When it comes to complicated relationships, the one between the Pechanga Resort & Casino and the city of Temecula ranks right up there with any tortured celebrity romance.

The casino brags it's the biggest and best in California. Temecula boosters are happily capitalize on that claim, gleefully noting that a weekend getaway here includes Wine Country, Old Town, golfing and gambling tables.

The casino has showered area charities with cash. Southwest Riverside County high schools have received $2.5 million since 1998 from the casino, funding scholarships to athletic supplies. The casino donated another $1.5 million toward construction projects for the area Southwest Boys & Girls Clubs.

The casino is a major area employer. Pechanga public affairs representative Jacob Mejia estimates that, within Temecula alone, the tribe's economic impact results indirectly in more than 11,000 jobs.

That's a major economic force. In these tough times, who would want to mess with that? Yet that's what the city of Temecula is daring to do with last week's lawsuit against the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians.

The argument is over a March agreement between the tribe and city, calling on Pechanga to pay the city at least $2 million annually to cover casino-related expenses such as police. In addition, the tribe agreed to contribute $10 million or secure federal dollars in the same amount to improve a brutal Interstate 15 interchange near the casino, one often tied up with gambler traffic.
The city expected the tribe to pay by June 30, but Pechanga contended the agreement isn't final until talks with Riverside County are done.

That led to the lawsuit, which could have statewide implications in determining when tribes have to mitigate casino impacts on government services.
Then there is the moral factor that's always operated beneath the surface. Temecula prides itself on being a family-friendly place and the community is teeming with conservative Christian churches. But what about the casino? No matter how you spin it, it's about gambling -- not exactly a wholesome activity. The money doled out by Pechanga to area good causes is primarily derived from the casino.

Yet as Pechanga's Mejia noted, Temeculans a couple years ago "voted overwhelmingly" (61 percent to 39 percent) to back a proposition that allowed Pechanga to operate up to 7,500 slot machines.

More slot machines means more customers for the casino and more traffic for Temecula streets. Anybody who goes by the casino knows how congested that area can be.

Presumably the two sides will resolve this dispute because it's in both their interests, economic that is.

What won't be resolved is this uneasy sense that Temecula, a community that espouses family values, is somehow compromising its moral principles in continuing to promote a casino and even profiting from its largess.

Reach Carl Love at carllove4@yahoo.com