LAKEPORT -- County government officials and representatives from a local tribe met at the Lake County Courthouse Thursday to approve grant applications for money provided by the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund.

American Indian tribes with casinos pay money into the state fund, and the state then allocates portions of the fund to local jurisdictions to help mitigate the casinos' impacts on the communities.

In Lake County, the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians, which operates Konocti Vista Casino, and Robinson Rancheria, which operates Robinson Rancheria Resort and Casino, pay money into the distribution fund.

Local agencies, including the county's District Attorney's Office and Sheriff's Office, local fire districts and Lakeport Police Department (LPD), submitted grant applications earlier this year, requesting portions of the allocated fund money.
Members of the county's Indian Gaming Local Community Benefit Committee gathered Thursday to vote on which applications to approve and determine funding distribution amounts. The meeting had been continued to Thursday after a lengthy discussion on April 7.

Lake County Supervisors Rob Brown and Jeff Smith and Robinson delegate Buffy Jimenez were the only voting members present at Thursday's meeting. Lakeport City Councilman Bob Rumfelt and Big Valley representative Anthony Jack were absent.

As a result, all three committee members had to vote in favor of an application in order for it to be approved.

There was $864,056.01 available for disbursal, with nearly $512,900 provided by funds from Robinson and nearly $351,200 from Big Valley.

The committee voted to approve the applications of the Lake County District Attorney's Office, for a total of $279,000, the full amount requested by DA Don Anderson.

Nearly $236,000 of the money will be provided by funds from Robinson. "We have a good working relationship with them," Jimenez said of the DA's Office.
Anderson, who was present at both committee meetings, wrote in his application that the grant funds would go toward paying for investigator, a one-half deputy district position and equipment.

On the other hand, the Lake County Sheriff's Office (LCSO) received none of the nearly $450,000 it requested. Sheriff Frank Rivero, who did not attend either meeting, had requested money for services to the Northshore, Big Valley area and South County as well as for a South County Regional Office.

Big Valley had supported disbursing a little more than $118,000 to the LCSO for services to the Big Valley area and another $70,235.75 for LCSO services in the Middletown area, according to county Chief Deputy Administrative Officer H. Matt Perry.

Brown and Smith voted to approve of Big Valley's planned distributions to the LCSO but Jimenez ultimately voted against both distributions. The 2-1 decisions resulted in application denials because approval required three affirmative votes.
The Robinson representatives present at the meeting deferred official comment on the tribe's stance regarding the LCSO requests to an official tribal spokesperson, who could not be reached by the Record-Bee on Thursday.
"It's unfortunate that Robinson does not want to mitigate the impact that their gambling casino has on crime and law enforcement in the county of Lake by supporting funds for law enforcement," Rivero said Thursday evening.

Rivero said that earlier in the year he received a letter from the Robinson tribal police offering that the tribe would support distributing mitigation funds to the LCSO in exchange for cross-deputizing the tribal officers.

"That was not something I could support because it would put all of the liability for their actions on the county of Lake," Rivero said.

The committee decided to redistribute the money Big Valley had supported going to the LCSO.

The $118,000-plus went to two different sources, with just more than $56,000 going toward inmate medical services and the rest to the county's Department of Parks and Recreation.

The other $70,000-plus was distributed evenly between the Southlake Fire District (for facilities and equipment) and Parks and Recreation (for the Middletown area).

Other entities granted funding were the Lake County Public Defender Program, Lake County Probation Department, Lake County Animal Care and Control, Northshore Fire Protection District, Lakeport Fire Protection District, LPD and Lake County Department of Water Resources.

"Once again the committee has come up with some very good recommendations that will benefit the county in ways that couldn't happen without that funding," Brown said.

The applications of the county's Mental Health Department, Vector Control District and Public Works Department did not receive tribal support.