Monday, April 6, 1998 | 6:04 a.m.
The pact, signed March 6 after 18 months of closed-door negotiations, is intended by the Wilson administration to be a model for future tribal gambling compacts in the state.
But in a day-long hearing before a panel of U.S. Interior Department officials, 55 of California's 104 recognized tribes testified, with about 90 percent objecting to all or part of the Pala compact.
Tribal leaders objected to being excluded from negotiations and to parts of the pact which would subject tribal gambling facilities to state or local laws ranging from workers compensation and union bargaining rights to local health, environmental laws and building codes.
"The Pala agreement demotes the governmental status of tribal governments from federally recognized sovereign nations to a municipal-level government subject to county approvals," said Mary Ann Martin Abdreas, tribal chairwoman of the Morango Band of Mission Indians.
"The Pala compact is flatly contrary to Indian sovereignty," said Dean Mike, chairman of the Twenty-Nine Palms Band. "It would eliminate Indian gaming as a meaningful competitor to the California Lottery. It has been put to the tribes as an ultimatum by the state of California."
The Pala compact is the latest step in negotiations that began in 1991 between the Wilson administration, which wants to limit gambling, and the tribes, which have a right under federal law to operate any kind of gambling devices which is legal anywhere else in the state.
Some tribes went ahead with casino-style gambling without state approval. Contending those casinos are illegal, Wilson refused to negotiate a compact with any tribe he contended was violating the law, which led to his negotiations with the Pala Band.
Wilson spokeswoman Lisa Kalustian said the Wilson administration was not invited to testify, but that attorneys for the state would be meeting soon with Interior officials to answer any questions raised at the hearing.
She said the Pala compact, if it wins final approval from the Interior Department, would be a "model contact" under which other tribes could gain quick approval for their gambling facilities, but that it did not bar any other tribe from negotiating separately with the state.
"Sovereignty really is a false issue," Kalustian said. "The tribe as a sovereign body negotiated with the state," and the majority of other tribes with gambling operations had attorneys take part in the Pala negotiations.
Pala Band Chairman Robert Smith said the agreement would allow every tribe in California to share in gambling profits by allocating each tribe 199 casino-style machines, and that those who don't want to run casinos may lease their rights to other tribes for $5,000 per machine per year, raising nearly $1 million annually.
While most other tribes asked for rejection of the Pala compact, one that reluctantly supported it was the Jackson Ranchera of Amador County.
Jackson chairwoman Margaret Dalton said she didn't like some of the state regulation of tribal affairs, but said her tribe decided it can live with it, "because only with a long-term compact can we assure long-term economic self-sufficiency and long-term economic security for our children and grandchildren.
A panel of nine Interior Department officials, headed by Kevin Gover, assistant secretary in charge of Indian Affairs, received the testimony, but asked no questions of witnesses and made no other comment beyond brief welcoming remarks.
Gover is to submit his recommendation on the Pala compact to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt by April 26.
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