By Chet Barfield
and James P. Sweeney
STAFF WRITERS
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
May 22, 1998
SYCUAN INDIAN RESERVATION -- Facing economic ruin and an unsympathetic judge, the last and most defiant of San Diego County's three gaming tribes has reversed course and agreed to consider a controversial gambling accord.
Members of the Sycuan band of Kumeyaay Indians voted Wednesday night to open talks with the state for a modified version of the compact signed in March by the North County's Pala Indian band.
The vote followed an emotional five-hour meeting at which U.S. Attorney Alan Bersin explained the tribe's options.
"We make this choice under the imminent threat of forced closure of our gaming business," Chairwoman Georgia Tucker wrote in a letter to Attorney General Dan Lungren.
Sycuan joins Viejas and Barona in taking a bitter route to the bargaining table and, in the meantime, being allowed to keep their casinos running. Twenty-six California tribes that snubbed the Pala compact face losing their gaming machines in forfeiture lawsuits by the federal government.
Just two weeks ago, Sycuan tribal leaders vowed to go down fighting rather than consider the Pala accord, which most California tribes oppose as unduly intrusive and threatening to tribal sovereignty.
But on May 13, the deadline set by U.S. attorneys, Viejas announced it was taking the Pala option, hoping to renegotiate objectionable provisions of the accord.
Bersin filed forfeiture suits against Barona and Sycuan. Within 36 hours, Barona tribal members did an about-face and agreed to compact negotiations.
With its competitors keeping their video machines, Sycuan leaders knew their casino would be doomed with only bingo and card games.
They also knew they were up against federal Judge Marilyn Huff, considered one of the toughest in California on Indian gaming. Sycuan believed Huff was eager to order its machines shut down or seized, probably at the first hearing June 12.
Those two factors, combined with Bersin's personal appeal, made Sycuan relent.
"We have been assured by U.S. Attorney Alan Bersin that there will be genuine negotiations," Chairwoman Tucker said in a prepared statement. "This will give us direct, government-to-government talks with the state of California to reach a fair and equitable compact."
Bersin yesterday praised Sycuan's decision.
"I'm gratified that Sycuan will continue its gaming in a lawful framework, and that the great strides . . . and contributions that Sycuan has made to San Diego will continue," he said.
Getting all three tribes to accept compact negotiations was a major coup for Bersin, who has a unique rapport with tribes in his district, which covers San Diego and Imperial counties.
It also leaves a gaping hole in opposition to the Pala compact. Danny Tucker, who heads an association of California's 39 gaming tribes, is a Sycuan member and former chairman. He did not return calls yesterday.
Bersin went to the three reservations in 1994 and negotiated a "handshake agreement" deferring enforcement so long as the tribes did not add any machines.
The three tribes have been told that they can reinstall the 16 percent of their machines they removed last August and September as a good-faith gesture at Bersin's insistence.
Patricia Prochaska, whose San Francisco law firm represents Sycuan and 12 other California tribes, said San Diego tribes are "in a unique situation," both in their relationship with Bersin and their dim prospects before Judge Huff.
The 10 tribes in the Los Angeles-area district of U.S. Attorney Nora Manella, for example, will plead their upcoming forfeiture cases before Judge Spencer Letts, who refused months ago to grant Manella a restraining order forcing tribes to shut down their machines.
Huff, in contrast, moved immediately to convene a status hearing on the forfeiture motions against Barona and Sycuan. Observers believed harsh action by Huff could be used by U.S. attorneys in the other districts where tribes are being sued for their machines.
Though Sycuan, Barona and Viejas embraced the compact talks reluctantly, reserving rights to negotiate modifications, those close to the situation were encouraged that they would be sitting down with the state.
"The tribes have not been talking to the governor," said one attorney. "The most embittered enemies, sometimes when they are actually in a room with each other, they discover that it's not so bad."
U.S. attorneys in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento said they had not heard from any other gambling tribes expressing interest in the Pala accord. At least one Northern California tribe, however, was known to be reconsidering its position.
With Sycuan's unexpected about-face, attention turned to the big gaming tribes to the north, such as Pechanga, San Manuel and Morongo, which operate some of the largest casinos in the state. All three rejected the Pala compact and are facing federal forfeiture actions.
Jerome Levine, an attorney who represents Pechanga and San Manuel, said neither is likely to reconsider. "Whatever the tribes in San Diego did, it appears that they did that with a gun at their head," he said.
On the Sycuan reservation yesterday, tribal members had mixed reactions to the tough choice they'd made.
"We didn't take it lightly," said Sharon Beasley, 23. "Our decision doesn't only affect our reservation. It affects tribes all over the state.
"We may not like the Pala compact. We may not like what we get in the end. But at least we can get to the bargaining table."