The Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians doesn’t talk about the proposed casino resort at Point Molate without bringing up their history.  Opponents are concerned about urban gaming, social ills and environmental dangers to the Richmond promontory. But for the Guidiville Band, the salient issue is their quest for a homeland large enough for the entire tribe to live on.

“Point Molate is the culmination of a 160-year effort for lands that were taken away in 1850,” vice-chairperson Donald Duncan told the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors on Nov. 3. The main challenge the tribe faces is to persuade West County residents that they (and their enterprise) would be good neighbors.

The Guidiville Band’s lawyer, Little Fawn Boland, works for the Native American-owned Rosette & Associates. She is a member of the Piro-Manso-Tiwa of the San Juan de Guadalupe Pueblo. Her tribe applied for federal recognition in 1970. They are still waiting. “When you have no land and lack recognition, it is hard to stay together, the tribal membership ends up moving away and becomes a diaspora,” she said. “It is hard to maintain to maintain your culture, your language and you have a brain drain. That’s why you need to create opportunities on your own land. Gaming is just a way to pay for it all.”

Tribal CEO Michael Derry says the casino is what will provide jobs, a roundhouse and homes because casinos are the only enterprise that investors will reach into their wallets for. “You need that magic thing — future earnings — to get initial capital for anything,” Derry said.

The tribe has teamed up with investor Upstream Point Molate, LLC, which has a signed agreement with the city of Richmond to pay $50 million for the site. Derry confirmed the tribe also has financial backing from the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, which operates the Cache Creek Casino in Brooks. Pyramid Communications — Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation’s public relations firm — did not respond to requests for an interview.

Casinos have been a sure way out of poverty on many reservations across the country. Kimberly Tallbear, an Assistant Professor of Science Technology and Environmental Policy at UC Berkeley, said when she left her hometown in South Dakota, “you couldn’t get a job on Main Street.” Tallbear said she moved to Minnesota to finish high school in order to escape the only two career paths open to her: vocational school or a position at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Little Fawn Boland denies that the tribe is reservation shopping at a public meeting on Sept. 17 at Richmond's Civic Center.

But after the Royal River casino opened in Flandreau, South Dakota in 1990, Native Americans didn’t need to look for work only on Main Street. Tallbear said racial relations relaxed in the wake of the casino’s success because people were working together and mingling with one another. After her high school principal retired, he started working at the casino’s restaurant.

When Guidiville vice-chair Duncan and others talk about the tribe’s 160-year effort for land, they are not referring only to territory promised and never delivered to California tribes in 1851. “It’s about recovering from termination,” Derry said.

Termination was the result of Public Law 280. The 1954 federal law severely curtailed the sovereignty and rights to land Native Americans had won only 20 years before. Under Public Law 280, Native Americans became “subject to the same laws and entitled to the same privileges” as other citizens. In practice, this meant that the deed to reservation property could be transferred to the states.

California chose to terminate tribal sovereignty, and its Rancherias (as the state’s reservations were called) were dissolved. In his book, Native American Justice, Laurence French calls Public Law 280 the “ultimate form of cultural genocide.” Landless and without assets, many Native Americans were forced to move to urban areas to attend schools and find jobs. Tribal connections were severed as nuclear families broke apart in their search for work.

In the cities, they experienced racism and segregation. Rupert Costo and Jeannette Henry describe the new ghettos in Indian Treaties: Two Centuries of Dishonor: “They were dumped into housing that in most cases was ghetto-based, into jobs that were dead-end and training that failed to lead to professions and occupations.”

The civil rights movement of the 1960s coupled with the failure of forced assimilation led to the reversal of Public Law 280. This paved the way for the modern era, in which some tribes have regained federal recognition and land.

The Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians was restored to sovereignty after a 1991 federal lawsuit. Now they want land. The tribe has applied for trust land at the former Naval Fuel Depot at Point Molate. However, they first need to prove they have a claim to the 266 acres of prime waterfront property.

Under the restored lands exception, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act provides that a tribe can ask for land to be restored to them and that new land can qualify as restored land. To be eligible for this, a tribe needs to prove that:

– they have a historical and modern connection to the land;

– they do not already have a reservation;

– they were restored to federal recognition after being terminated;

– the land is within reasonable commuting distance for members;

– this is the first time the tribe has applied for land to be taken into trust for them.

Point Molate has been a winery and a fuel depot. Will it now become a Native American reservation and casino resort?

