From The Columbian, Sunday, October 21, 2007:
In Our View: Avoidance 101
County commissioners, take a stand. If you listen closely -- very closely -- you can almost hear the whimpering, the indecision, the double-speak from Clark County commissioners as they sidestep any real stance on the controversial proposed Cowlitz Tribe casino just outside La Center.
Frankly, the oatmeal some of you might be enjoying as you read this has more boldness than this trio ...
>>Read the entire editorial.
>>Read other recent news about the MOU:
Third time is not the charm
Cowlitz casino strategy under fire
Court denies tribe's request
Tribe tries to "fix" MOU situation
>>Read about the invalid MOU.
>>Read about earlier MOU shenanigans.
>>Read about the secrets of the MOU.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Friday, October 19, 2007
Not so fast, Columbian!
An article in Thursday’s Columbian was headlined, “County leaders accept Cowlitz promises.” That’s a bit of an overstatement.
The story, about the Cowlitz gambling syndicate’s latest attempt to salvage its agreement with Clark County (see "Third time is not the charm," below), goes on to quote Commissioner Marc Boldt: “This is maybe a little better than nothing … I don’t know.”
It also quotes Commissioner Steve Stuart: “This whole issue is far from over. … I’m hopeful that they will address (the county’s 15-page list of) concerns so that we don’t have to take other action.”
Those are not ringing endorsements.
Only Commissioner Betty Sue Morris, who has been steadfast in her support of the casino project from the start, appeared comfortable with the situation: “I don’t know us to have turned down money from anybody who offered it as compensation for an impact.”
The question is not whether to accept compensation. The question is whether the proposed compensation is enough to cover the anticipated impacts.
The story, about the Cowlitz gambling syndicate’s latest attempt to salvage its agreement with Clark County (see "Third time is not the charm," below), goes on to quote Commissioner Marc Boldt: “This is maybe a little better than nothing … I don’t know.”
It also quotes Commissioner Steve Stuart: “This whole issue is far from over. … I’m hopeful that they will address (the county’s 15-page list of) concerns so that we don’t have to take other action.”
Those are not ringing endorsements.
Only Commissioner Betty Sue Morris, who has been steadfast in her support of the casino project from the start, appeared comfortable with the situation: “I don’t know us to have turned down money from anybody who offered it as compensation for an impact.”
The question is not whether to accept compensation. The question is whether the proposed compensation is enough to cover the anticipated impacts.
Third time is not the charm
The Cowlitz gambling syndicate has once again changed its tactics in an effort to demonstrate its cooperation with Clark County and facilitate the completion of its Environmental Impact Statement. This latest attempt consists of two tribal ordinances embodying agreements from the invalidated Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Clark County. They were sent Wednesday directly to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Indian Gaming Commission.
(If you’re keeping score, the first attempt was a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed with Clark County in 2004, and appealed by a Clark County landowner and the La Center card rooms. It was invalidated in June 2007 by a state Growth Management Hearings Board, which found the public had not been allowed input as required by state law. The second attempt was the syndicate’s attempt to fold the MOU into the tribe’s federal gaming ordinance. That would have put enforcement of local provisions under federal control. Federal decision-makers said it was a bad idea, and the syndicate withdrew its request Oct. 5. It claims the contents of the third iteration would be enforceable in state court.)
The lead architect of this third attempt told The Columbian earlier this week, “The benefit of it being unilateral is the boys at Perkins Coie can’t mess with it.” (The Perkins Coie law firm represents the landowner and card rooms that appealed the initial MOU.)
Two things seem clear: First, the Cowlitz gambling syndicate is not interested in having outside input into this agreement, which has far-reaching ramifications for the entire area. Second, the syndicate desperately needs this MOU. Thursday The Columbian reported, “(Commissioner Steve) Stuart said the Cowlitz seem to think the commissioners would have some influence over the casino’s approval.”
You got it, Steve. Now use your influence to do some good.
