When the Chips are Down
Spada goes to work for casino developer

by Andrea Barrist Stern Saugerties Times  January 20, 2006

The lull after November's election that swept anti-casino officials into office in the Saugerties town and village governments as well as in the Ulster County legislature is now over, and the casino proposal by the Oklahoma-based Seneca-Cayuga tribe and Rochester mall developer Thomas Wilmot at Winston Farm in Saugerties is once again drawing attention.
Two weeks ago, Wilmot hired long-time Ulster County clerk Al Spada, who retired in September after 39 years on the job, to do "some PR" for the project according to the former Republican county official, who said Wilmot had contacted him personally by phone to discuss the part-time position.
Around the same time, Saugerties town and village officials held a conference call with Washington, D.C.-based attorney Guy Martin, whom they have retained to assess the casino project from a legal perspective and help develop a strategy to fight it. Martin said this week that he has received a list of documents he had requested and is already at work on a report that he expects to present to town and village officials within four to six weeks. Martin's firm, Perkins Coie, is known for representing municipalities and not-for-profit organizations against casinos. Among its successes to date, the firm thwarted Wilmot's recent attempt to build a casino in Bridgeport, Conn.
"Our goal will be to give them a clear statement of where they appear to stand from a legal point of view," said Martin, "...and tell them what our opinion is with respect to the outcome and the legal course these [various alternatives] would take."
And at the Saugerties town board meeting on Wednesday, January 18, town supervisor Greg Helsmoortel introduced a resolution calling for No Saugerties Casino to be included as a third party in retaining Martin along with the town and village. When the proposal to hire Martin was initially introduced in September, the anti-casino citizens' group was to have been included, but some Saugerties officials believed at the time that the hiring should be a government effort. Returned to office in November, Helsmoortel said he has always believed the casino opponents should be included.
Spada said he doesn't know "what the role will be" but expects to learn more in the next few weeks when Wilmot and his representatives are scheduled to visit Ulster County. "As soon as we get together, I'll know what my function will be," he noted. Well-connected in Republican circles, Spada is said to have ties to the Republican hierarchy in Albany as well as in Ulster County, but Spada said that rumors he has done considerable fundraising for governor George Pataki, a strong proponent of Indian gaming as a means of funding state coffers, are untrue. "I have attended functions. That's all," said Spada, noting he likes "to keep busy."
Asked about Spada's hiring and the course Wilmot is currently pursuing, Gwenn Bellcourt, a spokesperson for the developer, said on Wednesday, "We really don't have much to say."
"It's typical," said Martin of Spada's new role. "It's not the tribes; it's the backers of the tribes who try to get as much political capability as they can to win the PR and the political struggle, so I wouldn't be surprised if they hire some lobbyists."
In fact, one well-placed observer of the Albany political scene who spoke this week on condition of anonymity, said lobbyists in the state's capital are now vying to get hired by Wilmot. And in much the same way that disgraced Washington, D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his former partner, Michael Scanlan, stand accused of bilking six tribes out of $82 million with no expectation of making good on their promises to these clients, none of the lobbyists vying for some of the billions Wilmot made from his mall construction company, Wilmorite, Inc., believe there is even the remotest chance of a casino being sited in Ulster County because of the opposition here, according to this Albany individual.
Patti Kelly, a member of the No Saugerties Casino steering committee, said inclusion of the group in Martin's hiring and the development of a legal strategy "will send a very clear signal to everyone that we are a united community and this is not just an act of government; it is an act of the citizens as well." The group's members also have the time and expertise to take on tasks associated with the casino fight and are well positioned to fundraise to help pay for the legal costs. "People would be more inclined to contribute to an organization knowing it is totally in synch with the elected officials," she said. "We can do things the town can't do in terms of raising money."
Martin said it is not uncommon to have citizen's groups join governments in hiring legal experts to fight casinos in their communities. "There are all kinds of different formulations," he added, noting some governments hire their legal experts on their own while others prefer collaborations. "They have a good understanding of the situation and the alternatives," he said of No Saugerties Casino. "It will be up to the town and village whether they find that useful."
Helsmoortel said he was approached by No Saugerties Casino chairperson Lanny Walter, who asked him to reconsider. "I didn't have to reconsider," said the supervisor, noting his position in favor of including the group had never changed. "I want to show unity. The town and [the group's members] have a history of working very well together."
In a related undertaking, Kelly said that the group is currently seeking a new storefront location now that it has had to vacate space that had been donated by Café Tamayo. The restaurant is now relocating to that side of the building and Dig, an upscale clothing store, is leasing the side where the restaurant had operated.