Boland said the Guidiville Band does not have a reservation. The 44 acres the tribe holds in Ukiah, a remnant of the Guidiville Rancheria that was terminated in 1958, cannot be considered a reservation, according to Boland. She said they were given the land by the Indian Housing Authority under the proviso that no tribal government buildings be erected. As a consequence of termination and the relocation programs of the 1950s, most of the 112 members live and work around the greater Bay Area, Boland said.

The most crucial element the Guidiville Band must prove is that they have a historical connection to Point Molate. The tribe hired ethno-historian Dr. James McClurken to do a genealogical study. Derry said the study traces the tribe back to a Native American who had signed one of the ill-fated “friendship and peace” treaties of 1851. In those treaties, the federal government promised land around Clear Lake to the tribes who had been displaced by white settlements. The agreements were never honored.

Richmond Confidential is unable to confirm what the study contains because Derry said he could not release it, citing the pending federal ruling. Dr. McClurken did not respond to requests for an interview.

Boland said this is the first request the Guidiville Band has made for trust land.  When asked whether tribal members would leave their present homes and move to Point Molate, both Derry and Boland said, “No question about it.”

After the Contra Costa Supervisors signed an intergovernmental agreement with the tribe on Nov. 10, Derry told Richmond Confidential that he doesn’t when the next steps will be taken: those are up to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Richmond City Council.

Critics of the proposed Point Molate casino warn that approving the project could transform the East Bay into Las Vegas. Both the governor and California’s two senators oppose allowing a tribe to open an urban casino. But the final decision rests in one federal bureaucrat’s hands.

If Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar agrees that the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians have an historical tie to the Richmond land and determines that the casino is supported by the surrounding communities, then the tribe is expected to get its casino.

The Point Molate Casino wouldn’t be the first urban casino. The Lytton Band of Pomo Indians took over San Pablo Lytton Casino in 2005, which had operated as a state-licensed card room since 1996.

But unlike other urban gaming operations that allow visitors to play only poker and bingo, the Point Molate casino would be the first casino to offer slots and blackjack outside of a rural Indian reservation.

Ordinarily the decision to allow such a casino to open would fall on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, but a narrow exception carved into a 1988 law could let the tribe move forward without his approval.

In 1983 California sued a tribe near Palm Springs for running unlicensed bingo. Four years later the Supreme Court ruled that it is illegal to deny tribes the right to offer any games already played legally in the state. In other words, because charities and other groups are sometimes allowed to host bingo games, the state could not deny tribes – which are sovereign entities — the same opportunity.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision, the United States Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988. Under the Act, states were given the authority to ban all gaming, but tribes would be allowed to offer any games on their reservation that are allowed in the state. The law also created an opportunity for states to establish compacts, or written agreements, to allow tribes to offer additional games that would otherwise be illegal. Under these compacts, the state is able to establish fees and other terms governing the arrangement.

The law created three different classes of gaming on Indian lands. Class I gaming includes traditional tribal games for inexpensive prizes. Class II includes bingo and whatever games are already permitted under state law. For example, in California, the state licenses card houses to offer poker — a game in which players compete against one another. But blackjack and other games in which players compete against the house are not allowed in Class II casinos. Slot machines and these casino-style card games are considered Class III games under the Act.

Tribes are normally able to open casinos only on their reservations, but since the Guidiville Band doesn’t have a reservation, the tribe is relying on an exception written into the federal gaming act.

The Secretary of the Interior can approve gambling on newly acquired lands under section 2719 of the Act, if he determines it would be in the best interest of the tribe and the community that surrounds the proposed casino.

Normally the governor, who has said he opposes the plan to open a casino at Point Molate, would also have to approve the agreement, but there is another provision within the Act that may leave Schwarzenegger powerless.

Tribes that lost their official recognition from the federal government but have since had it restored are able to move forward with their plans without the governor’s approval.

On Oct. 12, the Governor’s legal affairs secretary, Andrea Lynn Hoch, sent a letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the city of Richmond in opposition to the Point Molate proposal.

“The Governor’s Office urges the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Secretary of the Interior to exercise its discretion to reject the Guidiville trust application and all other similar acquisitions,” said the letter. “Granting the Guidiville application would be contrary to the State’s public policy and the California electorate’s good faith.”

Schwarzenegger first opposed urban gaming in 2005 when the Lytton Band moved to take over San Pablo Casino. He maintains that Indian casinos should be relegated to reservations, which are typically in remote areas. Based on promises made during past ballot measure campaigns to expand Indian gambling, Schwarzenegger also contends the state’s voters don’t want casinos in urban areas.

