What a fun weekend, as news breaks that the Anchorage Assembly is poised to embrace government to government relations with the Eklutna Tribe. The vehicle for this is AR 2019-426, initially added to the agenda on Dec. 3, immediately pulled, and poised for passage on the consent agenda Tuesday, Dec. 17
Suzanne Downing’s Must Read Alaska was first out of the gate with this story over the weekend. The (apparently supportive) ADN, other than a letter by Aaron Leggett, President of the Native Village of Eklutna published on Dec. 10 in support of the proposed Eklutna casino has been completely silent of what is momentous news. One would wonder why that is.
The resolution appears to be in support of the Eklutna tribe’s lawsuit against the Department of the Interior filed last August in federal court demanding the courts overturn Interior’s determination that Eklutna’s 8-acre family allotment does not constitute “Indian Lands.” In short, Eklutna wants their casino. And the Anchorage Assembly is poised to put the Municipality on record in support of it, all without any public input or notice.
This is where things get interesting as the scheming and slithering by at least three Assembly members, Forrest Dunbar, Chris Constant and Kameron Perez-Verdia on this has been breathtaking.
Eklutna has been trying to sell their plans at various levels. They have also been getting rejected. They went to the Birchwood Community Council, asking for support. The Council voted 10-3 to reject the idea. Worse, they asked the State of Alaska, which has not yet taken a position on the issue to enter and oppose the lawsuit.
Eklutna’s plans for a gaming hall will feature simulated pull tabs and bingo, putting it in direct competition with charitable gaming in Anchorage and the MatSu (pull tabs and bingo). Their position doing this on so-called “Indian lands” will give them a competitive advantage, something our esteemed three Assembly members are falling all over themselves to give them. Why is that?
Finally, we have their technique pushing this. The two Assembly members representing this part of Anchorage, Fred Dyson and Crystal Kennedy were intentionally and completely cut out of the loop in this discussion. Kennedy had no idea this was even going on.
The first appearance of this resolution on the Assembly agenda on Dec. 3 was short lived, as it was immediately pulled. The backers may have done it again a week later. Looks like the plan for passage is to put it on the Dec. 17 Consent Agenda at 5 PM and sneak it through. Cute. Slick. And sneaky.
If this is such an important thing to do, why not have a public discussion? Why not include the Assembly members from that part of town? If they get away with this, I cannot think of a worse insult to that part of town or a greater gift to the Eagle River Exit guys. If this Assembly majority can treat Eagle River that way, they can do it to any other part of town. And they will.
What to do about this? First, show up at the Assembly Tuesday, Dec 17 around 4:30 PM. The Consent Agenda is generally up first at 5 PM. Second would be to contact all Assembly members and ask them what the hell they think they are up to. You might want to ask them why picking and choosing winners and losers in the charitable gaming world is suddenly an Important Thing to do. Final question would be why they are sneaking this Very Important Resolution through the system, completely out of the public eye.
There are 6 Assembly members up for reelection in April. This might be a reason to make sure most of them do not return for another term.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
