Here’s Johnny!

I didn’t realize Andy Rooney has been gone so long. What a legendary and endearing curmudgeon!

Dear Mr. Lieblong, Mr. Lamberth, Mr. Rice, Mr. East, Mr. Post, Mr. Hunter, and Mr. Landers,

I, along with the 7,000 plus members of the Facebook Group Pope County Majority, have been waiting patiently — for the most part — since our Quorum Court voted to approve a Resolution of Support for Cherokee Nation Businesses (CNB) and, not long after that, the Racing Commission voted to open a 90 day period for submission of casino applications.

I have read virtually all of the motions, letters and other material associated with the Pope County Casino litigation in all cases that are currently open or being appealed. That includes Amendment 100, the applicable portions of the Arkansas Casino Gaming Rules, Ark. Code Ann. § 23-117-101, and other material related to the casino issue.  I’ve also read and compiled almost all of the well over 500 media articles related to Pope County and the casino dating back to the beginning of 2018.  I attended several Pope County Quorum Court meetings, including the ones where the resolution of support (August 13) was approved and where Ordinance 2018-O-42 was repealed.  I  transcribed and published several very pertinent statements made at the August 13th meeting. I’ve also watched pertinent portions of videos of the Racing Commission, quorum court, and Russellville city meetings.

In recent months, I have shared with Pope County Majority on Facebook information from the material that I have studied, read, and viewed in numerous posts, including graphics I created.

I am better informed on the Pope County casino issue than I have been on any other issue ever and feel very comfortable requesting you seriously consider issuing a casino operation license to Cherokee Nations Businesses at your next meeting.

Issuing the license will begin the process for expanded economic development in the Arkansas River Valley.  CNB’s Legends Resort and Casino Arkansas will be a catalyst for new commercial growth in Pope County, with a ripple effect that will benefit the entire region and, indeed, through tax revenue, the entire state.  New jobs paying above minimum wage will boost the standard of living for many.

Delays in issuing the casino license to CNB will postpone the payment of funds specified in the Economic Development Agreement between Pope County and CNB. It will also unnecessarily prolong the wait for casino tax revenue to flow to the coffers of the local and state government. This includes the significant percentage of the tax on casino gaming receipts that will go towards purses for Oaklawn thoroughbred racing.

Cherokee Nation Businesses is the only applicant with valid supporting documents from Pope County officials.

In the current litigation, Gulfside Casino Partnership vs. Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration and Arkansas Racing Commission, there are a couple of important points that make it clear to me that Gulfside has no right to a casino license.

• While the Arkansas Casino Gaming Rules and state law requires support documents from current officials to be submitted with an application, a plain reading of Amendment 100, alone, precludes Gulfside from being granted a license.  It requires that all applicants for a casino license submit documents of support from the county judge or the quorum court.  Until it submitted it’s application, Gulfside was only a prospective applicant. Gulfside became an applicant only when it submitted its application on May 17, including a one-line letter from Jim Ed Gibson, who had been out of office for four months and seventeen days.  Clearly Jim Ed Gibson was not the quorum court judge when Gulfside officially became an applicant.
• In a December 31, 2018 article by River Valley Now, Jim Ed Gibson was asked, “I think that’s why there was some debate about it, because people have said, well he’s saying “if”, so it’s not the letter that’s needed. So, I just wanted to get your perspective on what the intent was. So, it wasn’t necessarily meant as THE letter of support?“Gibson replied, “No, it wasn’t.“

Cherokee Nation Businesses is proving to be a good community partner.  They have demonstrated that they want to be here. Before a license is issued and ground broken for the casino, CNB’s Legends Resort and Casino Arkansas has shown they are a good fit.  Without fan fanfare, they are stepping up, participating in food drives, the county fair, the state fair, Russelville Fall Festival, and numerous other events and programs.

Though they feel they are “entitled to a  license to operate a casino in Pope County,” Gulfside has done nothing to show that it would add anything to the community.

Pope County does not want Gulfside to be awarded the casino license.

I respectfully urge you to issue the casino license to Cherokee Nation Businesses so that construction can begin on Legends Resort and Casino Arkansas.

