Tomorrow, September 28, the City Council has on its agenda a vote on the Land Development Agreement (LDA) with Upstream Point Molate LLC, which would provide a five-year option during which time Upstream intends to convey the property to an Indian Tribe for a destination resort incorporating a casino.

The existing Excusive Right to Negotiate (ERN) held by Upstream expires at midnight tonight. Expect ChevronTexaco, perhaps in concert with other organizations, to present a formal offer to the City of Richmond at 8:00 AM tomorrow morning. The scope and price of the ChevronTexaco offer remains a tightly held secret, but expect it to surpass the previous $34 million informal offer.

The Richmond City Council will have at least two offers in front of it tomorrow night, with the freedom, for the first time in nine months, to pursue either one. Rumors of other potential offers have also surfaced in recent days. This should all make for an exciting meeting. Things have moved a long way from last year when the Richmond City staff advised the City Council that Point Molate was of so little value and entailed so many risks that the City should tell the Navy “no thanks.” Fortunately, the City Council voted to move ahead with an RFP for potential developers, and today we have corporate giants engaged in a multi-million dollar bidding war.

In the last few days, ChevronTexaco, perhaps aided by other business interests against California gaming, have launched a full court lobbying effort that includes mailings, newspaper ads and phone calls. In a relatively new version of phone campaigning, Richmond residents are contacted by phone and given a verbal rundown on the negative aspects of the proposed casino. Then, they are connected directly to the phones of City Council members where they can verbalize their opposition. Only those opposed are provided the connection, so that phone calls, which number in the hundreds, are 100% in opposition.

I have prepared and attached to this email a critical analysis of the Upstream proposal in the attached PDF file that has been forwarded to Upstream and City staff for response. It has lots of photos and diagrams for those interested in details.

point_molate_LDA_analysis.pdf