because maybe we’ll learn something about ourselves: the ugly truth that we are not that different.

Desert Dispatch

By SARA MITCHELL, staff writer

BARSTOW • Barstow leaders pressed 3rd District supervisor candidate James Ramos on his stance on a proposed Barstow casino during a community meeting Wednesday afternoon.

Many who attended a meeting at the Harvey House said they were worried that the chairman of the San Manuel tribe won’t support the Los Coyotes casino should he win the 3rd District supervisor seat in 2012. The San Manuel tribe, from Highland, has publicly opposed off-reservation casinos like the proposed project near the Barstow outlets.

“Are we meeting with a tribal council leader today or a future supervisor?” asked Carol Randall of Lee & Associates.

The meeting was organized by Paul Courtney, a local business owner and former Barstow Fire Protection District Board trustee, because Barstow is most likely moving to the 3rd District from the 1st as a result of county redistricting plans. Courtney wanted Barstow leaders to meet Ramos, who announced his candidacy in May.

Ramos introduced his experience as a small business owner and a board member of the California State Board of Education before opening up the floor for questions. Mike Hayhurst, from Excelsior Charter Public Schools, immediately asked whether Ramos would support the Los Coyotes casino, despite his tribe’s opposition to the project.

“If you’re representing us, we want to hear it out of your mouth,” Hayhurst said.

Ramos said he supports indian gaming but doesn’t support what he called “reservation shopping,” where tribes develop on lands they aren’t tied to. He said he believed the Los Coyotes casino will have a lot of hurdles in getting approved, but he would support the casino if it was completely approved on the state and federal level.

“If they get through that hurdle, then I have no problem with that,” he said.

Ramos asked the group why it mattered which tribe was running the casino, as long as the casino was bringing jobs to Barstow. The San Manuel has supported the Chemehuevi tribe, which plans to reapply for a casino in Barstow a mile from the Los Coyotes Casino location. Both tribes had originally applied for a casino in 2006 and were rejected by the Department of Interior in 2008.

“We have no opposition to the Chemehuevi,” Ramos said.

But former Barstow mayor Lawrence Dale said the city should be able to choose which tribe they prefer to work with.

“We have a tribe that we’re working with that have been friends to this community,” he said of Los Coyotes. The city participated in negotiations to bring the Los Coyotes to Barstow when Dale was the mayor.

Courtney eventually asked the group to move on to another topic and the discussion turned to how a 3rd District supervisor would be able to bring Barstow’s concerns to the county level.

“I knew coming out that I’m going to be asked these questions,” Ramos said.

Courtney said he will organize a similar meeting for any other supervisor candidates.

On behalf of the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeño Indians and our 328 members, I would like to extend my thanks and appreciation for your help and support on this important project.

The support you showed by attending the public hearing on our proposed casino is critical to our efforts to create much-needed jobs and economic development for the Tribe and the City of Barstow.

In the near future, we will be working closely with the city to focus our efforts towards Sacramento to convince Governor Brown to negotiate a new compact and asking the legislature to pass it. To keep informed on the process, please sign up as a supporter to  receive regular updates.

Again, thank you for your support. We look forward to working with you on this crucial economic development project.

Sincerely,

Shane Chapparosa
Tribal Spokesperson
Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeño Indians