DO YOU ENJOY A GOOD WHINE?    

Then you'll love this letter from FIGR chairman Greg Sarris to the City of Rohnert Park.

In January 8, 2010 letter obtained from the City under the Public Records Act, Sarris talks about the $500,00 annual payoffs, er, I mean, payouts to Rohnert Park for the police department, even though they were "not required" to do so.  He ALSO brings up the fact that the FIGR paid for planting daffodils around town, and had "proposed a series of organic community gardens throughout the City".  

Then he whines that "the City has not always fully appreciated the extraordinary nature of these initiatives or the sacrifice of the Tirbe to provide them".  

Sacrifice?  The money is Station Casinos' money, most likely part of the $12 million slush fund that the FIGR never has to repay!

Plus he never complained about the $1.5 million paid out to buy his job at Sonoma State.

But I digress....

The letter is addressed to Dan Schwarz, the Interim City Manager, but in it, Sarris summons the new mayor (Pam Stafford) and Chief of Police Brian Masterson to the FIGR's  office for a meeting.  

(Questions to self:  Why didn't he just write a short, polite note to Mayor Stafford and ask nicely?  I mean, why address your letter to the city manager as if he kept the calendars for the mayor and police chief?  And why chastise the city manager for Rohnert Park's perceived failure to "fully (appreciate)" the FIGR?  Maybe SSU offers a course in business etiquette, where rule number one might be "Don't get snarky and officious in a letter addressed to elected officials"!)

Topic of  discussion at this meeting, according to Geg's letter is to "discuss the City's plans for acknowledging the Tribe's contributions and the CIty's support of our efforts to get the Tribe's resort project back on a realistic timeline".

One thing's for sure - the FIGR never gave Rohnert Park another dime from December 2009 on.  Maybe Sarris didn't like the way the City "acknowledged" the FIGR's contributions.  

Or maybe that pesky "resort" just can't seem to get off the ground!


Note from Gossip Girl:  If you are using Mozilla Firefox and have trouble opening the link, try using Internet Explorer or go to our web site's Hot Links! page using IE, and try to access the letter there. If you want a copy of the letter emailed to you, just let me know. 

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