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Home My WebLink About06/11/2002 Adjourned Meeting / Study Session 54 CITY OF YAKIMA, WASHINGTON ADJOURNED MEETING /STUDY SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 11, 2002 - 7 :30 A.M. COUNCIL CHAMBERS - CITY HALL 1. ROLL CALL Present: Council: Mayor Mary Place, presiding, Council Members Clarence Barnett, Paul George, Larry Mattson, John Puccinelli, and Bernard Sims Staff: City Manager Zais, Assistant City Attorney Harvey and Acting City Clerk Watkins Absent: Council Member Buchanan 2. CONSIDERATION AND DISCUSSION OF CASINO ISSUES /REVIEW OF PROPOSED LEGISLATION: A. DRAFT ORDINANCE ADOPTING A SIX -MONTH MORATORIUM PERTAINING TO SOCIAL CARD GAMES B. PROPOSAL BY CLARENCE BARNETT TO AMEND THE ZONING CODE • TO EXTEND CLASS 3 REVIEW TO SOCIAL CARD ROOMS Bill Cook, Director of Community and Economic Development, introduced Amy Patjens, Communications and Legal Department Manager for the Washington State Gambling Commission; Ken Harper, Attorney representing the City of Yakima, and Doug Maples, Manager of Planning and Code Administration. - Mr. Cook asked Ms. Patjens to give background information on the Gambling Commission, specifically as it relates to Yakima. Mrs. Patjens introduced Tom Young, the supervisor in the Yakima Office, and handed out a packet entitled, 'Washington State Gambling Commission — Work Session, Yakima City Council" including information that other cities have gone through with regard to legislation on gambling. The packet contained information on: • The chronology and description of the laws Prior to 1996 — Traditional card rooms (gamble against other players /per hour charge for establishment) 1996 — Enhanced card rooms (added additional card games and increased fee methods) 1997 — House Banked card rooms (gamble against the house) • Common questions about how the commission regulates gambling activities Financial and criminal background investigations on all owners, spouses, and major stockholders. JUNE 11, 2002 — ADJOURNED MEETING • Licensing Process The Gambling Commission cannot deny a license to a qualified applicant in an effort to limit the number of licenses issued. There are differences between the Gambling Commission and the Liquor Control Board on licensing discretion. • House - Banked Card Rooms 71 house - banked card rooms in the state, 4 in Yakima. Card rooms have to be secondary to the primary business of serving food and drink. 5400 card room employees in the state, and 250 in Yakima; does not include restaurant staff. • Other Cities' actions against gambling Several jurisdictions have taken action to prohibit commercial card rooms, listed in the back of the handout. There have been two lawsuits filed concerning cities' ordinances prohibiting card rooms. There has not been any dispositions yet from the legislature or the courts. • Who invests in the card rooms • Mainly new businesses with shareholders resident in the state rather than existing restaurants that add a card room. • RCW 9.46.285 and 9.46.295 Cities' and Counties' abilities relating to gambling; zoning is not mentioned as a right that cities and counties have, however, many cities believe they have zoning authority. Casinos are allowed to operate 20 hours a day; 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. is the current standard. The tax rates in various cities were reviewed. RCW 295 says that you can prohibit gambling activities but can't change the scope of a license. If the city wants to allow poker rooms in the area but doesn't want house - banked card rooms, they can pick and choose in that way. The City could not control the number of tables. In discussion it was clarified that the state lottery is a separate commission from other gambling. The Lottery is regulated by the Lottery Commission whose . purpose is different from the Gambling Commission. The lottery raises money for the state general fund, specifically for schools. The Gambling Commission regulates authorized gambling. With regard to Council Member Barnett's proposal to do a Class 3 review for zoning for social card rooms, Ms. Patjens stated she is not giving legal advice, but suggested the City focus on all food and drink businesses as food and drink are required in order to have a gambling license. That would probably not put the city in the gray area to the same extent that 'singling out card rooms would, since you already have authority to zone food and drink businesses. There are many unanswered questions as the cities struggle with the prohibition /moratorium issues. • 2 56 JUNE 11, 2002 — ADJOURNED MEETING Mayor Place pointed out that the law says you can have gambling to enhance food and drink, which must be primary, but most of the casinos seem to be using food and drink to enhance gambling with the emphasis on the casino. Ms. Patjens said, although businesses are to be primarily food and drink, they do not measure the amount of food served. Basically what primarily means is that you have to have that underlying restaurant business as the first part. It doesn't mean that it has to be 49 %/51 %. Council discussed the possibility of applicants filing for a license before the moratorium is effective and questioned if that would be considered "grandfathering ". Ms. Patjens advised that if someone applied during that time frame they would inform the applicant of the moratorium and pending legislation for the city but, if the applicant did not withdraw, they would have to proceed with the licensing process. Grandfathering would be based on how the ordinance is drafted. Discussion continued on what the moratorium would accomplish. It would prevent the City from accepting building applications for a casino. But there is the potential of someone who already has a restaurant applying for a gambling license to expand their operation. Ms. Patjens said the Gambling Commission would send the applicant the sample letter advising of the City's moratorium and it • would tell them that if they wished to continue they would process their gambling license. Council discussed whether this was an emergency ordinance or not, noted that it doesn't appear to be necessary to declare it an emergency, and whether a six- month moratorium is needed; why not three months? Ken Harper, Attorney for the City, expounded on the City's latitude under police power and attempted to help clarify the difference between the Gambling Commission's authority versus the city's authority relating to zoning and land use in regard to gambling. Mr. Harper explained the purpose of Council Member Barnett's proposal, which is to clarify some definitions contained in Chapter 15.02 of the Municipal Code. That is where the city lists land -use definitions and the proposed revision would clarify those definitions to exclude social card rooms from game rooms. Right now the definitional section of the zoning ordinance does not distinguish electronic games rooms from card rooms or social card rooms. Once that distinction is made, the intent of the proposal is to apply a Class 3 review city wide to those social card rooms. This proposal of applying Class 3 review city wide provides some distance from attacking a zoning question head on and is likelier to avoid a challenge that the city has somehow usurped an area of exclusive state regulation than a categorization by zoning, but it may not completely avoid that problem. The other issue with the proposal is that Class 3 review does shift presumptions somewhat from the presumption of compatibility to the presumption of incompatibility. The discussion went on to cover other areas such as compatibility issues, the potential of legislation to allow electronic gaming machines, and the City's ability to prohibit specific gambling activities. City Manager Zais announced that this item will be on the agenda for June 18 and a public hearing will be held at the same time. Mayor Place and Council Member Barnett both emphasized that all existing gambling locations should receive notification of the upcoming public hearing. 3 JUNE 11 2002 — ADJOURNED MEETING 7 Lumi Lauden, 822 North 51 Avenue, said she is a committed Christian and a concerned citizen for a family - friendly Yakima. While she isn't against gambling in general she doesn't like the electronic machines nor craps and roulette thinking they lead to more desperate gambling. Her other concern was more with the locations of casinos, specifically the request to put one in at 40 Avenue. She would rather see that one go in somewhere else and make the area at 40 Avenue more compatible with the park. 3. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 9:15 a.m. READ AND CERTIFIED ACCURATE BY: _/ �'�' l 2 COUNCIL MEMBER DA E _ .! _! q- /7-0-2-- COUNCIL MEMBER DATE ATTEST: CITY CLERK MARY PLACE, MAYOR Minutes prepared by Linda Watkins and Karen Roberts. An audio and video tape of this meeting are available in the City Clerk's Office • 1 4