>> Read about the beginnings of the MOU
>> Check out our timeline and see the evolution of the MOU (in red text)
(If you’re keeping score, the first attempt was a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed with Clark County in 2004, and appealed by a Clark County landowner and the La Center card rooms. It was invalidated in June 2007 by a state Growth Management Hearings Board, which found the public had not been allowed input as required by state law. The second attempt was the syndicate’s attempt to fold the MOU into the tribe’s federal gaming ordinance. That would have put enforcement of local provisions under federal control. Federal decision-makers said it was a bad idea, and the syndicate withdrew its request Oct. 5. It claims the contents of the third iteration would be enforceable in state court.)
The lead architect of this third attempt told The Columbian earlier this week, “The benefit of it being unilateral is the boys at Perkins Coie can’t mess with it.” (The Perkins Coie law firm represents the landowner and card rooms that appealed the initial MOU.)
Two things seem clear: First, the Cowlitz gambling syndicate is not interested in having outside input into this agreement, which has far-reaching ramifications for the entire area. Second, the syndicate desperately needs this MOU. Thursday The Columbian reported, “(Commissioner Steve) Stuart said the Cowlitz seem to think the commissioners would have some influence over the casino’s approval.”
You got it, Steve. Now use your influence to do some good.
>> Read about the beginnings of the MOU
>> Check out our timeline and see the evolution of the MOU (in red text)
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Syndicate misrepresents Clark jobs situation
A newsletter sent today by the Cowlitz gambling syndicate seriously misleads readers by making much of some recent news saying that Clark County has the highest unemployment rate among counties lining the Interstate 5 corridor. It uses that snippet of information to assert that “many residents of Clark and surrounding counties would benefit” from the jobs the proposed Cowlitz casino-resort would bring.
The syndicate is taking advantage of an aberration. Yes, the August unemployment rates put Clark County at 6.4 percent, Cowlitz County at 6.1 percent and Lewis County at 6.3 percent. (See the data from the state Employment Security Department.) But between January 2005 and August 2007, Clark County had the lowest unemployment rate of the three counties for 28 out of the total 32 months.
In fact, Clark County was featured in February in The Seattle Times for showing the state’s hottest job growth over a couple of years with a 16 percent employment increase through the end of 2006.
Clark is not a county that needs a casino for job growth—particularly when it comes with food-stamp wages. (The average county wage is $37,200. The average casino wage would be, according to the Environmental Impact Statement, $28,000—with the lowest wages being in the teens.) Moreover, the other counties would provide more affordable housing to potential workers: In the second quarter of 2007, Clark County’s median home price was $277,900, while Cowlitz County’s was $182,900 and Lewis County’s was $195,000.
The syndicate is taking advantage of an aberration. Yes, the August unemployment rates put Clark County at 6.4 percent, Cowlitz County at 6.1 percent and Lewis County at 6.3 percent. (See the data from the state Employment Security Department.) But between January 2005 and August 2007, Clark County had the lowest unemployment rate of the three counties for 28 out of the total 32 months.
In fact, Clark County was featured in February in The Seattle Times for showing the state’s hottest job growth over a couple of years with a 16 percent employment increase through the end of 2006.
Clark is not a county that needs a casino for job growth—particularly when it comes with food-stamp wages. (The average county wage is $37,200. The average casino wage would be, according to the Environmental Impact Statement, $28,000—with the lowest wages being in the teens.) Moreover, the other counties would provide more affordable housing to potential workers: In the second quarter of 2007, Clark County’s median home price was $277,900, while Cowlitz County’s was $182,900 and Lewis County’s was $195,000.
Casino opposition is deep and wide
Whoever is doing the writing for the Cowlitz gambling syndicate has narrowly framed the casino opponents as “some wealthy business interests, card rooms, and an Oregon tribe … .”
That description on a Web page exhorting people to take action in support of the casino overlooks the thousands of area residents from all backgrounds that CARS represents. They have expressed dozens of different reasons why they do not want a massive casino-resort in Clark County. Their concerns include:
That description on a Web page exhorting people to take action in support of the casino overlooks the thousands of area residents from all backgrounds that CARS represents. They have expressed dozens of different reasons why they do not want a massive casino-resort in Clark County. Their concerns include:
- How it would affect Interstate traffic, especially over the I-5 Bridge.
- Gambling addiction—their own and others’.
