The Cowlitz-Clark County MOU dies a properly horrific death.

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I have hated the agreement between Clark County and the Barnett/Cowlitz/Mohegan/Paskenta Mafia since I found out about it, as much as the Barnett/Cowlitz/Mohegan/Paskenta hate us.

And their complete LACK of good faith, their failure to bear ALL of the costs of this nonsense, their failure to pay taxes, their failure to insure that the community here for decades before David Barnett ever HEARD of a Cowlitz Casino was adequately protected and compensated, speaks to their deep-seated hatred of us, and their complete and utter arrogance and stupidity in dealing with the public speaks to the fact that they've set out to screw us ever since they showed up to ram this cancerous tumor down our throats.

They started with a bully as a tribal shill for this nonsense, a guy with an extensive criminal record who has a problem getting retraining orders from women. They segued to a self-admitted fired-from-Microsoft-for-sexual-harassment-not-one-drop-of-Cowlitz-blood-only-a-tribal-member-because-of-an-ADMINISTRATIVE-act-tribal-councilman, and wound up with an outright liar, caught up in yet ANOTHER sexual harassment scandal as part of HIS job as a lawyer in the Pierce County Prosecutor's office.

Can anyone detect a common thread here?

Threats, intimidation, arrogance, "channeling Chief Umtuch," for God's sake. A COMPLETE disregard for the needs of this community. Outright efforts to buy politicians. An environmental impact statement so laughingly incomplete and bereft of actually addressing the massive impacts of this project down our throats in traffic, lights, pollution, social costs, labor... in essentially every area imaginable.

Their disdain for any concerns on our part; their insulting, condescending demeanor, the indisputable fact that essentially, few, if any of the Cowlitz Tribe live here, near hear, or have EVER lived here:

Cowlitz Tribe councilman Philip Harju makes news while attending a meeting on
the proposed rules at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun casino. He balks at the proposed
requirement that to take land into trust for gaming as an initial reservation or
as restored lands, a majority of a tribe’s members must live within 50 miles of
the site. The Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin paraphrases Harju saying “that would be
almost impossible for the 3,500-member tribe unless it took downtown Seattle
into trust.”

Add this to the recent US Supreme Court ruling that the US Supreme Court has narrowed application of the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act to tribes recognized at the time of passage and this scam is facing serious, serious difficulty.

One has to wonder: How do the Paskenta view their deal with Barnett now?

Tribe-county casino pact is headed to ash heap
Cowlitz Indian Tribe votes to rescind 2004 agreement; county vote slated for Tuesday night
Saturday, April 4 8:03 p.m.
BY JEFFREY MIZE
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER



The Cowlitz Tribe proposes a casino complex at this site on Interstate 5 west of La Center. (Columbian files)

Clark County's 2004 casino pact with the Cowlitz Indian Tribe will die Tuesday night when county commissioners kill an agreement that was never technically in effect.

The Cowlitz Tribal Council voted Saturday to rescind the agreement.

Commissioners will vote on the one-page rescission at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Public Service Center, 1300 Franklin St.

A replacement agreement seems unlikely because Commissioners Marc Boldt and Tom Mielke have been critical of the 2004 agreement. Moreover, the tribe has little reason to make concessions to secure a new deal.

Commissioner Steve Stuart didn't want to answer questions prior to Tuesday's meeting.

"We don't want to get ahead of ourselves," he said Friday morning.

The 2004 memorandum of understanding, signed by three commissioners who are no longer in office, would go into effect only if the federal government takes a 152-acre site west of La Center into trust.

The MOU would have required the tribe to comply with county building and health codes, to build roads and intersections to keep traffic flowing, to pay for law enforcement and prosecution of misdemeanor crimes, and to compensate the county and other local governments for lost property taxes. It also stipulated that the tribe would establish an education and arts fund with 2 percent of net gambling revenues to support charitable activities in Clark County.

Casino opponents pounced on the MOU and went to court to try to kill it because it improved the tribe's chances of winning federal approval for a proposed $510 million casino complex.

After a state hearings board declared the agreement invalid in June 2007, the Cowlitz enacted a gaming ordinance that embraced the same provisions contained in the invalidated county-tribe pact. The tribe also granted the county a limited waiver of tribal sovereignty, which allows the county to sue the tribe if it fails to live up to its commitments.

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