Emergency Town Hall Meeting
There was little standing room when nearly 300 community members showed up at the Solvang Veterans Hall in California on March 20th, to hear groups, No More Slots, Preservation of Los Olivos (POLO), Preservation of Santa Ynez (POSY) and community members in opposition to casino slot expansion, give their take on the city-wide debacle over the Tribal Chumash Casino’s alleged request to Governor Schwarzenegger for an additional 5,000 slots. The tribe currently houses 2,000 slot machines at its reservation in the Santa Ynez Valley.
Members passed out packets of information at the meeting while gathering more signatures for a petition asking the Governor to “do everything he can to prevent an increase of slot machines”. They announced that more than 8,000 signatures had been obtained for the petition over a ten-day period, prior to the meeting. The count has since gone up to well over 12,700.
Tribal Chumash members have said that they are not currently requesting an increase for slot machines and say they have only met with Governor Schwarzenegger one time in reference to increasing their number of slots. Since the time of that meeting, Governor Schwarzenegger has been considering ratifying the state’s compacts with Tribal Casinos throughout the state. If the compacts are approved to the tribes liking, it would allow for casinos in California to have up to approximately 7,500 slots machines. Currently, the largest casino in Las Vegas has only 3,000 slot machines, according to the No More Slots group’s website.
Community members and groups present at the meeting claim that the Santa Ynez Chumash have been using “word play” in the media, and Tribal Chairman Vincent Armenta is who first told of the tribe’s intentions to expand the number of slots. An overhead projection screen showed statements from Armenta at Santa Barbara County Supervisor Board meetings in which he spoke of possible expansions. They also presented Tribal Meeting Minutes to further back their claims that the casino is looking to expand.
The Chumash declined comment to the Santa Ynez Valley Journal on whether or not they are waiting to see what the Governor decides on the compacts, before seeking more slots. Asked if they are hopeful of expanding their slots in the future, Chumash PR representative Frances Snyder simply said, “We don’t know”.
Making Voices Heard
Meeting Moderator Terri Harmon said that although they had extended an invitation to members of the Chumash Tribe to attend the meeting, they had chosen not to send representatives. The hope, some said, was to have them tell their side, which went unheard throughout the evening. Terri told the room, “This is not us against the Santa Ynez band (The Chumash Tribe).” She said the meeting was not a place for insults or attacks on the tribe, and that if anyone resorted to insults or became disruptive towards the Tribe or otherwise, they would be escorted out of the meeting immediately. Terri said her goal this evening was to share and educate people so that they could take their voice back and have a voice in matters that affect the community. Anti Expansion group members said throughout the meeting, they are not against the tribe, but that they simply want their voice heard on things that could impact the community.
Some members said they are not just making their voices heard for the community but also for the tribal members as well, due to talk and rumors of the tribal members being stripped of their membership if they disagree with or speak out against the tribal decision makers. Further they fear that the reservation is becoming a corporate enterprise that is taking over the real tribe. They maintain that the government is not verifying the eligibility of members and later told the Journal that they felt the tribal government is starting to look more like a dictatorship, making them want to lend a voice to members of the tribe who are afraid to speak up.
Could it Happen in Santa Ynez?
Guest speakers at the meeting included Professor John Kindt from the University of Illinois. Mr. Kindt who has been a part of many research studies has been called to testify before the House of Representative under oath on the effects of gambling, and has been published in over 30 articles on the economic impacts of legalized gambling, antitrust law, tax law, environmental law, and public and private international law.
Professor Kindt’s presentation started with a question; “Could it happen here?” referring to research studies on the effects of the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut along with other tribal casinos throughout the United States. A large screen displayed research reports of casino gambling trends and impacts. Kindt demonstrated similarities between once quant towns to the environs of the Santa Ynez Valley, asserting that it could happen here.
Professor Kindt discussed crime rate statistics that have burdened most casino communities with a 10% increase on or about the third year of opening their doors. He said that the economic impacts involving tribal casinos are a $6 to $10 dollar loss for every one-dollar benefit in the community. He displayed a “Feeder” graph that was used during testimony at the April 5, 2002 legislative hearing on H.R. 4777, before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security at the House of Representatives. The Feeder graph, he said, is named after how tribal casinos “feed” from the community by making their profits from tax payers, while not being required to pay taxes themselves in addition to the cost of increased crime rates. Included on the graph were other economic trend losses due to a loss of jobs in the community, gambling addicts, hidden social costs, corruption, embezzlement and organized crime.
