The political season is upon us once again but it seems that the mood of the people is different. The recent special election has been characterized as sending a message to Sacramento but opinions differ as to what that message was.

Clearly the people are unhappy with politicians in Sacramento. The recent budget crisis has inflamed the issues. Many of the problems, however, existed long before the current budget crisis.

It has been said that these politicians are out of touch with Main Street.

Oddly enough many of those politicians in Sacramento are happy there is a weak connection to the majority of their constituents because that disconnect serves as a shield for the special interest corruption that has taken over Sacramento.

 

Pay to play

The pay to play mentality has never been more prevalent than it is today. The historic special interests have been around a long time: unions, big business, medical and legal based associations, prison guards and a number of others.

The newest players are the handful of Indian casino groups, some with only one or two “tribal members,” many with questionable tribal identities and who have been allowed to build and operate full blown class III gambling casinos on land that is not eligible for Indian gambling under federal law.

On any given day you can see these casino Indians arriving in Sacramento in their private jet planes bearing gifts in the guise of political contributions to those willing legislators and officials with hands extended.

Just a few of the many, many examples have had direct impacts on local communities and more can be expected

When the voters approved Proposition 1A in March 2000, few understood that they were not just amending the Constitution, Art. 4, sec. 19, to authorize the governor to negotiate gambling compacts with federally recognized Indian tribes or bands.

Rather, the voter approval in effect ratified the 59 tribal-state compacts executed by Gov. Gray Davis without existing authority and approved by the legislators in October 1999.

 

Behind closed doors

The illegally operated Indian gambling casinos contributed millions to Gray Davis’ election for governor and to the passage of Proposition 5, a tribal-sponsored initiative to allow slot machines and some forms of casino gambling on existing Indian lands.

The 59 compacts negotiated behind closed doors between Gray Davis and the tribes were not only poorly worded and weak, but provided no revenue to the State of California.

All of the main power groups such as local government, environmental groups, law enforcement, consumer protection groups, worker protection groups, women’s rights groups, etc. all had no say during these secret negotiations.

The terms of those compacts are routinely ignored or violated, and the governor and attorney general who are charged with enforcing the applicable laws, terms and conditions of the compacts do nothing.

Former Attorney General Bill Lockyer never took any significant enforcement action against casinos or the illegal activities of tribal governments.

He did, however, take a million dollars in political contributions from casino tribes for his ill-fated campaign for governor, which never fully materialized.

Under these 59 giveaway compacts executed in 1999, the casino tribes were to pay a nominal amount of money into a special state trust fund.

This money, although woefully inadequate, was to mitigate the many negative impacts that gambling casinos have on every community in which they have been located.

 

Casino controls

When the legislature realized the compacts failed to define the mechanism to distribute these minimum funds to the impacted communities, they turned to the gambling tribes not local governments.

At the behest of casino tribes, a bill was introduced and passed that set up a local committee controlled by the very casino tribe causing the negative impacts, with the power to approve or deny any grant application local governments were required to submit in order to receive a gift or grant of funds.

Negatively impacted communities were, therefore, required to come, hat in hand, for a small grant to help mitigate the negative impacts to that community from the same Indian casino.

Last year, the National Indian Gaming Commission proposed a rule change for the third time in five years.

That federal agency is charged with regulating some aspects of Indian casino gambling. The proposed rule change would have reclassified the class II bingo-type slot machines to class III slot machines. That rule change would have been of great benefit to the State of California and other states.

Class III slot machines require any tribe operating them to have a tribal-state compact.

 

Friends in high places

The state of California and Gov. Schwarzenegger could have required these tribes, offering these machines for play like the casino at San Pablo, Calif., to pay significant money to the state and further to follow rules of operation established by the state in that compact.

At the 11th hour, state Senator Jim Battin from the Palm Springs area wrote a letter urging Commissioner Hogen and the National Indian Gaming Commission not to change the rule, and he got 20 other senators to sign that letter.

The rule was not changed.

So here is a state senator urging a federal agency not to change a rule that would have been a benefit to the state is supposed to represent.

