Clark County government has spent almost nothing on a lengthy court battle to prevent the Cowlitz Tribe from building a casino west of La Center, while the city of Vancouver has shelled out roughly $187,000 in legal fees and case-related expenses, according to the county and city.
The bulk of attorney’s fees have been shouldered by La Center’s cardrooms, the Confederated Tribes for the Grande Ronde and Citizens Against Reservation Shopping, said cardroom spokesman John Bockmier, who is with the Vancouver-based Shamrock 51 Productions public relations firm.
“Absolutely, my clients have helped to fund this. No question,” said Bockmier, who represents the Last Frontier, The Palace and The Phoenix card rooms.
However, he didn’t know how much the cardrooms have spent on the court case, saying, “I have no idea. It’s been a 15-year battle.”
The city of Vancouver is no longer a party in the case, which contends the federal government wrongly approved a reservation for the Cowlitz Tribe. In May, the city council unanimously voted to overturn a 2007 council resolution opposing the casino project, and it invited a dialogue between the city and tribe.
Although the county is still engaged in the lawsuit, which is in the appeals phase, the Clark County council adopted a resolution last month reopening communication with the tribe.
Despite the county’s participation in the case, it’s not paying private attorneys to litigate it, said Bill Richardson, Clark County civil deputy prosecutor. He said the “nominal” amount the county has spent on the case was incurred by sending county Civil Deputy Prosecutor Christine Cook to Washington, D.C., in March for an appeals hearing. Any time Cook spent on case filings would have been covered by her salary, Richardson said.
Other expenses
The city paid $181,367 to Martin Law group for services performed from October 2007 to December 2008, according to Assistant City Attorney Brent Boger. From August 2010 to March 2016, the city’s case-related expenses were $5,232. They included travel expenses, Washington D.C. bar admission fees, bar license renewals and admission to the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, Boger stated in response to The Columbian’s public records request.
The federal government officially recognized the Cowlitz Indian Tribe in 2000, and in 2010, the Bureau of Indian Affairs approved an application to take 152 acres of land into trust for a new Cowlitz reservation.
The city, the county, operators of La Center’s cardrooms, the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde (operators of Spirit Mountain Casino) and Citizens Against Reservation Shopping (of which Columbian Publisher Scott Campbell is a member) filed suit because they question the Cowlitz peoples’ ties to the area and believe the tribe is interested in the property only for its close proximity to Portland.
When the suit was dismissed in U.S. District Court in December 2014, the plaintiffs appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Oral arguments in the appeal were heard March 18, and a ruling is expected this summer. An appeals judge did not grant the appellants’ request for an injunction to stop construction on the casino.
In February, the tribe officially broke ground on the $510 million casino project along Interstate 5 at Exit 16, and construction is about 40 percent complete, according to casino representatives.
Slated to open next April 17, the project will feature a 100,000-square-foot gaming floor with 2,500 slot-type machines, 60 high-limit machines, 75 gaming tables and five high-limit tables, plus multiple restaurants and meeting spaces.
The casino’s name and other branding features are due to be announced Monday.
