[env-trinity] Gaming compacts win federal OK ahead of statewide vote

[Tom Stokely]

        http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20071201/news_1n1compacts.html

      Gaming compacts win federal OK ahead of statewide vote
       
      4 tribes' deals could take effect early next week 

      By James P. Sweeney
      COPLEY NEWS SERVICE 

      December 1, 2007 

      SACRAMENTO – In a stunning development, the controversial gambling agreements for four Southern California Indian tribes, including Sycuan of El Cajon, have been approved by the U.S. Interior Department. 



      AdvertisementAs a result, the multibillion-dollar deals could take effect early next week, even though all face a statewide vote on the Feb. 5 ballot. 
      That has already prompted a tangle of legal questions that those close to the situation have only begun to ponder. 

      “I'm not in a position to assess what it means,” George Forman, an attorney for Sycuan and another of the tribes, Morongo of Riverside County, said late yesterday. “We are sailing in uncharted waters at high speed.” 

      But another prominent tribal attorney said the four compacts were “not ripe” for federal consideration, a factor that opponents could use in any bid to rescind the federal approval. 

      “To those who are telling you the referenda are moot, I would say not so fast,” said attorney Scott Crowell, who represents the Rincon band of north San Diego County. 

      Two tribes that are opposed to the compacts, a casino workers union and two horse tracks collected nearly 3 million signatures to qualify four separate referendums that could overturn state legislation that ratified the deals. 

      The compacts offer expanded gambling for Sycuan and Morongo, as well as Pechanga of Temecula and Agua Caliente of Palm Springs. The four tribes, which operate a total of 8,000 slot machines, collectively could add 17,000 slots in casinos that would be among the world's largest. 

      The ballot measures are expected to be the subject of one of the most expensive campaigns in state history. The two sides have already raised and spent $30 million dollars, most of it by the four tribes with new compacts. 

      Despite the pending ballot measures, Secretary of State Debra Bowen submitted the compacts to the Interior Department on Sept. 5, even though the ratification bills won't take effect until Jan. 1. 

      A spokeswoman for Bowen said she was simply following the office's “ministerial” duties outlined in a government code. 

      California tribes typically submit compacts to the Interior Department on their own, and tribal officials said they were surprised by Bowen's move. 

      Federal law gives the Department of Interior just three options when a compact is formally submitted: It can approve or reject it within 45 days; if it does neither, a compact is “deemed” approved under federal law. 

      The four compacts “have been deemed approved and there will be a notice in the Federal Register early next week,” Nedra Darling, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, confirmed late yesterday. 

      Federal law says that compacts “shall take effect” when notice of approval by the secretary of the interior “has been published . . . in the Federal Register.” 

      Darling said she could not explain why the compacts were approved before state legislation ratifying the deals had taken effect, much less before a scheduled statewide vote. 

      But it appears that federal officials wrestled with the delicate situation for at least the past month. 

      Bowen submitted the four compacts on the same day she sent in a compact for the Yurok tribe of Northern California. The Yurok compact, a small and relatively uncontroversial gambling agreement, was deemed approved by the Interior Department a month ago. Notification was published Nov. 2 in the Federal Register. 

      A spokeswoman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who negotiated the agreements, called the unexpected development “good news.” 

      “The governor believes that these compacts are strong and that this action by the federal government upholds the validity of the compacts,” Sabrina Lockhart said. 

      However, the administration was assessing the many legal questions, including what it might mean for the pending ballot measures, Lockhart said. 

      “We are pleased that the federal government has approved the Pechanga compact,” Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro said. “This approval reaffirms the validity of this comprehensive government agreement.” 

      Al Lundeen, spokesman for the campaign to overturn the compacts, said that despite uncertainty over legal issues, voters should still have the right to vote on the agreements. 

      “We have the right to the referendum process in California,” Lundeen said. “It certainly would be against the intent of the constitution to deny us of that right.”

     
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