Assembly Standing Committee on Governmental Organization

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us. Today. The Assembly Governmental Organization Committee is called to order. I'm Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio, Chair of the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to today's informational hearing.

The six tribal-state gaming compacts before us today were executed between Governor Newsom on behalf of the State of California and each federally recognized tribe. Today we will hear from the principal architects of the compacts, the governor's office, and the tribes 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 land, lands, held in trust for the tribe, and located within the boundaries of the tribe's reservation.

I am pleased to see that the compacts of the 25-year variety 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 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 and AB 2656 are the ratification bills for these six tribal-state compacts. At some 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 time out of their busy schedule to be with us today. We will first be briefed on the Elem Indian colony of Pomo Indians of the Sulfur Bank Rancheria Compact. We will then hear each additional compact in alphabetical order as listed on the agenda.

I want to welcome Matthew Lee, senior advisor for tribal negotiations for Governor Newsom. Mister Lee, can you please begin? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, honorable Members, it's a pleasure and an honor to be here this afternoon. Thank you for having me. And a good afternoon, of course, to the representatives of tribal governments and other members of the public who have joined us. This compact is with a tribe in Lake County, near Clear Lake.

It's for a small new gaming operation capped at 349 devices spread across a maximum of two facilities. It contains standard terms relating to contributions to what we call the special distribution fund to cover the state's regulatory costs.

Although given the small size of this gaming operation, if there are sufficient funds in the special distribution fund, those payments could be reduced or completely eliminated. Given the small size of this operation, this isn't the kind of compact where we tend to include terms about revenue sharing with what's called the revenue sharing trust fund.

We also don't see a need, given the small size of this compact, to separately address local mitigation. Again, just to, just to emphasize the very small size of the operation here. It does contain what are by now our sort of standard terms to protect both patrons and workers.

That includes applicable insurance policies for members of the public who might suffer injury or workers who could suffer some injury related to their employment.

And in that same vein, sort of the standard worker protection terms that we always fight very hard for, bargain very hard for, in terms of state law, minimum wage protections, state classifications to protect workers from things like discrimination, harassment, retaliation, workers' comp provisions, things like that.

It also includes what is by now our standard tribal labor relations ordinance. We have included this in all of our recent compacts. Happy to say more about it if it's helpful, but the short version is that it is a framework addressing the potential organization and representation of workers at the gaming operation by a labor union.

So, happy to answer any questions or say more if it's helpful, of course.

Thank you very much. And I would like to call up Jack Duran, legal counsel for Elem. Thank you for joining us.

Is that working? To the Elem Indian colony out of Lake County. I want to thank you all for bringing this compact before you for a reading. I want to also commend the state for its interaction with the tribe in negotiating this compact.

Although I don't want to date myself, I could remember a time when negotiating a compact with the state was a very arduous thing, and many doors were closed. But this was a very enlightening experience. It was an arm's length negotiation.

There was a lot of give and take, and I believe that we have arrived at a place in a compact that provides the tribe what it wants and provides the state the guarantees that it needs for the public. So, we're very thankful about what we have been able to accomplish here.

This compact will be the last compact that will come through Lake County. This, the tribe, the Elem, do not currently have any economic development, and this will greatly assist their ability to provide economic development. They're very good people. They get along with both the tribal and the non-tribal communities.

They participate in the local medical, I guess it's a medical symposium with six other sister tribes, and they are very, very well-liked and very well respected. So, on behalf of Chairman Augustin Garcia, thank you again for hearing this.

Thank you so much. Any comments from the audience? Thank you. And I apologize. It's Elem. I am not wearing my glasses, and the type is very, very small.

Thank you, Madam Chair, Members, on behalf of the Tuolumne band of Me-Wuk Indians in support, Richard Armstrong.

Thank you. Any other comments? Any questions or comments from the Committee? Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you. Now we will move on to Table Mountain. Assembly Member Ramos is authoring the ratification bill for the Table Mountain Rancheria Compact. And our friends at Table Mountain. Oh, Assembly Member Ramos, do you have any comments or? Yes. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Haleshma Healy Healey. Greetings. I am Michelle Heredia Cordova, and I have the privilege of being the Tribal Chairwoman for Table Mountain Rancheria Sovereign Band of Chukchansi Mono People. The words I share today, I share in a good way.

Over the past two weeks, my fellow council members and I have walked the halls asking for your support and having our compact heard. During that time, someone remarked that we can do this because we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. And I can tell you that sentiment is not lost on us.

For not only do we stand on their shoulders, but we carry their blood, their sweat, and their tears from genocide to slavery and displacement to forced assimilation, there can be no compensation great enough to make reparations for what California's first people have endured.

This compact is not just an agreement or a contract, for we are not a business or a corporation that is focused on improving the bottom line. For us, gaming revenue has been a lifeline, helping us piece together what was broken.

With this revenue, we have been able to provide the best medical care for our tribal citizens, as well as for our 1300-plus employees and their families. We are currently working on building a new medical facility to expand our services to the general public.

