| MISSOURI GAMING COMMISSION | February 18, 2003 |
Meeting Minutes
CHAIRMAN ROBERT SMITH: Well, I guess we had better call the roll then if everybody’s here.
ANGIE FRANKS: Chairman Smith?
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Present.
MS. FRANKS: Commissioner Battle?
MS. FRANKS: Commissioner Bartch?
COMMISSIONER FLOYD BARTCH: Here.
MS. FRANKS: Commissioner Hinrichs?
COMMISSIONER JUDITH SUTTER-HINRICHS: Here.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Before we get started I just might give you a report on Muriel Battle. I went to see her last week and she’s in the hospital in the intensive care unit but she has a lung disease and she’s going to be there a couple more weeks but she seems to be doing all right. She also had a stint put in on her heart so she had heart problems, too.
COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: Oh my goodness. What hospital is she in?
CHAIRMAN SMITH: She’s in Boone Hospital Center here.
COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: Boone Hospital.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: And I think Kevin is sending a basket of fruit and a card from all of us, I assume.
COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: Good, good.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Does that include the commissioners, Kevin?
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR KEVIN MULLALLY: That’s correct.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Ok.
COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: So we’re covered?
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MULLALLY: Yes, you’re covered.
COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: Well, I’m really sorry to hear that.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: I talked to her son who’s a doctor and he thought the delay is because they’re gradually withdrawing some of these real strong drugs, they had to kill whatever the disease was, and he thought she was doing all right. She said she could have said “yes” and be present if we needed a quorum, but she’s on oxygen and I think that would have been pretty tough.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MULLALLY: I’m sure she’d appreciate a note at some point in time, but we did send the basket from commission and staff.
COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: Well, thank you for doing that.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MULLALLY: We circulated the card around and had various people sign it.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Her husband thanked us last night for coming. I guess that’s fine. How’s your operation situation, Floyd?
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: A week from Friday.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: What’s that?
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: A week from Friday.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: A week from Friday.
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: Yeah, the 28th.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: I see, well good luck with that. Well, I’ll talk to you before that.
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: Yeah, I’ll be down there in St. Louis. Well, there will just be the three of us then, won’t there?
CHAIRMAN SMITH: There will just be the three of us. Can you make it, Judith?
COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: Yeah, I’ll be there.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Good. How was Florida?
COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: It was very nice, thank you.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Ok, well good. Well, I guess we’d better get down to business then. Kevin, can you or Mr. Bradley report on what happened before the court?
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MULLALLY: Well, if we can call the roll first just so we can get . . .
CHAIRMAN SMITH: We did.
COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: We just did that.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MULLALLY: We did. Oh, I’m sorry. Mike, are you on the phone?
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL MIKE BRADLEY: Yeah, I’m on the phone. I was headed back from Eminence and going through Columbia to drop a car off, so when I heard about this I just swung by the house.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MULLALLY: All right, if you want to give them a summary of the court action.
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Yeah, what happened, and Mike Bushmann was there as well which was helpful, is that they, Sigma, of course, filed an action in Cole County Circuit Court and requested several things. We had an emergency hearing on it last week in front of Judge Callahan. Basically, after hearing the arguments of both sides, Judge Callahan kind of was of the opinion that he didn’t want to get involved in the Gaming Commission affairs, he didn’t want to get involved in second guessing the Gaming Commission, but his opinion was well, if we give them 90 days or something to get their hearing that probably won’t cause a great deal of harm, and if they have their hearing and they’re successful then they won’t have been out of business for the 90 days. If they have their hearing and aren’t successful then so be it, basically was his attitude. So he issued an order . . .
CHAIRMAN SMITH: And the hearing you’re talking about is the contempt one?
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: No. It’s a hearing in front of the Gaming Commission hearing officer.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Yes, but I forget what that is.
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Well, we actually have two hearings: one is a suitability hearing, and then the other, of course, is on the proposed discipline.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Ok, the discipline.
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Ok.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Which one does he think we should wait on, the discipline or the . . .
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Well, the suitability, because the suitability, if they lose that then they’re out of business. So, he was basically giving them a chance to come and prove before the hearing officer who would then make a recommendation to you within the next three months on whether or not they should remain in business in Missouri.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MULLALLY: They seem to be making a big deal out of a comment that I made in the paper that wasn’t entirely, the part they quoted I guess was accurate, they didn’t print all of my comments, but where I said that the disciplinary action effectively, I said from a practical standpoint, becomes moot. They seem to be very offended by that, but I think our position, if I’m not mistaken, Mike, is that the statute clearly states that each period of licensure is for one year and that each new application is a fresh licensing period so their appeal of their discipline is an appeal of a suspension of a license which is expired.
