Governor Jerry Brown Asked to STOP Illegal Casino. No Intergovernmental Agreement.

Stop the Casino 101 has the story of an ILLEGAL Casino being built. ILLEGAL means NOT LEGAL, unauthorized..

In a stunning admission to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, the City of Rohnert Park has admitted that the City has no intergovernmental agreement with the Federated Indian of Graton Rancheria (FIGR), a requirement for the gambling compact given to the FIGR.    

Rohnert Park city officials, when questioned by the Press Democrat's Jeremy Hay, said that "...discussion related to the new site will take place, but they haven't started yet."

Mr. Hay quotes City Manager Gabe Gonzalez as saying, "There will be some discussions...My understanding is that right now they're kind of busy getting their project up and running."

The gambling compact given to the FIGR by Governor Jerry Brown requires that an intergovernmental agreement between Rohnert Park and the FIGR be in effect before construction can commence. Construction in the form of grading began in mid-June.

The Governor stated that he had reviewed the City's agreement with the FIGR when he signed the compact, but clearly, no such agreement exists. The lack of a valid agreement means that the construction that is taking place upon the casino site is illegal.

The issue of the invalid MOU was raised in the Second Amended Complaint in Stop the Casino 101 Coalition v. Governor Jerry Brown that was filed July 31.  Attorney for the Plaintiffs Michael Healy sent a letter and a copy of the Press Democrat article to Deputy Attorney General Bill Williams today advising them of this admission by the City.

In his letter, Mr., Healy says, "The lack of an effective MOU between the City of Rohnert Park also means that the Compact is not yet in effect and that the current construction activity is illegal. Please advise at your earliest opportunity what steps your client intends to take to halt this illegal activity, so as to avoid the necessity of further law and motion practice.""

"We are calling upon the Governor's office to do what they are required to do, and shut down casino construction now, " said Pastor Chip Worthington, founder of Stop the Casino 101 Coalition (STC101), one of the Plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the state gambling compact passed in May. "No agreement means no compact means no casino."

"The City knew they had no agreement, the FIGR knew they had no agreement and the Governor's office knew there was no agreement, but they let the compact go forward anyway, and just hoped no one would notice," he said. "Well, we noticed."

"This is unconscionable behavior. The future of our community is at risk, and our government officials are acting like Las Vegas mobsters. From top to bottom, this is a betrayal of the voters' trust."

STC101 has already requested an injunction to stop casino construction in its Second Amended Complaint, but a date for the hearing has not yet been set.