Anti-casino group Casinos Represent a Poor Solution (CRAPS) is
going door-to-door with a petition to keep the California Valley
Miwok tribe from building a casino in San Benito County near the
Santa Clara County line, and the organization is seeing an
overwhelming amount of support for their cause, said CRAPS Chairman
Steve Merrell.
Hollister – Anti-casino group Casinos Represent a Poor Solution (CRAPS) is going door-to-door with a petition to keep the California Valley Miwok tribe from building a casino in San Benito County near the Santa Clara County line, and the organization is seeing an overwhelming amount of support for their cause, said CRAPS Chairman Steve Merrell.
The California Valley Miwoks have set their sights on a piece of property off Highway 25 in San Benito County near the Santa Clara County line, and are hoping to build a casino similar in size to the 66,000 square foot Cache Creek casino in Yolo County. However, there has been speculation recently that the Miwoks are not indigenous to San Benito County, and some locals are using this to try to keep the casino out.
Gov. Schwarzenegger has said he will not allow tribes to set up casinos in areas they are not indigenous to without overwhelming support from the locals. Although California Valley Miwok Project attorney Phil Thompson has said he plans to prove the Miwoks have roots in San Benito County, the tribe is currently trying to garner support from local residents and businesses.
Merrell said CRAPS door-to-door petitioning is showing the support is not there.
“We’re just canvassing the neighborhoods trying to get a large number of signatures. So far the response rate is huge. The percentage of people who sign it when approached is huge. Based on that we feel quite confident that we can put to the Board of Supervisors and then the Governor strong evidence that residents don’t want this casino,” Merrell said.
Merrell did not know the actual number of signatures his organization had gathered, but said he hoped the petitioning would be complete by the end of the year. CRAPS will soon be petitioning outside of local grocery stores as well, Merrell said, and already has permission to begin at Albertsons.
CRAPS hopes nearby counties will follow its lead and start opposing the proposed casino on a grand scale.
“We’ll take the petition to the board, the City Council, the San Juan City Council, and try to get them to pass resolutions against the casino. Then we want to go to Santa Clara and Monterey Counties and get them to pass resolutions as well. We really think that the best solution is a regional solution, and we’re hoping to see some groups in other counties come together as the threat of this becomes more generally recognized,” Merrell said.
California Valley Miwok Project spokeswoman Nicole Ratcliff could not be immediately be reached regarding the petition drive.
The California Valley Miwok Project hosted an invite-only informational meeting at the Tres Pinos Inn Thursday night. The meeting was for “friends of the investors,” Ratcliff said earlier.
Jack Hance, the vice president of the San Benito County Chamber of Commerce, said he attended the meeting, which provided a dinner buffet and cocktails, as a member of the Chamber.
“I heard they had invited about 120 people, but I have no idea where that list came from,” Hance said.
Merrell, said no one from his organization was invited to the informational meeting.
“It’s interesting that that’s how they approach it. To me, it’s (a closed meeting) a clear indication that they’re afraid of the public. I don’t understand why they would otherwise have a closed meeting. When things are going on behind closed doors and they don’t even invite the media, it tells me something’s going on,” Merrell said.
But Thursday’s meeting didn’t reveal any new information, according to Hance.
“They simply stated the news that the whole idea got out earlier than they had anticipated, and that they had expected to have facts and figures but they didn’t yet. They just wanted everyone to get on board with them. So in terms of an informational meeting, it was just that. It was a very ‘News at 11’ type of thing,” Hance said.
He added he and the other board members had attended with the hopes of finding out what page the rest of the community was on and where the project was in terms of progress.
“I think people really just wanted to know what they were going to say,” Hance said, “but we’re still waiting.”
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at [email protected].