- The impact this massive development would have on local waterways and the fish in them.
- How casino workers earning food-stamp wages would support their families.
- Where 3,000 casino-resort workers—many of them new to the area—would live.
- How the presence of another restaurant and retail mall, hotel, convention center, and event arena would affect local businesses.
- Whether the presence of this casino-resort would deter future development.
- The demand it would put on social service agencies.
- The impact it would have on local schools.
CARS encourages you to send a note to officials, at the local, state and federal levels, so they continue to feel your concerns about this proposed development.
Gambling syndicate changes strategy
The Cowlitz gambling syndicate—Seattle developer David Barnett and the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut, together with their legal and public relations team—has dropped its effort to stuff the contents of the Cowlitz Tribe’s now-invalid Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Clark County into a federal gaming ordinance.
The announcement last Friday came just three days before the National Indian Gaming Commission was scheduled to release a decision on the proposal.
Top officials with the U.S. Department of the Interior had asked the tribe to find a better solution, because that plan would have taken enforcement of local provisions out of local hands and placed it under federal control.
According to a front-page story in the Oct. 7 Columbian, the tribe plans to “submit ‘a refined and strengthened’ plan but offered no specifics as to what form that plan would take” or when it would appear.
The Cowlitz gambling syndicate needs the contents of the MOU for three reasons: The MOU contained the county’s pledge to provide services, such as water and law enforcement, to the proposed casino site; the MOU was an integral part of the casino-resort’s Environmental Impact Statement, which is under review; and federal decision-makers look to the existence of MOUs as an important indicator of local support.
Reporter Jeff Mize’s story, which is based entirely on the statement released Friday and the contents of earlier stories, included a dig at the casino’s opposition, saying, “Wealthy business interests, the Grand Ronde Tribe of Oregon and the La Center cardrooms are spending millions of dollars to create bureaucratic and litigation roadblocks for the Cowlitz Tribe and the people of Clark County.”
Had Mize sought reaction from another source, such as an opposition group, he might have added that groups such as CARS are striving to block this project but not to cause harm to the Cowlitz Tribe or to Clark County. The goal of CARS is to protect the quality of life in this area. (See "Why you should care" on our Web site.)
The biggest roadblock the Cowlitz Tribe is experiencing is the gambling syndicate’s insistence on pursuing a reservation and casino at the La Center junction—close to the lucrative Portland market—rather than in the tribe’s aboriginal homeland in Lewis County.
>> Read about the alternate site idea.
The announcement last Friday came just three days before the National Indian Gaming Commission was scheduled to release a decision on the proposal.
Top officials with the U.S. Department of the Interior had asked the tribe to find a better solution, because that plan would have taken enforcement of local provisions out of local hands and placed it under federal control.
According to a front-page story in the Oct. 7 Columbian, the tribe plans to “submit ‘a refined and strengthened’ plan but offered no specifics as to what form that plan would take” or when it would appear.
The Cowlitz gambling syndicate needs the contents of the MOU for three reasons: The MOU contained the county’s pledge to provide services, such as water and law enforcement, to the proposed casino site; the MOU was an integral part of the casino-resort’s Environmental Impact Statement, which is under review; and federal decision-makers look to the existence of MOUs as an important indicator of local support.
Reporter Jeff Mize’s story, which is based entirely on the statement released Friday and the contents of earlier stories, included a dig at the casino’s opposition, saying, “Wealthy business interests, the Grand Ronde Tribe of Oregon and the La Center cardrooms are spending millions of dollars to create bureaucratic and litigation roadblocks for the Cowlitz Tribe and the people of Clark County.”
Had Mize sought reaction from another source, such as an opposition group, he might have added that groups such as CARS are striving to block this project but not to cause harm to the Cowlitz Tribe or to Clark County. The goal of CARS is to protect the quality of life in this area. (See "Why you should care" on our Web site.)
The biggest roadblock the Cowlitz Tribe is experiencing is the gambling syndicate’s insistence on pursuing a reservation and casino at the La Center junction—close to the lucrative Portland market—rather than in the tribe’s aboriginal homeland in Lewis County.
>> Read about the alternate site idea.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
