Solvang City Council shoots down talks of casino expansion

 

The Solvang City Council will not be diving into official discussions about Chumash Casino expansion any time soon, following its March 10 decision not to place the issue on the agenda in the near future.

In a 3-2 vote, the council shot down further discussion of anticipated Chumash Casino expansion and refused to direct city staff to take further action, citing timeliness and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s previous decisions regarding county and city involvement in Indian compact negotiations.

The council’s decision followed what seemed more like a verbal tug of war than a discussion about the importance of expected impacts and their current relevance.

 

Councilman Jim Richardson placed the issue on the agenda and requested that the issue be discussed further in future meetings, but was overruled by the majority vote.

He indicated that an article featured in the Sacramento Bee, which mentioned that the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians was looking to add 5,000 slot machines to its casino, provoked him to look into the matter more deeply.

With an understanding that the tribe has an excellent business sense, it would be silly to not think they would be looking at expansion in the future, he said.

Richardson also mentioned the recently released Chumash Economic Impact Study conducted by the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association, and cited local results from the 2008 Indian gaming compact propositions, Props. 94 through 97, to justify why the council should be exploring the issue.

 

“I found that over 80 percent of most precincts [in the valley] were against expansion, one precinct of about 90 voters were 55 percent in support of the measure,” he said – a fact he accused Chumash Chairman Vincent Armenta of overlooking.

“In my mind…he ignored his local community, who were opposed to propositions 94 through 97,” he said.

Councilman Eugene Boyale, the other supporting vote, shared Richardson’s sentiment.

“This is a very important issue for the City of Solvang and it has far reaching impacts,” he said.

Councilman Ken Palmer, who voted against continuing discussions of the issue, called the measure untimely and made it clear he wanted to wait until the Chumash made a move to expand its casino gambling operations before he would participate in any action on the issue.

“I am not ready to vote for any resolution or put anything on the agenda until such time…” he said.

 

Some of the consequences Richardson and Boyale predicted would adversely impact Solvang included the potential loss of Special Distribution Funds, which are meant to financially assist local governments in alleviating some of the impacts that the casino has on the valley community, such as road improvements and added law enforcement.

Richardson contended that if the Chumash decide to renegotiate their compact, the tribe could eliminate the distribution fund, leaving the city without money to help offset costly impacts.

But Councilman Edwin Skytt quickly rebuked Richardson’s claim, saying that although the tribe does give money to the Special Distribution Fund, Solvang historically does not see much of it.

“The local tribe has sole and complete discretion on how they are to use the Special Distribution Funds. There’s no guarantee that [it] will give any funds to Solvang,” he said. “[Richardson] said he was afraid that we were going to loose a source of income; it’s not a source of income.”

Newly appointed Solvang Mayor, Linda Jackson, dismissed Richardson’s mention of the Sacramento Bee article with a statement from its author, whom she quoted as saying, “I think people read a lot more into the story than I was suggesting…”

She added that the author claimed that the Chumash have since dropped their quest for expansion.

 

Jackson also denounced Richardson’s interpretation of local election results for Propositions 94 through 97, stating that only one in five people who live in Solvang voted against them.

In a phone interview, Jackson said she looked at the total number of people who voted and total population in Solvang to come up with the figures she presented at the meeting.

The City of Solvang has eight voting precincts, and according to the Santa Barbara County Elections Office, 60 percent of the total votes were against the measures in six of the eight precincts. Over 50 percent of the total votes in Precinct 36-3305 supported the proposition, and 100 percent of precinct 30-3966, which only had one vote, also was in support of the propositions.

All four of the public speakers, who are not residents of Solvang, were in support of the council holding an official discussion about possible casino expansion, a fact Jackson called “telling,” in a phone interview.

Nancy Eklund, who represents the Santa Ynez Valley Concerned Citizens addressed the council, “I’m not here to say that the casino does not provide benefits for the Solvang community…but the crucial question is do you?,” she said. She suggested the council gather facts that supports and refutes economic impact findings in order to have a well-rounded idea of the ramifications of casino expansion.

She also requested that the council send a letter to the governor expressing official opposition to increased gambling facilities, a request that the council refused to support.

The governor is the sole person in government, the fact that local governments are not allowed to participate in the process of compact negotiations should say enough, Palmer said.

“The law is the law, and I think the governor made it clear,” he added.

 

In other City Council News

The Solvang City Council approved a one-year lease with the Solvang Trolley service, which was acquired by news owners in November. Jackson recommended that the owners consider summer uniforms to prepare for hot weather.

The council also voted to support Women’s Environmental Watch Lights Out Santa Ynez, scheduled for March 29 from 8 to 9 p.m.

The event, part of a worldwide effort to encourage people to conserve energy and turn off unnecessary lights for an hour, is sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund and will kick off the Women’s organization’s National Dark Sky Week.

The council also approved the appointment of Buster Huffman to the Board of Architectural Review.

Lastly, it decided to not make any changes to the city’s residential zoning, but instead to closely follow the outcomes of lawsuits Newport Beach is facing because of newly enacted state and federal residential zoning requirements.