JOSHUA TREE - The Twentynine Palms Band of Mission Indians was met with hisses and boos Saturday, Oct. 15, when members shared their plans to build a casino here.
The tribe is eying 130 acres it owns in Joshua Tree as the site for a one-story, 20,000-square-foot casino. The land is on the north side of Twentynine Palms Highway, just east of Desert View Homes' metal dinosaurs.
"In this area you already have the sheriff, California Highway Patrol, hospital and the county building being built, which is bigger than what we are proposing," Steve Gralla, tribal chief financial officer, said. "It's really going to be something that will blend into your commercial corridor there."
Several members of the audience responded with groans.
Darrell Mike, chairman of the Twentynine Palms tribe, addressed the opposition.
"I see a lot of no stickers, and that's OK. It's going to take me some time to make you my friend," Mike said with a smile. "I'm going to work on it."
Twentynine Palms was first site
The tribe hasn't identified any desert tortoises or endangered flora on its Joshua Tree property.
On the other hand, the reservation in Twentynine Palms where members started planning a casino in the early 2000s is home to desert tortoises and abuts Joshua Tree National Park. Those casino plans met with resistance from government agencies, including the National Park Service.
"If you were going to build, which choice would you make between these two properties?" Gralla asked the audience.
The problem for the tribe is its property in Joshua Tree is not an Indian reservation, so providing gambling on it right now would be illegal. They will have to go through a government process to have their Joshua Tree acreage declared sovereign Indian land.
Several casino opponents at Saturday's meeting said by turning the land into a reservation, the tribe would be able to ignore local wishes for land use, documented in the community plan.
"If you create sovereign land, will you follow the Joshua Tree Community Plan?" was one question culled from several sent in by the public.
"The answer to that is not only of course, but we're mandated by the state to follow all local building codes," Gralla replied.
The tribe's rough sketches comply with the community plan in all but one respect, he said - the plan limits buildings to 15,000 square feet, while the casino would be 20,000. Gralla pointed out the community plan allows two-story structures, while the casino will have just one floor.
However, he also acknowledged the tribe's plans may change. "If the economy grows and we're doing well and there's an opportunity to expand, we might," Gralla said.
The Twentynine Palms casino originally was to include a golf course and park for recreational vehicles.
"If there's an opportunity to put in a RV park and be successful, perhaps we will," Gralla remarked. "I can't predict the future, but I can tell you we'll do whatever the economy allows us to do."
Gralla estimated the business will create 100 to 125 jobs, with a pay scale from minimum wage to mid-management. The number of jobs probably will fluctuate depending on the season.
"For each dollar earned, there's something called the multiplier effect," he said. "The jobs created at the casino will also create jobs in the surrounding community."
Potential for jobs not enough for opponents
The promise of jobs was picked up by the three people in the audience who spoke out publicly for the casino.
"The casino will benefit this area," Larry Hughes said, pointing out the business will be located away from the downtown cluster.
"It will create jobs, it will create taxes," he said. "It can be sensibly controlled. ...All I ask you to do is look at the whole picture."
Sherry Killam, a teacher at Joshua Tree Elementary School, said local families desperately need jobs to support their children.
"Ninety-seven percent of the children at my school are on free or reduced-price lunches," she said. "Many, many, many of them live in their cars." The casino could benefit their financial situations, she suggested.
Boos and derisive comments sounded from the audience at both Killam's and Hughes' comments.
Other speakers were not swayed by the promise of jobs.
"I think 125 jobs, most of them minimum wage, is a lousy trade for the impacts on the resources," Celeste Doyle said.
Others said gambling will take money away from local families. In an area already struggling with low employment and drug and alcohol addictions, adding a casino to the mix is ill-advised, the Rev. Lynn Reece, who read a statement signed by 40 others, said.
Gralla returned to the podium for a rebuttal, but many in the audience walked out as he spoke.
Gralla said the tribe will try to address major concerns about crime and gambling addiction by providing studies to the Community Association.
"I've got a lot of work to do, talking to the ones who are really against it," Mike, the tribe's chairman, said.