Finding ‘facts' on casino
Wednesday, May 17, 2006 12:14 PM PDT
Scott Trainor City Scene
As entertaining as it can be to speculate on an issue - and I do have to admit that with the current rumors of a tribal casino I have done my fair share of speculating - one thing that I have learned is that sometimes those speculations take on a life of their own and, in some minds, can become unarguable “facts.”
With that in mind, and considering the persistent speculations and rumors circulating relative to the possibility of a tribal casino locating in or near Ontario, I thought it would be appropriate to share the minimal extent of our knowledge. To quote Sergeant Schultz, from Hogan's Heroes: “I know nothing!” Actually, the truth is that we know very little, but I'll share some background to better illustrate that lack of information.
In early 2004, the city was approached by members of the Burns-Paiute tribe to discuss a non-casino business venture that they were considering at that time. Ultimately, discussions on that venture dwindled, and the project never came to fruition. However, at that time the concept of some sort of gaming establishment was broached informally and the response from the city was that - as with most development-related issues - the council would be supportive of the tribe bringing the concept up in the public realm for discussion and was looking forward to obtaining any hard information on the concept.
One year of silence went by and the concept was, again, informally raised with our council, and the response was virtually identical - support for getting us real information and bringing the concept to the community for discussions.
Again, another year of silence followed and in the early part of this year, the concept was again raised on an informal basis by various tribal representatives. Again, no concrete information was provided and so, consequently, the council's stance was to be open to the process of bringing the concept to the public realm, but with a lack of any hard data relative to the casino itself, the council had nothing to base any decisions on.
As one can see, there's truly not a lot of information to be had relative to the idea of a casino locating here in Ontario.
Currently, rumors abound that a casino is coming and that properties have been or are being purchased to site that facility on. Based on the interest caused by these rumors, the city contacted the tribe directly to ascertain whether or not there was any truth to these rumors. The Burns-Paiute tribe's reply was that “the tribe will make an announcement in the next couple of weeks.” That limited response was provided in the second week of April and was immediately shared with the Argus Observer with the intent of keeping them keyed in on this important issue. To date, no announcement has been made, and the city is in the dark, much like the rest of our citizenry.
Sometimes fact isn't as exciting as fiction but, unfortunately, facts are hard to come by on this issue. Until we have them, we'll sit with the rest of the public - asking ourselves “what if” questions and speculating on the pros and cons of having a venture like a casino in our community.
- Scott Trainor is the Ontario City Manager.
