Monday, December 17, 2007

Barwest spokesman reports no significant progress in effort to bring casino to Barstow

Tom Shields, spokesman for Detroit-based BarWest Gaming LLC, appeared at tonight's meeting of the Barstow City Council and reported, "There has really not been any significant change in our (BarWest) effort to bring Casino gaming to Barstow." The BarWest casino scheme has been stalled, making no significant progress, since 2005; despite periodic representations otherwise by Shields.



Although California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger a strict policy of confidentiality regarding negotiations that may be ongoing with specific tribes, Shields continues to make public statement indicating negotiations with the Governor are in progress presumaby breaking with the Governor's policy requiring confidentiality, and leading some to speculate that in fact there are no active discussions underway.

Shields, once again, brought along two members of the Los Coyotes tribe but there has been no appearance by leaders of the Big Lagoon Rancheria in Barstow for months -- one news story indicated Big Lagoon was no longer involved with the Barstow casino effort although Shields has attempted to suggest otherwise.
Political disclosure documents indicate both individuals who accompanied Shields to the City Council meeting representing themselves as leaders of the Los Coyotes tribe have previously been paid by BarWest to make appearances in Barstow.

Shields and Shane Chapparosa, one of those who represents himself as a leader of the Los Coyotes tribe, reported that there had been elections but represented there were no significant changes in the make-up of the Tribal Council. They failed to mention whether or not Katherine Siva Saubel remained as chairwoman/spokesperson for the tribe.

A news article published in November reported that Saubel, who terminated the tribe's agreement with BarWest referred to BarWest principal Michael J. Malik, Sr. as "the Devil." Saubel and her nephew Kevin Siva were noticeably absent from the Barstow City Council meeting.

Further, Shields was forced to admit that a draft Environmental Impact Study (EIS) required by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) on the two casinos BarWest has proposed had made no progress at the Department of Interior.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh what a tangled web we weave! I swear I am going to turn all this into a movie of the week, this is just incredible. There are so many twists and turns its just insane, to bad noone can get a straight answer out of anyone.

I to thought it interesting that Los Coyotes showed up and there was no mention of Big Lagoon. Guess they forgot that without Big Lagoon they have absolutely no chance of a casino as they need a public policy exemption, like Big Lagoon brought with them. I am no economic expert but it certainly seems to me that Barstow is committing economic suicide by continually backing this failed developer. I also cannot believe that Barwest is clinging to this tribe like it has no other choice, why don't they just dump Los Coyotes and give Chemehuevi a call? That would make ol Larry The Rock happy. Since he believes that he's some kind of expert and the Chemehuevi belong in Barstow.

Anonymous said...

splixx, the answers are there; just the wrong people are being asked the questions.

i am told ... that during the negotiations for a municipal services agreement chemehuevi was hinted that if they partnered with Barwest they would have an agreement, a compact and break ground within 12 months. this was nearly 2 years ago now.
i am told ... that chemehuevi refused because Barwest was not the kind of people they wanted to associate with.

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