NewsPast News Articles 2010
October 19, 2010
TEMECULA: Pechanga calls out city for false accusations
The Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians has called out Temecula officials for making "false accusations" last week when they said the city was having a hard time serving the tribe with a federal lawsuit.
"The tribe first heard of the failed attempt when a reporter contacted it last Wednesday, after which time the tribe's legal counsel immediately called the city attorney to arrange for service," Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro said in a statement released Tuesday.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court earlier this month, aims to force the tribe to pay millions of dollars the city claims it is owed for police service and road improvements affected by the addition of thousands of slot machines at the tribe's casino.
Responding to a report that the city was having trouble serving the tribe, Mayor Jeff Comerchero confirmed last week that he had been briefed on the situation and that the city was going to continue with its attempts to serve the tribe.
If that could not be achieved, Comerchero said, the city had the option of proving to the court that it made every effort, which would suffice in lieu of actually serving the tribe.
Comerchero said Tuesday night that he has been informed by staff that the tribe has since arranged for service.
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August 10, 2010
FORUM: Temecula Needs to Honor Agreement
By Mark Macarro
Tuesday night, the Temecula City Council can decide to continue down a litigious path of conflict and dissipate what remains of any good will between Pechanga and the city. Or, it can honor both the letter and spirit of the Intergovernmental Agreement we reached earlier in the year so we can conclude negotiations with the county of Riverside to complete the agreement.
At the heart of the dispute is a central provision of the deal that calls for the intergovernmental agreements between Pechanga, the city and the county to be interdependent. A primary reason for this interdependence is that the county of Riverside ---- not the city of Temecula ---- provides law enforcement services to the reservation, yet under the proposed agreement Temecula would receive all of the funding for law enforcement and cover the county's law enforcement costs.
Thus, a possibility exists for the county to reject the notion of reimbursement by the city and instead choose to receive the payment directly. In this time of economic recession and chronic government deficits, it would be negligent for the Tribal Council to transfer money before the county signs off on its portion and the agreement is effective.
From Day 1 of the negotiations with the city, we made clear that the intergovernmental agreements were to be interdependent, a fundamental principle that city representatives recognized; otherwise, they would not have approved a clause explicitly requiring the county component also be completed before the agreement were to take effect.
For more than a decade, the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians and the city of Temecula have enjoyed a respectful and beneficial government-to-government relationship. In recent years, the city has received more than $24 million for road improvements and added costs for police and fire services stemming from the Pechanga Resort & Casino.
Thousands of taxpaying jobs have been created for residents of the city, and our tribe has provided millions for youth programs and schools. In addition, we have partnered on initiatives to preserve the heritage and natural landscape of the community.
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August 6, 2010
Temecula could sue Pechanga over casino costs
By JEFF HORSEMAN
jhorseman@PE.com
The Press-Enterprise
Temecula officials are recommending legal action against the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians to cover the costs the tribe's casino incurs on the city.
An item on Tuesday's City Council agenda would direct the city attorney to go to court to get the tribe to pay for the effect Pechanga Resort & Casino has on traffic and city services.
Officials also want to use $2 million of the city's savings to cover the shortfall created when the tribe didn't pay that amount. The $2 million annual payment was part of a long-term mitigation agreement between the tribe and the city ratified by the council in March.
"Given the failure of the Tribe and the County to reach agreement and the consequent failure of the (agreement) to become effective, the City has no alternative but to file litigation to protect its rights ...," a city staff report read.
In a written statement, tribal Chairman Mark Macarro called the city's threat of litigation "absurd."
"The city's unwillingness to honor the spirit and letter of the agreement is jeopardizing the deal, especially given Pechanga's good-faith efforts and its longstanding record of honoring commitments," Macarro said.
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August 6, 2010
TEMECULA: Council to consider suing Pechanga tribe
City officials say tribe is overdue for $2 million payment
By AARON CLAVERIE - aclaverie@californian.com
City leaders will discuss Tuesday whether to file suit against the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians in an attempt to force the tribe to fork over millions of dollars the city says it is owed for costs associated with a voter-approved expansion of the tribe's gaming operations.
