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California Commission Under Fire

"Its political patron has never gotten around to appointing a full complement of commissioners; it's never had a permanent chief administrator; its enforcement arm is ultimately answerable to another boss; and its first and only leader has decided to quit.

"All in all, it's been a pretty rough infancy for the California Gambling Control Commission.

"...Shortages in staff, money and political clout have translated to a fistful of problems for the panel charged with protecting the public's interests when it comes to legal games of chance:

"It has taken more than a year to license only 400 of an estimated 10,000 `key employees' at California Indian casinos, to ensure that people with criminal backgrounds are not working in the casinos.

" Commission auditors are conducting only their first examination of an Indian casino's books as they try to ensure each tribe is paying what it's supposed to in license fees required by the compacts with the state.

"...Just two of seven regulations proposed by the commission have been accepted by the casino tribes, and those two were requested by the tribes themselves to clear up compact language about bond financing. A third regulation, requiring tribes to have emergency preparedness plans, was passed over their objections last week.

"Two prominent tribes are suing the commission, alleging it mishandled funds paid into by the casino tribes, and several legislators who receive hefty campaign contributions from the tribes have called for an audit of the commission.

"...Gov. Gray Davis, notoriously slow when it comes to making appointments, took nearly 20 months after the commission came into being in January 1999 to name people to four of the five $109,800-a-year commission seats: Hensley; Arlo Smith, former district attorney for the city and county of San Francisco; Michael C. Palmer, a certified public accountant and former chief financial officer for the Hollywood Park Casino in Los Angeles; and J.K. Sasaki, a lawyer and former San Francisco bank executive.

"The quartet has been remarkably harmonious in its public actions: Commission sources could not recall a single non-unanimous vote.

"Such unanimity comes in handy, since Davis has yet to name a fifth member, more than four years after creation of the commission.

"...The commission also never has had a permanent executive director. An unnamed candidate endorsed by the commissioners last year was rejected by the Governor's Office.

"...The most vexing problem facing the commission, however, may not be staff or budget, but in clearly defining what its role is in dealing with the casino tribes.

"In opposing almost all the commission's efforts at regulation, many tribes have questioned whether the commission should have any substantive role in Indian gambling operations.

"The Gambling Control Act, which established the commission, gives it `supervision over gambling establishments in this state.' But the compacts between the governor and the tribes make no specific mention of the commission, referring instead to the `state gaming agency,' which Davis has designated as the commission.

"The tribes also have argued that because they are sovereign nations, the regulatory role of any state panel is necessarily limited..."

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