back to Niagara Falls Reporter archive
A frustrated Gov. George Pataki met with Seneca Nation President Cyrus Schindler for more than two hours Friday, trying to cut through the issues that have thus far prevented the Seneca Tribal Council from approving a gambling compact with the state.
The Council must approve the compact before it can be put before the tribe for a referendum. At issue is a provision passed by the state Assembly last October that would require the Senecas to allow the hotel and restaurant workers' union to organize the casino workers.
The Council was to have voted on the matter on Feb. 14, and to hold the referendum on Feb. 28, but now that timetable is in doubt, sources say.
"There is no way that the Council is going to pass anything with that requirement. It's a matter of sovereignty," a reservation source told the Reporter. "If that was put before the tribe it would be voted down 85 percent to 15 percent."
| "The future of Niagara Falls is being decided by a damn Democratic Speaker from downtown New York City. Silver doesn't want Pataki to get the credit for improving things here." -- a local developer |
The union local in Buffalo has a history of corruption, and has been in disarray since most of its leadership was indicted several years ago for embezzlement. But the union is a potent political force in Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's home district in Manhattan.
"It's basically a New York City union and it's a Shelly Silver union," state Sen. George Maziarz said. "If the Assembly hadn't passed that provision, the casino would be under construction right now in Niagara Falls."
The Senecas say they are not averse to casino workers being unionized, but want to want to work out the specifics of the deal themselves. Tribal leaders have met with representatives of the iron workers' union, who they find far more compatible than the hotel and restaurant workers' union.
They point to a recent court decision in California that held the state had no authority to require Indian casinos there to permit organization by the hotel and restaurant workers' union.
"This would be the first time in history a casino would have a union before it is even built," the reservation source added. "It's not going to happen."
Maziarz declined comment on reports that Pataki has already met with representatives of other New York tribes, including the Oneidas, about the Niagara Falls casino.
"You're not going to get me to confirm that," he told the Reporter. "But we've been fooling around here for a long time."
A source on the reservation said he doesn't believe anything will come of such talks if, in fact, they are occurring.
"There is no way in hell he can entertain another tribe on Seneca aboriginal territory," he said. "I think there's a certain amount of posturing in this."
Alternately, the idea has been put forward that the Legislature can simply move to legalize gaming here, pass the resolution again next January, and put it on a referendum next March.
"Given the delays we've already experienced, we'd only lose six or seven months doing it that way," a developer said.
Pataki originally announced that an agreement had been reached with the Senecas back in June. While the state Senate approved the pact the day it was presented to them, Silver and the Democratic-controlled Assembly dragged its heels before passing its own version of the agreement on Halloween.
Attorneys for the Senecas say that sending a final version of the compact back to Albany that omits the hotel and restaurant workers provision would require new approval from both houses of the Legislature, delaying the process even further.
"The future of Niagara Falls is being decided by a damn Democratic Speaker from downtown New York City," a local developer said. "Silver doesn't want Pataki to get the credit for improving things here."
Indeed, the opening of as many as three Indian casinos in Western New York is widely seen as a major boost to Pataki's chances for re-election in November. While New York City is overwhelmingly Democratic, most of the rest of upstate and the suburbs are traditionally Republican. Voters in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls region may well decide who will be sitting in the Governor's mansion a year from now.
Seneca President Cyrus Schindler's term also expires in November and, under tribal law, he is not permitted to seek re-election. How the next tribal president will feel about the issue of casino gambling in Niagara Falls is by no means certain.
In the meantime, uncertainty about the future of the Niagara Falls Convention and Civic Center continues.
Last June, Pataki announced the facility would be the site of a temporary casino, slated to open at the start of this year's tourist season, while the permanent casino would be built on property now occupied by the Splash Park. The Convention and Visitors' Bureau hasn't booked anything for the Convention Center in the past seven months, and the economic fallout will become apparent in the near future.
"What we've gotten so far from Albany is the worst of both worlds," a developer said. "No casino and no convention business."
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | February 12 2002 |