Of the 108 tribes recognized by the state of California, 67 of them have ratified tribal compacts with the state to operate Class III casinos, according to the California Gambling Control Commission. Of those, there are 57 tribes currently operating 58 casinos, it said.

In March 2000, 64.4 percent of California voters approved Proposition 1A, which opened the door for Class III gaming. Proposition 5, a similar 1998 measure, passed with 62.4 percent of voters supporting it, but didn’t survive a legal challenge.

During the campaigns for Propositions 5 and 1A, said Jeff Macedo, a spokesman for the Governor, the California Nations Indian Gaming Association promised the voters that tribes would not use their new powers to build casinos in major cities.

The Guidiville Band’s attempt to open a casino in Richmond breaks these tribal promises not to expand gaming into urban areas across the state, said Macedo.

The California Nations Indian Gaming Association didn’t return repeated calls for comment.

One of the few Native American opponents of the Point Molate Casino is Joe Alberta, a spokesman for Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians, a tribe in the Central Valley that opposes Indian gaming in urban areas. Alberta said allowing the Guidiville Band to open a casino at Point Molate would create a dangerous precedent that could lead to tribes opening casinos in major cities throughout the state.

“You can’t make a reservation there for people that never even lived there,” Alberta said. “They’re just doing it for gaming purposes. It’s not for their heritage or their cultural practices. … It’s like California moving into Arizona.”

Alberta said he knows of six other tribes looking to open casinos outside of a reservation.

Guidiville tribal leaders say they have proven the legally required historical connection to Richmond in a study submitted with their federal application for trust land, but not released publicly. Currently, the tribe has land in Mendocino County, but tribal lawyer Little Fawn Boland said the tribe is not allowed to build governmental structures on the land.

A map of the “California Indian Pre-contact Tribal Territories,” by the California Indian Library Collections at UC Berkeley, appears to indicate that Richmond is actually within the Coastal Miwok’s tribal land.

But that tribe, which is now known as the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, is looking to obtain land in Santa Rosa for their own casino and did not return calls seeking comment.

Casino San Pablo had previously tried to expand into a Class III casino, but its efforts were rejected after numerous officials, including state Sen. Loni Hancock (D-Oakland) voiced opposition to the move.

Had the move gone through, one-fourth of the casino’s winnings would have gone to the state. But tribal governments are not required to pay taxes on money earned through “Class II” gaming, said Nathan Rapp, a spokesman for Hancock.

Despite the unprecedented state budget crisis, Rapp said the Senator doesn’t believe Indian gaming can play a role in solving the problem.

“A casino is not going to resolve the state budget. … Our numbers are entirely too big,” said Rapp. “It’s not really fair, nor is it accurate, to say that Indian casinos are going to rescue California’s budget.”

Unlike the resorts that litter the Las Vegas landscape, the casino at Point Molate would be located on sovereign tribal land and outside of state and federal regulations, said Rapp.

“If you take a bunch of workers and put them in a casino where there’s no structured labor laws or anything, then basically anything goes,” said Rapp. “It’s not fair to the employees.”

The tribe and developer have agreed to pay casino employees the city’s living wage, which is significantly above the state’s minimum wage, but the tribe would not be legally required to observe other federal workplace protections. And the Senator feels that the people of Richmond deserve better opportunities.

“Are these the kind of jobs that we want for Richmond long-term?” said Rapp. “The Senator’s response is ‘No, I believe Richmond is better than that. I believe Richmond has much more potential than that. We have to start training and educating people towards that rather then putting a casino in the middle of the city.’”

Still, with the city’s unemployment rate at 18 percent, some say that any new jobs would be a good thing for Richmond. Council member Nat Bates said that the jobs at the casino — ranging from cooks and cashiers to janitors — are ideal because they won’t require a lot of training.

But in the end, it won’t be up to the Council or other elected leaders to decide whether the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians will get to build their casino. No, the final decision will be made in Washington by Secretary of the Interior Salazar.

___

Tomorrow: The Guidiville tribe petitions for trust land to build its casino.

MARTINEZ – The Contra Costa Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to approve the Intergovernmental agreement between the county and the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians.

