Amador County – The Ione City Council passed a resolution Wednesday supporting Amador County’s continued legal fight against the Buena Vista Band of Me-Wuk Indians’ Flying Cloud Casino. The vote was 4-1 with Mayor Lee Ard voting against the resolution. He said he spoke with District 2 Supervisor Richard Forster about his qualms in the legal fight, but Forster could not be at the meeting Wednesday. Ard said “I don’t want casinos, but I feel that this one will go in.” He was worried about the management of the county, seeing “people doing litigation out the back door, then layoffs out the front door” of Amador County. He said it seemed that the board of supervisors showed bad management when it voted to keep an agreement with the tribe. That occurred when the board voted 2-2, with an abstention by Supervisor Brian Oneto, in effect failing to reject an agreement with the Buena Vista Band. The agreement was then enacted by an arbitrator. Ard said “the Supervisors should know when to cut their losses and run.” Former Ione city administrator George Lambert and local activist Jerry Cassesi both urged the council to pass the resolution. The resolution requests that Amador County continue its legal challenge to the casino compact between the state of California and the Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians regarding the Buena Vista Casino. It notes that the suit was dismissed by a federal judge, who determined that the county has legal standing to bring the lawsuit, and supervisors must determine the next steps in the legal challenge to the casino compact and “may accept the decision, appeal the decision, file another action, or seek leave to amend its complaint to challenge the Buena Vista Casino compact.” The resolutions also states that “any decision by the board of supervisors not to pursue further legal steps to seek review of the challenged components of the compact would be a great disservice to the citizens of Amador County.” Story by Jim Reece