Assembly Standing Committee on Governmental Organization

Good afternoon. We'll go ahead and get the governmental organization Committee called to order. And good afternoon. For the Bill heard today, there will be an opportunity for two witnesses in support and two witnesses in opposition to each to provide a total of four minutes of testimony.

We are, we don't have, obviously don't have a quorum, so we'll go ahead and start a Subcommitee. But since the author is here, I want to give him an opportunity to go ahead and present his Bill, and then we'll continue when we have a quorum. Senator Becker? Yes, please. And Senator Beckler is presenting SB 537.

Good afternoon, chair and Members. First, I want to thank the Committee staff for their work on this and for you convening a special session for us for this Bill. And I want to thank my principal co author, Majority Leader Lena Gonzalez. She may be joining us. Just got pulled into meetings, so we're going to go forward.

But she was with us earlier when we kind of did some announcements around this, and I know she's very excited about this effort. In 1929, the President of the United States of America signed an Executive order mandating the forcible removal of Mexicans and Mexican Americans from this country.

He did it to, quote, save job opportunities for, quote, real Americans. And today, as we approach the 95th anniversary of this order and the forced deportations that followed, I found that many Americans didn't even know about it. I did not know about it, and I'm a history major.

If it wasn't for Tamara, who will be testifying shortly, I might not have known about it. And our mission here with this is to make sure that we recognize this and commemorate it and make sure it never happens again. To quote George Santayana, those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.

Actually, he says, condemned to repeat it. We need to make sure that more is done to ensure that, that we do not repeat this epic injustice and that we memorialize this dark part of our history in a much bigger and more appropriate way.

Majority Leader Gonzalez and I share a passion for justice and know this story needs to be told. SB 537 begins the process of making this right by requiring that a memorial be placed in the city where one of the biggest raids took place and where the trains left.

And as tomorrow will tell us, sometimes some years, up to 75,000 a year from packed into trains from Los Angeles, and that's where the site will be. This will probably memorialize the victims of the Mexican repatriation and serve as a reminder of the California's most vulnerable populations will not be treated like this again.

Under this Bill, a nonprofit will be set up to design, construct, and maintain the statue. And we were with our Mexican consul General earlier who was giving us ideas for sculptors. All costs will be borne by that nonprofit. With me today, I have two witnesses. Kevin Johnson, chicano studies Professor and author of a major law review article.

That is one of the things that really has consistently brought attention to this. And then Tamara Gisiger, who is the, when she was in high school, just graduated, raised awareness of this. Which order do you want to go in? Okay, take your time.

Thank you. Thank you, Senator. I'm Tamara Gisiger. I did just graduate high school. I wrote a paper on the Mexican repatriation my junior year of high school, and thats when I learned that 1 million Mexicans were deported and 60% of them were American citizens.

So President Hoover installed military tactics like fear, but also raids in park and public beatings and burning of towns.

To have people be so scared that they either self deported or they were rounded up and deported forcefully, this project would mean the world to me because, and to my community, I'm Swiss Mexican, and no one knows about this piece of history on the United States, but also in the Mexico side.

It's shameful and a part of history that has a lot of trauma involved in it. And a statue like this can be used to honor the families that, instead of being seen as buffers in the United States economy, can be used and be seen as a vital part of the economy, because we are important.

We are and should be cared for. We should learn and know about our heritage, our history, and our importance in this country. And I feel like this memorial will really be able to honor that.

And I'm very grateful to be here today and to have the chance to educate people and to educate the world on it, both in the United States and in Mexico, so that this dark piece of history will not repeat again as it did in the sixties with the Wetback Act, where another million Mexicans were deported.

This is where the cycle can end.

Thank you.

Opportunity to be here. I'm Kevin Johnson, and I'm Dean of the UC Davis School of Law. And in my spare time, I've spent my professional career looking at immigration and civil rights issues. I'm also a native of Los Angeles and know very well the impacts of the repatriation.

As you've heard, during the Great Depression, state, local, and Federal Governments cooperated in what came to be known as the Mexican repatriation. About 1 million people including many us citizens, were. It's not fair to call it a repatriation, really, because many were us citizens by birth and weren't being repatriated at all.

But what occurred in large parts of the southwest was what we called in modern terms, an ethnic cleansing, an effort to remove a large group of people who were unwanted from the nation and, in effect, deported to a place many did not know, Mexico.

