LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Tuesday the Board of Supervisors gave its support to the Habematolel Pomo tribe’s latest application to put tribally owned land into federal trust.
The Upper Lake-based tribe has applied to the Bureau of Land Management to place a half-acre parcel at 650 E. State Highway 20 in Upper Lake into trust, meaning the federal government will hold it for the tribe.
The county received an invitation from the BIA to provide comment on the application.
County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson said the trust transfer will result in only a small loss of property tax to the county, adding that the county has a memorandum of understanding with the tribe already in place.
Tribal Chair Sherry Treppa told the board that the tribe purchased the property about two years ago, took down an old mobile home and put up a new one.
She said the tribe intends to use the property for elder care and early start for children, programs that are still being developed.
Treppa said the tribe had approached the county in early 2005 and offered to enter into a government-to-government relationship with a memorandum of understanding to mitigate the impacts of its Running Creek Casino, which opened in 2012.
Through the MOU the tribe has paid the county $150,000 annually. At the same time, Treppa said the tribe has an MOU with Northshore Fire for $80,000 annually, also to mitigate impacts from the casino.
She said that her tribe hit a lot of roadblocks in its efforts to open the casino. The Habematolel Pomo was a landless tribe after the termination action by the government in the 1950s, and Treppa said the tribe had to go through the process of restoring its land base in order to build the casino.
In addition to the federal process of putting land into trust – which also was challenging – she said the tribe has a compact with the state. It was working on that compact during the economic downturn in 2008. Then, the state turned down the tribe’s first compact attempt and its casino investor reneged on the terms, trying to double the tribe’s costs.
She said the Habematolel also were challenged by other tribes in the area and around California due to a belief that their compact would have impacts on other tribes as the result of litigation then working its way through the courts.
As a result, when the tribe went through its second round to get the compact approved, it faced opposition from multiple tribes, Treppa said.
The one entity that didn’t oppose the tribe’s plans was the county, Treppa said. “You folks stood by us every time.”
She said that every time she needed a letter of support, the county was there, helping the tribe through the process. “We won’t forget that.”
As a result of a building the tribe recently constructed, which Treppa said brought $3.5 million in construction dollars to the county, the tribe offered another MOU to the county to also help the cost of law enforcement, which she said she hoped would be coming to the board soon. Treppa later told Lake County News that the new county MOU is for $25,000 annually.
The tribe also concluded work on a new MOU with Northshore Fire for an additional $25,000 a year for the new building. Treppy said the tribe worked with county counsel on both MOUs.
When the tribe’s new facility is fully built out, Treppa said it will bring 80 new jobs to the county.
She asked for the board’s support, noting that she believed the new MOU and the tribe’s contributions to the community neutralizes the loss with property tax resulting from the trust application.
This was the second trust application the board has considered from the Habematolel in the past month.
In April, the board gave unanimous support to the Habematolel moving into trust its community center at 9470 Main St., the former Westamerica Bank Upper Lake branch, as Lake County News has reported.
Treppa said Tuesday that the BIA made an error in that application, stating that it was an on-reservation acquisition, which it isn’t. So she said that revised application will have to come back to the board for approval.
Board Chair Tina Scott thanked Treppa for the tribe’s contributions to the community and the school district.
Supervisor EJ Crandell moved to approve the proposed letter to the BIA supporting the application, which Supervisor Bruno Sabatier seconded and the board approved 4-0. Supervisor Rob Brown was absent for the meeting.
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Supervisors support Habematolel tribe’s latest trust application
- Elizabeth Larson
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