Article created: 10/06/2005 09:04:41 AM

Supes angry over offensive comments on AB 1747

By Democrat Staff

At their meeting Tuesday, Yolo County supervisors denounced remarks made by the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights at a press conference conducted Monday regarding Assembly Bill 1747.

During the event, John Gamper, Director for Taxation and Land Use for the California Farm Bureau Federation said "Allowing a semi-sovereign entity to be part of a JPA would be akin to allowing the Japanese or the Chinese to have a vote in the Senate because they're willing to buy our treasury bonds."

Board chairwoman and District 2 Supervisor Helen Thomson read the comment aloud after a brief ceremony in which the tribe presented a $4 million check to the county. The money represents part of the payment to mitigate the effects of the Cache Creek Casino and Resort in the Capay Valley.

Several board members expressed dismay at the comment, which came at a rally to protest a bill that would include the tribe in a joint powers authority to manage the Conaway Ranch.

"To say Mr. Gamper's reprehensible comments were unfortunate would be a gross understatement," Thomson said. "This board decries his expressed sentiments of our tribal neighbors -- Yolo County citizens -- and we demand an apology and retraction from the California Farm Bureau Federation and the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights."

"We are all Americans," said District 3 Supervisor Frank Sieferman Jr. "This must be challenged vigorously by all concerned citizens."

"I call on all those who stood shoulder-to-shoulder on that stage to repudiate these clearly offensive remarks," said District 1 Supervisor Mike McGowan. "They should be ashamed to have stooped to this level by hurling discriminatory and offensive comments. I would like to have believed that we had all evolved beyond the travesties of our past."