Barstow Voters to Place Their Bets

Brushed aside by some as merely a highway pit stop for Las Vegas-bound travelers, Barstow has staked its future on a tribal gambling palace -- a venture that has proven as wearisome to city voters as the Mojave Desert heat.

The city’s 23,000 residents have been wrestling with a controversial plan, backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, that would allow two tribes with no historical ties to the area to build two Vegas-style casinos in town just off Interstate 15.

Then allies of a third tribe, the Chemehuevi, which had long lobbied for its own casino in the strategically located San Bernardino County city, placed a measure on Tuesday’s ballot that has turned everything topsy-turvy.

The city ballot measure would essentially boot the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians of San Diego County and the Big Lagoon Rancheria band of Humboldt County, and welcome a casino run by the Chemehuevi, whose roots run along the Colorado River in San Bernardino County.

The gaming debate has triggered a recall campaign against one councilman and a political war among the competing tribes. The Los Coyotes unsuccessfully challenged the measure in court before the ballots were even printed.

Barstow has been inundated with at least $100,000 in campaign radio and cable television ads, and for-and-against mailers -- all to woo 8,634 registered voters.

“We’re a small town, but this is like a prime-time USA campaign,” said longtime Councilwoman Helen Runyon, who supports the measure. “It’s been hell for months out here.”

The proposal has also revived criticism of “reservation shopping,” which allows tribes to run casinos outside their aboriginal lands. Voters in Northern California’s Glenn County will hold an advisory vote Tuesday on whether the Grindstone Rancheria tribe should begin off-reservation gambling.

Members of the state Senate, who must approve the two-casino Barstow deal, questioned at a recent committee hearing whether the tribes should profit from slot machines far from their reservations.

“We’re opening a Pandora’s box,” said Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), who attended high school in the desert town. “You can move a casino, you can move a sovereign nation.”

The Barstow odyssey began in 2004, when Los Coyotes, with about 300 members, struck a deal with the City Council to develop a gaming resort, one step in a lengthy state and federal process for opening a tribal casino.

The town had pegged a casino as its savior, hoping it could nab travelers who would otherwise zip toward Las Vegas, about 160 miles away.

Within months, city officials were being accused of backroom deal-making with the Los Coyotes and its partner, BarWest, a company set to manage the casino project. Its owner, Marian Illitch, runs the pizza chain Little Caesar’s, the Detroit Red Wings hockey team and the MotorCity Casino in Detroit.

The developer working with the Chemehuevi protested after the mayor and another city official jetted to Sacramento on BarWest’s private plane in 2004 to meet with former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, who lobbied for the Los Coyotes casino.

In September, Schwarzenegger announced a tentative deal: Los Coyotes could open a casino in Barstow, as could the 20-member Big Lagoon Rancheria, which had sued the state after officials balked at a gaming project slated for its sensitive coastal land in Northern California.

Under the compact, the state would pocket up to a quarter of profits from the side-by-side casinos -- an amount that could top $31 million a year. Some leaders in Barstow wanted a single casino as its skyline, but most cheered a deal that could pump at least $6.5 million a year into the local budget.

“It could make Barstow a destination, it really could,” said Mayor Pro Tem Gloria Darling, who opposes the ballot measure.

The compact shirked the 500-member Chemehuevi band, which has historical ties to the area and runs a small casino in Havasu Lake, Calif.

For a decade, the Chemehuevi had trumpeted its own casino to Barstow officials. The two-tribe deal with Schwarzenegger, however, says that if another casino opens within 40 miles, the Los Coyotes and Big Lagoon tribes are, in most cases, exempt from sharing profits with the state.

The pending ballot measure, however, could put the Chemehuevi tribe back into the mix.

Written by former Mayor Manuel Gurule with the tribe’s blessing, the measure would establish a gambling district near the city’s Reebok, Gap and Nine West outlet stores on the town’s southern outskirts.

This special district would essentially block the Los Coyotes and Big Lagoon projects, which would be outside the proposed district, but include land owned by a developer that is partners with the Chemehuevi, according to the city attorney’s analysis.

The ballot measure also would establish a five-member local gaming commission and set aside 35% of casino revenue paid to the city for police and fire services. Only voters could change or repeal its tenets.

A governor’s spokesman said the office did not take positions on local measures, but reiterated that Los Coyotes and Big Lagoon were the only bands that had met the governor’s criteria for opening a casino on newly acquired land.

The ballot measure’s supporters said it would provide a financial jolt to the city, calling their group the Committee for 2,800 New Jobs. The plan also would keep gambling an arm’s length from schools and parks, they said.

And it would wipe out the Los Coyotes-Big Lagoon grip on Barstow gambling, said Gurule, who submitted more than 2,000 petition signatures to place the measure on the ballot. “If they don’t get approved at the state, we’re in left field,” without a casino in Barstow, he said.

A city report slammed the measure, determining that it was susceptible to legal challenge, which attorneys for Los Coyotes cited in a lawsuit to halt the election.

The attorneys argued that voters should not be able to adopt a “fatally flawed” initiative that, for example, describes the gambling district boundaries in two ways.

A San Bernardino County Superior Court judge found that their arguments would be better reviewed after the election. Los Coyotes attorneys notified the court last week that the tribe would appeal. Opponents are counting on more luck at polling stations, pleading on their ballot statement: “Don’t let Measure H hurt Barstow.”

Despite backing from the Chamber of Commerce, the local newspaper and the mayor, the measure’s critics said attacking the proposal was very difficult: With nearly a third of residents on public assistance, the city appears starved for the jobs and other financial benefits a casino would provide.

“If this was a normal measure, you could shoot enough holes in it that it would go down in flames,” said BarWest spokesman Tom Shields.

“But telling voters to vote against a casino if they want a casino, it’s challenging.”

Adding heat to the contest, Councilman Paul Luellig is being targeted for recall because he is accused of flip-flopping on the casino issue. By his own account, Luellig was elected as a gambling adversary but, swayed by income estimates, decided to support a casino and resort run solely by Los Coyotes.

The two-casino compact changed his mind, said Luellig, who faces challengers including Gurule, the measure’s author.

“If the measure succeeds, Barstow has sold its soul,” Luellig said. “I would gladly accept my recall if it fails.”