But this project was organized, was designed in part, not just to Deport people through arrests and apprehensions in public places where Latino working people congregated, such as La Placita park near Alvera street.

But the basic idea was to terrorize the Mexican community so that many self deported, as we call it today, many decided to return to or go to Mexico to avoid being forcibly deported. Now, one of those people who was subject to self deportation was the late Justice Cruz Reynoso's family.

Cruz, Justice Reynoso, was born in the United States, born in Brea, but his parents were Mexican immigrants. And one day during this repatriation campaign, Cruz's father came home and said, family, we're going to go to Mexico before they force us to go to Mexico. And Cruz's response was, where is Mexico? I've never been there.

And that gives you an idea of the force of this campaign and its impacts on people and its incredible impact on Latino identity in Los Angeles, where for generations, people would deny being Mexican and say they were Spanish because they feared that if they admitted being Mexican, they might be subject to deportation. How do I know that?

Because I had a Mexican American mom who took her sons to Mexico every summer to visit family, but said that we were Spanish while we were growing up and didn't teach us Spanish because of the punishment that was meted out to students who spoke Spanish in the public schools.

So it's hard for me to really describe the impacts of the repatriation well beyond just the forceful removal of people from the country. Now, there's many other things I could talk about with respect to the repatriation. One of them is important to me.

I'm a law Professor, went to law school, and I try to think that I'm committed to the rule of law. The repatriation was lawless. There was no hearings. There's no due process, there's no deportation proceedings. People were put on buses, put in cars, put on trains. They were arrested. Police assisted in all this.

And people suffered because of the deprivations of the law. I think that this Bill, which begins helping us better understand what happened, is much needed and laudable and fully supported.

Thank you. Are there any other comments and support Members of the public.

Norma Alcala and I'm a City Council Member in West Sacramento. I'm also the President for the National Coalition of Hispanic Organizations and I'm here on behalf of the Dolores Huerta Foundation. And it's true, these 1930s mass deportations of Mexican families, they were basically scapegoats for a failing economy during the 1930s. And many of the deported stated were US citizens.

They lost their homes, their businesses, familial ties. I work in an immigration law firm and I can tell you it's still going on today. The person who gave me a ride here, her husband, was actually forced to sign a voluntary departure. So the quote from Santayana was also quoted by Winston Churchill.

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Thank you.

Thank you. Any others in support, name, organization, please.

Hello. Kai Cooper. On behalf of CalVans and strong support. Thank you, Senator, for bringing this to our attention and chair and members for your time today.

Thank you.

Chloe Stack. Here on behalf of the California Immigrant Policy center in support.

Thank you.

Yes, my name is Marco Lizarraga and I'm the Executive Director of La Cooperativa De Campesina, and we serve over 55,000 farm workers throughout the State of California with my Members. And I'm one of those Chicanos that was very conscious of this.

We were in the movement and this was a large part of the consciousness that we developed in their late sixties in the chicano movement. So it's about time that we memorial and commemorate this injustice to our people. And I'm glad to be here in support of it.

Thank you. Thank you. Before we continue, I would like to establish quorum secretary. Can you please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Thank you. We have a quorum. And then. So we'll bring up anybody in opposition of the Bill. Okay, we'll bring it up to the Committee. Any questions or comments from the Committee? Assembly Member Soria?

Thank you. Chairwoman. Senator Becker. I just want to thank you for bringing this piece of legislation forward. I will say as daughter of immigrant Mexican immigrants in this country and learning about this history. When I was a chicano studies student at UC Berkeley, I was really surprised because I didn't know.

And so that moment when I was at Berkeley, it taught me how history is so important and so fast forward. I remember being here in this building as a young legislative staffer working for Senator Gil Cedillo.

And I as a young legislative staffer was able to work on SB 551, which would ask the state board of education to make sure that they included this history in our history books because it wasn't being taught.

And so thank you for continuing the work that a number of folks have worked on since the apology to trying to get this in the history, rectifying the wrongs that our community, our Mexican citizen community, us citizen community was faced here during the Great Depression.

I also want to just say hello to my former dean of the law school, Kevin Johnson. It's great to see you here. I know that this has been also an important special issue for you. I remember Justice Reynoso in class talk about his story about how his family was deported during the Great Depression era.

So thank you so much for working on this issue, memorializing so that our young generations that may not read this in the books early on in their K 12 education, they realize, especially those, you know, Chicanos out there in the LA area can see once this gets built how important this history, because we cannot afford to repeat this ever again.

