Davis OKs off-reservation gambling compact for tribe

Don Thompson

Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2003 | 9:37 a.m.

SACRAMENTO -- Lame duck Gov. Gray Davis announced his first approval of an off-reservation casino Monday, a compact with a Needles-area tribe that still needs ratification by state legislators and Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Davis' administration had been negotiating with 96 tribes, and reached gambling agreements with three of them before Monday's announcement. Few others are likely to be completed before Davis leaves office next month, though officials said several tribes are seeking last-minute approval.

All four of his agreements require the tribes to pay 5 percent of their net revenue to the state. Davis, like Schwarzenegger, is unpopular with many tribes because he has made such contributions a condition of his approval.

Schwarzenegger "will renegotiate every compact," regardless of whether they've already been renegotiated by Davis, to ensure tribes are paying their "fair share," spokesman H.D. Palmer said. "The model can be found in Connecticut," where tribes are paying the state 25 percent of their casino revenue.

But administration and tribal representatives said Schwarzenegger's 25 percent goal is unrealistic particularly from smaller tribes, if only because the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs won't agree to draining from tribes what Congress envisioned as enough steady revenue to reverse generations of poverty.

Connecticut's 25 percent was in return for giving tribes monopolies and 6,000 slot machines, said Marilyn Delgado, director of Davis' Office of the American Indian Coordinator.

In addition, Interior Secretary Gale Norton recently has expressed skepticism about her Bureau of Indian Affairs approving such a large state percentage, said Kathryn Doi, a deputy legal affairs secretary.

The compact with the 1,100-member Fort Mojave tribe was completed before the Oct. 7 recall election, though it took another two weeks to get the required signatures, officials said.

Delaying the compact now would likely set the tribe back a year as it seeks federal approval to open a casino on 300 acres of unimproved desert 3 1/2 miles west of Needles, Delgado said. She and Doi estimated that's how long it will take Schwarzenegger's administration to reach the same stage of negotiations as now exist.

The potential delay has several tribes seeking rapid approval. The administration is trying to wrap up negotiations that were in the final stages, officials said, but few additional agreements are likely in the less than a month Davis has remaining.

Schwarzenegger has two opportunities to block Davis' agreement, officials said. For it to go forward, he must approve a legislative ratification, and approve any Bureau of Indian Affairs' decision to take the site west of Needles into trust for a casino. Tribal chair Nora McDowell said the tribe is willing to negotiate with Schwarzenegger's administration as well if that's what it takes to get approval.

The tribe already has a site within the Needles city limits with access to Interstate 40, but was willing to put the casino in a remote location away from schools and homes to meet the requests of Davis and city officials, tribal representatives said. Unlike Schwarzenegger, Davis opposes casinos in urban areas.

The new site is within about two miles of the tribe's reservation, on land it historically occupied, Doi said. "Everybody agreed it would be better for the tribe to have a casino not in the heart of the city."

If the casino is approved, the Fort Mojave tribe would become the first to operate casinos in three states. It already has a 700-slot casino in Nevada and a 181-slot casino in Arizona. About 400 of the tribe's members live in California, McDowell said.