San Diego Union-Tribune
By Chet Barfield
STAFF WRITER
May 19, 1998
BARONA INDIAN RESERVATION -- In a stunning turnaround, Barona has agreed to enter talks with Gov. Pete Wilson for a gambling agreement modeled after the one signed by the North County's Pala Indian band.
The move eliminates any imminent threat of layoffs at the Lakeside-area Barona Casino.
By reversing a stand taken one week ago, Barona is now off the list of 28 California tribes that face losing their video gambling machines to the federal government. Sycuan remains the only one of San Diego County's three gaming tribes being sued by U.S. Attorney Alan Bersin.
Viejas avoided a forfeiture lawsuit last week by agreeing to a compact patterned after one signed March 6 by Pala and the governor. Pala, which has no casino, took 17 months to negotiate a sweeping agreement that for the first time regulates casino gambling on California Indian reservations.
By agreeing to consider a similar accord, Barona can keep its casino operations running unhindered throughout 60 days of negotiations. Tribes agreeing to a compact have up to a year to convert their video slot machines to new lottery-style devices.
"We are sincerely trying to come to a truce with the state and move forward," Barona Chairman Clifford LaChappa said in a prepared statement. "We have deep reservations about the Pala compact, but . . . (remain) cautiously optimistic that we can negotiate an agreement that will be good for Barona.
"Signing the letter of intent . . . protects our future, our culture, tribal dignity and our more than 1,100 employees."
Although tribal members soundly rejected the Pala compact option May 12, Barona leaders scheduled a second vote Friday after efforts to block the Justice forfeiture suits failed. The suits would compel the tribes to surrender their machines.
The second vote reversed the rejection by a 2-1 margin, about the same ratio as the vote to reject, Barona tribal members said.
The governor's chief legal counsel, Daniel Kolkey, said that Barona faxed a notice of acceptance late Friday night and that negotiations should get under way soon.
"I am anxious to sit down with the tribes that have expressed an interest in entering the Pala compact," he said. "My hope is that it can be next week."
The door may remain open another day or two for Sycuan and the other 27 tribes being sued.
"The deadline is passed," Kolkey said, "but the state will respond in good faith to well-grounded requests."
Sources in the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego expressed delight at Barona's reversal. They said that motions will be filed tomorrow with Judge Marilyn Huff and that by then it will be too late for Sycuan to avoid forfeiture action.
Huff has scheduled a hearing June 12. That is the soonest she might order Sycuan to turn off or surrender its 375 machines.
Sycuan officials could not be reached for comment yesterday. As recently as Friday they had said the tribe had no intention of changing its mind, even though without machines the El Cajon-area Sycuan Gaming Center would be hard-pressed to compete with Barona and Viejas.
U.S. attorneys in the state's three other federal districts said yesterday that none of the other tribes facing forfeitures had expressed interest in the Pala accord. All the prosecutors were aware of Barona's decision and hoped that it might prompt similar last-minute moves by other tribes.
But Sycuan's Danny Tucker, who heads an association of the state's gaming tribes, said Barona's decision -- which he termed "disappointing" -- is not likely to be duplicated.
Most California tribes -- gaming and nongaming -- consider the Pala compact an intrusion on their sovereignty and "are not going to sign this thing," Tucker said.
At the Barona reservation yesterday, some tribal members were angry and frustrated by the change in vote.
"To me, it was a political move, which it shouldn't have been," said a 27-year-old member. "It should have been more from the heart. We're losing a part of our sovereignty just by signing the letter."
But a 41-year-old tribal member said Barona can keep pushing for a better compact if it does not lose its machines and 80 percent of its revenues.
"I just saw this as the best option," he said. "It buys time."
For Barona Casino employees, who have been on edge for weeks, the tribal vote means that they will probably keep their jobs -- for now.
"It takes a little bit of the pressure off," said a video change vendor. "We've got 60 days to build up what we have, or get ready for unemployment."
Leaders of some tribes in the region criticized Barona for rescinding its vote.
"They're running away from a sinking ship instead of fighting there with us and for us; that's not right," said Catherine Saubel, chairwoman of the Los Coyotes Indian band, a nongaming tribe near Warner Springs.
Mark Macarro, chairman of the Temecula-area Pechanga Indian band, said Barona's defection makes it harder for gaming tribes such as his to stand united in upcoming legal and political battles.
But he noted that San Diego-area tribes are up against Judge Huff, who is considered one of the state's toughest federal judges on Indian gaming.
Pala tribal officials offered mild praise for Barona's turnaround, calling it the kind of decision each tribe must make for itself.
Pala Vice Chairman King Freeman said he hopes that Barona, Viejas and other tribes entering the process can get the best deal possible.
"We opened the door," he said. "We negotiated with a governor that didn't want it . . . and we did the best we could do to get it signed. Now it's up to everybody to try to change what they didn't like and get it amended."
Link to: California's Modern Indian War