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Right.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MULLALLY: So, they’re certainly entitled to a hearing on it. I suspect that there will be a motion to consolidate the hearings.
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Yeah, I’ll have to kind of consider that to see whether we want to do that or not but they haven’t made one as of yet. Kevin’s exactly right. They seem to go off of the comments made in the newspaper more than the comments made in the legal proceedings, quite frankly, which I thought was kind of unique. But basically all that the court did was give them 90 days to get a suitability hearing. That’s very similar to, you may not be aware, but we sent them a letter after your preliminary order on they haven’t proven their suitability, offering them a chance to get a hearing before their license expired last week, and they didn’t take us up on it. So, all that’s really happened is that the judge is giving them what we were trying to give them but they refused to accept. He has given them some extra time. The way that the judge issued the order is that instead of him ordering them to have their license extended, which is what Sigma wanted, they just wanted their old license extended for three more months, the judge issued an order saying that the Gaming Commission should give them a temporary license for 90 days. That goes back to something Kevin was talking about. Our position, based on the statute, is that they have an annual supplier’s license. In Sigma’s example, they got a license February 15, 2002, a year from that date, they don’t have a license anymore. They have to come back and get a new one. I think one of our positions has always been that it is just not an automatic, rubber stamp renewal, it is that you have to come back each time and prove you’re suitable. All the judge has done is given them another 90 days to do that.
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: And, in fact, the matter is that after we pass this resolution, May 16th they’re without a license.
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Unless we . . .
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: Unless we take other action.
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Unless we take other action.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Unless the court does.
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Unless the court does.
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: Well, if the court does but . . .
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: And if we can show a good faith effort to get them their hearing between now and then, I really would doubt that Judge Callahan will give them any extra time. Now, if something comes up unforeseeable to any of us, he possibly could. But, if we’re doing good faith to get them their hearing, which we intend to do, I don’t think they’ll go past the 90 days.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: This is kind of what I suspected would happen anyway, that they would get a temporary restraining order.
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Right.
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: But it really puts us in a better position. It seems to me that having the judge give the extension rather than us doing it, it protects what we’re really all about anyway.
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Right.
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: You know.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: I think that’s a good point, Floyd. I think that we couldn’t, we’ve given them other extensions, and I think that we were at the end of the line. I wasn’t surprised that the judge would go ahead and do this.
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: But this puts us in an awful lot better position down the road sometime when we’re dealing with some other vendor or whatever, that we’ve done the right thing.
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Right.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: And that probably won’t be, I guess they’ll be requesting a postponement or a further extension in 90 days.
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Well, if they’ve had a chance to have a hearing, I don’t think Judge Callahan’s going to give it to them because they had actually raised a lot of other issues about statutory construction of the annual license as opposed to renewals and asking for permanent extensions. Judge Callahan just basically told them he wasn’t going to give it to them. He basically said, I’m going to give you three months to get your hearing and if you win your hearing more power to you. If you lose the hearing, take it up to the Western District.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: And the order they would take up is after you have a hearing and the hearing officer acts and then we either approve or disapprove his order.
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Exactly.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: And we want to try to get that done in 90 days.
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: I don’t think there’s any reason that we won’t. The only problem we will have is we’ve had one of our witnesses who’s been called up to active military duty, but we’ll work around it.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Do we have the power to take depositions?
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Yes, we do.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: That’s what I thought.
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Yes, we do.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Maybe we ought to get that done in a hurry.
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Well, we tried to get that done, actually, Monday of last week because we thought he was leaving at the end of the week, and Uncle Sam decided they needed him sooner. So, our best plans fell apart but we’re keeping track of him and we’ll be able to work something out.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Anybody else have any questions about what we have facing us, which basically is a resolution granting the 90 days that the court directed us to do?
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Right.
COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: Sounds great to me.
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: Sounds good to me and we probably ought to . . .
COMMISSIOENR HINRICHS: My dog agrees.
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: We probably ought to move along and do it before we lose one of the three of us, since there’s only three of us.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Yeah, that’s right.
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: The way these teleconferences go, we could lose somebody at any time.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: I could be gone tomorrow. So, do we have a motion then to approve the resolution 03-023?
COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: So moved.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: All right, moved by Commissioner Hinrichs, is there a second?
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: Yes, I second that.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: It’s been seconded. Any further discussion? If not, let’s call the roll.
MS. FRANKS: Chairman Smith?
