Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Gambling update
Interesting vote last night of the Lakewood council. For a couple years now, the Lakewood council has been regularly passing what's effectively an emergency moratorium on any proposals to put new minicasinos into Lakewood.
Recently, there's been discussion that this could be stretching the definition of an emergency moratorium a bit far. So last night, we had a proposal on the table that would let the moratorium expire. In its place would be a rule that existing minicasinos would be grandfathered in, but no new casinos could apply.
There's a lot of argument about whether any of this is effective. State law appears to prohibit cities from regulating casinos. It's a bit bizarre ... imagine a state law that said a city could either allow a gas station to open anywhere in a city, or there are no gas stations at all. That's the way minicasinos seem to be regulated in the state. The law seems to say, and this is just odd, that a city cannot regulate casinos though it can ban them entirely. A number of cities have responded to this legislative oddity by passing measures to assert regulation of minicasinos, one model being the ordinance in front of us last night.
However, council memebers Ron Cronk, Pad Finnigan, Helen McGovern and Don Anderson said they didn't want to pass a measure that may not be effective under state law. So the replacement measure failed last night. I supported the measure. I got no problem with the legal right of minicasinos to operate, but at the existing number. Just as we don't want Lakewood to be the only place where you could find a gas station in the area, you don't want Lakewood to be the main place to find minicasinos.
That raises the question of what's next. The people who voted against the regulations can make the same argument about the moratorium that the council has been renewing for quite some time. So will the council majority let the moratorium expire in several weeks? We'll have to see.
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Recently, there's been discussion that this could be stretching the definition of an emergency moratorium a bit far. So last night, we had a proposal on the table that would let the moratorium expire. In its place would be a rule that existing minicasinos would be grandfathered in, but no new casinos could apply.
There's a lot of argument about whether any of this is effective. State law appears to prohibit cities from regulating casinos. It's a bit bizarre ... imagine a state law that said a city could either allow a gas station to open anywhere in a city, or there are no gas stations at all. That's the way minicasinos seem to be regulated in the state. The law seems to say, and this is just odd, that a city cannot regulate casinos though it can ban them entirely. A number of cities have responded to this legislative oddity by passing measures to assert regulation of minicasinos, one model being the ordinance in front of us last night.
However, council memebers Ron Cronk, Pad Finnigan, Helen McGovern and Don Anderson said they didn't want to pass a measure that may not be effective under state law. So the replacement measure failed last night. I supported the measure. I got no problem with the legal right of minicasinos to operate, but at the existing number. Just as we don't want Lakewood to be the only place where you could find a gas station in the area, you don't want Lakewood to be the main place to find minicasinos.
That raises the question of what's next. The people who voted against the regulations can make the same argument about the moratorium that the council has been renewing for quite some time. So will the council majority let the moratorium expire in several weeks? We'll have to see.
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The last two years worth of moratoriums have been passed as Walter indicates. Convenient, however, that all would prefer to ignore the gaps during which gambling grew that preceded them. If moratorium history were only limited to these last two years then we have no argument as to their consecutive nature. The problem comes when we stop there and not ask how gambling could double, and then double again, in spite of these moratoriums. And the reason of course is that the moratoriums in fact did not exist. For Walter to selectively chose to indicate that for the last two years there have been moratoriums passed is to imply that that is the extent of the city's wrestling with gambling which, of course, it is not.
As a matter of fact, the Lakewood council enacted its first moratorium on gambling expansion in 1998 with Resolution 1998-36, October 19, 2008. There followed a flurry of similar ordinances, resolutions, public hearings, and moratorium extensions – such that contrary to Neary’s “couple of years” statement, the truth is no less than 11 years has the council “been regularly passing” moratoriums on “any proposals to put new minicasinos into Lakewood.”
And, truth be told, the council has not been so ‘regular’ at that.
According to Public Disclosure Documents, there are two nearly two-year gaps of no activity at all with regards gambling by the City. With the expiration of Res.2000-10 on Oct.5, 2000, there follows a one-year-10-month hiatus from moratoriums until a new ordinance is passed on July 29, 2002. Then once Ord. 283 expired six months later, there is yet another gap of anti-gambling activity by the council until an entirely new series of ordinances begin on November 21, 2005.
