Andrea Hoch, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Legal Affairs Secretary, a member of the California State Bar; and a graduate of Stanford University and the McGeorge S
chool of Law; doesn’t appear to have a clue what she’s talking about when it comes to gaming compacts her predecessors negotiated with Big Lagoon Rancheria and Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians.
With all due respect, she didn’t take the job with the Governor until October 17, 2005; several months after the conclusion of compact negotiations. However, either Hoch has set out to intentionally mislead the legislature on this matter or ghost writers have done Hoch, the Governor and the legislature a grave disservice.
In a follow up letter Hoch signed and sent on June 14, 2006 to former Assemblyman Jerome Horton (then chair of the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee) in advance of an Assembly GO Committee Hearing on the pair of gaming compacts; Hoch makes some very serious factual errors and perpetuates some of the same half-truths frequently used by Barwest’s attorneys and PR people. Among numerous misstatements and blatant errors she uses as cornerstones to arguments explaining reasons for the Governor’s approval of the two gaming compacts,
Andrea Hoch writes:
“In 2004, the City of Barstow approached the State, seeking a tribal casino on behalf of the Los Coyotes Band pursuant to section 20 of IGRA. At that time, the City of Barstow had an exclusive negotiation agreement with the Los Coyotes Band and had identified a particular site for the Casino.” FICTION
FACT: The City of Barstow has never had an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (ENA) with the Los Coyotes Indians nor any other Indian Tribe. It was the Detroit casino syndicators, Barwest LLC, that demanded an exclusive negotiating agreement with the City of Barstow; an agreement that made no reference to the Los Coyotes Indian Tribe or any other tribe.
By June 2004, Los Coyotes Tribal Leaders had grown disenchanted with Barwest and soon thereafter would abandon Barwest for another developer; and there was mounting pubic pressure on the City Council to resist a fourth re-authorization of the ENA with Barwest. Barwest threatened to abandon the City of Barstow if the City talked with any other developers; to appease Barwest, the City awarded a Disposition and Development Agreement (DDA) granting Barwest exclusive rights to develop any casino resort regardless of Tribe.
Mayor Dale slipped through a vote on the DDA with minimal advance public disclosure and no record of public debate or dialogue prior to the Council’s vote. A year later when inquiries were made of the City about such an agreement (and a public records request for a copy of the agreement was denied by the new City Attorney who was told by senior staff that no such agreement existed), key City Officials publicly denied the existence of such an agreement and Barwest remained silent. Barwest and city official were exposed and a red-faced city attorney was embarrassed, when several weeks later a copy of the enforceable DDA was “leaked” publicly.
Andrea Hoch reports:
“… the State brokered an arrangement whereby the Los Coyotes Band agreed to share its casino site with Big Lagoon, which allowed the site to serve the clear, independent public policy of preserving the Big Lagoon from commercial development. The arrangement allows the Los Coyotes Band and Big Lagoon to share the identified parcel (now split in two) on which a unified casino project, comprised of two adjacent gaming facilities, would be developed.” FICTION
FACT: The Los Coyotes Band has no land in Barstow. Barwest owns 110 acres or more in Barstow some of which it intends to convey to one or more tribes in the future. On July 1, 2004 the Barstow City Council approved a casino site for the Los Coyotes Band of Indians not to exceed 20 acres carved out of a 48 acre parcel controlled by Barwest.
Specifically the original agreement (MSA) Hoch references between the Los Coyotes Tribe and the City of Barstow reads:
Section 1. Land to be Taken into Trust
The Tribe will request that the United States take into trust for its benefit land not to exceed twenty contiguous acres, absent written agreement of the City, from the parcel(s) identified in Exhibit A appended hereto (“Trust Lands”). The Tribe agrees that it will not seek other or additional parcels within the City to be taken into trust unless and until this Agreement is amended as provided herein to authorize additional trust land acquisition(s). (From MSA the Barstow City Council approved July 1, 2004)
Los Coyotes is not sharing nor splitting the 20-acre site identified by the Barstow City Council.
In fact, the Los Coyotes Tribe goes from a Council authorized 20-acre development footprint to a 24+ acre footprint which is 20-25% larger than what the City Council had originally identified.
Rather, than two casinos on the Los Coyotes 20-acre parcel the City Council identified as a Los Coyotes’ site, Barwest will now have exclusive rights to develop and manage two casinos on its 48-acres (a mega resort project almost 2.5 x larger than originally envisioned); and additional surrounding resort compatible commercial projects on perhaps hundreds more acres.
Neither Los Coyotes nor Barwest have made any true sacrifices as implied by Hoch’s argument; quite the contrary! Both Los Coyotes and Barwest are BIG WINNERS with the addition of Big Lagoon. All they’ve sacrificed is the time and patience it took them to convince Big Lagoon to get on board.
For the first five years of operation Barwest LLC's "take" of operating revenue will be approximately 30% per year. The original Los Coyotes proposal called for 1,000-1,500 slot machines. Now, the combined compacts allow for upwards of 4,500 machines (at least a 300% increase) and "poor" Barwest LLC now stands to gain 30% of operating revenues generated from a 4,500 slots dual casinos resort; a very substantial difference. AND the Los Coyotes Tribe goes from a casino with a max of 1,500 slots to a casino with upwards of 2,250 slots (150% increase over its original Barstow plan).
Hoch indicates, as has Dan Kolkey previously, that Los Coyotes is only included in the Barstow proposal because that tribe already had agreements with the City and was willing to make some sacrifices to accomodate Big Lagoon. Absent any sacrifices, Los Coyotes is only included because it had a previous MSA with the City of Barstow.
So why is it that if for some reason Big Lagoon Rancheria meets all Federal and State approvals but the Los Coyotes Band of Indians does not; Barwest has the right to substitute another tribe in the Los Coyotes position. Given this rational by the Governor's team, it would seem reasonable that if Los Coyotes is turned down and Big Lagoon is approved, then there would only be a Big Lagoon casino resort. Barwest's ability to substitue a second tribe for Los Coyotes rewards only Barwest LLC and means that a second tribe would be forced to contract with Barwest LLC in order to develop its Barstow casino resort.
In the same way that these parties brought embarrassment and shame upon the reputation of Barstow’s then-new City Attorney when they withheld information and she originally affirmed there had never been a DDA between Barwest and the City of Barstow; perhaps these guys have used Ms. Hoch, the Governor’s Legal Affairs Secretary in the same manner. Ms. Hoch is the only one who can set the record straight on how it is that she came to make such gross errors and untrue representations to the legislature.
You may want to review these subsequent posts as well:
- Casino developer’s representations biased; consultants “specialization” challenged
