Compacts Update - Slow Progress

Talks between California lawmakers and tribes seeking amended compacts have been minimal and now it seems that 2 out of the 5 tribes are on a different track all together. "We are only talking to three tribes right now," said Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Fremont, who chairs the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee that has jurisdiction over the compacts. They are the Pechanga, San Manuel and the Sycuan. Referring to the Palm Springs-based Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Torrico said, "We just haven't made as much progress with them.” Asked about the Morongo Band he said, "We haven't made that much progress with them either.”

Tribal representatives who could be reached had no comment or said nothing had changed in the last week since tribal leaders were in Sacramento to meet personally with Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, who has appointed Torrico as his point man on this issue. "Absolutely, we are still talking," said Patrick Dorinson, spokesman for the Morongo Band of Mission Indians.

The compacts have stalled in the Assembly over a variety of issues including labor, financial audits of the tribal gambling operations and enforcement of child support orders on tribal casino workers. Torrico said tribes and legislators are considering using side agreements known as memorandum of agreements - legal instruments known as MOA - to address these issues. He wants these MOA’s to be signed by the tribes and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and then put into a bill to be ratified by the Legislature like the revised compacts. Torrico said that would make the side agreements enforceable. "Enforceability is still the issue," he said. "It's going to remain the issue for me until the bitter end." Aaron McLear, the governor's spokesman, said Schwarzenegger is open to considering MOAs with the tribes. "I don't know that we've seen those," McLear said, "but that is something we would be willing to look at if they come our way."

Labor leaders are worried that their traditional allies, the Democrats, may abandon them in their push to organize casino workers by collecting the signatures of a majority of workers over a period of time. Right now the compacts require a secret ballot to determine if a workers want union representation. Labor leaders have argued that given the tribe's sovereignty, the compacts are the only way they can be sure of ensuring workers' rights to organize. But tribal leaders have responded that union leaders for the most part haven't tried to organize under the existing labor ordinance.

Without saying specifically what might happen with the labor provision, Torrico defended Assembly Democrats, noting they have held up approval of the compacts while the Senate has passed them all this year and the Agua Caliente one last year. "We have, in my opinion, extended the game until now in triple overtime," Torrico said. "We are going to do everything we can to vindicate the rights of workers, to protect the rights of workers," he added. "That's what we are doing." But he also said that Assembly Democrats are dealing with "sovereign nations who are deserving of respect. "At the end of the day, we need the tribes' agreement and we need the governor's agreement," he said. "It's not an easy thing to do."

Broad said that unions will remember how this issue turns out. "The byword of labor is 'reward your friends and punish your enemies,'" Broad said.

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