Along with our own medical operation, we have made major contributions and are longtime partners with community medical centers, St. Agnes and Valley Children's Hospital. In terms of housing, we can now afford the infrastructure, such as power, water, and roads needed to build homes and bring our tribal citizens back to their ancestral lands.

For education, we cover full tuition for our tribal citizens so they can pursue higher education and return with that knowledge to help strengthen our tribe. We also have a preschool that serves both our tribal community and the families of our employees. We contribute to local schools through donations, sponsorships, and have a longstanding partnership with Fresno State.

In cultural preservation, over the last 25 years, we have bought back numerous baskets and artifacts, and we are currently working on building a cultural center to showcase our collection. A place where we can share our history and tell our story. The center will also house a dedicated space to preserve our language, ceremonies, songs, and native food traditions.

Through gaming revenue, we support the operation of our tribal Police Department, which serves to protect our tribal citizens, employees, and patrons. The new compact will allow our tribe to continue important partnerships with law enforcement, fire protection agencies, and others in our community.

The revenue through gaming has allowed us to buy back and reclaim our original lands and increase our land base, including our tribal cemetery. My aunt, our late Chairwoman, Miss Beverly J. Hunter, who now rests there, was instrumental in fighting to bring our tribe cemetery, the resting place of our ancestors, back under our possession.

She began these compact negotiations with us, and I know she, along with all of our ancestors, are here with us today. In closing, we thank you for your time and we respectfully request your support for the Table Mountain Rancheria Gaming Compact.

We thank the Governor and his compact negotiations team for their collaborative efforts in reaching agreement with our tribe on a new Class Three gaming compact. We look forward to a future of continued collaboration and mutual success. Thank you.

Thank you. Mister Ramos.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And today I'm presenting informational hearing on AB 2556 a b that would ratify the gaming compact entered into between the State of California and Table Mountain Rancheria. The compact, originally entered into in 1999, has led the tribe into an age of prosperity and self-sufficiency.

Gaming compacts came as a result of historic, hard-fought struggles to recognize tribal sovereignty and forge a path forward toward self-sufficiency. Gaming has allowed for the tribe to look at educational opportunities for their m and provide public safety as we all know too well the effects of public law 280 on tribal lands.

Today, you will hear from the Administration and Table Mountain Rancheria Tribal Chairwoman, who just spoke. And moving forward with the compact is an agreement between the leaders of two sovereign nations, Table Mountain Rancheria and the State of California. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Any other comments from the audience? Oh, I'm sorry. Excuse me. Let me go to Mister Lee first and then the audience. Apologies.

Thank you very much. No apologies necessary at all. I could not possibly hope to match the eloquence we just heard. And I won't try, rather than try to restate just what a compact like this means for the tribe. And I couldn't possibly convey how important that can be.

I'll just sort of briefly summarize the nuts-and-bolts factual details in the same way that I try to for each of these compacts. With this particular compact. It's a 3000-device compact at up to three facilities. Although one of those facilities would be very small, capped at 50 devices.

It's got the same kind of standard special distribution fund terms to cover the state's regulatory costs that I've described in the context of other compacts for contributions to what we've had previously discussed, the revenue sharing trust fund, which is a fund meant to reflect the federal statute IGRA's purpose in fostering economic development for all tribal governments.

There is a sliding scale of revenue contributions to that trust fund. That fund is shared with non and and limited gaming tribes, and we're grateful for Table Mountain and other tribes' contributions to the RSTF, as reflected in a compact like this one.

There's also a local mitigation fund to recognize and mitigate the potential local impacts of the gaming operation. And as I've stressed in the context of other compacts, obviously we the state, as a sovereign, charged with protecting the interests of members of the public and other public interests that we're responsible for, we always care a great deal about negotiating for terms that protect12embers of the public, not only patrons, but workers.

We have those very same terms here. Happy to say more about those, but they are the same kinds of worker protections we see in all of our recent compacts.

Thank you very much. Okay, now, Members of the public that wish to come in support.

Madam Chair, Members of the Committee, Paula Treat, on behalf of Pechanga, Calusa, and the Tejon tribes, wholeheartedly supporting.

Madam Chair and Members, Frank Molina, on behalf of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians in strong support.

Madam Chair and Members Richard Armstrong again. Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians in support.

Thank you. Any other members of the public wishing to speak? Thank you. We'll bring it back to the Committee. Questions or comments? Thank you very much. Really appreciate the information. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe. You're going to have to help me with pronunciation.

And let's see, we have George Golson, secretary treasurer through Webex. So, we'll start with Mister Lee while we get the Webex on board. Thank you, Mister Lee.

Absolutely. That sounds great. The Timbisha Shoshone tribe. This is a tribe that is, has its ancestral homeland in and around Death Valley, in part because of the history of, first, the national monument and then the national park. There is a complicated history here in terms of the tribe's struggle for federal recognition and a restoration of their ancestral homeland.

