By Art Campos, Sacramento Bee
Insulted by perceived mistreatment from Roseville, the American Indian tribe planning a gaming casino in Placer County has withdrawn from a potential agreement that would have given the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in benefits.
The pullout was made on Tuesday – a day before the Roseville City Council was scheduled to vote on a memorandum of understanding with the United Auburn Indian Community, a tribe of 160 Maidu and Miwok Indians.
The Roseville council, after learning the memorandum was no longer "on the table," voted 5-0 to oppose a tribal casino "in the vicinity of Roseville."
More than a dozen speakers asked the council for an anti-casino vote. No one from the council or public spoke in favor of a casino, but one speaker, Nate Chandler, warned that the battle may not be over.
"Tribal gaming is a $6.7 billion industry." The president of Citizens for Safer Communities told the council. "You’re going to be fighting a lot of money."
The tribe’s decision to pull the agreement means none of the three cities nearest to the proposed casino site – will derive any benefits or mitigations from the tribe.
Last week, the Lincoln City Council rejected millions of dollars in inducements by voting down an agreement that would have allowed the proposed casino to hook up to the city’s water and sewer lines.
Also last week, the Rocklin City Council, which had sought no mitigations, approved a resolution of opposition to a casino near its borders.
Despite the opposition from the surrounding cities, tribal spokesmen say the tribe will press forward with its efforts to have the 200,000-square-foot casino built on 58 acres of unincorporated land at Athens and Industrial avenues near Highway 65.
The only local government agency that has signed an agreement with the tribe is Placer County. Despite disapproving of gambling in the area, supervisors were convinced the tribe will likely get approval from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The county’s agreement calls for the tribe to pay for a new road segment west of Industrial Avenue, extending Sunset Avenue to Athens Avenue. Another benefit includes improvements for Fiddyment Road.
The tribe also will pay $458,089 annually for the county to add five sheriff’s deputies to patrol in an around the casino and another $450,000 to build a fire station and to hire a fire captain and one firefighter. The tribe then would pay that sum annually for five services.
Roseville had been in line to gain a one-time payment of $300,000 from the tribe for realignment of Fiddyment Road and annual payments of $200,000 for a Maidu Regional Park Interpretive Center, $30,000 to a Roseville Chamber of Commerce to promote tourism, and $150,000 to support at-risk youth programs.
But Roseville learned of the Indians’ withdrawal in a letter from Howard Dickstein, attorney for the tribe.
In his letter, Dickstein said that the Indians offered benefits and mitigations to Roseville as a neighborly gesture but that "the tribe’s good faith has not been reciprocated by city officials, whose positions seem to change on an almost daily basis."
Dickstein wrote that the tribe was "particularly appalled" by Roseville Mayor Harry Crabb’s statement at a Rocklin City Council meeting last week that "there were no negotiations" being conducted concerning a proposed agreement between Roseville and the tribe.
Dickstein said Crabb’s assertion "was simply not true."
"Misrepresentations of this type are only too familiar to Indian tribes," Dickstein wrote.
Crabb said Wednesday that his remarks in Rocklin may have been misunderstood by the tribe.
"I have to remind them that the comment I made is that there was no elected official in Roseville who had approved a memorandum of understanding with the tribe," Crabb said." That was the intent, but I could have said it some way different than that."
Dickstein said in his letter that there have been other statements made at other recent meetings that have upset tribal members, including a remark that the tribe has strengthened itself "through intermarriage."
At some point you have to say enough is enough," Dickstein said Wednesday. "The tribe doesn’t need this agreement with Roseville. The tribe is getting nothing from them."
Dickstein’s letter irritated Roseville City Councilman Earl Rush, who although opposed to a casino near the city limits, has favored having an agreement in place that would mitigate its impact on Roseville.
"It’s really upsetting to me where they take the position that the city is picking on them. I don’t see it that way. I met with their consultants and their tribal leaders and I was favorably impressed," Rush said.
"If they’re upset because someone made a statement at the podium," he said, "well, that’s what happens to us every meeting. There are attacks on the council, attacks on people with projects."
Copyright © 1999, Sacramento Bee
