Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris is accusing Governor Doug Ducey and Attorney General Mark Brnovich of a blatant abuse of power after the Arizona Department of Gaming moved against the Tohono O’odham Nation’s West Valley Resort and casino.
Norris asserts that the pair ‘improperly politicized the decision-making’ of an independent regulatory agency, in an ongoing “attempt to create a no-competition zone for two East Valley tribes, the Gila River and Salt River Indian communities.”
The first phase of the Tohono O’odham Nation’s West Valley Resort is already under construction and will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2015.
According to the Nation, under the tribal-state gaming compacts, ADG is required to perform certain functions in the regulation of Indian gaming in Arizona. The nation alleges that Ducey and Brnovich instructed ADG to ignore the State’s obligations under the compact and to ignore Federal District Court Judge David Campbell’s decision that the Nation’s project is legal under the compact. Using sharp language, the Governor and Attorney General have personalized their attacks on the Nation to try to justify their urging to ADG that it ignore the plain language of the compact and the District Court decision.
The Nation claims in a statement released last week that the Governor and the Attorney General are “feverishly working to send more than 1,300 Arizonans already working on the project to the unemployment line.
In a strongly worded response, the Nation’s attorney, former U.S. Solicitor General Seth Waxman, said “ADG, which calls itself an independent regulatory body—appears to have changed its position based on improper political pressure, not reasoned decisionmaking. ADG’s new position overreaches the bounds of ADG’s authority, ignores the express requirements of the compact, and flouts the federal district court’s considered judgment.”
Norris said, “I wasn’t sure it was possible, but the opposition has stooped to a new low. Unbelievably, the Governor and the Attorney General have put ADG in an untenable position by instructing them to ignore the law. The Nation is committed to providing these thousands of jobs to the people of the West Valley, and this latest political strong-arm tactic will not deter our efforts.”
In March, the U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee, on a bipartisan voice vote, passed H.R. 308, the Keep The Promise Act of 2015, which would prevent Arizona’s Indian tribes from opening casinos on land newly put into trust until after the expiration of the state’s voter-approved gaming compacts in 2027.
According to Rep. Trent Franks, the bill was designed to prevent the opening of the Tohono O’odham Nation’s Glendale casino. Franks is concerned that the Nation could not only open the Glendale casino, but three more casino locations on county islands around Maricopa County.
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