Senator Battin has funneled thousands of dollars in Indian casino monies to his political colleagues in Sacramento through his “Friends of Jim Battin” committees, (lending new meaning to the expression “it pays to have friends”).

When his campaign financing practices ran afoul of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, he set up the “Jim Battin Defense Fund,” funded, of course, by Indian casino money.

This was done despite the fact that federal law does not allow proceeds from Indian gambling to be used for such purposes. [25 U.S.C. 2710(b)(2)(B)(i) through (v)].

Then there is the local example of the Santa Ynez Chumash who made a $13,000 contribution to Assemblyman Coto of San Jose to introduce a resolution to rename the San Marcos Pass Highway 154 the “Chumash Highway.”

This was ostensibly to honor the many villages of real Chumash Indians who populated Central California hundreds of years ago.

In reality, it was nothing more than an effort to get free advertising paving the way to their casino. After Coto introduced the resolution, it went to the Assembly Transportation Committee, chaired by Assemblyman Pedro Nava, where it was heard without even notice to this community or a Resolution of the County Board of Supervisors, as required by the California Streets and Highways Code for this type of highway “renaming.”

Nava got at least $9,500 from the Santa Ynez Chumash tribe the preceding year.

The resolution was heard in a small room with no recordings of the proceedings and sailed through without opposition.

The resolution was then introduced in the State Senate by then-Senator Tom McClintock, who got over $50,000 from the Santa Ynez Chumash and hundreds of thousands from other casino tribes when he ran for governor.

His opponent, Cruz Bustamonte, also got money, millions in Indian casino money.

Needless to say, the resolution sailed through the senate without opposition. The local community only found out what had happened when it appeared as a press release in local papers.

 

Williamson Act under siege

More recently, just after receiving $15,000 from the Santa Ynez Chumash, State Senator Dean Florez introduced a bill for the Chumash to allow them to buy up land in Santa Barbara County covered by Williamson Act contracts, which are intended to protect agriculture, limit commercial developments and urban sprawl.

The Chumash tribal government wanted the power to be able to ignore any existing Williamson Act contract and cancel it when they bought these lands.

The bill was opposed by the State Farm Bureau, the State Chamber of Commerce, Association of County Governments, Sierra Club, P.O.L.O., P.O.S.Y. and many others.

Fortunately, not one member of the Senate Government Affairs Committee supported the bill, and Senator Dave Cox stated at the conclusion: “We wouldn’t have considered this Bill for five minutes, and you wouldn’t have brought this bill but for the Santa Ynez Chumash.”

Evidently Cox knew about the contribution that the Chumash had made to Florez.

 

Out of control

Indian casino gambling in California is out of control.

Many highly questionable “tribal” governments have been authorized to open and operate gambling casinos on lands that are not eligible for such gambling operations.

That status as a federally “recognized” Indian entity allows them and the casinos and businesses to evade all of the property taxes, state income taxes and sales taxes and other taxes that are needed by state and local governments.

Those taxes could help pay for the public services and infrastructure used daily by these “tribes,” their casinos and other businesses.

It also entitles them to receive millions of dollars in welfare and grant money over and above the millions they make in profits.

The casinos and Indian businesses operate without complying with all of the state and local laws enacted over the years to protect customers and workers, thus leaving any customer or worker who enters, patronizes or works in those casinos and businesses with no legal rights at all.

Lastly, because of an outdated legal doctrine created by a series of case decisions, they cannot be sued for their misconduct and violations of law no matter how outrageous they are.

Given the fact that a handful of casino tribes have become THE biggest contributors to Sacramento politicians, it is unlikely this corruption will be eliminated by the next crop of politicians who seem bound to lose contact with Main Street when they go to Sacramento, but who will very likely open up their contacts with Indian casinos and other special interest groups all too willing to “pay to play.”

 

 

Jim Marino is a former police officer and local attorney who has practiced law in Santa Barbara County for 36 years. The past ten years he has been representing communities and groups all over California and advising communities all over the country on Indian gambling matters and the impacts of Indian casinos.