Statements by Pope County Judge Ben Cross at the August 13, 2019 special Pope County Quorum Court meeting.
(transcription by Mike Goad from River Valley Now video recording)
Alright, I’ll take this time to address some things that, by you getting up here and speaking on June 11th and getting up tonight and speaking that I feel are things that need to be addressed as a community.
The divisiveness,… the divisiveness of this is astounding. I don’t think Pope County has ever seen the level of opposite ends of the spectrum this has created.
And, so, I think, things I need to personally address, because I think people have misconstrued some things that have been put the public, and why. And so I’m looking to go through those.
Transparency. In a normal business environment, when a normal business outside of a casino chooses to come to our county and locate, they deal with the Alliance for Economic Development, the Chamber of Commerce, the first thing they do when they walk in is they slide confidentiality agreements across the desk to everybody involved in recruiting new industry for this County.
This has been just the opposite. I came in in January. I got sued on day one. Now I’ve gotten sued again today. And, so, this has been just the opposite. And so, from a transparency standpoint, I would have to disagree to the extent that I have met with every civic group in town. I’ve met with every news media outlet in town. I penned a nine page editorial in March where I outlined every step of every person that has contacted me and what their content is.
Again, if a… if an Amazon distribution center wanted to come to Russellville, you would find out about it when they cut the ribbon and start digging dirt. That’s the way normal business recruitment happens, that those confidentiality agreements. So, I haven’t signed any confidentiality agreements. I’ve told everybody, dating back to day one, everything I’m doing in every capacity I’m doing it. There’s no more transparency I can (be) involved in that.
Are there proprietary information unique to each vendor out there? Absolutely, absolutely.
At a combined City Council and Quorum Court meeting, a first historical event that ever occurred, April 11, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, the entire Russellville City Council and the entire Quorum Court that could attend, both sides, attended. The media was there. Casino vendors were there. In that, I provided a PowerPoint where I laid out all of Pope County’s infrastructure needs. I laid out who does what, what county services provide to the city, what the city does the county, how we are so intertwined upon one another, as Russellville being the largest entity in this county.
I have the mayors of every other city surrounding me. So, I have, in April 11th, everybody was there, saw the PowerPoint that dictated out every infrastructure need Pope County has, what services Pope County provides to every citizen of this county, whether you’re in the city limit or not. That was all, that was all put out there.
The casino vendors that were present? They came to me and said, “I hear you.”
And so, it’s not my job to go out and recruit casinos. I’m not for casinos. I made that abundantly clear. I am not for casinos.
I’m not for selling marijuana on South Arkansas Avenue, either, but the state of Arkansas passed it. And, guess what? Pope County, by a 54 percent majority, voted down medical marijuana. I don’t want it. At least that has a federal law to back it up.
So, I’ve been very transparent. I’ve held multiple public meetings. I’ve met with every side of this issue that wants to meet.
Mayor Harris and I walked into the meeting with the Choctaw in April at the Marriott. The first words out of my mouth was, “Don’t tell me anything you don’t want me to tell your competitor.”
So, that is not a normal business recruitment environment. That is not what the Chamber and the Alliance for Economic Development would ever succumb to.
So, that is… I continually report.
Last month, I did a televised interview. I told everybody who I’m meeting with, how I’m meeting with them.
So, I think that is transparency.
I’ve involved all the elected CEOs of our County. There are six incorporated city limits, city entities. I’ve involved them all in this process.
Again, there are proprietary information unique to each individual vendor and, let me clarify, there are no applicants at this point. Nobody has applied to us. The applicant process came and went in May. So, they were all rejected. They are just another vendor at this point. There are no applicants. They don’t have to apply to us.
So that covers, kind of, some of the interesting things.
Well, what have I been doing for Pope County?
Well, early on in this, when you saw the Gaming Commission establish this… adopted and established rules – the rule making procedure, over 300 pages. Those rules were conceived and they were approved and then they were sent over to the the state legislature for final review.
On that day, it was publicized locally. It was publicized through all state media outlets that “This is the day. This is the day the state legislators subcommittee is going to review these 300 page casino rules. If you want a say so in it, you better be there.”
They even moved into a conference room (inaudible) called The Big Mac building (inaudible) because they expected such an overwhelming turnout from Pope County. Senator Breanne Davis co-chairs that committee. I went there and sat in that room. I was the only person from Pope County, Arkansas representing.
