Gov. Ducey believes the Tohono O’Odham Nation deceived the people of Arizona.
Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona has asked a US District Court to limit or block testimony of administration staff in a court case involving the Tohono O’Odham Nation. The tribe wishes to build a casino in the Phoenix area, but Gov. Ducey and his staff have opposed those moves. The Tohono O’Odham have sought testimony from the governor’s staff, but the Arizona administration believes staff members should not have to go on the record.
The Daily News-Sun reported that the tribe holds a Class II license for its Glendale casino, but it wants to add Class III or Vegas-style gaming to the venue. A Class II license would allow table games and slot machines to be added to the gaming menu.
Class III Gaming License
For that to happen, the Arizona Department of Gaming would have to approve a Class III license. The ADG believes the Tohono O’Odham committed fraud ten years ago when they concealed plans for a second casino, while also calling on voters to approve a gaming compact.
Those have been the talking points of state officials who have tried to block licensing. The tribe believes it distorts the record on the 2002 vote, so they have sought to have the records on state deliberations on the 2002 vote opened to the public. If that were to happen, the people of Arizona would be able to see what officials were saying at the time, in order to know if they were deceived by the tribe.
Attorney-Client Privilege
In order to protect the government’s privilege, the governor does not want those records to be opened to the public. Thus, Gov. Ducey is invoking attorney-client privilege and asking US District Court Judge David Campbell to seal the documents.
Ducey’s Press Release
In the press release by the state government, Doug Ducey and his lawyers said, “Any disclosure of internal discussions regarding the subpoena topics would have a chilling effect on future deliberations within the state executive branch.
“The executive branch and especially the governor’s office frequently have to make difficult decisions that affect state funding, public safety and relations with various tribes located within Arizona. As a result, the executive branch must have the ability to openly discuss options and weigh recommendations without fear these internal communications become public for unnecessary scrutiny.”
Previous Arizona Administrations
The legal filing also asks for the judge to exempt Gov. Ducey and his staff from answering questions on the matter, because his administration has been in office only since 2015.
The filing suggested that the case stems from 1993, when Governor Fife Symington (1991-1997) was in office. The case also involved decisions made during the administration of Gov. Jane Hull, who served from 1997 until 2003.
The court documents show the state’s lawyers stating, “There have been several different governors over the course of the time these negotiations took place. So which governor’s ‘beliefs’ or ‘understandings’ is the Tohono O’Odham Nation looking for?”
Tohono O’Odham Nation’s Subpoena
Whether Judge Campbell will approve the state’s requests is another matter. The Tohono O’Odham Nation filed a subpoena for the information to be released, and the public tends to dislike invocation of rights to keep information from public consumption. That is especially true at the state and local levels, when it is hard to argue that national security is involved.
The Fife Symington Administration
One might expect the judge to ask the tribe to give specific details on which governor they believe gave promises. The administration of Fife Symington is considered in retrospect to have been a corrupt one. Symington eventually resigned in 1997 under an ethics investigation.
Fife Symington was charged with 21 counts of extortion and bank fraud, stemming from his time as a real estate developer. He was convicted in 1997, which caused him to resign, because Arizona law does not allow a convicted felon to serve in office. The conviction was overturned on appeal in 1999, and a retrial resulted in a hung jury.
In 2001, President Bill Clinton pardoned Fife Symington, a Republican. When they were attending Harvard together in 1960, Fife Symington saved Bill Clinton’s life, when a rip current nearly pulled the future president out to sea.
