Barstow Mayor Lawrence Dale was chastised by colleagues and residents alike, during a special City Council meeting he scheduled this past week on other matters, for working against the City’s efforts to bring Indian gaming to Barstow; a concept reportedly endorsed by more than 75% of the local community and by various formal votes of the Barstow City Council in the last two years.
Barstow Mayor Lawrence Dale chastised for unauthorized actionsthat many believe may hurt city's chance to establish Indian gaming
8.28.07
TVT has obtained copies of letters referenced at a special afternoon meeting of the Barstow City Council held August 28, 2007. Mayor Dale without Council approval sent an unauthorized letter to Clay Gregory, the director of the Sacramento office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs using his title as "Mayor" and on city letterhead attacking the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe and making many representations on behalf of the City of Barstow.
The City Council has an agreement with the Chemehuevi Tribe that allows the tribe to develop a casino resort in Barstow.
At the Council meeting, Dale said he wrote the letter in response to a letter the Chemehuevi tribal chairman Charles Wood had written to a consultant managing an Environmental Impact Study that the BIA is conducting on another proposed dual Indian casino project identified for Barstow – a project that Detroit-based Barwest LLC has advanced. The chairman reportedly was encouraged to write the letter by the consultant managing the study.
Dale defended his action and the unauthorized letter he sent to the BIA by saying, “The Chemehuevi had made accusations about our city and about what our city had done.”
TVT has reviewed a copy of the letter from the Chemehuevi tribal chairman which Dale says prompted his letter to the BIA. There is absolutely nothing in the Chairman's letter representing accusations about the City of Barstow or actions taken by the City. The letter primarily addresses matters of ancestral heritage in the greater Barstow area and raises questions about a list of tribes maintained by California’s Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC) which are required to be included in early consultations on land use matters in the Barstow area under state law.
What would prompt Dale to provide such an unsupported explanation?
It's curious that there are no literal accusations in the Chemehuevi letter; but from Mayor Lawrence Dale’s perspective some sort of exposure is implied that required his urgent and unvetted response.
Oddly enough Dale’s letter to the BIA is more political attack intended to advantage his friends in Detroit rather than a letter that would foster the City Council’s objective to bring Indian gaming to Barstow. He addresses no "accusations" in letter; rather he makes uneducated and vicious accusations about the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe.
Barstow Mayor Lawrence Dale isn't being honest with himself or the public. Mayor Dale's actions may cost Barstow the chance to establish Indian gaming; perhaps that's been the objective all along.
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