So to say that I don’t represent Pope County is strictly a non-issue, because I was there. I didn’t see pro-people. I didn’t see anti-people. I saw lots of casino attorneys there. And I saw, I saw nobody from Pope County but myself and Senator Davis. So I think that’s a key thing to know, that there’s a lot of things that go on on a daily basis that I’m out there representing and that was one facet of it. And I think that people need to know from the horse’s mouth a lot of these things.
So… We hear a lot of due diligence, a lot of due diligence in the words that our attorney said.
Why would somebody like me even entertain this?
Well, it goes back to the nine-page editorial that was published in every news media outlet in March where I spelled out every involvement I’m doing publicly. It goes back to the fact that, why would I want to wait until a court dictates to me what’s going to happen to begin any kind of negotiations.
So that should be a clear indication that I’m representing Pope County on both sides of this.
My whole stance the whole way was to adopt what a judicial judge would do, is remain neutral.
If a judicial judge should remain neutral, I should remain neutral. I should accept all sides of this and try and give you, the public, the information you ask for. As the names were read out and the people spoke, I communicated by email back and forth with many of you and I try and answer every call, every e-mail.
As a matter of just interesting facts, I’m a guy that’s big on statistics.
I counted up the e-mails from January 1st to now, combined with the written letter correspondence I’ve received and it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of six or seven hundred responses that I have received in regards to this whole issue since January. Now, arguably, none of them are being construed as a fact. Some of those were from folks that I know don’t live in this county. Many of them were from people in multiple increments, so I might receive five e-mails from the same individual over a period time.
And by the way, those have all been supplied to the news media, because your e-mails and my e-mails are FOIA-able and I’ve kept every one since January 1st and I’m not ashamed of any of them. So I respond to all of them and for those that sent me ones that were profanity-laced, guess what? Arkansas Gazette has ‘em all. And, for those that, you know…
Again, we asked for a civil process in this and some people took it to the extreme. Just, just know that your correspondence with me is public. It is public.
And so, back to the point of this totality. As we said, there’s 64, 65 thousand people in this county.
And if I take the total summation of everything, not keeping a for and against tally, not going to… just assuming they’re all Pope County residents and I only received one per person, I still heard from less than one percent of Pope County.
And, you know… So, I welcome everybody’s income, or, input, and I welcome the fact that every place I go I avail myself to the citizens. At June 11th meeting, I specifically said – I went back and watched it on video – I will stay here until tomorrow morning, if necessary, to answer all your casino questions, just as soon as the meeting is adjourned because, procedurally, this body cannot participate in a question and answer session. Two people took me up on that; two people took me up on that offer and their concerns were not so much casino-related as procedural-related.
And so, to that…to the question of transparency, I’ve done my due diligence to keep everybody apprised.
So, you know, as far as a casino stance. It’s not…I’m neutral. I am net neutral. I compare it to the city and their marijuana. Obviously the city… Pope county voted down the medical marijuana. The state of Arkansas passed it and put it on us. The city of Russellville got sued for it and so, I, likewise, don’t want to get sued into an operator we had no choice in. So, that’s one… that’s one element that I think our attorney touched on.
Why would I even negotiate? I think I covered that. Why do I have to negotiate?
State law dictates that only the county judge can enter the county into any kind of agreement.
(Inaudible) Didn’t ask for it. We all inherited this basket of lemons that we’re trying to make lemonade of. So, we inherited the situation that we didn’t ask for. The state of Arkansas didn’t ask our opinion. In my concert with our representation, they didn’t consult with any of our state legislators. We just all found ourselves here. So we’re trying to navigate this procedurally as best possible.
But, from a legal standpoint, I have a fiduciary responsibility for all actions in this county. If the circuit clerk’s office wants to enter into an agreement for their (cleamer??) system. I have to enter that agreement and, so, I have to review all agreements.
One thing that I told, back in March, in my nine-page editorial to everybody, was, if this ever came to fruition, I would not allow anything to go to the Racing Commission without an ironclad contract agreement, because it’s my job to protect Pope County. So, if it were to occur, I’ve told… I’ve told everybody that.
So that is transparency, in my opinion.
I have stated repeatedly that, it’s a privilege, if they come here. It’s not a right.
I’ve had a couple of vendors told me, “I’ve met all the parameters of Amendment 100.”
Well, good for you. That’s all I can tell ya, because you’ve not met the parameters of Pope County.
So, in my negotiations with various vendors. I make it abundantly clear that, it’s a privilege, if you come here. It’s not a guaranteed right. That, you know, again, the state passed this on to us. We’re in unchartered territory and we’re trying to navigate this territory.
