OUR VIEW
Partners, making the right choices
February 20, 2014
Here’s a short pop quiz. Are you ready?
Which is better, hand-to-hand combat, or a hand-in-hand partnership.
If you opted for the combat, you probably can stop reading this editorial - because from this point on, we will discuss the merits of a government-to-government relationship between the Solvang City Council and the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians.
The council vote last week was split, with three of five members voting to create an ad-hoc committee whose primary mission will be to investigate what common interests there are between the city and the tribe, and then to make strategy recommendations on how both governments could benefit from cooperatively pursuing such interests.
Perhaps the most surprising, head-scratching aspect of last week’s City Council action is that two of our elected leaders disagreed, led by Mayor Jim Richardson, whose main objection seems to be the lack of transparency on the part of the Chumash tribal council.
“Their council works in private, and we don’t know what’s going on with the tribe,” Richardson said at the meeting.
Apparently, the mayor hasn’t thought this through. If the two entities have a government-to-government agreement, maybe the transparency issue will be resolved. It seems fairly evident to us there is no viable reason for the tribe’s policy/business decisions to be transparent — with tribal governments lacking Brown Act requirements — if there is no dialog with neighboring governments.
Council member Ed Skytt joined Richardson in the dissenting vote. The three other council members wisely agreed to move forward, an acknowledgment that the virtual hand-to-hand combat that has been the norm with regard to city/tribe relations for more than a decade has not only grown tireless, but is counterproductive with regard to the best interests of non-tribal Valley residents.
This just seems so obvious to us, and has for many years. And we must laud council member Hans Duus for pushing the notion of a government-to-government partnership with the tribe. Tribal leaders have been lobbying for such partnerships with local government entities for years, but have, for the most part, been met with open, palpable hostility.
We understand that not everyone is on board with the concept of a gambling mecca in the Valley’s midst. But there must come an “aha!” moment, when local citizens acknowledge the presence of a casino, and come to the realization that the Chumash will not dismantle their highly successful business because some neighbors want them to.
So, it seems the reasonable thing to do is accept the reality of the situation, and figure out how to move forward in a manner that benefits all parties. The Chumash are, after all, long-time Valley residents — a very, very long time.
Creation of the city’s ad-hoc committee to explore possibilities is a reasonable first step toward building a better future for all of us.