WE ARE writing to respond to your recent editorial criticizing local politicians for supporting the Point Molate Tribal Destination Resort. While your editorial argues elected officials abandoned principle in supporting the plan, it makes no mention of the thousands of desperately needed good-paying jobs and millions of dollars of needed support to the county's law enforcement and health care systems this project will provide.

We believe the supervisors, along with many other people and organizations, changed their opinion of the project after looking beneath the surface and reconsidering the project's potential.

The plan for the Point Molate project includes two hotels, business, conference and entertainment facilities, shopping, restaurants, public plazas, pedestrian/bicycle trails, shoreline parks, a tribal park, tribal government offices and cultural facilities. Also 34 of the historic buildings located on-site will be restored, up to 340 residential units of new multifamily housing will be built, and existing transportation networks will be linked to new systems, including the construction of a ferry terminal that will connect to San Francisco and Vallejo.

The project design incorporates leading-edge environmental features and includes local employment, job training, and community partnerships that exceed the standards of any development project in the county.

The plan calls for accelerating the Navy cleanup on the site, opening up hillside and shoreline parks, and renovating the historic district at Point Molate. All this will be paid for by the project developer, costing tens of millions of dollars otherwise not available from local government.

Because the Point Molate project grew out of a Navy base reuse project, community involvement in this project's planning has been considerable and unique for tribal projects in California.

Extensive local public hearings have been held, allowing opportunities for community input and involvement. There has been exhaustive discussion about the project's scope and layout of the project, its potential impacts and benefits, as well as its potential to enhance the project's surroundings.

The Times' objection to the project is that it includes gambling that it contends will bring more crime to Richmond and financially devastate Richmond families. One doesn't have to look far in the county and in the greater Bay Area to find any number of existing gaming establishments where Richmond residents can gamble to their heart's content. This is, of course, in addition to the state lottery, which encourages gambling in every convenience store in the county.

In contrast to existing venues that cater to locals, the Point Molate project is targeted to bring tourism and hundreds of millions of dollars of new money into Richmond from all around the region and state. But there is already a far greater scourge facing Richmond residents than gambling — massive unemployment.

Working people are hurting in this county, nowhere more so than in Richmond, where unemployment is estimated at double the state average. There is nothing more devastating to a community than the grinding, structural unemployment found in Richmond. Make no mistake, the high crime rate in Richmond is a direct result of high unemployment.

The Point Molate developer is negotiating local agreements guaranteeing substantial local hires for construction and operational jobs at the resort, commitments that will yield thousands of desperately needed, good-paying jobs with benefits. We believe the project should be viewed as a unique opportunity. Our county supervisors did just that, acting in a principled and pragmatic fashion to address Richmond and county residents' real problems.

Hodess is business manager of the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 159 and McMillan is a former member of the Richmond City Council.

 http://www.contracostatimes.com/opinion/ci_14101605