So, I will next address some rumors.
You know, this is the most rumor-driven issue in our county. So some of em are completely hilarious.
Timelines of election.
Okay, I was elected in May of 2018, before this was even approved for the ballot… to be on the ball… to even be on the ballot. It was really a non-issue. It was.
And so, I, you know, I didn’t campaign about it and neither did my opponent. You know it was not an issue because it was not even approved for the ballot. That came after the election. So if you’re lookin’ back a timeline, I think that’s strategic.
So, I think, you know, just to dispel some rumors and things that’re out there.
Monetary offers. Nobody’s bought me a house. Nobody’s given me a home in Aspen and a home in the Keys. Nobody has given me one dime.
When I’ve met with these people, one on one, and it happened to be over lunch, I bought the lunch.
I have… I have high ethics, high morals, high standards and I’m not going to nary(??) to give them up for a casino.
Dustin McDaniel. I’ve received tons of e-mails that Dustin and I went to college together. We were college roommates. He’s got the… that’s why we’ve got the “in” with the Cherokee. (garbled/stammering) Hey, there are e-mails, I mean, there’re e-mail, they are FOIA-able, You’ll see ‘em.
So…, Dustin is much younger than I. Dustin would’ve been in junior high when I was in college. I went to Tech and, I would assume, since he’s from the other side of the state, probably went to ASU. I was accused that we went to State Police troop school together. He’s never been a state trooper, people, ever…, ever.
I was accused that, when he went through a divorce, he lived at my house.
It did not happen.
We, Dustin McDaniel and I, have a mutual friend named Dustin Rogers, who, twenty-five years ago, went through a divorce and lived with me in Little Rock. That is a fact.
But…, so…, some of this stuff is just hilar…, I mean it’s not hilarious. To me, it’s insulting, but, it’s amazing that people, I don’t know where they get this stuff.
And so, for the record, no.
Dustin was probably in junior high when I was at Tech.
Another thing that brought some concern (garbled/stammering) and I’m glad we have some city councilmen here tonight. That there’s a…, there’s a rumor (garbled/stammering) that somewhere in this agreement is what’s referred to as a bond initiative; that Pope County was going to take it upon themselves to do this secret deal and cut everybody out and do a bond initiative. Which, what that’s referring to is a recent act that was passed by the State Legislature entitled Act 703.
Act 703, in simple terms, says if you put in casino and you do a bond improvement district, then the casino money pays for the bonds and annexation does you no good.
So, I’m here to tell you that is not our intent. That is not in the agreement anywhere. For one thing, bond initiatives have to be voted on and, so, that is nowhere in this consideration. That’s nowhere… it’s not even come before the court; it is simply a new state law that we were made aware of that enables that.
I’m not an advocate of enabling that. And… and so, I… I have reached out to our city counterparts and, you know, I feel comfortable that, you know, if that would ever become an issue, it would not be an issue.
So, I’m here to publicly state that I don’t foresee taking any initiative to utilize Act 703.
So… now we’re down to… I guess, conversations and innuendoes of vendor selection.
The uhh… The vendor selection… Again, there’s no, there’s no book that we can go by. There’s no book that said, “this how you do it.” And so, I’ve been the one, obviously, dealing with every individual, individual vendor the most. The members of the court have dealt with them individually, as well. And, you know, there… there’s two sides to this. There. You know. As Attorney McCall said, look, there’s nothing more that this group but put forth a ballot to you, the voters, that’s A, B, C, D, E—there’s five vendors—and none of the above. And if you’re anti-casino, check none of the above.
It’s impossible. It is absolutely impossible.
And, so, then it comes down to, why not issue, potentially, five vendor things and let the Racing Commission figure it out?
Well, we’re the ones that had to dealt with this for many, many months now. I think we have probably the most insight into who can be community partners or not. And that’s not to disparage any one vendor from the rest. It’s just to say that the state of Arkansas has shoved this down our throat to the point, why would we want to allow them to dictate who comes to our back door, when not one commissioner, and I know them all well, by this point, that… None of them live in Pope County. And, so, while I respect their job to do, you know, I’ve been tasked with the job. And I didn’t want the job, but I’ve been tasked with it.
So, that job was to, to vet vendors. And what is that process?
Well, I’ve covered all the transparency things. I’ve made it as apparent possible. I don’t feel it’s incumbent upon me to go to one vendor over the other and say, “I’ve got this offer. Can you beat it?”
I’m not going to get in that, because, remember, “I don’t care if you come here or not. I really don’t. (garbled/stammering) You know, we didn’t ask for you, the state put it upon us.”
