The California Valley Miwok tribe and its investors from Game
Won said they have given up hope of stopping the San Benito County
Board of Supervisors from approving a resolution opposing the
proposed casino project near the Hollister airport.
Hollister – The California Valley Miwok tribe and its investors from Game Won said they have given up hope of stopping the San Benito County Board of Supervisors from approving a resolution opposing the proposed casino project near the Hollister airport.
Supervisors said that although it was unlikely they would change their mind before voting on the resolution Tuesday morning, they also said it was possible to sway their opinion if the casino backers put promises of generous improvements and benefits to the community in writing.
However, California Valley Miwok Project Manager Gary Ramos said the group had abandoned trying to influence the Board of Supervisors after a public meeting Tuesday night and instead will encourage local support through petitions, a telephone survey in English and Spanish and an economic impact study they say will show the casino’s many benefits.
“The supervisors had their minds made up already,” Ramos said of Tuesday’s meeting. “That meeting was a big waste of time.”
The five-member California Valley Miwok tribe and its investment group Game Won have run into several roadblocks since their plans for a local casino were discovered in August. If the tribe succeeds with the project, it could be similar in size to Yolo County’s Cache Creek casino, which is more than 74,000 feet with 2,200 slot machines.
Four of the five supervisors have expressed their own opposition to the project, and will be voting Tuesday morning on a resolution opposing the project. Although Ramos said Friday the tribe had given up hope on gaining the board’s approval, the supervisors said Thursday there were several offers that could get them to change their stances if they saw them in writing.
Dist. 5 Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz – the only supervisor who has not taken a stance against the casino – said Thursday there were several things that could sway him in the casino’s favor. But even for De La Cruz, it was a lengthy list.
De La Cruz said he would want to see a signed commitment of revenue for the city and the county, hiring preference for locals once the casino was built (which California Valley Miwok Project Manager Gary Ramos has said would be the case), and an independent economic impact study, paid for by the casino backers. Finally, De La Cruz said, he won’t give the casino his blessing until the five-member Miwok tribe proves its ancestral ties to San Benito County. His conditions are a package deal, he said; unless the investors fulfill every single one, he won’t budge.
Gary Ramos, the California Valley Miwok project manager, said Friday the tribe will not try to prove its ancestral roots to the supervisors, although he said they could if they wanted to.
“It’s fairly complicated, especially if you have a tribe that’s a nomadic. We’re probably going to put together a complete booklet (on the tribe’s roots), but as far as we’re concerned, this is a dead issue with the supervisors,” Ramos said.
The other four supervisors’ lists were considerably shorter than De La Cruz’s, and in some cases non-existent.
“I have nothing in the back of my mind that I’m holding out for,” said Supervisor Pat Loe, who organized a regional casino planning forum to investigate the potential impacts a casino might have in the area. “We can just watch and see how things play out.”
Board Chairman Reb Monaco said there were several things that could probably change his stance, although he did not see that happening. Completely fixing Highway 25, expanding Hazel Hawkins Hospital, and guaranteeing the county millions of dollars in revenue every year were all ideas he said could influence his decision if they were promised formally.
“So far I haven’t seen any of that. They’ve kind of talked around these issues. They’ve kind of mentioned all these things, but they haven’t signed on the dotted line, they haven’t appeared. It’s pure speculation here. And at some point the supervisors have to decide which direction this is going in, and I think that time is now,” Monaco said.
Supervisor Don Marcus agreed, saying everything was speculation unless the casino’s investors made some written promises.
“At this point I would pass that question (of what would change my mind) on to the people who are involved with this project. The Miwok tribe and the group of investors have had the responsibility of giving us everything they need to,” Marcus said.
Ramos said Friday the tribe and its investors have been asking to sit down with the board to negotiate what they would like to see and to put something in writing, but to no avail.
“The whole idea was to sit down and see how they would like it written, what they would like to see. We want to be able to talk to the supervisors about something like that. There would be no point in sending them a letter with our offer in it without being able to sit down and hand it to them,” Ramos said.
Supervisor Anthony Botelho, the first supervisor to come out against the casino, said he has never been in favor of the project and believes the majority of his constituents feel the same way. But although he personally and morally opposes the casino, he said, there is only one thing that could change his vote.
“If I felt that the overwhelming majority of the community was for it, then I would change my mind. But I feel very strongly that the vast majority of the people in my district are opposed. And it just doesn’t seem like the people themselves have anything out there that would change their minds,” he said.
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at [email protected].