Thank you so much for your efforts and happy to move the Bill. Thank you.

Any other comments from Committee? Thank you. And I would also like to make a comment. Thank you for bringing this forward. I don't know if you know, but I was formerly deported when I was a kid and undocumented until I was 13 and even till just recently I learned about the history.

Now, I knew that a lot of the Mexican communities were prevented from speaking Spanish because they didn't want to let on that they were Mexican. And so I know that's a tough history and I want to thank you for bringing it up, but also reminding us that the work is not done.

It was funny when you said what was said about the Mexican community. I kind of chuckled to myself because it's happening today not just with the Mexican community but other communities as well.

And we are going to repeat it if we don't keep talking about it and reminding folks that we've been there before and it didn't work then and it wasn't good for our communities then and it's not good now.

So I want to thank you again, but also express that this is the greatest country in the world, or somebody like me can be sitting here in front of you, chairing this amazing Committee and a Member of a legislative body that I know in the past would not have had somebody like me here.

So thank you for that. And I have a motion by Assemblymember Soria. Second by Assemblymember Addis. Any other comments? No? Okay, thank you. And I will go ahead. And can we call the roll, please? Or call for the vote? And the motion is do pass. I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, please close.

I thought I closed for you.

Well, you did, actually. I could make that the close. Just want to thank you, chair, and thank you for sharing your personal story. And I think part of the reason this all resonated so much for me is my grandparents were immigrants. And so when I started learning about this history through tomorrow, it resonated with me.

And I just want to thank, again, as you said, our law Dean, who's working on this for decades and talked about how lawless this was, no due process. And I think Tamara, for all her work, as she is that next generation bringing this to light for all of us.

I want to thank the organizations who spoke, also organizations like MALDef and Cesar Chavez foundation, who are also been in support. And again, thank my co author, Majority Leader Gonzalez, who can't be with this Committee, but it's been part of this process. And as we all work together to make sure this does never happen again. Thank you.

Thank you. Now, Madam Secretary, can you call the roll.

[Roll Call]

The measure passes, and we'll leave the roll open for other Members to add on. Thank you very much and appreciate the engagement from you. And I hope to see the measure on the floor, and hopefully you'll be there when we do have it on our floor. Thank you.

Actually, sergeants, can you do me a favor and call assemblymember Lowe's and Assemblymember Papan's office? They're the only two that are missing, and we need to continue with their informational hearing. Thank you.

Hi. Congratulations. Come down here to make sure I vote on your Bill. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Yeah. I can see it now. Sisters. Beautiful. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. You're welcome.

Thank you.

Sometimes you get that, but basically get away from January.

You might take a full week off, but, yeah.

We waited about five minutes. We'll go ahead and close. We have informational hearing after this, so we all have to adjourn this meeting before we get started. We will adjourn at 01:55 p.m. so that we can get started on our informational hearing. Thank you. Good afternoon again. The Assembly governmental organization Committee is called to order.

I'm Assembly Member Blanca Rubbio, chair of the Assembly Committee on Governmental Organizations, and I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to today's informational hearing.

The four tribal state gaming compacts before us today were executed recently between Governor Newsom, on behalf of the State of California and the big Sandy Rancheria west mono Indians of California, the Campo Band of Dugano Mission Indians of the Campo Indian Reservation, the La Posta Band of Diogeno Mission Indians of La Posta Indian Reservation, and the Tula River Indian Tribe of California.

Today we will hear from the principal architects of the compacts, the governor's office, and the tribe themselves. These negotiated compacts are the culmination of a lengthy negotiation process, compromises, and careful consideration of requirements under the Indian Gaming Regulatory act.

Each compact reflects the governor's and tribe's mutual commitment to a respectful government to government relationship, promoting tribal economic development and self sufficiency and a strong tribal government.

Each compact authorizes a tribe to operate a maximum number of gaming devices at a designated number of gaming facilities located on the eligible Indian lands held in trust for the tribe and located within the boundaries of the tribe's reservation.

I am pleased to see that these compacts mirror many of the recent compacts that have come before this Committee in the area of regulatory oversight, patron protections, labor and health and safety standards. I just want to remind all of the interested parties that no formal vote will be taken today.