So, I don’t feel the need to go out as a chamber of commerce would and recruit. You present to me an economic development plan.
What’s an economic development plan?
It’s money.
It’s absolutely money and amenities.
So, it’s the same whether it’s private commerce. It’s the same whether it’s… any kind of negotiations. It just kind of works in reverse in this situation because if a new company, like a (garbled/inaudible/skip)
That’s. This is just the opposite. There have been no concessions. There have been nothing promised.
Why did I call everybody on Friday and tell them this?
Well, that’s been very misconstrued, very misstated, I think.
I contacted all the different vendors out of courtesy, the way I looked at it.
I told no one of them a decision’s been made. There is no agreement signed. And, so, I just gave them the courtesy of “letting you know, hey, this has come up. This is…, the court is going to consider things on Tuesday night. If you have anything other than what you’ve already presented, then I would entertain that. And so, I would want to look at it and see a hard figure that you’re offering.”
And, again, I don’t feel it’s my duty to go out and get them to get in a bidding war. So a lot of this was…, you know…, beyond the scope of what the Amendment is, obviously.
There’s no requirement. Many of them gave me the response, “We have met the requirements of Amendment 100.” so that’s… ya know, that’s it.
We have Cherokee, Gulfside, Hard Rock, Choctaw, and Elite, and I list them, by the way, the timing in which they approached me.
So, Cherokee first approached me in March of 2018. I think I’ve stated that long ago in the editorial and then Gulfside came along in about June of 2018 and then, Hard Rock…, I don’t have a hard time on, but I do believe it was after I took office in January. The Choctaws, I’ve met with them one time at the Marriott and that was probably in April of this year, timeframe. And, then, the Elite folks, I met with them end of April, first of …, well, probably end of April. And that’s when I first became acquainted with them.
And so. Again, not to disparage any of them, but the fact is, different ones came and established different relationships, up front, and those relationships are at least half of a decision of a vetting process.
And again, the proprietary information of money and all that, that’s an equation of it. I have a fiduciary responsibility under the law to look at the money in a contract. That’s the law. I have another equal responsibility of picking, if we gotta have it, who would be a best-suited partner, in my opinion? And my opinion is no better than your opinion. And so I think that, again, it goes back to relationships. And so, the way the different vendors came to me, that establishes a relationship. And, I don’t want to give a ranking. Like I say, we’d all love to take a multiple choice question and answer session and enter: just call it the law, but, we can’t.
So, multiple choices being off the table, Why… it goes back to why only one? Why’d I only pick one?
Well, I don’t want the State of Arkansas picking that ultimate partner and, so, there’s one that stood out above the rest, and that was the Cherokee.
And, that was because, when I first met with them in March of 2018, they came hat in hand, so to speak, and they didn’t ask to come here; they didn’t ask to do anything, but, if…, if it came to a reality, they would like to be considered.
And, the first question out of their mouth is, “What can we do to help you accommodate us?” They were the first that came to that.
After our April 11th meeting, where I made a very public address of all the infrastructure needs of the county, which also benefits all the cities, I uh.., you know, I started entertaining other economic incentive plans, (hey, don’t ??) beat around the bush, money.
And…, and, so, people started reaching out on that.
But, if I’m considering the totality of this whole situation, I’m considering economic development – money – and I’m considering relationship – partnership.
And, again, it’s not something we all desired to even have, but we were handed this. We… we inherited this. And it’s a, again, it’s a difficult position to be in for each and every one of us.
If I was going to define my relationship with them, it would be that they have exhibited humility and professionalism. They have exhibited that they are solid professionals. You wonder why you hadn’t seen a lot of them? It’s.., it’s.., they’re solid professionals.
Am I endorsing them? NO.
But I’ve been charged with vetting and picking a vendor.
A vendor, not five vendors.
And so, I take that charge seriously. And, it’s a.., it’s it’s a total package thing that I had to look at and see what it all involves.
You know, obviously, Mr. Jones coming on board, that provided River Valley impact. That’s a man who has family here today and has a stated interest in not seeing anything other than what I call the Jerry Jones standard become effective. And so, that has some obvious bearing because nobody wants to see, if we got to have it, nobody wants to see failure, obviously.
So that’s some of the reasoning behind vendor selection. I respect each and every one of ‘em, some of them took… I will tell you this. And they’ve all heard this out of our mouth. They are the most miserable group of marketing people I’ve ever seen. They are. All five vendors failed miserably, if their intent was to sell themselves to this community after the fact, I think.