They achieved that recognition through a special statute and have very recently had land taken into trust for gaming near Ridgecrest, California. And with this compact, they will be able to move forward with their plans to begin gaming for the first time as part of that new facility planned near Ridgecrest.

The terms of the compact are substantively identical to a prior compact that this Committee has heard, the La Posta Compact.

Both of those tribes are similarly situated in the sense that they are not currently gaming but are looking for the certainty and stability that a compact provides so that they can begin making the necessary investments in other business operations to game.

So, just to recap what those terms are, it's up to 1200 gaming devices standard terms in terms of the state's regulatory costs through the special distribution fund. No need for local mitigation if the tribe stays a limited gaming tribe, which is below 350 devices.

There's no need for revenue sharing trust fund payments here at all, because the compact itself caps out at 1200 devices. Standard patron protection, standard worker protections. Happy to say more about those or answer any other questions.

And as always, want to extend our thanks and appreciation to the tribe, as with all of our tribal partners, for all of their hard work and partnership.

Thank you. Okay, can we have Mister George Gholson, Secretary Treasurer on Webex, please?

Good afternoon, and thank you, Chairwoman Rubio and Committee Members. My name is George Gholson. I'm secretary treasurer. I've been on the tribal council for 16 years. I was tribal Chairman for 10 years, and I've been working on the gaming product project for 21 years.

So, as you can imagine, we are super excited about being able to generate third-party revenue that will allow us to do all the things that tribes need to do to provide public safety, education, health care, infrastructure for housing, and economic development.

I can't even put into words how important the compact is to us in the gaming project as a starting point to allow us to move into other areas for economic development and future survival. We've been in Death Valley. My family and all the tribal members' ancestry came from Death Valley.

If you can imagine being there, it's been 130 degrees, I think this year, in the summertime, I avoid I going there. I live in Pahrump, Nevada, but I'm close to where our village is. And we have an elder that's going to be 100 years old, and she still lives there, and she's lived there a long time.

But we're really grateful that we'll be able to bring economic revitalization to the area where our gaming facility is going to be. We look forward to helping feed the local economy and bringing prosperity to that that region and the people there will have a new source of employment.

We're excited about that for Kern County and Inyo County, which we have a great relationship with our board of supervisors. They're very supportive on the things that we do, and this is going to really boost our abilities to do things. And. Yeah. You ever have a song that plays in your head?

One you really don't want playing in your head. Well, today, after listening to the Assembly or to the open session there, all vote who desire to vote keeps going through my head now.

I don't know when that's going to get out of there, but I would also like to thank the Mister Lee and the Governor in support of this, and I would request that you support this and thank you as we move forward.

Thank you. Any members of the public wish to come up and speak? Thank you. Seeing none, I'll bring it back to the Committee. Any comments or questions from the Committee? Okay, thank you very much. Really appreciate the information. Okay. Thank you. So, the next three compacts are our one-year variety extension.

So, Mister Lee, can you please give us the information? And it's Augustine. August. Augustine. Augustine. Mister Ramos has to help me with the next one. Cher-Ae Heights and Picayune. Picayune Rancheria. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Madam Chair. Yes. Three short-term, one-year extensions here. The common thread through all three extensions is that these are situations where some form of negotiation between the state and the tribe remains ongoing or pending.

We have not yet reached a deal on a long-term compact, but in the meantime, each of these three tribes has an older long-term compact from either 1999 or 2000 that is on the verge of expiring.

They have existing gaming operations, and of course, we recognize and respect that and want to make sure that we preserve the status quo while further negotiations between the tribe and the state are pending. So, in that spirit, asking for short one-year extensions to preserve the status quo for these existing operations.

Thank you. And we do have Amanda Augustine, Chair on Webex.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair. I'd like to thank you and the Committee for allowing me to speak today. I am Amanda Augustine, Chairwoman of Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians. Our small reservation is located near the City of Coachella in Riverside County. Where we operate, our casino is relatively small compared to the tribal casino surrounding us.

Since December 2019, we have been seeking a new compact to replace our current gaming compact. That compact will expire on December 31st, 2024. At this date. At this late date, there is no way that a new compact could be negotiated and ratified by the end of this session of legislation.

Therefore, it is essential for the security of our tribal government, our citizens, and our employees and their families that the term of our current compact extends until December 31st, 2025. Governor Newsom and I have signed a compact amendment that would do exactly that.

Our tribe looks forward to the legislation's prompt ratification of the amendment so that it can take effect before the end of this year. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Any questions or comments from the public?

Good afternoon. Pam Lopez, on behalf of the Santa Rosa Rancheria Tachi-Yokutz Tribe and the Tule River Tribe, both tribes wish to express their support for their brothers and sisters at Table Mountain and their compact.

Thank you. Any other comments? Any comments or questions from Committee Members? No? Thank you very much, and I think this concludes the informational hearing. If you have any other comments or questions, please let us know. Otherwise, I will adjourn. Thank you.