Today's hearing is for this Committee to be briefed on the contents of each compact as they cannot be amended by the Legislature. SB 931, AB 2032 and AB 3276 are the ratification bills for these four tribal state compacts.

At the same point, these ratification bills will be taken up for consideration by the entire body on the Assembly floor. I would like to thank our witnesses in advance for taking the time out of their busy schedules to be with us today.

We will first be briefed on the big Sandy rancheria of western mono Indians of California compact as we will hear the compacts in alphabetical order as listed on the agenda.

And I would like to welcome Matthew Lee to his first Geo Committee presentation on tribal State gaming compacts and congratulate him on his appointment as senior advisor for tribal negotiations for Governor Newsom. Mister Lee, if you're welcome to come up and please begin. We will have Big Sandy on Webexen, Campo band on Webex.

We will have Vice Chairman James Hill in person for La Posta and Vice Chair Cheyenne for two river in person. Thank you. zero, yes, and Assemblymember Patterson is carrying the ratification bill for the Big Sandy Rancheria of Western Mono Indians of California. Thank you, Mister Patterson. Yes. Any opening comments before we begin? We can wait till after.

Yeah, just glad to be able to carry this. We have some wonderful travel, folks in the district that I represent, and I'm looking forward to hearing, and we're pleased with the results of the compact. Thank you.

Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Honorable Members really appreciate the opportunity to come before this Committee today. Thank you very much for that. And of course, also want to extend a warm welcome to the representatives of tribal governments who I know are watching today, and also to other members of the public.

With those other members of the public in mind. With this Committee's indulgence, I thought it might be helpful to do just a little bit of preliminary table setting to sort of lay out the landscape that covers each of these compacts.

I know I'm not telling this Committee anything it doesn't already know, but just wanted to help set the table a bit for folks playing along at home. States and tribes are both sovereign governments.

Neither a state nor a tribe has any inherent power, as a General matter, to directly regulate each other and how they do relate to each other in that respectful government to government relationship that we strive so hard to maintain is often shaped in relevant part by the federal laws that regulate us both.

The relevant federal law here is a statute called the Indian Gaming Regulatory act, and it sets up a framework for states and tribes to enter into compacts, like the compacts that we have here today, to allow tribal governments to conduct gaming activities, that is, to operate casinos on tribal land within regulatory parameters negotiated by the state.

And the goals. The goals of Igra, or Igra, are, broadly speaking, twofold. On one hand, of course, we want to promote tribal self government, self determination, economic development, self sufficiency.

And on the other hand, the statute recognizes that there are potential externalities to, you know, any kind of gaming activity that should be regulated and managed to make sure that relevant state interests are protected in terms of what that looks like concretely.

You know, always start with what is the size of the gaming operation, how many games, how many facilities, and so on. Sort of zooming out, can ask, what are its impacts to the people who work there, to, you know, to workers? What are its impacts to patrons? What are its impacts to local communities?

How do we manage and protect all of those? Also, of course, want to make sure that the state, which has a regulatory role here, has its regulatory costs covered.

One of the promises that was made to the voters who approved this framework as a matter of state law was that there would be no impact to the General Fund. Other parties who have an interest in this, who have a seat at the table, include other tribes separate from that particular gaming tribe.

Part of the goal of this federal statute is to promote economic development and self sufficiency for tribal governments writ large. Not just a particular tribe here, a particular tribe there.

So, with that in mind, I'd like to briefly walk through the big sandy compact and explain how we have worked hard and worked with our partners of the tribe to achieve each of those goals.

First, just to start with, the basic footprint of the gaming operation, this is up to 3000 gaming devices, slot machines, and so on, at up to two different facilities. In terms of protecting Members of the public, there are tort law protections, tort procedure protections in the compact. And there is a tort in particular.

There is a tort and General liability insurance requirement of $10 million to protect patrons, to protect workers. There is a separate employment practices liability policy of $3 million. More to the point, there are also state law protections in terms of state minimum wage and so on. There is also, and this part, I think, is very important.

There is what we call a tribal labor relations ordinance. We fight hard for this in every one of our compacts. This is a tribal law that the tribe agrees to adopt to provide a framework for the organization and representation of workers at the gaming facility through a labor union.

Of course, there is no better way to protect workers than through strong labor unions. And we strive to make sure our compacts reflect that. So that's the sort of footprint of the operation. Patrons, workers zooming out to local communities.

