Russellville’s panel takes first step on casino reviews

RUSSELLVILLE — A request for proposals will be finalized and distributed next week to encourage casino operators to submit applications for a Pope County casino license to a seven-member City Council committee for evaluation, the committee decided at its first meeting Thursday.

“This is your committee, not mine,” Mayor Richard Harris told the newly seated Community Gaming Evaluation Committee gathered around the City Council table.

Harris, pointing to a 21- page draft of a request for proposals he distributed before the start of the meeting, told members they should select a chairman, set a meeting to approve the request for proposals and pay attention to the timeline of important dates relating to the casino application process.

“The city services are at your disposal,” Harris said, then added he was leaving the meeting to allow the committee to work independently.

Council Member Chris Olson then took over the meeting. Olson isn’t on the committee, but he sponsored the resolution passed last week to establish the group to give residents an “open, accessible and transparent” evaluation process.

The action came after last month’s surprise endorsement by Pope County Quorum’s Court of Cherokee Nation Businesses for a casino license. The company was one of five competing for the license in Pope County; all five were initially rejected by the state Racing Commission for a license because they lacked endorsements by local officials. The commission reopened the application process.

Two competing applicants — Warner Gaming of Nevada and Choctaw Nation Division of Commerce of Oklahoma — encouraged Harris in two letters to get the City Council to do its own vetting process, even though county officials already made an endorsement. Furthermore, any casino recommended by city officials also would have to be endorsed by county officials.

Committee members include council member Eric Westcott; Russellville School District Superintendent Mark Gotcher; Arkansas Tech University Chief of Staff Mary Gunter; Pope County Justice of the Peace Bill Sparks; businessman Bart Langley; and banker Nathan George. The remaining position on the committee will be selected to be filled from the Arkansas Valley Alliance for Economic Development.

In the request for proposals, the title page calls for applications for a casino development “to be located within two miles of the city limits.”

A summary states the purpose of the review committee is to “assist the City in issuing its recommendation to the Pope County Quorum Court of a Casino Applicant and, if appropriate, a letter of support to the Arkansas Racing Commission” for a casino “within the city limits.” The Cherokee casino would be built north of the city; the city also was excluded from a list of towns in Pope County to receive money from the Cherokees.

Amendment 100 — passed by voters in November to allow for a new casino in both Pope and Jefferson counties, and the expansion of gambling at the racetracks in Hot Springs and West Memphis — requires endorsements from either the county judge or the Quorum Court, or, if the proposed casino is in a city, from the mayor as well.

Ben Cross, county judge of Pope County, has said neither he nor the Quorum Court will endorse any other casino proposal besides Cherokee Nation Businesses.

Olson told the committee at Thursday’s meeting to take out the “chatter” of who writes the letter and said the intention “at the end of this is to offer the City Council an opinion” as to the best operator for the city and county.

The Community Gaming Evaluation Committee will meet again at 6 p.m. Monday at City Hall.

According to the city’s resolution, the deadline for a final report from the committee to the City Council is Nov. 5.

The deadline comes just before the Nov. 18 closing of the second application window opened last month by the Racing Commission.