I don’t fault Barwest for doing anything it can to make some money, I know that in the business world its kill or be killed. However Barwest is the main reason behind Barstow not getting a Casino, they are clinging to these two tribes and the state has repeatedly said no. The sad truth appears to be that as long as Barstow backs Barwest and the two tribes it will not get a casino anytime soon. I mean according to news Barwest has been dumped by both the tribes and yet you get this Tom Shields at a council meeting on monday acting like its business as usual. Maybe the Dispatch should be trying to get to the bottom of this mess. Lets see some investigative reporting going on, don’t just sit back and wait for one side or the other to send you the news.

I do sympathize with all three of these tribes that are really only trying to better their people, however they are fast becoming a joke.

Los Coyotes have failed time and time again, it is simply amazing that they are going to keep on trying after failing for so many years. Barstow needs to just dump this loser while it still can.

Big Lagoon is a tribe of what 20 family members that collects about $40,000 a year each from the non-gaming trust fund. They can build a class two casino on their reservation right now with no input from the state, however class two isn’t as lucrative so lets get greedy.

Chemehuevi have been trying apparently longer than all these tribes and still have made no and I do mean NO progress. Seems to me that with the three current tribes fighting it out the only sure thing appears to be that Barstow is going to come out the loser.

I have repeatedly said that everyone that will be affected by these casinos should educate themeselves so they can make informed decisions. Don’t rely on your elected officials to do that for you, it seems to me that they are out for themselves.

Obviously, that didn’t exactly work for me as you and I both know how your paper repeatedly screwed up on my ads and on my comments. You did this no less than a dozen times. At least three of those times was on my responses to your questions and had to be reprinted. You screwed up on my ad of Congressman Baca’s letter to the point that it was totally illegible. I specifically asked Bea to NOT have my ads appear in the sports section and yet I was the only one to have their ads appear there. You are well aware of all these mistakes made by your paper at my expense and yet none of that ever happened to any of the Barwest candidates’ comments or ads.

Your claim that:

“that BarWest has put into our paper is a pittance compared to the money the gaming tribes that support the Chemehuevi have spent advertising in our publications for years,”

is both baffling and incorrect in it’s premise. What tribes are you referring to? I know of NO tribes that are “supporting” the Chemehuevi in terms of money spent. The San Manuel tribe, being one of the other tribes with legitimate Ancestral rights here in Barstow (not Los Coyotes and not Big Lagoon), have gone on record as saying that they recognize the Ancestral rights of the Chemehuevi and therefore will not oppose their project. Other tribes have weighed in on that issue of Ancestral rights but I have yet to see one dollar of advertising money from any of those tribes show up as advertising in your paper. Please identify how you support that claim.

Out of 19 million dollars that Barwest principle Michael Malik claims to have put into their Barstow project, the 300k spent to defeat Measure H is small potatoes and the money that they put into your paper is even less significant in the over all picture. It is the combination of how all 19 million that was spent that counts and how that affects the political landscape now that is at the heart of my point on this.

As far as Measure H is concerned, it was the exact perfect move to meet the requirements needed to satisfy legislators in Sacramento and in Congress in several ways. First it complies with the issue of Ancestral rights which is vital to securing votes outside of Barstow. Secondly, it identified and isolated a zone for Indian gaming which would limit the gaming impact on the residents of Barstow. Third and most importantly to the legislators is that it would have met the requirement for the citizens of Barstow to show community support for Indian gaming. This is something that Dean Florez, Chair of the Senate Governmental Organization Committee has been repeatedly demanding and using as the reason for blocking the Barwest project. Conversely, the defeat of Measure H by Barwest spending more money on any campaign in Barstow’s history, has been cited over and over by local opponents of Indian gaming as the consensus by Barstow residents that we are all opposed to gaming in our city.

I acknowledge that Measure H was exclusionary of the Barwest project just like the Barwest compact is exclusionary of the Chemehuevi project. So I understand why Barwest would spend all that money to defeat it. But for the record, Barwest was originally invited to be part of that Measure and declined because they wanted exclusivity themselves. Also for the record, it was the developer for the Chemehuevi that was behind Measure H and was done outside the authority of the tribe and against Chairman Wood’s own opposition to that Measure.

Special interest buying influence with their campaign contributions is exactly what is wrong with our government policy making on all levels. It is what Democrats have been trying to change but in the meantime, it is a given that all participants in the process will continue to use and abuse.

The difference between one side or the other practicing influence peddling is, in this case, about what they are influencing politicians to do. In Barwest case, they are trying to get politicians to violate Ancestral rights with the worst case of attempted “Reservation Shopping” ever in the history of Indian gaming. Here in Barstow, they have gone way beyond simply influence peddling and have now changed the political landscape to the extreme detriment of this council’s policy making. This has been an enormous disaster for the people of Barstow on many fronts. You of all people should be aware of this problem and not ignoring it.