The unanimous vote in favor of the Point Molate casino resort comes after nearly five years and $1 million of county opposition to all gambling establishments, both proposed and in operation. “We have spent more than any other public agency fighting this, “ Richmond District Supervisor John Gioia told Richmond Confidential shortly after the vote. “It was a very difficult decision.”

Diminishing revenues played a large role in the board’s volte-face.  Gioia said the county needs money for health, law enforcement and other services.  If the 266 acres of shoreline property are given to the Guidiville Band in trust, the tribe guarantees the county $12 million a year, with a possibility to increase that by another $10 million.

At a time when public services are being scaled back, supervisors want to reap the benefits of a possible cash cow. Moreover, they do not want a repeat of what happened with Casino San Pablo. The county’s opposition to that casino led to “zero” dollars for the county, Gioia said, while its services are being drained.

“Clearly there is a split in the community, and I respect both positions,” he said, referring to the animated public debate surrounding the construction of a large casino complex just outside Richmond; a city afflicted with “crushing unemployment,” according to supervisor Chairperson Susan Bonilla. “But I believe that the county has the most to lose if we oppose this project any longer,” Gioia said.

To those who say the county was bought, Gioia said, “It’s our job as elected officials to continually assess.  We believe we can turn a project to the benefit of the community.”

Tuesday’s revised memorandum includes a new clause, which stipulates that 30 percent of all new jobs will go to Contra Costa residents outside Richmond. The City of Richmond has already signed an agreement with the tribe that 40 percent of all jobs go to Richmond residents. If costs to the county prove more that expected, it will have the right to renegotiate the contract — a clause also added this week. Furthermore, the tribe will indemnify the county for all related litigation.

The County does not have veto power over the casino project; the decision lies with the Secretary of the Interior and the City of Richmond. However, the Supervisors’ support will likely move the project forward, because the Interior Secretary considers local sentiment when deciding whether to grant trust land.

After hearing public comment for the second week running, Supervisors gave their reasons for supporting the Guidiville Band’s application for Point Molate. “I don’t see that we have a choice,” Mary Piepho said. “If this project goes forward, we will all be working together for years. While I may not be happy about this agreement, I am happy that we have preserved and protected the community.”

Responding to the charge that the county was rushing into an agreement, Supervisor Gayle Uilkema said, “this has been one of the longest, most thorough hassles this board has ever been through.”

Bonilla summed up the board’s position by saying, “to stand in the way of so many jobs is not something I want on my conscience.”

Richmond District supervisor John Gioia speaks with a constituent after the vote in favor of the Point Molate resort complex.

The motion to vote in favor of the casino was made by Supervisor Federal Glover, and seconded by Gioia.

The next step is for the Richmond City Council to decide whether to certify the Environmental Impact Review.  The Interior Secretary is in the process of reviewing the tribe’s petition for the land.

For the Guidiville Band, a hard-fought battle was won Tuesday. “Having land after 160 years is something so important; it’s hard to put it in economic terms,” said tribal CEO Michael Derry.

CLARIFICATION: Council member Jeff Ritterman, who is quoted in the story, told Richmond Confidential that his position on the casino wasn’t portrayed accurately. In an effort to ensure the council member’s position is clear Richmond Confidential has agreed to publish his complete clarifying remarks.

Opposition to a Las Vegas-style casino resort in Richmond is collapsing as casino backers hand over promises for millions of dollars, thousands of jobs and major environmental concessions.

A formerly divided Richmond City Council has softened its stance. Residents and officials are clamoring for employment, and the county Board of Supervisors Tuesday reversed its initial opposition to the project in exchange for a $12 million annual cut of casino profits.

“The project is dynamic,” developer Jim Levine said. “It’ll be one of the major destinations of any kind—tribal or not—in California.”

The controversial casino project would grant a California tribe federal trust land to build what’s known as a Type III casino—one with blackjack, slots and other games that pit the gambler against the house. This would be the first time in the state’s history that a tribe would be given urban land for such a venture. Some opponents say the project could change the landscape of the East Bay into the urban gaming capital of the country.

“A casino in Richmond,” Mayor Gayle McLaughlin said, “is outrageous.”

McLaughlin is one of the few vocal opponents still standing. In September, Senator Dianne Feinstein and four other senators sent a letter to the Secretary of the Interior stating their strong opposition to taking off-reservation lands into trust for gaming purposes. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued a proclamation against urban Indian casinos and recently filed a letter of opposition with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the City of Richmond. And a local group called the Coalition to Save Point Molate is also still fighting the project.

