Opponents of Lytton Pomos’ tribal project lobby Windsor council with new poll results

Bolstered by a poll showing strong sentiment against a proposed Indian reservation on the edge of Windsor, opponents of the Lytton Band of Pomos’ plans to establish a homeland are pressing Town Council members to take a stand against it.

The poll commissioned by Citizens for Windsor, which has adamantly opposed the Lyttons’ plans for a tribal housing project, large hotel and winery, found a lopsided majority of voters against it.

“Why are you not representing the overwhelming will of your constituents and how can you continue to ignore the viewpoints of your citizens?” Eric Wee, spokesman for the group, asked the Town Council Wednesday after presenting the results of the poll.

But the findings and methodology were immediately criticized by council members and a tribal representative.

“The survey is contrived. The questions were seeking to elicit answers toward their perspective, therefore it’s not neutral,” Councilman Mark Millan said Thursday. “There were several false statements made, inaccuracies in the questions posed.”

The survey of 300 Windsor registered voters conducted by a professional polling company is the latest flashpoint in the Lytton Pomos’ long-running, controversial attempt to create a reservation off Windsor River Road. There, the tribe hopes to build 147 homes for tribal members, along with a community center and retreat.

But the size of the proposed reservation more than tripled - to 511 acres - as the tribe, flush with money from its San Pablo Casino, steadily acquired more land.

A bill working its way through the Senate - H.R. 597 sponsored by Rep. Jeff Denham, a Central California Republican from Turlock - would create the Lytton homeland and also enable the tribe to build even more homes, pursue plans for a 200-room resort hotel and 200,000-case winery. No casino would be allowed.

Denham was co-sponsor of a virtually identical bill introduced by Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, that died last year before it could be voted on, something Huffman attributed to politics and Republicans freezing bills sponsored by Democrats.

Windsor Mayor Debora Fudge on Thursday said that by essentially remaining neutral on the bill, the Town Council is looking after the best interests of all residents of the town and Sonoma County.

The legislation, she said, “protects Windsor and northern Sonoma County by preventing a casino north of Highway 12 forever, which is the best protection we can hope for.”

The poll of Windsor voters conducted in late August by Probolsky Research of Newport Beach found 57 percent against H.R. 597 and 18 percent for it. Wee said opposition deepened “after the respondents were educated about the arguments on both sides of the issue,” with 76 percent against the bill and 14 percent for it.

“For a long time the (Town) Council has tried to paint the people opposing the land going into trust as a small group,” he said. “It’s not a small group.”

But Lytton tribal attorney Larry Stidham said it is a complex issue and the way the questions were posed guaranteed a “preordained result.” That includes what would appear to be a straightforward question such as “do you support or oppose” legislation enabling the land to be taken into trust by the federal government as part of a reservation.

“Before you can ask a question like that, you need to explain the background,” he said. That past includes a 1991 agreement between Sonoma County and the tribe, following the outcome of a court case, that the Lyttons would be able to take land into trust in the county.

Mayor Fudge also criticized the poll for posing exaggerated and even “false statements,” such as tribal members have “threatened to spray sewage waste close to residents’ houses if they are not given sewer connections.”

The tribe has in fact said it would build its own sewer treatment plant if necessary, but irrigate with the highly treated wastewater, similar to what the town does with its effluent.

The Lytton project was not on the Town Council agenda Wednesday, when Citizens for Windsor marshaled about 40 members to urge the body to go on record against the development and convey that message to California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris. The council took no action on the issue.

Windsor resident Ian Butcher said if the bill goes into effect “it will be a blight on Windsor for generations to come.”

“It will forever change the small town quality of Windsor,” said resident Peg Champion.

But Jack Weaver, a local attorney, said Lytton is “attempting to be a good neighbor” and if the council opposes the legislation it could upend an agreement the county struck with the tribe to back the Pomos’ pursuit of a reservation, so long as no gaming takes place. The tribe also agreed to millions of dollars in payments and to undergo federal environmental reviews to offset impacts.

“Stay the course,” Weaver said. “Allow for federal elected officials to consider the issue.”

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 707-521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@clarkmas.