San Diego Union-Tribune

By Chet Barfield
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

August 13, 1998

SAN DIEGO -- After months of hard-fought negotiations and internal dissent, all three San Diego-area gaming tribes have agreements with Gov. Pete Wilson on gambling compacts.

Now the focus shifts to the courthouse and the Legislature in regard to whether those agreements will keep a San Diego judge from shutting down the video slot machines that generate 80 percent of the tribal casinos' revenues.

Losing the machines would prompt the local tribes to lay off hundreds if not thousands of employees. It also would remove their economic ammunition in an ongoing battle over a hotly debated proposition on the November ballot.

Wilson signed compacts yesterday with San Diego's Barona and Sycuan Indian bands. Within days, aides said, he will sign a similar accord reluctantly approved Tuesday night by Viejas tribal members.

Signing with the San Diego tribes -- whose casinos, combined, are the largest and most successful in California -- is a victory for the governor. All 10 tribes that agreed in May to enter negotiations, under threat of federal enforcement, have now accepted versions of the controversial pilot accord Wilson signed in March with the Pala Indian band.

"The San Diego tribes have been important gaming tribes in the state," said Dan Kolkey, the governor's legal counsel and chief negotiator.

"Their decision to enter compacts which legally authorize their gaming operations while providing protections to their customers, employees and neighbors has been an important step forward in the state's efforts to bring tribal gaming into compliance with federal law."

Under the compacts, tribes can keep their video slots running, at current numbers, until they can be replaced with a new device authorized by the state, a lottery-style machine now in prototype form.

But, on the immediate horizon, Barona, Sycuan and Viejas still worry that a San Diego federal judge may move within weeks to remove their machines.

Federal forfeiture suits remain pending before Judge Marilyn Huff, who told attorneys July 30 that she would not consider tribal compacts valid unless they were ratified by state lawmakers.

The Legislature adjourns Aug. 31. Huff scheduled a hearing Sept. 2 and told prosecutors to have forfeiture motions filed by today.

Yesterday, the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego filed a five-page brief updating Huff on the compact signings.

Acting U.S. Attorney Charles La Bella and former U.S. Attorney Alan Bersin -- who continues to serve as a special assistant for this one case after moving on to superintendent of San Diego schools -- asked Huff to delay calling for forfeiture motions until after the Legislature adjourns, and to make that Sept. 2 date a status conference to discuss what has happened by then.

Viejas Tribal Chairman Anthony Pico, childing Wilson's lack of flexibility in negotiations, said his tribe accepted the compact under duress.

"We were resigned to the fact that there was no other option for us," Pico said. "We're just hoping this will keep us out of the courtroom."

Pico said Viejas will fight ratification of the Pala compact and its spinoff versions -- including Viejas' own -- in the Legislature.

Barona Tribal Chairman Clifford LaChappa said his tribe wants its accord approved.

"We feel that the compact we have signed today represents the good-faith negotiations on both sides of the table," LaChappa said in a prepared statement.

"The next step in the process is the ratification of the compact by the state Senate and the state Assembly. We hope that both of those milestones can be accomplished in the very near future."

Sycuan attorney George Forman said his client tribe, which helped defeat an Assembly committee's approval of the Pala compact in June, is now assessing which legislative tack to pursue in light of Huff's edict. Forman said it would depend on the language of whatever bill might be introduced.

For now, Forman said, Sycuan had no choice but to sign the only deal on the table.

"The tribe has always regarded the options that the Justice Department forced upon it as, to say the least, unpalatable," he said. "The tribe has chosen the option that enables the tribe to survive this latest crisis."

All three tribes, along with dozens of others in the state, are vigorously supporting Proposition 5, the ballot initiative that would legalize the tribal video slot machines now in play.

Compacts signed now would be superseded by the initiative if it passed and survived anticipated court challenges.

Link to: California's Modern Indian War

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