The decision ultimately rests with the Interior Secretary, who will take into consideration local sentiment. In the face of diminishing resistance, the dominoes are falling fast toward construction of what would be one of the biggest urban casino resorts in California—right on the Richmond shore.

Empty land on the waterfront

Point Molate, with its grassy hills, prime bayshore property and sparkling views of the San Francisco skyline, fell into the hands of the City of Richmond in 2003. That year, the city bought 85 percent of the old fuel depot from the Navy for $1 under the Base Realignment and Closure Act. One of the stipulations of the deal was that the area had to be developed in a self-sustaining and economically viable way.

A collapsing sign welcomes motorists along Western Drive to the old Naval fuel depot and former Village of Point Molate. Photo by Alex L. Weber.

In 2004, the city entered into a land disposition agreement—a terms-of-sale document vaguely resembling a lease—with a development firm called Upstream Point Molate, LLC. Upstream management partner and developer Jim Levine represents the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians. The 112-member tribe currently owns 44 acres near Ukiah, and they are petitioning the federal government to take Point Molate into trust as reservation land. The petition appears to rest on whether their proposal has the support of the community and if they can prove an historical tie to the area.

While the tribe awaits a ruling from the Secretary of the Interior, Levine has been working hard to secure the property for development.

He’s paid the City of Richmond $15 million toward the final purchase price of $50 million. Levine owes another $5 million in January, said Janet Schneider, administrative chief at the Richmond city manager’s office. That’s a total of $20 million in nonrefundable deposits—money Levine won’t get back if the project doesn’t move forward. A promissory note will permit Levine to pay the remaining $30 million over a 15-year period if the City Council clears the way for the casino.

In March 2005, the city and the Bureau of Indian Affairs embarked on a joint environmental impact review of Point Molate. The draft Environmental Impact Review (EIR) was released in July and presents six alternatives for the use of the land, ranging from a casino resort to total parkland. Alternative B is the Guidiville project. It includes not just a casino but also an entertainment complex about the size of a football field, two hotels, a retail village and more than 300 residential homes—about one-third for the tribe and two-thirds to be sold on the open market, according to Levine.

The EIR also guarantees the city $20 million each year. Part of that money is a service fee for police, fire protection and road maintenance the city will provide at the resort.

Before any project can move forward, the Richmond City Council must now decide whether to certify the EIR. “What we’ve been told is that the [Department of the] Interior will view certification of the EIR as indication of local support for the transfer,” Janet Schneider said. “The assumption now is that [the City Council] will certify the EIR.”

What once looked like a significant hurdle now seems to be a simple hop. At least two council members who were once anti-gaming are looking favorably at Upstream’s plans.

The environmental payoff

City Council members Maria Viramontes and Jeff Ritterman were initially skeptical of the project and wary of urban gambling. Both are focused on environmental concerns, they said.

Viramontes said she still isn’t a proponent of casinos in her city, but she likes the project’s guarantees for open space, trail access and conservation, and she said she’s committed to follow through on the city’s promise to the Navy to develop the area in an economically viable way.

“I’m not comfortable with urban gambling as a California state policy,” Viramontes said, “but you have to judge a proposal on its merit or its lack of merit. It sounds like an interesting and lovely project.”

Ritterman concurred. “I’m not a big fan of urban gaming, so there’s a major downside to that,” he said. “But a lot of my support hinges on

A rendering of "Alternative B," which calls for a "mixed-use tribal destination casino resort with residential component," according to the EIR. Graphic provided by Jim Levine.

environmental concerns, so if the environmental payoff is considerably large, I’ll look past the gaming aspect.”

Ritterman said he’s been in close contact with conservation groups about what would constitute a large environmental payoff, and he’s waiting on the outcome of a lawsuit filed against Upstream by the Citizens for East Shore Parks. Ritterman said he anticipates a “pretty good settlement” that includes a promise from Upstream to preserve Richmond’s entire northern shoreline.

Levine said shoreline accessibility is important.

“We’ve identified opportunities to achieve some magnificent open-space goals with Citizens for East Shore Parks,” Levine said, “and we’re exploring how to finalize that.”

Representatives from Citizens for East Shore Parks would not comment on the tentative agreement.

The toxic cleanup

When the Navy’s fuel depot shut down, Point Molate housed twenty 50,000-gallon tanks of bulk fuel. According to the EIR, those containers have already been cleaned out and the fuel hauled away. Part of the city’s land disposition agreement with Upstream is that the company must dig up the old tanks and get them to a landfill before construction can begin.