So, again, I won’t tell you anything out here that I wouldn’t tell you that I told them and the ones sitting here, they’ve heard that from me. So that’s no big secret. If…, if their intent was to market that, it failed.
But, it comes down, again, to my decision of a partnership versus an economic development (???) those others.
I have no doubt that this could keep one-uping one another to some point in infinity.
But they uh… Sometimes the most money is not the best partner. It’s just not.
And I think I’ve dispelled many of the other rumors out there previously in correspondence with many of you about, you know, about how Hard Rock is owned by the Seminole Indian tribe of Florida. I hope everybody realizes that and that people purchase franchises from it. Mr. Warner obtained exclusive rights to this one here. That’s…, that’s one thing, and the Cherokee have one in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And so it’s a licensing, it’s a marketing thing. One of the reasons that the Cherokee told me they didn’t want to pursue a Hard Rock here was because they wanted it to be so unique and so astounding that it would it would be unique in their venture. And I think that’s been evidenced by Mr. Jones and his family coming on board with this has been evidenced by that.
So, if you want to know why I picked a vendor, it’s not that this one outdid this one by so much. There’s no big fancy chart. It is about the relationships that were established long before.
I’d be (cough in background obscures audio) the first to say, say, Mr. Kehl, I love he and his family and their operation.
And, so, I respect the fact that all five of these vendors, that is their business, that’s their occupation. I may not have to agree with their occupation. I may not like their operation. As far as…, that’s their business.
There’s a lot of things I don’t like in this world, but, I don’t…, I don’t judge them for it. So…uh…, the morality of this whole thing come together. I listen to these people because I have to.., a fiduciary responsibility to look at all agreements.
So, uh…, I think that explains why…, why we picked one.
Simplest thing, I don’t want the State of Arkansas, either, for anyone to an individual that sues his way into our community or getting one by default.
And I don’t want to send a multitude down there to let the racing commission have ultimate say when…, when we live here. I think that’s as simple as possible.
So I think you’ve all been handed out an economic development agreement. And I’m just going to touch on the high points of it and let you have an overview. Everybody can read it for themselves.
Again, look, if there is an explanation on why…, why it is what it is, it’s because I have a legal mandated responsibility to review all contract and agreements under the law.
So, you’ll notice throughout this thing, there’s a bunch of the words, “minimums.” You know, I had the minimums put in there. That doesn’t necessarily mean there will be less than. It means or no less than that.
When you look – and I’ll refer to just start with page 3 – a hotel with a minimum 200 rooms.
I didn’t want six, seven hundred rooms, because I want our other motels to succeed. I didn’t want them. (Attempt from someone to ask question.) Please. Just remain for comments. You know, I didn’t want to see our other hotels, and stuff, suffer. So I put up a minimum. It’s up to them if they ever do anything…, expand. I didn’t want the six or seven hundred rooms. I didn’t want to hurt our local merchants in that respect.
I mandated a conference center, convention center, minimum of 1000 attendees. I mandated a outdoor concert venue, capable of 5…, a minimum of 5000 attendees. I mandated a recreational water park and (garbled/inaudible) I’m not going to read ‘em all, one by one. A lot of these refer to emergency services and they go into that. So, I’ll wait until the court wants to ask some questions on that.
If we go over to…, let’s go to page 4, economic development fees, I’m not going to beat around the bush. That’s money. That’s cash that was offered as an economic development fee. And it goes back to that first sentence, I said, “what do you need us to do to help you accommodate, you know, us?”
What is that? what it means in a nutshell.
And so you’ll look to figures on page five that involves millions…that’s about.
I do have the mayors of our community surrounding me and I’ve included them in this negotiation that I speak for many months now. I think they all agreed that I’ve not been trying hide anything. It’s been transparent.
Why would I want to involve our mayors? Well, they are the CEOs of every city in this county. And so, why would I not? This shouldn’t be a “Ben” decision. It should not. This should be taking in all the stakeholders of our county. So I reached out to our mayors and I asked for input. And so the figures, as you see represented, represent the 2019 appropriated budgets of each of those cities. That’s what.., that’s where those figures came from. That way, nobody could say anything was uh.., negotiated up, down. That is the appropriated budget of each city listed there. So that’s where that figure came from.
The fire protection district that covers the proposed location, they’ve got to have a lot of infrastructure improvement, if this were to occur. So, that is for a substation for fire protection.
The next is the mutual aid provided to the fire association who provide mutual aid to all of the departments in this county.
