Rohnert Park Update

Back in May of 2008 the BIA decided to take into trust 254 acres of land for the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. Now they have decided to put that on hold pending litigation on the matter.

A lawsuit to stop the land into trust process filed by the Stop the Casino 101 Coalition and some of its individual members was thrown out in April of 2008 due to lack of standing. The judge decided that because the plaintiffs did not allege that they had suffered any injury, they had no standing in the case, and therefore the court had no jurisdiction. The losing group appealed the decision so the BIA decided to wait until the outcome of the litigation before taking the land into trust.

The Graton Rancheria tribe wants the process to go forward though and will be meeting with the Department of the Interior and the Department of Justice to try to convince them of such. If the tribe is successful, the Stop the Casino 101 group can still file an injunction.

On a side note, Assemblyman Jared Huffman has amended a bill, AB 1443, that authorizes the governor to take into consideration local community support, or the lack there of, when negotiating with tribes on gaming compacts. The bill will allow the governor to grade local support by means of an advisory vote in the affected county or counties in which the tribe’s land is located.

Huffman believes the bill has a good chance of passing. Huffman said the bill could be presented to the legislature in a couple of weeks. “This bill weighs local support and opposition, and could be very, very relevant in determining whether or not tribes will get a compact agreement with the governor”, Huffman said.