PS. As for “HUGS” for you guys, I personally think that Jason is a good writer and shows great promise for his future as a journalist. For you, I have often complimented your editorials when you are right. When I disagree with you, I say so. But I do respect both of you and as a Political Scientist and a publisher myself, I understand the limits and pressure you are under. So if hugs are what you need, come on over brother, I’ll give you a hug, despite what you say about me!

And as I pointed out, the money that BarWest has put into our paper is a pittance compared to the money the gaming tribes that support the Chemehuevi have spent advertising in our publications for years. (And I would point out that BarWest wouldn’t have had to advertise at all had the tribes not cobbled together Measure H to try to kill the project. They have nobody to blame but themselves there. I do find it interesting that you’re attacking BarWest for spending money to keep their project from getting zoned out of existence. Were they supposed to just let it happen?)

I know this question is probably just going to open a can of worms, but why is BarWest corrupt for spending money to influence government decisions, but it’s not when the other tribes do the same thing? I find it interesting that all sides are trying to play the card that they’re the victim of the other side’s influence peddling. It seems to be the environment we live in, which is why I put more blame on the legislature than anybody else.

These are the same cronies that have been running this town forever and in doing so kept it economically depressed from their incompetence and focus on their special interest. They are the same ones who did the failed Outlet Mall project. They are the same ones who had Lenwood overpass realigned at the last moment to better serve their properties and thus screwed up the traffic flow out there forever. Two of these cronies, the Hackbarths and the Currans reinvested their money back into speculating on adjacent parcels to the Barwest project and are now dependent upon that project’s success in order to profit even more. Now those two both have children sitting on the Council that were put there by Barwest.

So yes, that is where a big hunk of the money went into but it is the locomotive that drives the rest of the influence train that the Barwest money has purchased. You can dismiss my claims all you want but the bottom line is that I have been correct all along especially my prediction that these compacts would fail.

With all of the money that Barwest has put into your paper; with money having been put into the Lindt family by Barwest (see theverifiabletruth.com); with YOUR boss “dispatching Bea to act as the media adviser to the Barwest campaigns” (her comment when I confronted her on her participation); with you getting it wrong on the issue of ancestral rights; with your paper continuing to get only part of the story and purposefully ignoring other pertinent facts; it is not my credibility that is at stake, but rather your credibility and that of your paper.

I don’t feel like someone is part of the Barwest Kool-Aid Club because they don’t listen to me, only when they are active in pushing for Barwest, or following the liar Tom Shields, or attacking me with stupid lies, or for opposing the only legitimate project of Chemehuevi.

Furthermore, my concern for my credibility is with Native Americans, and legislators in Sacramento and in Congress where I am respected for speaking the truth and for my willingness to stand up to this corrupt Detroit developer. To that audience, my credibility is totally intact and not in question. My credibility is not dependent on the community of Barstow like you and your paper are, and trust me when I say that there is no shortage of people with negative opinions about THAT credibility.

If you want to know why Jason got the chilly reception from Tom Shields, it is because Tom felt that with all the money that Barwest put into your paper he has expectations that you won’t report the correspondence between the Los Coyotes and Barwest that was released. He should be happy that you didn’t report some of the more pertinent details as did the Detroit Free Press or the Capital Notes up in Sacramento both of which chose to interview me for their stories because frankly, I have credibility on this subject.

The part where you claim they used the $19 million to buy influence. That whole part. Granted, they have spent money in political donations, but claiming that the entirety of the money is for influence-buying is one of those outrageous statements that makes it difficult to treat you seriously. The money they’re talking about was no doubt also used to purchase the land (as is apparent in the conflict about selling it to the Los Coyotes), the costs of the environmental studies for the land-in-trust process, and other efforts beyond the political.

I’m not dismissing your claims that they use their money to influence people into supporting them, but you need to understand, when you make claims like this that are easily dismissed, it damages your credibility as an opponent, people stop treating you seriously, and you come to the conclusion that everybody else is a “Kool Aid drinker” because they won’t listen to you.

Scott,
What about 19 million in influence buying don’t you get? I had to read that sentence several times. At first I thought you were just taking some lame swipe at me. Eventually I concluded that you simply don’t get anything about what I have been saying about this billionaire Detroit Developer coming into Barstow and buying up influence, compromising our leaders and our institutions like the Chamber of Commerce, effecting the outcome of our elections, violating the Ancestral rights of legitimate local tribes, and attempting the worst violation ever of “Off Reservation” gaming.

You act like I am objecting to a builder spending the money to build a house. I am talking about what this money has been spent for in buying influence. My point is that this money has corrupted our local government and deteriorated the quality of our local government. Look at the whole Micro Media scandal, the recent Brown Act Violations, and now the firing of Hectory Rodriguez, arguably the best City Manager and the best asset this City has had in recent history. And all because he was standing up to the Mayor’s corruption.

And Scott, you do not need to spend any money sending anyone to Detroit to research Barwest, which should have been done long before the MSA and not long in to the future after our town was sold out to them. As I am sure you have heard me talk about, just check out theverifiabletruth.com they have all the info you need. Or if you prefer check out all the newspapers covering them in all the other areas they are doing projects. Or look up their campaign reporting and the trouble they have been in.