The tribe has agreed to a local impact mitigation Fund of 1% of net when, if they operate more than 350 devices, that's a number that will come up a few times today, and I'm happy to unpack that further.

In terms of contributing to the development of other tribes, supporting other tribes, there is a Fund that the state administers for the benefit of other tribes called the revenue Sharing Trust Fund.

The basic contours of the revenue sharing trust Fund is that tribes are eligible to receive money from it when they are what we call either a non gaming or a limited gaming tribe, which means they operate less than 350,050 devices. If you operate more than 1200 devices, you actually pay into that Fund. That's the case here.

If the tribe operates more than 1200 devices, it agrees to a sliding scale contribution formula that is very much in the ballpark of the RSTF contributions that we see in other compaqs. There are likewise provisions for the state to recover its regulatory costs through contributions to something called the special distribution Fund.

Happy to unpack any of that further. Happy to answer any questions, but wanted to sort of hit the highlights in terms of how we protect each of those interests I mentioned.

Thank you very much. I really appreciate that. Any questions before we continue? No. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So that I would like to bring or put up webex. Elizabeth Kipp, chair of Big Sandy Rancheria of western Mono Indians of California.

Good afternoon, Chairwoman. Good afternoon, tribal Chairwoman with Big Sandy Rancheria with me, I have my Vice Chairman, Joel Marvin. I have Sam Atwell, our Member at large, Matthew Munoz, tribal council secretary, as well as our treasurer, Leanne Aguiano.

We find it very important to be able to represent all of us here today to show the importance of how important the compact is to our tribe.

We want to thank you for the opportunity to testify today regarding our compact with the State of California and the legislation with AB 2032, which has been introduced by Assemblyman Jim Patterson to ratify this compact. Big Sandy Rancheria is headquartered in Aubrey, California.

Our trust lands include the Big Sandy Rancheria and additional partials, which is east of Fresno. Our tribe has a rich history in California, in the central region traditionally inhabiting the Sierra Nevada areas, we have a strong cultural heritage known for our basketry skills, our hunter gathering lifestyles.

Today, we are committed to preserving our language, our culture, their traditions, while pursuing other economic ventures, including gaming and other inter tribal commerce.

As is well known to the Committee, the Indian gaming has been instrumental in rebuilding tribal communities, delivering jobs to California families, bringing entertainment to our regions, and providing an anchor for our local economies to grow.

More importantly, revenues from our tribal gaming operations build homes and have dramatically improved our healthcare, our education, the public safety and social programs. For many Californians, this compact signifies a pivotal moment for our tribe and brings with it the promise of substantial benefits to our tribal Members and our surrounding community.

The compact includes provisions that directly benefit our tribal Members by ensuring the sustainability and growth of our economic ventures. Our tribe enjoys strong support from Fresno county and the sheriff's office. We have engaged in collaborative efforts to ensure community safety and address shared concerns with local government leaders.

For this reason, I would like to emphasize that under this compact, we have established an impact mitigation Fund dedicated to supporting local law enforcement, emergency services and neighboring jurisdictions. This Fund ensures that the neighboring jurisdictions have the necessary tools and resources to address any impacts arising from our gaming facility.

The ratification of our gaming compact through AB 2032 is vital for the continued growth and prosperity of Big Sandy rancheria. This compact not only facilitates economic development, but also ensures that we can address the needs of our community and neighboring jurisdictions effectively.

Thank you. Thank you. Any comments or questions from Committee Members? Okay, thank you so very much for that presentation. Appreciate you. Webbing in and since there are no questions, I want to thank you again, and we'll continue with the next drive. Thank you, you, Chairman. zero, I'm sorry, is there any public comment? Okay, seeing none.

Thank you again. Thank you. Okay, so next we have the tribal state gaming compact between the State of California and the Campo band of Diagno mission Indians of the Campo Indian Reservation in California. And we'll have Chairman Marcuse Guero on WebEx. zero, I'm sorry Matthews Matthew Lee first and then the Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Just to briefly sketch out the contours of this, of this compact, I think very much in line with the basic framework I set out a moment ago. With this particular compact, we're talking about up to 1200 devices at up to two facilities.

Because of that 1200 device cap, there's no need to account for contributions into that revenue sharing trust Fund I mentioned. That is our sort of standard cutoff for contributions into the RSTF. There is still provision for payments to the state's special distribution Fund to cover the state's regulatory costs.

