Florence gambling on casino wasterwater plan, critics say.

Byline: Winston Ross The Register-Guard

FLORENCE - Vote yes, and Florence gets $254,000 a year. Vote no, get nothing.

To the backers of Ballot Measure 20-107, the choice is that simple. Hook up the owners of the Three Rivers Casino to the city's wastewater treatment plant, or watch the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians build their own facility.

But to the opponents, the ballot measure is a blank check that will cover not just the tribes' near-term expansion plans - a 50,000-square-foot casino, 100-room hotel, gas station and convenience store - but anything else they decide to build on the 100-acre Hatch Tract.

"This is, without a doubt, one of the worst written agreements I've ever seen," said City Councilor Nan Osbon, who spent $6,000 of her own money to publish the entire agreement in the Siuslaw News. "It's not a fair deal." The City Council voted against including the Hatch Tract into its Urban Growth Boundary in 2003, which automatically would have allowed the tribes to hook up to sewer and water services.

Before they opened Three Rivers, the tribes built their own water treatment plant, and tribal economic development director Bob Garcia said that he's always assumed the same would happen for wastewater, which is also currently treated on-site. But in August, Florence Mayor Phil Brubaker asked the city council to let him and councilor Nola Xavier work out the best deal they could with the tribes and then put it to a vote, Nov. 8.

If the resulting ballot measure is approved, the city will provide wastewater services to the Hatch Tract indefinitely. The tribes will pay $200,000 per year, adjusted for inflation, into the city's general fund, half of which will be passed on to other local taxing districts such as schools. The tribes also will pay $54,000 a year into a marketing fund, administered jointly by the city and tribes, to promote tourism in the area.

Beyond that, the deal gets more complicated. Initially, the city signed a "Memorandum of Understanding" with the tribes, which is what Florence voters are being asked to approve on Nov. 8. But that's not what they'll get if they vote yes. The real deal is the Intergovernmental Agreement, available on the city's Web site at www.ci. florence.or.us.

Mostly, the memorandum and the agreement are similar. But there's one key difference: in the memorandum, the city can back out of the deal for any reason, with two years' notice to the tribes. In the agreement, that escape clause is removed - but not for the tribes. If the city isn't ready to provide services by September of next year, the tribes can cancel the agreement and build their own plant. Also, if the tribes decide the agreement is no longer economically viable, they can terminate it with 30 days notice.

"That may be the single greatest risk in the deal," City Manager Rodger Bennett said. "There's no limit on the development, and nothing that says either party can quit the arrangement without a breach."

Councilor Nola Xavier said the change was made after the tribes argued that it isn't fair to allow the city to back out of the deal for no reason, but the ballot title couldn't be changed for the Nov. 8 election.

The new agreement leaves the city on the hook to provide wastewater services - no matter how much the tribes decide they need, said Mike Lasarev, treasurer of the Good Neighbors Vote No committee, which is campaigning against the measure. A 50,000-square-foot casino and 100-room hotel would require about 1.5 percent of the city treatment plant's capacity, Bennett said. At peak periods, the plant now reaches about 57 percent of capacity.

But what if the tribes decide to build high-density housing on other parts of the Hatch Tract? Since they're not subject to state land use laws, the tribes could pack in as much as they want on the property, Lasarev said.

For any new developments, the tribes would have to pay Systems Development Charges and user fees to compensate. But the $254,000 "sweetener" only adjusts for inflation, not future development.

Xavier said it's hard to imagine the tribes could build enough to cause problems for the treatment plant.

The casino and hotel will account for 20 to 30 acres, including the parking lot, Garcia said.

Another 20 acres is wetlands, where the tribes won't build, and another 20 acres is unusable because of power lines, he said.

That leaves 30 to 40 acres for more development. Even with high-density housing, that "isn't enough to create a capacity problem," Xavier said. And the agreement specifically forbids industrial uses.

The city should have demanded more money and an opt-out clause, Lasarev said.

Lasarev also disputes the city's claim that its plan would protect the environment. Even if the tribes built their own plant, it would still have to meet state and federal standards, he said.

Brubaker said environmental concerns are his chief consideration, however. Before the city's new plant was built, there were regular problems with overflows of untreated sewage into the Siuslaw River. Adding another plant would add another risk, he said.

Given the risks, and the payout, Lasarev and others say, it's foolish to set a precedent of changing the city's comprehensive plan and extending services outside the growth boundary, which will require special permission from the state and set up the potential for costly appeals.

"Let them build their own plant," Lasarev said. "The $154,000 isn't enough to make me risk the future of the City of Florence's sewer system. (Mayor Brubaker) fell into a trap."

Proponents of Florence's measure say the risk for the city is minimal.

If the tribes don't comply, the city can simply switch off the service, albeit after the arbitration process. Since the tribes have to pay for construction of the additional sewer line and hookup fees - at a cost of $500,000 for the initial plans - it's the tribes who stand to lose the most if that happens, they say. If the tribes add more developments, they'll pay hookup fees that will offset the cost of future expansions of the wastewater treatment plant.

"This is a very important decision for this town," Xavier said. "It will have long-reaching implications. I encourage people to very carefully read the agreement. If you do that, and think it's fair to the city, vote yes. If not, vote no."