Local officials react with dismay
Mar. 11, 2000

By MARRECCA FIORE
Observer-Dispatch

Local officials reacted with dismay to U.S. District Court Judge Neal P. McCurn’s decision Friday to declare an impasse in the Oneida Indian Nation land-claim mediation.

McCurn declared the impasse after state officials refused to waive from the mediation its dispute with the tribe over “Instant Multi-Game” gambling machines at Turning Stone Casino Resort in Verona.

A written statement released by officials from Oneida and Madison counties Friday urged McCurn to reconsider his decision and offered criticism of the state.

“For all of our extensive efforts to go to waste over a multi-gaming dispute between the state and the Oneidas is extremely harmful to the people of our area,” Oneida County Executive Ralph J. Eannace Jr. said in the statement.

The administration of Gov. George Pataki has sought in court to stop the “Instant Multi-Game” after the Oneidas unveiled the video machines five years ago at Turning Stone. The games have video screens that approximate the action of slot machines, which are illegal in New York state.

The Oneidas say they followed procedure for getting the games approved.
Rocco DiVeronica, Madison County Board of Supervisors chairman, told the Observer-Dispatch Friday he was displeased all the hours he and other leaders spent negotiating a settlement with the Oneidas now seem wasted.

“The state of New York has pulled the rug out from under us because of a multi-gaming lawsuit,” he said. “I’m very disappointed that the process the state has taken has put us in litigation mode.”

State officials could not be reached for comment. Jan Farr, at the federal courthouse in Florida, would not elaborate on the state’s position.
“New York state won’t sign,” Farr told the judge.

Local officials were not the only ones to express disappointment.
Oneida Indian Nation spokesman Mark Emery said the Oneidas also were unhappy with the state.

“The responsibility for the failure of settlement negotiations lies directly on the shoulders of the state of New York and Gov. George Pataki,” Emery read from a written statement. “It’s now clear the state never intended to use funds, other than the proceeds from Indian gaming, to pay its obligations.

“(The state) tried to force off-reservation casinos and slot machines, from which it reserved for itself a substantial revenue, into the terms of the land-claim settlement,” he continued. “And (has) now torpedoed negotiations and placed all parties back into litigation purely because it refuses to withdraw its demands for money from the Oneidas.”

Leon R. Koziol, attorney for Upstate Citizens for Equality, said he is concerned that McCurn’s ruling now will thrust the landowners, who the Oneidas at one time named as defendants in their land-claim suit, into the litigation.

“If the motion (to bring the landowners into the suit) is granted, there’s going to be a dramatic increase in tensions across the land-claim area,” he said. “I’m concerned about how this will escalate emotions out there.”

Despite the impasse, Koziol said he is not ruling out the possibility of a settlement. He does believe, however, that the Oneida gaming compact should continue to be part of the discussions. He chastised the tribe for trying to remove gaming from the settlement talks.

“This tells me that the Oneidas were never really interested in settling,” he said.

Congressman Sherwood Boehlert, R-New Hartford, and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., could not be reached for comment.