California lawmakers, tribal officials decry deadline

Thursday, Nov. 13, 1997 | 10:41 a.m.

"Indian gaming has become a strong economic engine," state Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, said Wednesday. "It has taken people off of welfare and into jobs; it has revitalized communities both on the reservation and off; it has replaced illiteracy with education; it has replaced substance abuse with treatment; it has replaced poverty with prosperity."

U.S. attorneys have informed California tribes that they must reach casino operation agreements with the state by March 31, or face enforcement actions by federal regulators.

If the tribes fail to reach the agreements, they would have until May 1 to remove their lucrative video slot machines, which state and federal officials say are illegal under state law.

By March 15, the tribes are supposed to confirm that they will adhere to that schedule -- or, again, they may face enforcement actions.

Officials have said the enforcement actions would avoid confrontational moves such as seizing games or arresting people.

In a related matter, a federal judge in Los Angeles this month turned down prosecutors' request for a permanent injunction to ban certain casino-like games at gambling halls on eight Indian reservations in Southern California.

U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts rejected the request last week. It was the second time the U.S. Attorney's office had sought an injunction to halt such games as video slots and black jack.

In October, the judge also rejected a preliminary injunction against the reservation casinos, mostly in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

While U.S. Attorney Nora Manella in Los Angeles has been aggressive in pushing for removal of the machines, federal prosecutors in Sacramento and San Diego have been willing to wait out the negotiations.

The judge's decision "reflects a growing tide of legal, law enforcement and political opinion that there should be one rule for the state's policy -- that gaming tribes should be able to negotiate with the state for a gaming agreement," the Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Nations said in a statement Wednesday.

At the state Capitol news conference on the issue Wednesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers sided with Polanco including Sens. Cathie Wright, R-Simi Valley; Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles; and Barbara Lee, D-Oakland; and Assemblymembers Tom McClintock, R-Simi Valley; Martha Escutia, D-Huntington Park; and Tony Cardenas, D-Pocoima.

"I don't believe you can mandate to the governor and the negotiating Indian tribes from the judiciary," Wright said. "Their action should come after any agreement has been reached."

Lee called the U.S. Attorney offices demands "a hostile act."

"We know both the federal government and the state governments are promoting self-sufficiency and self-empowerment," she said. "It makes no sense, when you have a group of people which has proven it knows how to become empowered ... to interfere in that activity."

The administration of Gov. Pete Wilson and the tribes are in the fourth month of negotiations over the number and types of games tribes can offer. The tribes say they are sovereign nations and should not be told what they can and cannot do on their reservations.

But under the federal laws which permitted Indians to operate casinos, they may only offer games which are already legal in the states where they are located.

California does not permit the types of games at issue, going so far as to strike down the California Lottery's Keno game on similar grounds.

More than 13,000 of the devices are operated in California by more than three dozen tribes, the attorney general's office has said.

Gambling interests are major contributors to political campaigns. But Polanco said the lawmakers who joined him at Wednesday's news conference were motivated by principle, not money.

The tribes have mounted a $1 million television advertising campaign to show how casinos have improved life on the reservations and delivered their members from welfare dependence.