And, so, then you have to go all the way down through the other ones listed where we included education foundations and representatives of all school districts, all the school districts have been listed, and the various Chamber of Commerces that are active within the county. So, that kind of covers that.
So let’s go back to the top. You know, the big figure of $27,599,373. That figure encompasses what we anticipate a new jail, a new ambulance service. To locate a new jail, we have to relocate the road department. So that involves the infrastructure needs that the county provides to all the citizens.
As anyone that was aware at our Chamber of Commerce meeting back in April, April 11th, I spelled out what all of your county provides in goods and services to every citizen. The uh…, no doubt the city of Russellville is our biggest customer, and so, this figure, you know, in terms of equations, fifty-two percent of all inmates taken into the Pope County jail originate in the city of Russellville. Sixty-five percent of all ambulance run, ran by the Pope County EMS originate in the city of Russellville. And, so, the city of Russellville, are active participants in utilizing our jail, our 911, our, uh… All of our emergency services are provided to every municipality around me and the city of Russellville being our biggest customer. So I tried to look at our biggest customer and look at what the biggest customer needed, and those are the things, a jail, an ambulance service, an enhanced 911 system and address those emergency service issues. So, that is in that figure.
Now, the ca…, the convention center, the amphitheater, and the waterpark, you can call it fluff, you can call it whatever. That’s what the citizens, that’s what the citizens had told me they wanted. And that’s, you know, so, that’s,..that’s from citizen input. The citizens had told me, it’s just got to happen. We want convention center, an outdoor concert venue and a water park. And, so, that’s why it’s in there. That’s why it’s in there. Because a contract… well, if anything went to the state Racing Commission without a contract, I would not be a part of it because I want iron-clad agreements, iron-clad defaults, that protect our county. And there’s a lot of “thou shalls,” a lot of default language in there that go into “if you don’t do this, you won’t do that.” And, so, that’s a lot of it.
So, that covers the, now … any mayors, want to say anything?
(garbled/inaudible)
Community development grant; I mandated the formation of a nonprofit. That nonprofit will be used to the benefit of Pope County nonprofits to be determined in a very developed, methodical way in which the money gets distributed, because that is in perpetuity. That is two million dollars a year to a nonprofit, to be used for nonprofits, right here, in perpetuity. It also has some uh…, some riders in it as far as inflation and so forth. But, that establishes a mandated funding of a nonprofit, from now on.
And…, the reason I didn’t like the percentage rates is because, members of our court, we have very educated members of our court in all disciplines and walks of life. And, so, some brought up that percentages based on numbers could be construed to be something it’s not, and, so, they felt more comfortable with a flat, guaranteed amount and that’s.., so, that’s part of the establishment of it and the adjustment for, obviously, inflation over the years. And again, that’s in perpetuity.
I went all the way through, again, looking at the research, if it comes here, we mandated that Arkansas Tech should be in concert with whatever entity was selected and have to… and must provide economic impact statements and, I guess, an ongoing statistical review of this facility from now, and they – they being a casino vendor – have to fund it.
Some of the hiring practices. One of the things I mandated, was to have a policy that mandates that, “you will target a goal of at least 3 percent of your employees being those folks that may be defined with disabilities or have some kind of disability that prevents them working in the normal workforce.” So that’s a mandated effect… as far as a creation (??) event.
I wanted it in writing they would assume all costs of everything as far as building their facility, tearing up our roads, putting in water, sewer, whatever it takes to make their facility operate. It’s on them.
There are several other, again, legal terms in it. We put in a.., a very significant term on page 7. 5.c…, It talks about a violation or breach of that, and that will be a significant impact if you breach any part of this or if you were to lose favor with the state Racing Commission.
We mandated that they must have a continual and ongoing relationship with the uh…, either the office of the court, the office of the judge or their designee, which is a simplistic way of saying, “We’re going to oversee your building operation and everything,” because this is a, you know, such a large building and facility, it takes a…, I think it’s going to take a multitude of oversight. I think it needs a multitude of oversight.
So, again, I believe, I have visited with each JP, one on one, about the parameters of this agreement.
And, again, the selection didn’t come easy. Again, I value various vendors input. I value the process. It’s a…, you know…, choosing Cherokee over one another was a very difficult decision.
Again, it’s a decision I don’t want period, but I think I’ve outlined my statutory responsibility and that statutory responsibility has now been complied with.
(Discussion followed between Judge Cross and various JPs, with one question directed to a Russellville city council member in the audience.)