Time running out for La Center on casino offer

Here we go again.

Once again, the La Center City Council will debate whether it’s time to cut a deal with the Cowlitz Indian Tribe.

Once again, three of five council members are adamant they won’t do anything that could assist the tribe in building a $510 million casino complex west of La Center.

“I am not in favor of negotiating,” Councilwoman Linda Tracy said. “I never have been. And I never will be.”

No matter. The city council, at 7 p.m. June 10, will meet in the La Center Community Center, 1000 E. Fourth St., to discuss the potential for negotiations.

Why is this issue coming up again, as it has every year since 2006?

Last July, the Cowlitz Tribal Council voted 17-3 to reconfirm an offer it gave the city back in February 2006 and promised not to reduce its provisions for one year while it waits for an answer.

That one year will be up on July 14, a looming deadline that prompted Mayor Jim Irish to schedule next week’s discussion and to move it to the community center in case of a large turnout.

The tribe’s 2006 proposal included provisions to help pay for La Center’s sewer expansion and to compensate the city up to $3 million annually for 10 years for lost gambling taxes from its four nontribal cardrooms.

Irish, who opposes the casino project but believes La Center must be prepared to negotiate with the tribe, inserted a message explaining his thinking in city sewer bills, which were mailed Monday.

“I believe we must do more than take a wait-and-see attitude,” he wrote. “We can continue to oppose the tribal development, but we must be open to protecting our interests if the project is approved.

“If we ignore the tribe’s offer, their project will continue to be reviewed by the federal government, but we will remove our opportunity to have a voice in controlling the impacts on our city and our citizens.”

Irish has long favored negotiations over the Cowlitz casino. During his 2009 State of the City address, he said La Center has a responsibility to “get the best possible package in place to protect the city, our local businesses and the citizens in case it is approved.”

Two council members, Bill Birdwell and Mike Nolan, previously have supported negotiations. During a spirited discussion in April 2008, Nolan said it was “just criminal” some council members were unwilling to do anything to shield the city from the casino’s potential effects.

But a majority of council members today still aren’t swayed by calls for negotiations.

“I am waiting for someone to give me a good reason to change my mind,” Tracy said. “And I just haven’t heard that.”

“Just because the mayor says it’s time doesn’t mean it’s time,” Councilman Bob Smith said. “That’s his opinion. I respect it, I just don’t happen to believe it.”

Irish said he isn’t trying to pressure the three council members — Tracy, Smith and Troy Van Dinter — into reversing their “no negotiations” stance. Wednesday’s meeting, Irish said, is more for city residents than council members.

“If they have any questions or concerns or comments, they can come to the meeting and find out the facts,” he said. “This way, it won’t be hearsay.”

Plans for the Cowlitz casino have been La Center’s top concern for most of this decade, largely because of the potential effect on city cardrooms. ECONorthwest, a Portland consulting firm, predicts that revenue from the city’s 10 percent gambling tax would drop by 66 percent if the Cowlitz build a 134,150-square-foot casino, as planned.

By negotiating an agreement, some council members believe it would greatly improve the casino’s prospects for winning federal approval and they, in effect, would be rolling out a welcome mat for a project that could kill the city’s economic base.

“I’m not willing to feed the lion that is going to eat me,” Smith said.

Van Dinter said he, too, doesn’t intend to change his mind.

“I guess if we have several hundred of our residents screaming they want us to be negotiating, that obviously says something,” he said. “But from what I have heard from our citizens, they are not interested.”

Jeffrey Mize: 360-735-4542 or jeff.mize@columbian.com.