Moving casino downtown suggested

Members of Menomonee Valley group raise idea of using Park East site; any move could take years

By NAHAL TOOSI ntoosi@journalsentinel.com, Journal Sentinel

Sunday, May 25, 2003

Several members of a Menomonee Valley group are floating the idea that the Forest County Potawatomi tribe should relocate its existing and future gaming operations to the site of the demolished Park East Freeway.

While not fully discounting the idea, a leading tribal representative said that such a plan is not a top priority for the Potawatomi and that it could take years to accomplish because of legal restrictions.

Nonetheless, at least one local official eager to spur development, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, says he's willing to pursue discussions with the tribe.

The idea has been suggested by some officials of the non-profit Menomonee Valley Partners Inc. and was briefly mentioned Saturday by Milwaukee Ald. Fred Gordon during a Community Brainstorming Conference Breakfast Forum, a long-standing civic gathering.

Rana Altenburg, a member of the Menomonee Valley group's board, said the reasoning behind a relocation was to ensure that the valley could attract industrial companies that could offer family- supporting jobs.

An expansion of the tribe's gaming facilities could take the focus away from industry and place it more on entertainment, something inconsistent with the original plans for the valley and may keep manufacturing companies away, Altenburg said. She stressed that the Potawatomi are good neighbors.

Jeff Crawford, the Potawatomi tribe's attorney general, said the tribe had not received a formal proposal regarding the Park East site.

"We're not ruling it out, but it is not our top priority," said Crawford, a member of the Menomonee Valley Partners board. "Even if that possibility is to come into being and that means moving down there, that would be years away."

Because the Park East site, which is about 26 acres, is not tribal land, "it would have to go through a federal process and a state process and have a local government component as well as our own tribal process," Crawford said.

Starting an off-reservation casino requires a go-ahead from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to place the land in a federal trust. Not only can that process -- and the matter of getting other government approvals -- take several years, but also, very few tribes have succeeded.

"If everybody was on board, it could happen in six months, but that would be rocket-fast," said Mark Jarboe, who heads the Indian Law Practice Group at Dorsey & Whitney LLP, a Minneapolis law firm. "If there's no opposition, a year or two. If everybody's not on board, then it's unlikely it could ever happen."

Jarboe could think of only a couple of situations in which land outside an existing reservation was taken into federal trust to be used for gaming purposes since the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

Marc Marotta, secretary of the state Department of Administration, said Gov. Jim Doyle would likely wait until the federal officials give their blessing to any such move before making a decision on it.

"It is not as hard a call as locating a gaming facility in a city that doesn't already have one," Marotta said.

It took the Potawatomi several years to have the Menomonee Valley land put into federal trust, a process that also was controversial.

The county is responsible for much of the Park East property.

Crawford said the tribe is focused on expanding its Menomonee Valley facilities, partly to "pay its bills." The tribe, bolstered by a new, far-reaching compact with the state, plans to build a $120 million addition to its casino in the valley.

Walker, who has discussed a possible relocation with some of the Menomonee Valley Partners officials, said he would consider the idea of a Potawatomi relocation because it could serve as an economic catalyst for the Park East area.

The timing for the Menomonee Valley Partners officials' relocation suggestion was linked to the compact between the state and the Potawatomi. The new compact, which has no expiration date, calls for the tribe to pay the state $90.5 million through mid-2005 and allows it to offer craps tables, roulette and off-track betting on horse or dog racing.

That compact, along with several others, has fueled Republican furor at Doyle. Republicans say that the compacts impermissibly expand gambling in the state and that the Legislature should play a role in negotiating them.

Steve Filmanowicz, a spokesman for Mayor John O. Norquist, said the mayor's office did not have an official position on the Park East matter because there was no concrete proposal, and substantial questions -- such as legal implications of land ownership -- would have to be addressed. In the past, Norquist, who leaves office next year, has strongly opposed proposals to place casinos downtown.

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