Growing Casino Deal Leads to City Hall

Please forward this to your lists We depend on you to spread the word! www.stopthecasino101.com Stop the Casino 101 Coalition The Voice of the People August 16, 2012 In This Issue Compact scandal leads to RP City Hall Tired of Being Kept in the Dark? Tired of being kept in the dark on casino negotiations? Email Sonoma County Board Chair Shirlee Zane and Rohnert Park Mayor Jake MacKenzie and tell them them to LET THE SUN SHINE IN! Demand 1. An open and transparent process in casino negotiations. 2. Regular public hearings on the casino negotiations. 3. Weekly updates on the negotiations to be posted on the county's web site and emailed to anyone who requests it. 4. Prompt, honest answers to the public's questions. 5. NO VOTE UNTIL HEARINGS HAVE BEEN HELD AND THE PUBLIC HAS BEEN FULLY INFORMED THREE MONTHS IN ADVANCE. Please give to our legal fund! Stop the Casino! Quick Links Our Website The Lawsuit Growing Casino Compact Scandal Leads To Rohnert Park City Hall Grand Jury investigation under consideration As questions mount in the growing Graton Rancheria gambling compact scandal, Rohnert Park Mayor Jake MacKenzie admitted in a interview on KSRO radio that the City of Rohnert Park reviewed a 2003 agreement with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria (FIGR) "...as part of coming up to the Compact with the state." Mr. MacKenzie went on to say that City attorneys had assured the city council that the agreement was "valid and in good standing", contradicting the City Manager Gabe Gonzalez' statements to the press last week that the City did not have a valid agreement. Mayor MacKenzie's position contradicts a September 2005 memo from the FIGR to Rohnert Park which tells the city that the agreement, a Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, that the agreement would have to be amended "...to reflect the realities of the new site....". Mr. MacKenzie was a member of the City Council in 2005. It also contradicts the opinion of the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) which stated several times in official documents that the MOU did not apply to the current site, and that the FIGR would have to negotiate a new agreement. "I'd like to know under what legal premise a contract that applies to only one place on the planet can suddenly and miraculously be expanded to apply to any place the casino developers want to build," said Pastor Chip Worthington, founder of Stop the Casino 101 Coalition (STC101). "Under that premise, Graton could have built the casino anywhere it wanted and the Rohnert Park MOU would still be in effect. This is simply not the law." Admitting that the invalid MOU was used with the City's complicity indicates a wider scandal than previously thought. On June 6, 2011, at a meeting with Jacob Appelsmith at the current casino site, STC101 advised him that the Rohnert Park MOU did not apply to the new site. Mr. Appelsmith appears to have ignored this warning as well as the opinion of the NIGC, forwarded to him at a later date. We're strongly considering going to the Grand Jury on this," said Mr. Worthington. "This appears to be a conspiracy between the City, the State and the FIGR to commit an act of fraud against the people of Sonoma County for the sole purpose of facilitating casino construction." "If Governor Brown is willing to sink to this level just to get a casino built in a university town, then California is in trouble." It is extremely important that we call the Governor's office and tell him to do his duty and enforce his Compact with Graton Rancheria and stop the illegal construction on the Rohnert Park casino. Phone or Fax him (Best) at Phone: (916) 445-2841 Fax: (916) 558-3160 or send an email through the Governor's web site . Choose "Attorney General" from the drop-down menu.

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