Hours after the San Benito County Board of Supervisors
unanimously approved a resolution opposing a Miwok Casino near
Hollister, casino opponents urged the Hollister City Council to
follow suit, while the casino project manager asked for
restraint.
Hollister – Hours after the San Benito County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution opposing a Miwok Casino near Hollister, casino opponents urged the Hollister City Council to follow suit, while the casino project manager asked for restraint.
While the casino was not an agenda item for last night’s council meeting, members of Casinos Represent A Poor Solution and other anti-casino locals were encouraged by the supervisors’ decision.
“I really encourage you to look long and hard at the merits a project like this would bring,” David Nicolaysen told the council. “If you’ll look at the merits, you could do a lot better. Why give away the store? Why bring in anything that will deplete your tax base?”
The lone public speaker in support of the casino was Gary Ramos, the California Valley Miwok Project manager. He asked the council not to take a stance against the casino too hastily, as he believes the county has done.
“I think you need to take these casino guys to task. You need to get it in writing. Hopefully you will not do what our other local officials have done,” Ramos said. “You can pull statistics until you’re blue in the face, and you can find them on both sides of the argument. But you have to look at each project based on its own merit.”
The tribe has teamed up with investment group Game Won in hopes of building a casino off Highway 156 across from the Hollister airport. Ramos has said the casino would eventually be expanded to include a hotel, restaurants, and entertainment venues.
Leif Nordstrom called the proposed casino “a mosquito going from arm to arm, looking for a new one to bleed.”
Brent Hawks echoed the plea Sheriff Curtis Hill made to the council at last week’s board of supervisors public casino meeting.
“I wonder why, on an issue this important to the community, you’ve been so silent. I urge you to take a stand as the people of Hollister elected you to do,” he said.
At the end of the meeting, Mayor Pauline Valdivia broke the council’s silence on the issue with a prepared statement.
“Believe me, I have my reservations about this casino. But we really need to put our foot forward and discuss this. Now that other entities have taken their position, we need to start looking to see what’s going to be proposed in the best interest of the community,” Valdivia said.
At the next council meeting on March 7, she added, she will be appointing a committee to study the proposed casino and its potential benefits and draw-backs.
Three of the four remaining council members agreed with Valdivia’s comments, saying they too would like to take the “wait and see” approach, as Councilman Robert Scattini put it.
But Dist. 4 Councilman Doug Emerson told the council he would like to see them take action sooner rather than later.
“I would like to push the envelope and have the casino agendized for discussion or action at our next meeting,” Emerson said, although he did not indicate his own stance.
The next city council meeting will be on March 7 at 6:30pm at City Hall.
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at [email protected].
