Correction
May 11
– May 18 issue: An arrest reported at
Congratulations on becoming a weekly
publication! We are looking forward
to each and every issue!
Sincerely,
D.
Thank you for your support.
It’s wonderful hearing from the community.
-MLM
To the Editor:
First I would like to join the
chorus of those who have been thanking the Journal for giving us a real local
newspaper. I am particularly appreciative of the comprehensive coverage of the
issues related to Chumash expansion I would, however, like to offer an
important correction to the comments made by Nancy Crawford Hall regarding the
Santa Ynez Community Plan in her On The Ranch
opinions, May 11 – 18 issue.
The current Plan being reviewed by the Board of Supervisors is far from
the Plan initiated by the General Plan Advisory Committee during my tenure on
the Board of Supervisors. The current Plan has eliminated important natural
resource protections as well as historical resource protections. The current Plan has narrowed the scope
of the Plan thereby eliminating important development protections. The current
Plan may be fairly called Supervisor Firestone’s Plan but certainly not
Supervisor Marshall’s Plan.
-Gail
1997 - 2004
Thank you Gail and
we’re glad you joined the choir!
This plan was originated under Ms. Marshall’s watch and although
many acres were excluded from the current plan, it was correctly pointed out
that agricultural land should be covered in a separate document with other
agricultural land in the County rather than in urban plans.
–nch
Dear Editor:
I have written an open letter
to the Governor that I would like to share with the community.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
I represent a number of
concerned citizens from the Santa Ynez Valley community. We spent the day
Monday traveling to
The committee on Governmental
Organization was meeting on the issue or non-issue of the enforcement of
Minimal Internal Control Standards (MICS) for the new compacts to five
different sovereign nations and the impact the Colorado River Indian Tribe
(CRIT) court decision will have. Indian nations will be wielding tremendous
power as a result of collecting billions of dollars, losses mostly from
Californians, who can not afford it. These dollars will be used to empower a
separate “sovereign” government; a government that future
governors will need to make an appointment to talk to, which can be denied.
These sovereign governments
try to look like private business when contributing a great deal of money to
politicians voting on their ratification. Yet by law, local governments
like counties and cities can not make contributions to political
candidates. How is it that these bills are being voted on or approved by
politicians who are taking massive contributions from these tribal
governments?
Mr. Governor, 13,000 people
signed petitions against the expansion of slot machines in the Santa Ynez
Valley because gambling (not gaming) is out of control both internally and
externally. For example, the LA Times recently revealed that several Chumash
Gaming Committee members had criminal backgrounds, but the state’s
enforcement staff is too ineffectual for meaningful enforcement.
At the public hearing, Dean
Sheldon, Chairman of the California Gaming Control Commission, admitted that
they had tried to avoid problems and minimize their enforcement role with the
tribal states, keeping it on a government to government level. Since 1999, the
commission has collected a minuscule 4 total violations, 3 of which were
instigated by the tribes themselves and one which concerned an exit strategy in
case of emergency from the premises. In contrast, of the six Indian Gaming
facilities audited by the state of
A frustrated Assembly Chairman
Torrico cited the shortcomings of gaming practices
especially those without compliance restrictions. He called it a three legged
stool which needs the stability of oversight by, (i)
the Federal government, (ii) the State government and (iii) Tribal Governments
(truly separate governments separated by race). With the Federal
government out of the picture and Dean Sheldon defending the regulation and
overseeing of the Indian Gaming on a State level, that leaves only 55 separate
sovereign Indian nations to manage the increasing billions of dollars of income
by themselves; dollars generated by California’s citizens and absorbed by
only these few privileged and the foreign and national private investors who
back them up.
This can not possibly be the
way our government works. How can we silently sit by while the State
gives away it’s authority over American soil to less than 1,876
people who represent less than 0.00006% of California’s population of
35,000,000? These few people collected 9 billion dollars last year and 80% of
the revenue was from people with incomes of less than $50,000 a year.
Is it right that 1,876 people
become the beneficiaries of a multi-billion dollar deal with our State while
paying no taxes to the State and after Monday’s hearing, being obviously
unregulated? Are we going to let this happen in exchange for a proportionately
small amount of legally questionable campaign donations and an income to the
state, from an unregulated and not audited environment, of only 313 million
dollars annually?
What weakness is
Here is an accounting of
campaign donations made by tribal governments to the people making the
decisions about the tribal compacts.
Assembly Governmental
Organization Committee
Hon. Alberto Torrico, Chair $50,400
Hon. George Plescia, Vice Chair $57,300
Hon. Charles Calderon
$29,000
Hon. Kevin de León $34,200
Hon. Noreen Evans
$37,100
Hon. Bonnie Garcia
$97,800
Hon. Kevin Jefferies
(unknown)
Hon. Lloyd Levine
$26,400
Hon. Tony Mendoza
$4,800
Hon. Anthony Portantino
($0)
Hon. Curren Price
$8,800
Hon. Laura Richardson
$23,000
Hon. Jim Silva
$12,600
Hon. Nell Soto
$31,300
Hon. Van Tran
$16,900
Campaign
Contributions $429,600
Please help eradicate corruption from
Sincerely,
Jeanne Hollingsworth