05/04/2005 00:00
San Pablo OKs cops for casino work
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The San Pablo City Council has approved hiring four police officers for crowd and traffic control at an expanded Casino San Pablo.
The four new officers' salaries and benefits would cost the city $411,104 a year, to be reimbursed from casino revenues.
The Lytton Band of Pomo Indians, owner of the casino, plans to install electronic bingo and other machines there as allowed under federal law, even as it continues to seek state approval to run more lucrative slot machines.
Adding electronic bingo will draw more customers than the casino can hold and require more parking than its lot can accommodate, said Police Chief Douglas Krathwohl. That's why the city needs to bolster its police force, which counted 45 sworn officers as of last month.
Electronic bingo and other so-called Class II machines - slots are Class III - could be operating before the end of the year, said Police Chief Douglas Krathwohl. It would require altering only the interior of the existing, roughly 70,000-square-foot casino building.
The facility on San Pablo Avenue at San Pablo Dam Road currently operates as a cardroom, offering poker, pai gow and other card games.
With a Class II casino, "we'll have the same amount of traffic," Krathwohl predicted, "but a lot less money for mitigation." While the state, Caltrans and the county won't see any share of Class II gambling profits at the casino, San Pablo stands to collect 7.5 percent under a 1999 Municipal Services Agreement with the tribe.
"Right now, we're pretty well protected," said City Attorney Brian Libow.
Monday's vote on the police hires was 4-0.
Councilwoman Sharon Brown was out of town, preparing to testify today before the U.S Senate in Washington, D.C. A bill by Sen. Dianne Feinstein would rescind 2000 legislation that allowed the Lytton Band to skirt normal federal rules to buy land in San Pablo as a reservation for gambling.
source:The Mercury News
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