Thank you,
Michael Goad
Dover, Arkansas

My last post was 4 1/2 months ago or so.  While I’ve been doing a lot online, much of it has been related to researching the issues related to an casino that will likely be opening in this area, as well as sharing that information on a grassroots Facebook group. We also traveled for several weeks out in some of the western states.

Started in late June, the Facebook group quickly grew to over 6,000 members and is now approaching 7,200 members and, yes, we have had an impact. We thought that, at best, we would be waiting for a local county ordinance mandated vote on the casino in either March 2020, during the primary, or November 2020, during the general election, after which, if approved, a constitutionally required document supporting a casino operator could be written and signed and that casino operator could then apply for a casino license.

Well, it didn’t work out that way. We’re actually further than we anticipated we would be this time next year!

Here we are at  the beginning of December 2019, just under a year away from that general election and we have a casino operator, Cherokee Nation Businesses (CNB). that has been provided with multiple support documents from county officials.  CNB submitted their application in August, which initiated a new 90 day application period, which ended a couple of weeks ago.

So, we should be just waiting for that license to be issued and for CNB to break ground at the site of the new casino, right?

If only it were that easy.

Earlier in the year, county officials and their attorney tried to find a way to have the ordinance required vote, but kept getting told by state officials and other legal authorities that we couldn’t legally have a vote the way the ordinance required and that the ordinance was trumped by the constitutional amendment.  So, after getting a sense through ways other than the ballot — surveys, telephone, polls, social media, e-mail, etc. — that the public wanted a casino, the county quorum court passed a resolution of support, one of the options required by the new casino gaming amendment to the state’s constitution, for CNB on August 13th…. and were promptly served with subpoenas and a lawsuit by a local anti-casino group and a prominent realtor.

That lawsuit has already been heard in circuit court and has been dismissed with prejudice — the issue can’t be filed again, though the case could be appealed  — and the ordinance was declared unconstitutional.  That was already a moot point, as it had been repealed by the quorum court the night before, though the judge didn’t take that into consideration in his rulings.

At that point, other legal hurdles remained.

Three of the county justices of the peace — essentially elected positions equivalent to county commissioners in other states — faced ethic charges filed in connection to the casino issue.  A couple of weeks ago, after hearing from investigators, the four members of the Arkansas Ethics Commission unanimously voted to clear them of the charges.

Last August, the local anti-casino group and the prominent realtor who sued our county officials also sued the Arkansas Racing Commission.  (The 2018 constitutional amendment that established casino gaming in Arkansas assigned casino regulation and licensing to the already existing Racing Commission.) That case is based on the same ordinance as the dismissed case in our county. Besides the ordinance being repealed by the county and declared unconstitutional by the circuit court, other support documents from county officials were written and submitted to the Racing Commission.  The plaintiff’s case has been rendered totally moot, though it is scheduled for a hearing later this month.

In June, the Racing Commission rejected license applications from five casino applicants because none of them had valid documents of support from county officials.  While one of them, Gulfside Casino Partnership, had letters of support, they were from officials that had been out of office several months when Gulfside submitted their application on May 17. State law and Arkansas Casino Gaming Rules require that the support documents come from current local officials.  In July, Gulfside submitted an appeal to the Racing Commission on their license rejection and, in August, the Racing Commission denied that appeal.  Gulfside subsequently filed for judicial review of the Racing Commission’s ruling.  The basis for their appeal and request for judicial review is their assertion that the rules were changed after they received the letters of support and that the state law and gaming rule are unconstitutional. In fact, their claim is largely based on an email from the Commission’s attorney as well as proposed rules that the commission approved for publication and comment, rules that were never actually published and never implemented.  This case is currently in quasi-legal limbo over venue, which has changed twice already, with no new hearing date scheduled.

By the gaming rules, it looks like a license should be issued to CNB sometime in the next month or so.  However, since the Racing Commission is the body charged with developing, maintaining, and administering the rules, they should be able to waive the rule and delay issuing a license if litigation issues warrant it.

As always, time will tell!