Residents Rage Over Casino at Town Hall Meeting

The Graton Resort & Casino, scheduled to open this November, surfaced as a top issue at a Wednesday night town hall meeting organized by Mayor Pam Stafford and Supervisor Shirlee Zane.  

Residents peppered Mayor Pam Stafford with questions and comments about the casino, blaming the city for not fighting hard enough to stop the project from coming to town.    

“You can’t just sweep this issue under the rug,” said Alden Olmsted, a Cotati resident and filmmaker. “If people’s wells run dry, you’re going to hear about it. If it floods, like it does every 4-5 years, you’re going to hear about it. You failed the people of Rohnert Park because you didn’t fight when you had the chance.”    

After Olmsted finished speaking, the crowd, gathered in the community room of Rohnert Park Library, erupted in applause. Olmsted added that anti-gambling advocates, environmentalists and other concerned residents have found solidarity in their opposition to the casino.

“This issue affects all of us because we live here, whether it’s Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, Cotati or Sebastopol,” he said. “This is our home.”    

A student from SSU said she chose the school for its rural character, something she worried would change after the casino opened. The 3,000-slot Las Vegas style casino will occupy 320,000 square feet on Wilfred Avenue, which is being widened to accommodate the increase in traffic.    

Stafford said she opposed the casino when it was first brought to the city in 2003, but could do little since the Bureau of Indian Affairs granted the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria tribal status and the state awarded them a compact in 2012, allowing the project to proceed.    

“We don’t have the power to stop the casino and people just need to understand that,” Stafford said, looking somewhat shaken. “We did everything we could to stop it...It had nothing to do with us.”   

Instead she called the tribe a great partner and praised it for being responsive to the city's needs.  

“We’re trying to work with them and that’s what government does,” she said. “We are making the best of the situation.”  

Asked about why Rohnert Park would be taking the casino’s wastewater, Assistant City Manager Darrin Jenkins said that the city didn’t want to risk having an above ground treatment facility with bad odor wafting over the freeway.  

“Do we want to have an entity we don’t regulate treating wastewater above ground or do we want to send it to Santa Rosa and have them send it to the geysers?” Jenkins asked. “The best option is to have it away from us.”  

Stafford added that the city has created a casino mitigation task force made up City Hall staff to “think about how to reduce impacts created by the casino.” But when pressed by a resident about who was on the committee, Stafford acknowledged that no residents were among the group.  

She encouraged residents who had concerns about the casino to call the city’s “Casino Issues and Concern Line” that has recently been set up. The number is 707- 588-2264. Residents can also email casinoimpact@rpcity.org  

Under a new agreement between the city and the tribe earlier this year, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria will give $5 million a year for general impacts on the city, $2.4 million a year for impacts to city services, $500,000 a year for public safety, $125,000 a year for gambling treatment and $50,000 a year for storm water runoff and $1 million to the Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District.

What do you think about the casino? Share your thoughts and concerns in the comments below.