Now, if the tribe does remain what we call a limited gaming tribe, that's below that 350 device cutoff. There is a provision in the compact that those payments can be reduced or potentially eliminated as long as there are sufficient funds in the SDF to cover that.

If the tribe remains a limited gaming tribe with that very small sub 350 operation, we typically don't see a need for specific local mitigation measures below that point.

But if it does go above that 350 device threshold, then it will create an impact mitigation Fund that will distribute 0.5% of net when to local governments, fire protection districts, things like that.

Substantially the same tribal labor relations ordinance that I mentioned a moment ago, other worker protections, similar insurance coverage in terms of liability to workers and also Members of the public. Happy to unpack any of that further, but that's the basic outline of this compact.

Thank you so much for that information. Due to a last minute conflict, Chairman Cuero will not be able to testify today and waives his time or their time to the rest of the compacts that we have in front of us. Any public comment case?

Seeing none, we'll go ahead and move on to the next tribal compact, which is the La Posta band of Degueno mission Indians of the La Posta Indian Reservation. Matthew, thank you.

Thank you very much. Chair. This compact, I think, is broadly similar to the last one.

My understanding is that the La Posta tribe is not at this time currently gaming, but wants to have this compact in place so that if it does make business sense for the tribe to return to gaming, that it is able to do that.

And of course, we at the state are always supportive of bringing certainty to our shared government to government relationship whenever we can. With that in mind, same 1200 device cap as the previous compact. That means that we don't need to specifically provide in this compact for payments into the revenue sharing trust Fund to benefit other tribes.

There is a similar provision for the state to cover its regulatory costs through the special distribution Fund. And as with the last compact, as long as there is sufficient money in that Fund and the tribe remains small, there are provisions to reduce that.

If the tribe remains a limited gaming tribe under that same 350 device cutoff, we don't need to worry about local mitigation. But if it goes above that cutoff, we have a very similar local impact mitigation provision, 0.5% net when to local governments impacted local charitable organizations, fire protection, things like that.

Contains a tribal labor relations ordinance, contains very similar worker protections, patron torture, tort protections, things like that.

Thank you. And today we have Vice Chairman James Hill from La Posta. Can you please come up?

Good afternoon, Madam Chair, the Members of the Committee, James Sill, Vice Chairman of La Posta, and I'm just here to Reserve the tribe's right to gain.

I came up here, our first compact negotiated at the capitol building, negotiated, but went through this process and just wanted to thank the state for coming out to the reservation to see where we're at and located and to get an idea of a better perspective of all tribes are not remote.

I mean, a lot of tribes are in remote locations. And anyways, I appreciate everybody's time here today.

Thank you. Do we have any public comment, any questions from the Committee? Thank you so very much. Really appreciate that. Okay, we'll go ahead and move on to the. Our last compact is with the Tula River Indian tribe of California. And Assemblymember Ramos is carrying the ratification Bill for the Tule River Indian tribe of California compact.

And before we hear from the governor's office, Assemblymember Ramos, do you have any opening comments?

Thank you, Madam Chair. And the previous speaker, two, the Genyo people down in San Diego area. Thank you for that. And now the Tule Rivers compact. We're running the presenting the informational on AB 3276, a Bill that would ratify the gaming compact entered into between the State of California and the Tule River Indian tribe of California.

Tule river has just recently celebrated its 28th anniversary in 2024 and is one of the largest employers in their county. Gaming compacts came as a result of historic, hard fought struggle to recognize tribal sovereignty and forge a path forward to self sufficiency.

It is meaningful because of the past dealings of the tribes here in the State of California and the governors and Legislature, which began with the state's first Governor Burnett, calling for the extermination of California's Indian people and funding and authorizing in state budgets to that end for those militias.

Then came the gold rush and the injustice, starvation that the population of California's first people by 1860 dwindled to less than 20% of its original population. These are not just compacts. These are reckonings of injustices against California's first people.

Today you will hear from the Administration and Vice Chair Nieto on the hard work that these two parties have engaged in to reach this renewal. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Assemblymember Ramos and Matthew Lee, again, thank you.

Thank you very much. And thank you very much for those wise words to set the table a bit for this specific compact. Just want to jump back to that federal statute I mentioned earlier, the Indian Gaming Regulatory act.

The Indian Gaming Regulatory act sets out a framework for the negotiations that lead to these compacts, and it prescribes a list of seven topics that are fair game for bargaining in those negotiations. It's not a free for all. We aren't allowed to ask for just anything we want.

