Don't believe recent attacks ads against Joe Gomez

This past Saturday many people in the community brought to my attention a robo telephone ad stating I testified in Sacramento against the compact for a casino in Barstow . The news traveled fast as it reached several blogs as The Verifiable Truth , also in Monday's paper Council member Julie Hackbarth-McIntre also makes a false reference towards myself accusing me of the same lie. The Secretary of Interior turned down the project, read Desert Dispatch article "Federal government rejects tribes' casino plans" I deny such remarks, read for yourself the full copy of the transcripts, here is what I had to say.

SENATOR FLOREZ: Great, thank you, Senator Chesbro. Okay. Mr. Gomez, now that the others are excused, would you come up for a moment? Sorry about the delay. I apologize. Thanks for joining us. Very quickly, before we go on to the next panel—your thoughts, what you’ve heard today as a member of the council, just your overall impressions. COUNCILMAN GOMEZ: Well, for one thing, I’ve always supported Indian gaming in Barstow. When Los Coyotes first came, I’d been on the council for a year and a half. I was just elected, and I reviewed this entire process thoroughly. But when the Los Coyotes came to Barstow, I supported them. As a taxpayer, as a voter of Barstow, I supported Los Coyotes. When I ran for city council—and like I said, I want to emphasize I do support Indian gaming in Barstow. Virgil Moorehead says we welcome them. We had no choice. The Governor said, This is where you’re going; you’re going to Barstow. So, last year the Chemehuevi Tribe was introduced to the city council. The city council did due diligence on them, just like we’re doing on BarWest and Big Lagoon. It took ten months to complete the negotiation process until we ended up with a Municipal Service Agreement. As of today’s date, we do not have a Municipal Service Agreement with Big Lagoon. Right now the city is—I agree with the mayor—the city is supportive of Indian gaming, but they’re divided on what tribe. It may be among the council. I’m not sure because we haven’t made a commitment yet to that. But like I said, I do support Indian gaming. I was not aware that Los Coyotes did not have Section 20 concurrence. My assumption was that the Governor just said, Combine these two tribes, and that was it. I don’t even know if they were aware that they did not qualify by themselves. And that’s what worries me. I have an obligation to the city, just like you have an obligation to the State, to do what’s best for the community, and that’s what I was elected to do. As much as I want Indian gaming, I cannot come up here and mislead any one of you just so we can get Indian gaming. We do want Indian gaming. And when we talk about a vote—there is going to be an initiative in June, and in that initiative, it’s going to designate a certain zone outside of the area of Big Lagoon and Los Coyotes Compact. In that initiative, 35 percent of the net winnings will go to the police—or public safety. It will be looked at, overlooked, by an oversight committee instead of the city council. It will be away from the schools, and it’s going to require a vote on whether or not we want Indian gaming in this certain area. And by June we’ll know. You know, they’re representing the city, but yet, they left out details, and I think these details are important to your decision-making process over here. It’s important to our decision-making process in Barstow. The whole process is very simple. It could have been very simple. First get the Municipal Services Agreement, an okay with the City of Barstow with Big Lagoon, Los Coyotes, and then bring it up to the Governor. Let him negotiate and sign the compact. Now the burden’s going to be on myself and the rest of the city council. If this is approved by legislation, they’re going to come back to the city council and say, This is approved. Now you’re going to have to approve the MSA. We’re going to have no choice because by me not approving it, it’s going to give the appearance that I don’t support Indian gaming. So, we’re in a Catch-22 position. We either support one tribe or the other. You know, the community of Barstow don’t care what tribe comes in. As you can tell, this is very complicated. It’s very confusing. The City of Barstow really don’t care what casino comes to Barstow. They want to be proud to have a casino in the community of Barstow. They want to be proud to provide employment. They want to have a place where their kids, if they can’t go to college, where they could go work; and capture some of the business going to Las Vegas in revenue. And I think it would benefit Barstow in that respect. SENATOR CHESBRO: Mr. Chairman? SENATOR FLOREZ: Yes. SENATOR CHESBRO: So, is there a reason why this compact isn’t good for the City of Barstow? COUNCILMAN GOMEZ: Any compact would be good for the City of Barstow. SENATOR CHESBRO: Thank you. COUNCILMAN GOMEZ: But . . . SENATOR CHESBRO: And this is a compact that’s already been negotiated with the Governor. Correct? COUNCILMAN GOMEZ: Yeah, it was negotiated with the Governor without city council approval. They will have to come back. If it’s ratified by the Legislature, they’re going to have to come back to the city and ask for it, and then with all that, then it will become a compact. But any compact’s good if it’s done right. That’s my only say.