The ruling by a federal judge that makes way for the Wilton Rancheria casino in Elk Grove, Northern California has been challenged by the casino watchdog group Stand Up for California.
Judge Trevor McFadden last month ruled that the U.S. Department’s action place land into trust for the tribe had been a correct one. The department ruling came in February 2017.
The tribe proposes a $500 million casino resort on 36 acres. The plaintiff claims in its appeal, that the department approved of the trust action
in an “extraordinarily expedited two-month review at the end of the Obama administration after spending several years reviewing a separate site in Galt.”
It argues that the “last-minute switch” gulled the public so that there was a cursory analysis of the projects impacts.
The lawsuit also claims that Bureau of Indian Affairs official Larry Roberts lacked the authority to put the land into trust.
Stand Up Director Cheryl Schmit told the Elk Grove Citizen, “The district court overlooked serious flaws in the BIA’s public process and hasty environmental analysis, as well as a lack of proper legal authority exercised by an acting official in the waning days of the last administration.”
Raymond “Chuckie” Hitchcock, tribal chairman of the Wilton Rancheria told the Citizen, “This appeal is laughable. Cheryl Schmit just has a blank checkbook from other gaming interests to be spent on more frivolous lawsuits.”
He disputed the contention that the BIA’s review was “expedited.”
“That’s just simply not true,” he said. “Elk Grove, Galt and Wilton were different alternatives that were all being reviewed at the very beginning of the scoping period back in 2013. They all have mounds of environmental documents.
The chairman added, “Did the preferred site change at the end, once it was revealed that the most preferred site and less environmentally impactful was the Elk Grove site? Yes. But was it reviewed and studied to the fullest extent of BIA requirements? Absolutely.”
He said he doubted the appeal would lead to an overturning of the ruling. “The judge’s determination in this case is very strong and spot on. They have that blank checkbook, so they’re going to spend more money to do what they can to try to convolute the reality.”
The Citizen asked Schmit to disclose the source of her funding, but she declined, saying it was “a confidential matter.”
Hitchcock said the appeal wouldn’t affect the tribe’s plans to break ground in the very near future, “regardless of this frivolous appeal.”