The sort of proper legal interpretation of the scope of those seven topics has changed over the years.

And just a couple years ago, the federal appellate court that covers the West Coast, the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, clarified that some of the things that we used to be bargaining for, some of the things that we used to be including in our gaming compacts, are actually outside the scope of IGRA.

We no longer bargain for those things, but want to really appreciate and respect and express gratitude for the tribe's partnership in doing what is largely some technical cleanup here. It looks like we are changing more than we are, because what we've done is we've amended and restated this compact.

That's a lawyer's way of saying we've copied and pasted the whole thing, but we are essentially redlining a handful of provisions that after that 9th Circuit decision I mentioned, it made sense to update them.

There were things that were in there that we could no longer include, and there were things that were in there that were over broad. In particular, on the overbroad things, we have narrowed our understanding of the universe in which a compacts tort law protections apply.

This compact is in many ways a model for compacts that have come after it, in terms of helping us find a way to make sure that we're staying within the bounds of federal law, staying within the guardrails that the 9th Circuit has given us, but also making sure that patrons of these gaming facilities are still protected.

And we really appreciate the tribe working with us on that. Similarly, the 9th Circuit clarified, we used to include very broad environmental review provisions in all of our compacts to analyze any project under the compact. The 9th Circuit has clarified that we can't do that. That's over broad.

But of course, we still want to be mindful of the fact that a gaming facility, a gaming operation, can still have impacts to the surrounding community that should be mitigated.

And so here again, we in some ways have the archetype for the kind of local impact mitigation Fund that I've been mentioning a few times today as a way of complying with the 9th Circuit's decision, but also recognizing and mitigating those local impacts.

And we are, we really appreciate the tribe's partnership in working through some very tough, novel legal issues and building a compact that I think works very well for both parties, even as the legal landscape has changed around us.

Thank you very much. And with us today, we have Vice Chairman Shine Nieto from Thule River.

Yes, thank you for allowing me to be here today, speak for my tribe, and thank you, sir Ramos, for everything you do. I always appreciate you and being around you, sir. Yeah, we disagree to what he's saying.

We've been given to surrounding communities since we opened on the hill and doing more for them as we move down into Porterville. So we've been given to Visalia, you know, Tulare, all these surrounding communities, helping them out with what we got with our gaming count pack.

And we also been, you know, one of the largest in Tulare county to employ people. So, you know, with this gay mic compact, it's not just about our tribe. It's about our neighbors and being neighborly also.

So, you know, we have like 964 employees at the casino, you know, and then we have probably like 500 other jobs on the reservation. So our jobs aren't about per capita all the time. They're mostly about making people stand up and go to work.

And we take care of our veterans and our elders with what we do have more than anybody else, and. And also send our youth to school. So now we got. Probably got like 64 kids going to college.

That probably would have never happened without this game unless they were getting the grants from the state, you know what I mean? But with this, we give back 80% to them. And most of the time, when they becoming something else, we give as much as we can, even more past the 80%.

So this is going to help us sustain ourselves and to help us stand up for ourselves and keep moving in the future, to help our future generations, you know, and also with giving back to some of you guys that need some, whatever you have to do, you mean.

I appreciated being here for that last Bill, you know, for you, Miss Rubio and Sorya, you know, for that passing stuff like that is great things. And these compacts for our people are just similar to that. You.

So I appreciate you guys, and whatever you can do to make these compacts keep moving, because it helps us as people to be people. So I thank you for your time, and if you have any questions for me, I'm glad to answer any.

Thank you so very much. Any public comment on this compact? Any comments from the Committee? No. Thank you so much, Assemblymember Gipson.

Thank you. I realize this is just an informational hearing, but I know that something tangible is going to come out of this hearing by way of policy.

And so, since I've been even elected, I've been very supportive of the compacts and certainly appreciate the authors who I've served with and looking forward to these compacts coming before us at the appropriate time. But also want to thank the leadership, because certainly believe that these compacts change people's lives, well as communities as well.

And certainly I've been always supportive and continue to support these compacts. Thank you very much.

Yeah, thank you, sir.

Thank you. Any other comments? Okay, that concludes the hearing for the four tribes. Mister Lee, welcome and look forward to working with you and thank you to our Vice Chairman and the Chairman that were available for us. With that, I'll go ahead and adjourn our I, our meeting.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.