Dear Mr. Lieblong, Mr. Lamberth, Mr. Rice, Mr. East, Mr. Post, Mr. Hunter, and Mr. Landers,
I, along with many other residents of the River Valley, Pope County, and the state, hope that you will fulfill your constitutionally assigned responsibility to “award a casino license to a casino applicant for a casino to be located in Pope County” within the period specified in the Casino Gaming Rules of the State of Arkansas.
In Gulfside’s Response to Defendant’s Post Hearing Brief, filed on Tuesday, December 10th, the plaintiff’s conclusion states that “Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss should be denied, Gulfside’s Motion for Preliminary Injunction should be granted, Racing Commission Rule 2.13 be held unconstitutional, and Ark. Code Ann. § 23-117-101 be held unconstitutional.”
Judge Tim Fox has not yet acted on any of this, including the motion for a “preliminary injunction against the Racing Commission, prohibiting it from considering any applications for a casino license during the pendency of this litigation.”
As I see it, if the Commission decides to waive the rule stipulating that the Commission award and issue a casino license within 30 business days after the closing of the application period to further wait on litigation, then the Commission would be, in effect, implementing a self-inflicted “injunction” on issuing the license.
As it stands right now, the two cases filed by Citizens for a Better Pope County and James Knight are over. They lost the Pope County case, though they have filed a Notice of Appeal. They have also filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss their lawsuit against the Commission. A spokesperson for the group says they want their Pope County case heard in the Supreme Court and are considering refiling the Pulaski County case against the Commission with “other issues” added to the lawsuit. However, Pope County Ordinance 2018-O-42, which their lawsuit was based on, was repealed and Judge Cross wrote letters of support that have no taint of illegitimacy that some may see in the Quorum Court’s resolution of support, written before the ordinance’s repeal. A statement in a response in the Commission’s case by the Attorney General’s Office applies to both cases. It states, “as of October 28, 2019, the issue in this case is moot, due to the repeal of the Pope County Ordinance 18-O-42.”
Currently, the judicial review of the Administrative Appeal by Gulfside Casino Partnership seems to be in limbo. While the plaintiff requested a one-hour hearing or “(i)n the alternative…, does not oppose this Court’s ruling on the pending motions without a hearing, based upon the papers submitted by the parties,” nothing seems to have been heard on this case from Judge Fox since the short November 25th hearing. If, in fact, the case has gone to the bottom of Judge Fox’s docket — as he said it would —, it may be quite some time before he looks at it.
There has been no injunction issued to stop the Commission from fulfilling its responsibility assigned by Amendment 100. To me — no legal scholar — the basis for the Commission’s denial of Gulfside’s May 17th and denial of their appeal seems sound and there is no reason for an injunction to be issued. With no injunction, I see little reason for the Commission to wait on issuing the license.
Chairman Lieblong stated it well in the August meeting when talking about the Pope County casino after the initial litigation when he quipped, “It won’t lie fallow.”
Much of the property where the casino will be located has lain overgrown and fallow for many years. It is time for that land to be cleared and ground broken for Legends Resort and Casino Arkansas.
I respectfully, once again, urge you to issue the casino license to Cherokee Nation Businesses so that construction can begin on Pope County’s resort and casino.
Michael Goad
Rural Pope County, Arkansas