The decision on whether to sue will be made by the Temecula City Council at Tuesday's meeting, scheduled to start at 7 p.m. in City Hall, 43200 Business Park Drive.
The council also could authorize finance employees to transfer $2 million from the city's reserve fund to offset the revenue shortfall caused by what the city is referring to as the tribe's "failure to pay" a $2 million payment June 30.
The city and the tribe signed an agreement earlier this year that had the tribe paying $2 million annually for the next 21 years to offset the city's expenses associated with the recent addition of slot machines at the tribe's casino.
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July 21, 2010
Pechanga re-elects chairman Macarro to eighth term on council
Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians on July 17 re-elected Mark Macarro to an eighth consecutive term as chairman of the seven-member tribal council.
Debra Gruszecki — The Desert Sun
Besides Macarro, the tribe re-elected: Mark Calac, Corrina R. Garbani, Andrew Masiel, Sr., Russell "Butch" Murphy and Ken Perez. Elected to replace Marc Luker, who did not seek another term in office, was Benjamin Vasqez.
Macarro, who has served as tribal chairman since 1995, has been on the tribal council since 1992.
"I am sincerely humbled to have the opportunity to serve the Pechanga people as tribal chairman for another two years," he said in a statement Wednesday. "Serving our people in elected office is a privilege and an honor."
A political science graduation of UC, Santa Barbara, Macarro serves on the boards of several prominent Native American rights organizations, including the National Congress of American Indians, the National Indian Gaming Association, and the Harvard Project on American Indian Development. He also has been spokesman for statewide campaigns to secure the right of Native American tribes to operate gaming facilities on tribal lands.
Macarro said he believes it is critical to maintain and cultivate the Pechanga tribal culture, language, and traditional life ways so that the Pechanga people can preserve their unique tribal identity.
Himself a traditional Luiseño singer, singing ceremonial Nukwáanish funeral songs at tribal wakes throughout southern California Indian reservations, Macarro is a practitioner of Cham'téela, the Luiseño native language.
The council sets policies, administers government programs and executes the will of the Pechanga general membership. The tribal chair and members of the council are enforce the Band's constitution, bylaws and tribal ordinances.
January 21, 2010
Pechanga's showroom theater in Temecula draws big talent
State-of-the-art technology means dozens of big names will be popping up on the Pechanga marquee in the coming months.
SWRNN
Take a quick glance at Pechanga Resort & Casino's entertainment line-up and the talent is sure to impress. Huge industry names like Merle Haggard, Styx and Kenny Rogers are considered standard fare at this local venue, and there's a reason why.
"We have a lot of top acts who love to perform here. Some of them actually enjoy visiting our resort. We are a premier destination. And I do hear from locals all the time about the quality of [talent] that we have here and they usually have requests for more and more acts," said Pechanga's Public Relations Manager Robert Bledsoe.
Pechanga Resort & Casino appears poised to deliver.
With just 1,200 seats the showroom theater feels intimate, but Bledsoe said everything else operates on a grand scale.
The lighting system is capable of producing over 4 million Lumens of light. The sound system is capable of producing up to 133, 800 watts of power. And the acoustics have been designed with absorption materials to minimize reflections, along with a Line-Array sound system.
"There really isn't a bad seat in the house," Bledsoe said, noting the spacious design of the seating, as well as the movable stage that can be extended or retracted for optimum visual enhancement.
San Diego resident Heidi Atienza recently made the drive up to Temecula to attend a Go-Go's concert with her husband and a friend at the Pechanga showroom theater.
"(We) had a great time. Loved the concert, loved the venue, loved the restaurant, hotel room. We loved the whole experience. We stayed overnight [and it] was very nice. We had a buffet dinner that was fabulous, then went to the concert, and had drinks in one of the casino bars afterward. I was impressed," Atienza said.
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