CHAIRMAN SMITH: In favor.
MS. FRANKS: Commissioner Bartch?
COMMISSIONER FLOYD BARTCH: In favor.
MS. FRANKS: Commissioner Hinrichs?
COMMISSIONER JUDITH SUTTER-HINRICHS: In favor.
MS. FRANKS: By your vote, you’ve adopted Resolution No. 03-023.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: The resolution is adopted. I might mention that in connection with this, I read some material that Harold sent us on the National Gaming Reports. One of the comments was that I guess Nevada does not give annual licenses but gives some sort of permanent license per situation, but I think we have a better system.
COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: I like ours better.
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: It’s easier to get rid of them if you want.
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Well, that’s the idea.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Anything else, Mike, that you think we need to know about this case at this point?
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: Not at this point.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Ok, I do hope that we, I think we ought to move immediately on trying to get a setting and getting something set up. They’ll probably want to delay it but . . .
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: They’ve already informed me that they want to take depositions of Gaming Commission staff and they’re supposed to fax me a list of who they want to depose. So, we can accommodate them.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Do we have to appoint a hearing commissioner now or has somebody been appointed or where are we on that?
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: I think Judge Wilson’s appointed on it. He was on the discipline, so I think he’s going to stay on.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: That’s right, he was on the discipline. Ok. And is he moving on that one, too, or is that just going to sit?
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BRADLEY: We’re going to move on each of them. I just haven’t decided whether we want to consolidate or not.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Any other questions about this?
COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: Sounds good to me.
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: I have none.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: One other thing, I guess just for informational, I wondered where we were on the, Kevin, could you briefly tell us where we are in appropriations?
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MULLALLY: Yes, we’ve had our budget presented in both the House and Senate. The Senate wrapped up last night around 10 o’clock by the time they got done with us and the Patrol. The House mark-up begins tomorrow. That’s where the House actually starts to mark-up the Governor’s recommendations and determine what they’re going to recommend to the full House appropriations committee. I don’t know that they will get to us tomorrow, but we’re going to be over there monitoring it. Then, of course, the budget bills have to originate in the House. That process will begin first although we will continue to work with the Senate appropriations and staff on the process. As you’re well aware, Mr. Chairman, a long and arduous process but it seems to be going reasonably well from our standpoint at this point.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Good, that sounds encouraging. One other request while I’ve got everybody on the phone, could you, Debbie or somebody look up when I was actually appointed? I want to be sure that we don’t set something after my term expires. I think it’s either the end of April or the first of May.
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: That’s the end of your six years, you mean?
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Yes. Well, it’s really five years but it’s two terms, no actually it would be the six years, you’re right.
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: I think the statute . . .
CHAIRMAN SMITH: The six years. So, we want to be sure we don’t mess something up by me appearing beyond when I’m appointed. Can somebody check that?
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MULLALLY: Yes, we will.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Anything else that we need to do? I don’t think we have anything for closed session do we?
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MULLALLY: No, we put that on there just in case some legal issues arose that would have required us to go into closed session during the course of this discussion, but we don’t have anything planned for closed session.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Then I guess the question is, are we still set for the 26th then for the meeting in St. Charles?
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MULLALLY: Yes, sir. We’ve got St. Charles City Hall. I believe we are staying at the Drury in Mid Rivers.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Floyd, you’re going to fly in?
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: I’m going to fly in and somebody’s going to pick me up, I believe.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MULLALLY: Floyd’s going to fly in. I plan to be there and take Commissioner Hinrichs around to see a few of the facilities the day before.
COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: I’m going to find out what gambling is all about. You know, I’ve been saying to people, as far as I’m concerned, a royal flush is something middle-aged women have.
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: You’re going to find out the truth, huh?
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Be sure she knows what the real one is. Well, you’ve got a lot of touring to do then. You all had better start early. Ok, well that’s great.
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: Well, I will see all of you next week then.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Well, anything else? If not, do we have a motion to adjourn the meeting?
COMMISSIONER BARTCH: I’ll make that motion.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Is there a second?
COMMISSIONER HINRICHS: Second that.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: All right, let’s call the roll.
MS. FRANKS: Chairman Smith?
CHAIRMAN SMITH: In favor.
MS. FRANKS: Commissioner Bartch?
COMMISSIONER FLOYD BARTCH: In favor.
MS. FRANKS: Commissioner Hinrichs?
COMMISSIONER JUDITH SUTTER-HINRICHS: In favor.
CHAIRMAN SMITH: Ok, the motion is adopted and we’ll see you next week.