Deals, deals and more deals

Clark County is revving up to make a new deal with the Cowlitz gambling syndicate.

County Commission Chairwoman Betty Sue Morris acknowledged Jan. 29 that the 2004 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which was struck before the syndicate had revealed its plans for a casino at the La Center junction, is “pretty much shot.” (It has twice been declared invalid.)

The syndicate has been working hard to mollify the county. It got the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) to approve tribal ordinances containing stipulations similar to the MOU, although the NIGC then wrote that it could not vouch for their enforceability. Last week, Cowlitz Chairman John Barnett sent Morris a letter attempting to assure the county: Rest easy, the ordinances are irrevocable. Many legal minds disagree.

A few weeks earlier, though, Barnett had sent the commissioners a letter with a different tone. He insisted that the MOU is alive and well, and that the county had better not terminate it. He also said the tribe would be unwilling to negotiate a new agreement.

The fact is, the syndicate needs an MOU. Desperately. A Jan. 3 memorandum released by the Department of the Interior regarding some tribal land/casino requests says that federal decision-makers are taking note of “jurisdictional problems.” The memo says applications should include copies of intergovernmental agreements (MOUs), and, “Failure to achieve such agreements should weigh heavily against the approval of the application.”

Quick recap: The 2004 MOU is not in force. Section 16 of the document says it does not go into effect till the land is taken into trust—a federal action that is still a long way off. Secondly, the MOU is dead. It should stay that way. As CARS has written many times, the terms of the old MOU would not mitigate all of the damage this casino would do.

Our county commissioners are free to do the right thing for their constituents. In our view, that means leave the MOU in its grave. Commissioners Marc Boldt and Steve Stuart have already declared their opposition to the casino. Now they need to act on that. Letting go of the MOU would help ensure that the casino-resort never comes to Clark County.

An open letter to Representative Brian Baird (D-Wash.)

Dear Representative Baird:

We were pleased to read your comments in Tuesday’s Columbian acknowledging the problems faced by communities where tribes want to locate their casinos. You are quoted saying, “The deck is so stacked right now, in terms of process, against the local community.”

Later in the story, you describe the federal process: “It’s too complicated; it’s not transparent … I think it’s biased in terms of the agencies making the decisions in a quasi-advocacy role.”

We can attest to all of that and more -- including a lack of predictability and the failure to provide non-tribal citizens timely information about the so-called process.

Back in 2004, when the Board of Clark County Commissioners signed off on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Cowlitz Tribe, they had no inkling that within days the Cowlitz gambling syndicate would apply for initial reservation status. That removed the federal stipulation that before approving new land for gaming, the Secretary of the Interior would have to determine that a casino would not be detrimental to surrounding communities -- and the governor would make the final decision.

Then, in 2005, the syndicate quietly applied for restored lands status -- another way to take away the no-detriment requirement and the governor’s right to decide. Although many concerned citizens submitted information, comments that ran contrary to the tribe's submissions were barely considered in the restored lands opinion written by the National Indian Gaming Commission.

In the case of the MOU, negotiators for the gambling syndicate worked with the county commissioners but did not enable public involvement in the process, as required by law. As it turns out, that has caused them no end of trouble, because the MOU has been invalidated twice due to the lack of public participation.

Other concerns

Representative Baird, your other comments reflect many of our concerns about this proposed project:

• The proposed facility is enormous.
• Gambling is addictive.
• Gambling is not an effective means of building an economy.
• The site proposed for the casino would be better used for industry.
• A casino could have serious negative impacts on north Clark County.

We appreciate and share your concerns, and encourage you to do whatever you can to give greater voice to communities facing casino proposals.

Sincerely,
Citizens Against Reservation Shopping

>> Read the full story: “Indian gambling law stacks deck against communities, Baird says”

Tribal ordinances are a faulty solution

The National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) has approved the Cowlitz gambling syndicate's most recent and most feeble attempt to replace its intergovernmental agreement (MOU) with Clark County.

And our county commissioners never took a public stand.

You might recall that the 2004 intergovernmental agreement -- Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) -- between the tribe and the county was invalidated in June by a state growth board, and that the decision was reconfirmed in December in Thurston County Superior Court. The syndicate then attempted to insert the language of the MOU into its federal gaming ordinance, but federal decision-makers nixed that idea.

The syndicate's latest request was for the NIGC to accept ordinances approved by the tribe. These ordinances, which the NIGC approved Tuesday, are problematic. In addition to being unsatisfactory (as was the initial MOU), they are unilateral, although the gambling syndicate claims they will protect the county.

Additionally, they might not be enforceable. Even in his approval letter the NIGC chairman writes, "the issues concerning enforceability are not properly addressed here." It is possible that new tribal leadership would not have to comply with ordinances written under its predecessors, making it a particularly bad deal for the county.

A true agreement is vital

Having an intergovernmental agreement is vital to the syndicate's request to have land taken into trust for gambling, according to guidelines issued Jan. 3 by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). To date, the gambling syndicate has only its tribal ordinances, which do not constitute an intergovernmental agreement.

Why did our county commissioners not weigh in on this issue, which could affect how Clark County interacts with the Cowlitz gambling syndicate in perpetuity?

Contact information for your Clark County commissioners:
Marc.Boldt@clark.wa.gov
Bettysue.Morris@clark.wa.gov
Steve.Stuart@clark.wa.gov
(360) 397-2232

Read the Longview Daily News article.

Read about the beginnings of the MOU.

Read about the county's backroom casino dealing.

Read about the June invalidation of the MOU.

Read about the county commissioners' decision to appeal the MOU's invalidation.

Read about the December MOU appeal hearing.

Check out our timeline and see the evolution of the MOU.