Will the Mystery Guests Please Sign In?
Mayor Jim Irish will lead a workshop in La Center Wednesday night to lay groundwork
for getting rid of a resolution the city council approved three years ago, officially placing the city on record in opposition to a Cowlitz casino.
For whatever reason, Irish has become fixated with the resolution opposing the casino, and wants it off of the books. Why? Well, now he's got a city council that just might do it. The reason? He actually told a reporter last month that a group of businessmen had approached him saying they want to begin doing business at the La Center junction with Interstate 5, but not if the anti-casino resolution remains. Now, this is very curious for a couple of reasons: First, the mayor won't name the businessmen. And second, there is nothing apparent about the existing resolution that would discourage new business from coming to the junction. Nothing. Nada.
That might be enough to send amateur sleuths looking for another reason the mayor wants to get rid of the opposition resolution. Could it be that if the reconstituted city council got rid of the annoying resolution approved by the old anti-casino council, it might get the Bureau of Indian Affairs thinking La Center is now open to the idea of a casino?
But how many times has our mayor declared that he doesn't want an Indian casino, so that doesn't sound right. ...even if he does regularly support pro-casino positions and developer initiatives. So what are we to believe?
If we just want to "talk" to the Cowlitz Tribe, maybe to negotiate something, is it good strategy to give them what they want even before we begin talking? Jim?
The question before the council is this -- do we really want a mega-casino out by our Interstate? If not, let's keep the opposition resolution. After all, we'll never know the names of those phantom business people, anyway.