Regarding Saugerties' legal strategy in fighting the casino, Martin said the community's situation "is not yet entirely clear." His report will present various routes the community can take, including how to best negotiate with the developer. Martin's fee for this initial work is $10,000. He would not estimate the costs if the community chooses to undertake an extended legal battle other than to note they "could be substantial." Said Martin, "These are difficult fights."
The local struggle is unfolding against a backdrop of potentially sweeping changes in the national's capital that could dramatically restrict the approval of new Native American casinos, while at the same time giving tribes considerably more power. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) has proposed a series of amendments to IGRA that would substantially overhaul the law, including barring tribes from moving across state lines to open a casino, something no tribe has been able to accomplish to date. McCain's bill would further tighten the restrictions on future casino siting by requiring the Interior Department to ensure tribes have a "temporal, cultural and geographic nexus" to the land in question before it is taken into trust.
It is unclear how the McCain bill will fare. "It is quite clear McCain appears intent on moving on something," said Martin, noting the senator is believed to be working on a revised bill. "Beyond that, it's hard to tell ... We are in the second year of the congressional term, the political year, and the odds are against almost any proposal that doesn't have strong support." No equivalent bill has yet been introduced in the House and McCain's bill is still in committee in the Senate.
At the same time, Penny Coleman, acting general counsel of the National Indian Gaming Commission that administers the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) that was passed in 1988, issued four rulings last year that give tribes greater authority over lands within their reservations, even if those lands are not held in trust or are owned by non-Indians. Stating that Congress had intended to give tribes full jurisdiction over their lands when it enacted IGRA, she wrote that the commission "can presume jurisdiction exists" if gaming is being planned. The four rulings are limited to casinos within existing reservations.
New York is one of twelve states in which out-of-state tribes are seeking to open casinos. According various industry sources, some 225 tribes are currently operating casinos today and another 227 groups are seeking Congressional recognition as tribes in order to open casinos. According to McCain's statement on he floor of the Senate on November 18, 2005, when he introduced the bill, Indian gaming is now a $19 billion annual business. By contrast, gaming was just a $200 million industry when IGRA was first passed 17 years ago.
In his statement, McCain, chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, noted that IGRA generally banned off-reservation gaming by tribes but allowed several exceptions "in the interest of fairness." But exploitation of these exceptions since that time "has led to a burgeoning practice for unscrupulous developers seeking to profit off Indian tribes desperate for economic development." McCain said he believes his amendments would put an end to these exceptions. McCain and other lawmakers have sought to amend IGRA for years but their efforts have often been at odds with the interests of the tribes as well as those of state governments like New York, which reaps one-quarter of the take of slot machines at casinos within its borders.
Although there could be new interest in Washington for restricting tribal casinos, New York's governor and legislature have shown themselves to be very much in favor of Indian gaming. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the Cayuga Indians' 25-year-old land claim last year - the Seneca-Cayugas are a party to that lawsuit - but Pataki and the state legislature have a history of seeking to expand the number of tribal casinos in New York State since 2001 when the governor signed legislation into law that constituted the largest expansion of state-sanctioned gambling in the state's history.
Claiming the attacks of September 11, 2001 had cost the city some $9 billion in lost revenue, legislative leaders and the governor worked out a deal that included the approval of six new Native American-run casinos: three in western New York to be run by the Seneca Nation and three in Sullivan and Ulster counties. No tribes or sites were specified in terms of the three gaming operations in the Catskills; the only requirement was that they had to be Indian-operated. Two of the three casinos in western New York have already been built - one in Allegheny County and one in Niagara County - and the third is under construction in Erie County. That leaves the Catskills.
In addition to the Seneca-Cayuga project, the New York Oneidas are holding options on the former IBM property and numerous parcels around it in the town of Ulster in the hope of building a casino there.
The Seneca-Cayugas and Wilmot are proposing to build a Las Vegas-style, Class III casino with slot machines and table games, a 900-room hotel, two golf courses, and a 2,000-seat theater as well as a shopping mall, four fine dining restaurants and other food establishments, a show lounge and meeting and convention space at the 840-acre Winston Farm. The projected 19,000 daily visitors to the casino would effectively double the population of Saugerties. (Wilmot scaled this proposal down from an earlier one that would have included a much larger resort with far more retail and entertainment space, including a 20,000-seat arena, in response to community opposition.)

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