The Historic Tribal-County Agreement
By Dave Rosenberg,
Yolo County Supervisor, 4th District
On October 25, 2002, Paula Lorenzo, Chairman of the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians and I, Chairman of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors, on behalf of our respective Tribal and the County Governments, signed a unique and historic agreement defining our government-to-government relationship for the next generation.
How unique and historic is this tribal-county agreement? Let's put it this way: There is no other agreement like it in California.
The leading anti-gaming organization in California, "Stand Up for California!" wrote a letter to the tribe and the board stating that: "The agreement between Yolo County and the Rumsey Indians is cause for celebration." The Sacramento Bee, in an October 13 editorial stated that the agreement between the Rumsey Tribe and Yolo County was " . . . the best deal that has been negotiated so far between an Indian tribe and local government." The Bee, further, indicated that Paula Lorenzo and the tribe deserve credit for the concessions that they made. "The Rumsey Band didn't have to negotiate at all," according to the paper.
And that is true. Federal Law, the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, ("IGRA") permitted gaming to be conducted on Indian lands throughout the Nation. Ten years later, California voters overwhelmingly passed Propositions that approved Nevada-style gambling in California and gave California Indian tribes the ability to obtain compacts from the state to conduct gaming on their tribal lands. In 1999, sixty-one tribes in California, including the Rumsey Indians in the Capay Valley, entered into compacts with the State of California. These tribes operate some 45 casinos throughout the State; more casinos are expected. The Rumsey Band has operated Cache Creek Casino for many years on their tribal lands in the Capay Valley.
Several months ago, the tribe announced plans for a major expansion of their casino, and the construction of a 300-room hotel on their land. A number of folks in the Capay Valley opposed this. They were justifiably concerned about the impacts that the expansion would have on the roadways, the water, and other aspects of life in the Capay Valley. Regrettably, this sort of clash is almost inevitable (and should have been foreseen in 1988 when IGRA was enacted by the Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan). Tribes in California and throughout the Nation tend to be located on reservations and rancherias in the most rural areas of areas. When tribes were poor and had no economic development, there was obviously no impact on the rural area. But now that tribes are wealthy and have major economic development on their land (casinos, hotels and resorts) it tends to clash with the interests and expectations of rural residents living around the tribes.
However, pursuant to Federal law and the Tribal-State Compact, the tribe, as a sovereign nation, is free to build on their land. As to the casino and hotel, the tribe is required to adopt a tribal ordinance regarding environmental impacts, and to seek to mitigate them in accordance with "tribal interests". The tribe has, in fact, adopted just such an ordinance and has developed an "Environmental Evaluation" to examine those impacts. The County of Yolo consulted with its lawyers, and determined that it had no realistic legal ability to successfully challenge the tribe in court. In fact, no local government has been successful in such litigation.
Rather than attempt to fight a legal battle that the county did not think it could win, the county opted to try to negotiate its own tribal-county agreement.
In pursuit of a negotiated agreement, a sub-committee of the Board of Supervisors (Supervisors Lynnel Pollock and Mike McGowan) assisted by staff and counsel, spent two months hammering out a draft agreement. Former Congressman Vic Fazio played an important role as facilitator, retained jointly by the county and the tribe. The draft agreement was vetted in two community workshops (in Esparto and Woodland) and in three well-attended public hearings before the Board of Supervisors. Many members of the public testified, submitted letters and e-mails. A county-wide survey was mailed out by the Board and over 3,000 county residents responded, listing their concerns and priorities on the subject.
In my mind, there is no question that the public input was significant and valuable, both in moving the tribe toward serious negotiations with the County, and in shaping many of the terms of the ultimate agreement. Both the Tribal Council and the Board of Supervisors voted to approve the pact.
The resulting agreement which Paula Lorenzo and I signed is unprecedented in California, and it may be unique in the entire country. It is my hope, however, that it will serve the county and citizens well, and that it can be used as a model for other tribes and other local governments. Here are the highlights of this historic agreement:
· The tribe has agreed to substantially scale back and reduce the size of its casino expansion as well as its hotel project.
· The tribe has agreed to pay money to the county over the next 18 years for mitigation of the impacts of the project. Specific mitigation projects are not spelled out in the agreement; that comes later. By my calculation, the amount of money paid by the tribe in environmental mitigation and traffic improvements over the life of the agreement may very well be close to $190 million.
· The county will be the entity responsible to plan and ensure the implementation of the mitigation projects. The advantage of this is that residents will now deal with their elected representatives at the county, and not the tribe, to ensure that environmental mitigation occurs. In the coming months, the Board of Supervisors will carefully consider, specify, and implement mitigation projects. The county will develop a Mitigation Monitoring Plan. All mitigation projects will be accomplished with full CEQA compliance (something that would not occur under the tribe).
· The agreement calls for requirements to ensure water supply, water quality, and wastewater treatment.
· The agreement has provisions to ensure that major portions of land surrounding the tribe will be placed in agricultural conservation easements.
· There will be efforts to develop a park-and-ride facility and a process to encourage casino employees to ride shuttle buses. The shuttle bus proposal, alone, is expected to reduce some 3,000 automobile trips each day.
· There is a process put into place for the tribe and the county to work with CalTrans to ensure Highway 16 improvements to ease the traffic load. The tribe will pay its share for these improvements.
· The minimum gambling age will be raised from 18 to 21 at the casino.
· The tribe has agreed to a waiver of its sovereign immunity so that the county can enforce the agreement against the tribe (if necessary) in Yolo County Superior Court.
· The tribe's proposal for a golf course facility will be treated by the county as it would treat any other such project proposal. The county retains full discretion to accept, modify, condition or reject any such proposal.
· A new government-to-government relationship is established between the county and the tribe for all future discussions.
There are still some who want the county to take on Congress to amend IGRA. But IGRA has not been amended since its enactment in 1988. There are some who want the county to take on the Governor, the Attorney General and the Legislature to amend the tribal-state compacts. But those compacts have never been amended since their adoption in 1999, cannot be unilaterally changed, and can only be amended with the consent of the tribes.
In the real world, the tribal-county agreement worked out by the County of Yolo and the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians is, in my opinion, the best available approach.
This historic and unique agreement was the result of good-faith negotiations between the County of Yolo and the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians. Both the County Government and the Rumsey Indians should be commended for their foresight, diligence and vision. The agreement was result of the county's effort to implement the old adage: "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade." I am confident that the agreement will serve this county well for at least a generation.