By James P. Sweeney, COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

Opponents of an expansive new gambling agreement for the Sycuan band welcomed a prominent new ally yesterday when San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob joined the fight with a letter urging the state to rework the deal.

Jacob, who represents the rural Dehesa Valley where Sycuan’s reservation is located, weighed in on the pending compact just before local residents and tribal leaders squared off before a Senate committee.

“We need a responsible compact, one that will take into consideration the tribe’s needs as well as the community’s needs,” Jacob said in an interview. “I’m not opposed to Sycuan getting a new compact, but this isn’t it I’m hoping the Legislature will send this back to the table.”

Jacob’s move could energize growing local opposition that distinguishes Sycuan from three other big gaming tribes with similar agreements pending before the Legislature. Organized labor, which also opposes Sycuan’s compact, is putting up the stiffest fight against the other agreements, which have drawn little local criticism.

Sycuan, a 142-member tribe near El Cajon, operates one of the state’s most successful casinos, grossing more than $200 million a year from 2,000 slot machines and dozens of table games.

An agreement negotiated last summer with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would permit the tribe to operate up to 3,000 more slots, for a total of 5,000. It also expressly authorizes a second casino on a large block of newly acquired land that includes the former Singing Hills Country Club.

Sycuan Chairman Danny Tucker initially declined to comment on Jacob’s letter, saying he had not seen it yet. Later, in an e-mail, Tucker said her “concerns appear to be based on misinformation spread by a very small group of individuals and misunderstandings by her staff.

“We are confident that when she actually reviews the facts her concerns will be alleviated and she will see that this compact includes exactly what she asked Sycuan to do,” Tucker said in the e-mail.

Jacob, a supporter of the March 2000 initiative that legalized Indian gambling in California, has enjoyed a warm rapport with Sycuan. In the seven months since the new compact was signed, she has met with leaders of the tribe and local residents.

Her four colleagues on the Board of Supervisors, as well as many other prominent local officials, have endorsed the compact that would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the powerful tribe. The state also would get a larger cut of gaming revenue with nearly $500 million guaranteed before the compact would expire in 2030.

In her letter, Jacob said Sycuan’s compact is a vast improvement over its original 1999 agreement negotiated with then-Gov. Gray Davis. Nonetheless, she questioned the “pre-authorization” of a second casino on land that could include the former country club, the environmental protections and the justification for 3,000 more slot machines.

She also questioned the level of regulatory oversight in light of a recent federal court decision that ruled the National Indian Gaming Commission has little, if any, authority to monitor most tribal casinos.

But the potential of a second casino at the country club is “the big fear” among local residents, Jacob said.

Sycuan’s existing compact authorizes two casinos. But tribes cannot build casinos on land that is not part of their reservation or otherwise held in trust by the federal government for the tribe. To build a casino at or near the Singing Hills site, the tribe would have to have the land taken into trust or added to its reservation, a process that could take years if even successful.

“The pre-authorization of a second casino on lands not currently held in trust – that’s prejudging a decision and a process that has not occurred yet,” Jacob said.

Regardless of the location, Jacob wrote, she continues to believe “the impacts of a second casino in the Dehesa Valley would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to mitigate.”

The letter was sent to Sen. Dean Florez, a Bakersfield Democrat who chairs the Governmental Organization Committee, just before the committee convened a hearing yesterday on the compacts for Sycuan, Pechanga of Temecula and San Manuel of San Bernardino County.

William Bengen of Residents Against Gaming Expansion, an East County coalition, asked why such a successful tribe needed another boost from “a massive increase in gaming.”

“We don’t see why, for the Sycuan band to achieve its piece of the American dream, ours should be destroyed in the process,” Bengen said.

But Tucker said Sycuan would never do anything to harm the valley it has long inhabited.

“This is our home,” Tucker told the committee. “We’ve been here for 12,000 years. We don’t want to destroy anything.”

© Copyright 2007 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

Posted on April 12th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Gaming