The Professor told the audience in an effort to convey potential impacts, “You don’t have to give a slot machine a uniform or pay benefits, or a dental plan,” he then quoted the following from the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s Sept. 19, 1994 statements: “It is the cannibalization of local tourism and business.” He went on to say “Addictive gambling equals more bankruptcy and crime in the community.”
Kindt and other speakers said that slot expansion is a real issue, and spoke of methods tribes around the county have used to grow from small casinos into gambling empires. In a follow-up interview, Kindt said, that 84% of Tribal Casinos are outside of their legal boundaries mostly due to government official’s lack of enforcing the law due to corruption, or fear. He said casinos around the country have successfully expanded in unlawful ways, simply because there is no one to stop them. That, he said, is why communities and taxpayers should be educated on trends and statistics of tribal casinos.
Legal Challenges may Lay Ahead
Guest speaker, Attorney John. M. Rochefort of Los Angeles represents the groups POLO and POSY in their efforts to challenge casino expansion. He said the groups are exercising their right to appeal a decision by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to accept 6.9 acres of land owned by the Santa Ynez Band of Indians into federal trust.
Attorney Rochefort explained avenues for challenge through NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act), IRA (Indian Reorganization Act) and the EPS (Equal Protection Standing).
Under NEPA he said that people who oppose expansion could prove it would cause changes to water, congestion, traffic, affect air conditions, as well as socio-economic factors, and urban decay.
He expressed that with The Equal Protection Standing, there are questions and challenges as to some of the origins and actual rights of people who may not qualify as Chumash Indian if that is the case he said, “Then they are not unlike us, so we would have equal protection standing. When the ancestral link is broken, this is a group, not unlike us.”
He explained that another venue of challenge is The IRA (Indian Reorganization Act) because expansion in general, including annexation of land has not been implemented or organized appropriately.
Groups POLO and POSY hope to have their side heard through the U.S. Court system under each of the three Acts.
Two Governments Interrelated and Very Divided
The Chumash Tribal Casino placed several full-page ads, in several daily newspapers throughout Santa Barbara County, which were to run for at least 3 or 4 days. The Chumash ads read, “No More Lies” and claimed the Chumash are not currently requesting more slot machines from the governor’s office. The Ads were in response to flyers being circulated by the group “No More Slots” which asked community members to sign a petition and send letters to the Governor’s office asking him to do what he could to prevent slot expansion.
The Santa Ynez Chumash have repeatedly countered claims that they are seeking to expand their slots through the media using radio ads, newspaper ads, and public statements. The ads urge community members not to listen to what they say are “lies” by the anti expansion groups.
Anti expansion groups say Tribal Chairman Armenta himself has backed claims of the Chumash wanting to expand their slots according to statements he made at public County Supervisor meetings, and Tribal meeting minutes.
Video clips shown at the Town Hall meeting publicized Armenta at a February 2007, County Supervisors Meeting. The clips revealed discussions in reference to tribal meetings with the Governors office on expansions to which Armenta explained that other tribes that the Chumash were in negotiation with, also asked the Governor for an additional 5,000 slots. He went on to say, “They asked for similar things as us”.
Armenta told County Supervisors, “We are no longer negotiating with other tribes. Though I made it clear we would support the other six tribes in their negotiations (with the Governor’s office).” He said, “Talks about expansion is our right. We’ll continue to have these talks. If something fruitful comes out of them, then I will be in contact with the county,”
A video clip from a more recent March 20th Board of Supervisors meeting showed Armenta telling the board that communication from the tribe to the county will now be cut off.
Tribal Chairman Armenta complained that anti expansion group POLO received notice prior to the tribe from the board, on items placed on the meeting agenda. He said he received notification via fax showing a date that revealed the group received notification on or about March 6th, and said that the tribe did not receive notification until March 12th. After Mr. Armenta told the board, “An apology will not be accepted” and then walked out of the room.
Alleged Rumors of Illegal Activities
There was discussion at the meeting on whether or not the Chumash Tribe has conducted possible illegal business endeavors such as the gas station they recently purchased on Hwy 246 in Santa Ynez directly across from their casino. Speculation arose on whether or not the tribe was paying state and local taxes for the business, since the property is not on the reservation itself.