Levine estimates that process will cost $32 million. The majority of that—$28.5 million—will come from the Navy, according to Janet Schneider. She said that money is due to transfer to the city “any day now.” Then the city will send the funds to Upstream for the environmental remediation. Levine said he and the tribe will contribute the rest of the money.

The California Regional Water Quality Control Board is overseeing the process. Board spokeswoman Sandy Potter confirmed that inspectors will schedule the cleanup and test groundwater quality.

The jobs

Richmond councilman Nathaniel Bates has backed the project from the beginning because Levine and the tribe are promising about 17,000 new jobs. “It’s a financial goldmine for Richmond,” he said, pointing to the stipulation in the EIR that the Guidiville Band hire city residents for at least 40 percent of its “operational” positions.

The available jobs may not call for highly skilled applicants, but that’s a plus, Bates said. “Hotel staffing, cooks, cashiers, janitors—all carry with them a living-wage salary that people can afford to live comfortably on,” Bates said. He said the city has set the living wage salary at $14 to $15 per hour.

“We’re signed up to comply with the city’s living wage requirements,” Levine said, as stipulated in the EIR, “but our average wage will well exceed that.” If Levine hadn’t signed that agreement, the tribe—as a sovereign nation not subject to city mandates—wouldn’t have had to meet the living wage requirements.

Outspoken casino opponent McLaughlin called the employment projections a “pipe dream” and criticized the jobs as low-quality and low-paying.

“A casino economy has never helped us,” she said.

Levine dismissed her criticism. “The mayor was against the project before she saw any projections, and she’ll keep coming up with reasons as to why she’s against it,” he said. “I don’t know if she even has the capacity to understand the projections.”

The opposition

A dwindling faction of opponents continues to publicly battle Upstream and the tribe. Strident resistance comes from McLaughlin, who raises concerns that the ripple effects of gambling could include addiction, substance abuse, crime, bankruptcy and domestic violence.

Andrés Soto of the Coalition to Save Point Molate speaks at a Richmond planning commission meeting in September. Photo by Phoebe Fronista.

In September, the Contra Costa County Administrator’s Office commissioned the Abaris Group in Walnut Creek to review existing studies on the impact of casinos. The review cites research into Casino San Pablo by the East Bay Coalition Against Urban Casinos. That study found that after the casino added 548 slot machines in 2006, burglary and general disturbance calls on the grounds and in surrounding neighborhoods tripled, and rates of vehicle theft nearly quadrupled.

The Abaris review also states that the negative effects on Richmond’s public health “would be significant, particularly in terms of tobacco use and asthma” in a community “already burdened with severe environmental hazards.”

Levine disputes the health and safety concerns. “The ills associated with problem gambling are the same as the ones associated with unemployment,” he said.

Also standing in opposition to the casino is a front of environmental groups, church leaders and others collectively called the Coalition to Save Point Molate—many of whose public relations consultants and interns are financed by rival card clubs in Emeryville, the South Bay and the Peninsula, according to Coalition spokesman Andrés Soto.

Soto accuses local officials of caving before the prospect of Levine’s millions of dollars. “[Levine] is trying to pick off the opposition using the appeal of money,” he said, and local government is “willing to sell out the community for a pittance.”

Soto and McLaughlin are both skeptical of the plans for traffic management and the projections for visitors to the casino resort, many shipping in on the Vallejo ferry.

“The idea of thousands of people coming to Point Molate by ferry is ridiculous,” McLaughlin said. “People don’t come to vacation in San Francisco to go to the gambling casino.”

Levine counters that he’s also in talks with AC Transit and BART to help shuttle visitors.

The final say

In some measure, the fate of the Guidiville casino resort rests in the City Council’s hands. Certification of the EIR is tantamount to the city’s blessing for the project. And, according to City of Richmond senior planner Lina Velasco, certification must be based only on whether the review meets guidelines set by the California Environmental Quality Act.

The City Council could make what’s known as a statement of overriding considerations if members find there are “unavoidable significant impacts” to the environment, Velasco said. Even then, city staffers would be directed to make the necessary changes in order for the EIR to move forward.

If it does, there will be one less obstacle between the 112 members of the Guidiville Band and a new reservation on Richmond’s shoreline—a reservation that will bring cash, jobs and an urban casino of unprecedented size and scope.

Tomorrow: A look into how a tribe acquires trust land for an urban casino.