Narragansetts sue to block casino vote

No thanks to Injun Joe Larisa

By Will Collette

Yesterday, the Narragansett Indian nation filed suit in state Superior Court to block the November 2012 referendum which will ask voters to approve an upgrade of the Twin River slot parlor into a full-scale casino.

The Tribe argued that the referendum does not meet the criteria the state Supreme Court set in two prior decisions that thwarted the Narragansetts’ effort to create a tribe-owned and operated casino.

Implicit in the Tribe’s argument is that it is pretty blatant discrimination for the state to promote full casino gambling for Twin River’s out-of-state owner while denying the tribe the chance for a lucrative enterprise that could make the tribe economically independent.

Today’s Providence Journal has pretty good coverage. Plus you can read the tribe’s lawsuit for yourself here.

This occasion warrants asking some unanswered questions about the role of Charlestown’s special counsel for Indian affairs, Joseph “Injun Joe” Larisa.

Earlier this year, after Governor Chafee’s election, the tribe made serious overtures to the state asking to negotiate the purchase of financially troubled Twin River and converting it to a full-scale casino.

Last March, Massachusetts has been moving rapidly to develop casino gambling – its legislature, with the approval of Governor Deval Patrick, has just approved development of three full-scale casinos and one slot parlor, all within easy reach of the Rhode Island border.

When these new Massachusetts gambling joints open, the oddsmakers predict attendance and revenues at Twin River and Newport Grand will plummet and will decimate the millions of dollars in revenues the state counts on every year.

When the tribe made its overture to take over Twin River, it looked to me like a solution to multiple problems. The Tribe would save the troubled slot parlor. State revenues would be protected from devastation due to the upcoming Massachusetts gaming joints. And, for Charlestown, it would spell the end to the town’s biggest boogeyman: a Narragansett casino right here in town.

But for reasons that are still unexplained, our town’s injun-fighter, Joe Larisa, immediately mounted an attack against the tribe’s proposal. At the time, I wrote in PC that I found this action to be totally against Charlestown’s self-interest. 

I thought we were paying Larisa to protect the town from a casino, and NOT to fight each and every initiative the Narragansetts attempt. It was bad enough when he fought and blocked the tribe’s now defunct affordable housing complex and subjected every plan by the tribe to microscopic scrutiny and withering objection.

But blocking the tribe from acquiring a casino in Lincoln? How does this in any way serve the interests of his clients in Charlestown?

I doubt that Larisa undertook to block the tribe on behalf of one of his other major clients, the Rhode Island Right-to-Life Committee, so the question remains – was Larisa acting on the instructions of the Charlestown Town Council, or was he free-lancing?

In our casino fear-crazed town, we seem reluctant to embrace elegantly simple solutions. If Larisa had been so directed by the Town Council, perhaps he could have been helpful to the Tribe in its bid to acquire Twin River. Nightmare over.

We could also have adopted a more welcoming posture toward Larry LeBlanc when he recently offered to sell Charlestown his 81 acres fronting on US Route 1 – site of his proposed industrial wind/affordable housing complex. As he has before, he is once again hinting that he might sell that land to the tribe, which, when combined with adjacent tribal land, could reach “critical mass” for a gaming site.

LeBlanc made it clear that he wants to make some money on this land that he has held for several years while some of the Council hardasses, most notably Dan Slattery, think we should pay him current assessed value and let him eat the loss. So we may have missed another opportunity to end a double-barreled nightmare of a casino and/or wind farm.

How can we expect to live as good neighbors with the Narragansetts when we behave like this? I would like some answers from the Town Council specifically on what Joe Larisa really does for this town and, more long-term, what their vision is for a future harmonious relationship with the tribe.