Opponents of a casino at Pt. Molate won an important court victory today.

Measure U on the November Ballot asks  whether Richmond voters favor a Casino on Pt Molate. (The vote is advisory only).  Both supporters and opponents of the Casino filed  arguments to be printed in the official ballot guide all voters receive. 

In an attempt to get the upper hand and intimidate opponents with threats of monetary penalties  Don Gosney, sued the signers of the NO argument.  Gosney,  an open casino supporter and building trades operative in Richmond claimed the phrases, "no guarantees of jobs for Richmond residents" and "low wage jobs" in our ballot arguments were false and misleading.

Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Barry Baskin, after hearing arguments from both sides and reviewing the evidence, denied Gosney's petition and ordered our original written arguments to remain.

Signers of the ballot arguments  sued by Gosney were Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, Councilmember Jeff Ritterman, Andrés Soto, Rev. Ken Davis, and Citizens for a Sustainable Pt. Molate's Joan Garrett.

Gosney's key evidence were the unsigned "agreements." Gosney claimed the "First Source Agreement" and "Living Wage Ordinance agreement" mentioned in their proposed agreement proved the Guideville Pomos had agreed to guarantee 40% of jobs for  Richmond Residents and 70% for  Contra Costa residents and to pay a living wage of more than $15/ hr. Gosney also claimed the unsigned "agreements" were an indication that the Guideville Pomos "would" abide by these.

Our side showed that in addition to being unsigned, these  agreements also contained numerous contract loopholes that rendered them meaningless. One loophole gives the tribe the right to hire tribal persons over any local hiring agreement and the tribe plans on calculating wages by including estimated tips as part of the workers' wages.

Judge Baskin gave Gosney's side a chance to rebut, but they could not. Judge Baskin had no choice but to deny Gosney's petition.

This victory is important because we now have an independent court decision saying the casino promoters cannot actually guarantee Richmonders casino construction or operational jobs with good wages.  And this was in a case that the Casino promoters themselves chose and prepared.

-Andres Soto

see Contra Costa Times article

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