How did this ‘moratorium-in-the-middle’ come about? What had then transpired such that the council readdressed the gambling issue after a nearly 2 year lapse? In 2002 the State granted two more casino licenses in Lakewood – while no moratorium was in place. In the June 22, 2002 TNT, then Lakewood Mayor Bill Harrison called the plans for the two new minicasinos along I-5 “the lesser of two evils”, the other being strip clubs. But at a forum at the Lakewood Library in December, 2008, Harrison admitted, “at that time they (the casinos) told us that if we did not go along with this we were going to be sued and break the city and I allowed that to sway me and if I could take that vote back, I would.”
On July 25, 2002 City Councilwoman Helen McGovern, representing the Lakewood City Council in an exchange at the Lakewood Library stated, “The council considered gambling a non-issue until recent public outcry.”
The Council then enacted Ord. 283 on July 29, 2002 establishing its 5th six-month moratorium on gambling.
This very same scenario would be played out yet again. A summary of the time-table is as follows.
1998-2000
Four successive moratoriums, each covering six months
10/5/2000
The last of the four moratoriums is allowed to expire
Late 2000-June, 2002
The number of Lakewood casinos increase from one to three
June/July, 2002
Citizens complain
July 29, 2002
Council responds with its fifth moratorium
January, 2003
Moratorium is allowed to expire
2003-2005
The number of Lakewood casinos increases from three to six
November 2005
City Council members Finnigan, McGovern and Richardson each received $250 for their successful election campaigns from Evergreen Entertainment which is a part of Great American Casino.
When asked how casinos could double in Lakewood from three to six, Assistant City Manager Dave Bugher is quoted in the TNT on Sept. 17, 2007, “The city allowed the three because they were in the process of building or getting city permits before the moratorium too effect. The city had no choice under state law but to allow them.”
But there is another explanation per the timeline above.
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As a matter of fact, the Lakewood council enacted its first moratorium on gambling expansion in 1998 with Resolution 1998-36, October 19, 2008. There followed a flurry of similar ordinances, resolutions, public hearings, and moratorium extensions – such that contrary to Neary’s “couple of years” statement, the truth is no less than 11 years has the council “been regularly passing” moratoriums on “any proposals to put new minicasinos into Lakewood.”
And, truth be told, the council has not been so ‘regular’ at that.
According to Public Disclosure Documents, there are two nearly two-year gaps of no activity at all with regards gambling by the City. With the expiration of Res.2000-10 on Oct.5, 2000, there follows a one-year-10-month hiatus from moratoriums until a new ordinance is passed on July 29, 2002. Then once Ord. 283 expired six months later, there is yet another gap of anti-gambling activity by the council until an entirely new series of ordinances begin on November 21, 2005.
How did this ‘moratorium-in-the-middle’ come about? What had then transpired such that the council readdressed the gambling issue after a nearly 2 year lapse? In 2002 the State granted two more casino licenses in Lakewood – while no moratorium was in place. In the June 22, 2002 TNT, then Lakewood Mayor Bill Harrison called the plans for the two new minicasinos along I-5 “the lesser of two evils”, the other being strip clubs. But at a forum at the Lakewood Library in December, 2008, Harrison admitted, “at that time they (the casinos) told us that if we did not go along with this we were going to be sued and break the city and I allowed that to sway me and if I could take that vote back, I would.”
On July 25, 2002 City Councilwoman Helen McGovern, representing the Lakewood City Council in an exchange at the Lakewood Library stated, “The council considered gambling a non-issue until recent public outcry.”
The Council then enacted Ord. 283 on July 29, 2002 establishing its 5th six-month moratorium on gambling.
This very same scenario would be played out yet again. A summary of the time-table is as follows.
1998-2000
Four successive moratoriums, each covering six months
10/5/2000
The last of the four moratoriums is allowed to expire
Late 2000-June, 2002
The number of Lakewood casinos increase from one to three
June/July, 2002
Citizens complain
July 29, 2002
Council responds with its fifth moratorium
January, 2003
Moratorium is allowed to expire
2003-2005
The number of Lakewood casinos increases from three to six
November 2005
City Council members Finnigan, McGovern and Richardson each received $250 for their successful election campaigns from Evergreen Entertainment which is a part of Great American Casino.
When asked how casinos could double in Lakewood from three to six, Assistant City Manager Dave Bugher is quoted in the TNT on Sept. 17, 2007, “The city allowed the three because they were in the process of building or getting city permits before the moratorium too effect. The city had no choice under state law but to allow them.”
But there is another explanation per the timeline above.
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