Through the Valley Journal’s interviews and research we found that they are most likely paying the same taxes as other stations in the community. Chumash PR Representative Frances Snyder responded to the Valley Journals inquiries about the station via e-mail, stating that the Chumash are paying “state excise, federal excise and state sales taxes – we pay them all,” she said. Asked how they are able to offer lower gasoline prices than nearby stations she said, “We sell cheaper gas because we have no onsite employees.” The gas station is unmanned and customers pay at the pump.
There were also claims that the Royal Scandinavian Inn in the city of Solvang, recently purchased by the Chumash Tribe, were refusing to book rooms to large groups unless the clients were staying there for gambling purposes. Frances Snyder responded saying, “Bookings of rooms for the Royal Scandinavian Inn are done at the Royal Scandinavian Inn. We pay state sales taxes on those rooms.” At this time The Valley Journal has not been able to independently confirm claims by either side.
Chumash Tribe Charging Taxes to Clientele
Throughout the meeting, group members wanted to know why the tribe, who has received government grants and assistance through the benefits of tax paying citizens are being allowed to charge sales tax to their customers on their reservation. Especially they say, since the tribe does not have to pay sales tax themselves. They said that the “bed tax” on the casino’s hotel receipt deceives customers into thinking that the tribe is charging them local and state sales tax. (See image: Chumash hotel receipt)
According to the April 14th 2002 Tribal minutes, the State Board of Equalization ruled, that food, beverages and hotel rooms, items consumed on the reservation, are now non-taxable to the public.
The minutes from the tribal meeting say they (the Chumash) would like to continue collecting the tax for revenue as a “Tribal Tax”. The chairman said one of the greatest complaints from the local government is that they no longer collect tax dollars from sales of food and beverages on the reservation.
The minutes went on to say that revenues generated from the tribal tax would be set aside for specific uses, the larger percentage would be used for typical infrastructure of the reservation such as road improvements, lighting projects, etc.
They said that a percentage of the tax would go to the county of Santa Barbara, the City of Solvang, and to the City of Buellton. This, they say would “off-set the tax dollars that they (the county or cities) will be losing.” The minutes detailed distribution of a 7.75 percent tax would be broken out as follows: 1% to Solvang, 1% to Buellton, 1% to the County of Santa Barbara, and 4.75% into a special fund for the tribe to be used for improvements on the reservation. According to the minutes the previous tax collected by the state on the approximated 2 million in sales was about $160,000 of reservation tax revenue. As tribal tax, $60,000 would now go to local communities and $100,000 would go to the Tribe each year.
The Tribal minutes revealed a strategy of gaining community support to transfer parcels of land into trust with their new tax revenue. “We, the tribe, within the next ninety days, will have four separate parcels to transfer into trust for the Tribe. We may be able to get additional support from the community on our applications if they are receiving this tax revenue and, at no cost to the tribe.”
Because the tribal casino no longer has to charge customers sales tax for local and state governments, the tribal tax allows them to continue charging a tax to it’s customers for revenue purposes with no obligation to state or local governments.
The Battle for Advertising
Anti Expansion groups claim that the daily newspapers in the county have refused to run their ads, because the Chumash are regular advertisers. They also claim that several local radio stations refused to let them buy airtime for the same reason. One individual said at one point a local paper told her “We aren’t taking any more ads, we have too many,” only, after the ad representative found out what the ad was in reference to.
They said this resulted in them having to solely pass out and hang flyers throughout the Santa Ynez Valley in an effort to ask the community to sign the petition and write letters to the Governor.
However, the groups ran into trouble with its flyers being torn down almost as fast as they could get them up. (See image: Individuals taking flyers allegedly on behalf of the Chumash). Kathryn Bowen said she hung at least two hundred flyers herself and she can’t find one that is remaining.
The Santa Ynez Valley Journal is a fair reporting agency. We believe there are two sides to every story and are regretful that the Chumash would not elaborate on the expansion issues. We at the Journal welcome the public’s thoughts and opinions. Please e-mail to info@syvjurnal.com Too watch the Town Hall meeting video online please visit: www.trustandconsequences.com