News Briefs

Governor Signs Deal with San Manuel Band

Gov. Schwarzenegger signed a gambling agreement Tuesday with the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. It will now go to the federal government and will go into effect next year if approved.

The San Bernardino-area tribe's agreement will allow it to add 5,500 slot machines. In return, the tribe will pay the state up to about $300 million annually.

Schwarzenegger also signed a side deal, known as a letter of agreement, the tribe reached earlier this month, which calls for binding arbitration of patron disputes and minimum internal controls in the tribe's casino.

Palm Springs City Council Wants to Meet With The Governor- Address Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund

The City Council on Wednesday voted to support Mayor Ron Oden's request to send a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to meet and discuss the impact of the tribal gaming Special Distribution Funds.

Schwarzenegger left the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund of about $30 million out of the 2007-08 budget after a statewide audit of the fund found that some of the money disbursed in counties other than Riverside were not used to offset the direct impact of casinos.

California Sen. Jim Battin, R-La Quinta, and Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, worked to restore the funds, but the Los Angeles delegation held up the amendment at bay on grounds it merited a portion of that money because the Los Angeles area contributed patrons to Indian casinos.

The meeting is intended to spur distribution of these funds.More than $13 million in Special Distribution Funds went to Riverside County in the fiscal year ending June 30.

Those funds have been used to help pay for a fire engine, paramedic squad and the Palm Springs Police Department's downtown bike patrol.The funds also help pay for state regulatory costs, gambling abuse services, local casino impact projects and projects or programs of tribes that do not conduct gaming on their reservation.

BIA Office In Palm Springs – Poor Management Of Leases

Federal auditors have confirmed reports of management problems at the Bureau of Indian Affairs office in Palm Springs, an internal review shows. The agency, which manages about $30 million in leases a year for members of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, has failed to keep track of whether tenants have paid their leases, the auditors found. They also say the agency failed to charge fees or interest on late payments and explain why it agreed to lease land for less than market value.

The report, released by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility on Monday, backs up earlier disclosures by agency attorney Robert McCarthy about mismanagement of Indian land leases. McCarthy faces dismissal for revealing the agency's problems to a newspaper reporter.

The Interior Department provided a draft of the report to the Agua Caliente and its members, according to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a nonprofit group that represents public employees.

"It's a complete vindication of what Robert McCarthy has been saying," said Jeff Ruch, executive director for the group that is representing McCarthy in his effort to keep his job.

"What's not clear is how much money has been lost."The tribe is working with the BIA to come up with solutions to the problems, spokeswoman Nancy Conrad said."We sure hope to make progress," she said.

The review, dated July 20, also documents delays on lease agreements and the failure to assess proper annual rent increases.In one case, agency officials did not levy fees or interest on two $50,000 late payments, the report states.

The auditors also found a case in which the agency could not document whether officials had collected more than $200,000 in payments owed to the Agua Calientes. The agency has no accounting staff to verify the accuracy of payments.

Carrie Moore, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department's Office of Special Trustee, said Interior officials expect the Palm Springs office to take "corrective action" to address the findings."The job of the special trustee is to coordinate these reforms," she said.

The agency's inspector general opened an investigation into the Palm Springs office in October following McCarthy's claims of gross mismanagement of Indian trust funds.

Problems at the Palm Springs office date back at least to 1992, when the Interior Department's office of inspector general cited management problems that cost tribal members millions.

The Palm Springs BIA office manages revenues from more than 28,000 acres of Indian land owned by the Agua Caliente tribe and 425 tribal members in Palm Springs, Cathedral City and Rancho Mirage.

McCarthy was recently named a witness against the Interior Department in a class-action lawsuit that claims the department has failed to account for billions of dollars owed to Indian landowners across the country.

The shortcomings in Palm Springs reflect the problems claimed in the lawsuit, Ruch said."The taxpayers may well be stuck with a huge bill to pay for the consequences of this mismanagement," he said.

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