Seneca golf course hiring questioned

IDA board member wants update on tribal employment rules, status of Lewiston land

By Nick Mattera and Mark Scheer
Niagara Gazette

Connolly said many contractors have been required to involve Native workers during the golf course construction project and he wants to know if the practice is appropriate considering the property in question has received tax breaks from the county’s IDA.

“The TERO issue is something that I would like to talk at length about at Thursday’s meeting,” Connolly said.

The IDA Board recently approved a year-long extension on the tax rider the LGCC has receiving. The rider allowed the LGCC to be exempt of sales tax when purchasing equipment and materials used to build the 250-acre course.

One contractor, Sue-Perior Concrete and Paving of West Seneca, has raised similar questions about TERO enforcement at the site. Sue-Perior, which has performed work on the construction site since 2007, is currently involved in a legal dispute over money it says it is owed by the Lewiston Golf Course Corp., which oversaw the development of the golf course as a subsidiary of the Seneca Gaming Corp.

Sue-Perior’s Director Dave Pfeiffer said at least nine of his employees were forced off the job in favor of native workers.

“These guys have families to support, and they just come out here and say you and you go home, that’s not right,” he said. Pfeiffer believes the LGCC overstepped its bounds by inappropriately enforcing TERO in a project where it is not allowed.

“Where is the Federal Government?” Pfeiffer added. “Where is the Department of Labor? This is taxpayers’ money and nobody wants to come to the plate.”

Seneca Nation TERO official Rick Bennett declined comment and referred all questions to Deputy Counsel for the Seneca Nation of Indians, Chris Karns.

Seneca Nation President Barry E. Snyder Sr. later released the following statement: “TERO provides for Indian preference in employment. This ordinance has been in place for a number of years and is in accordance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 authorizing businesses and enterprises on or near Indian reservations to give preferential treatment to Indians. To further this position, in 1988 the Chairman for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a policy statement on Indian preference under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The author of the policy statement is current U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. I don’t think there should be any question with respect to the legality of our Nation’s TERO position on Seneca employment.”

Former Congressman John LaFalce, now a lawyer at the Amherst firm of Hogan Willig, disagrees.

“The premise of Native preference on land that is not considered sovereign is comparable to a contractor coming here from Switzerland and disregarding every state or federal employment law established and following the laws that they would follow on sovereign Swiss territory,” LaFalce said.

LaFalce, who is a member of Citizen’s for a Better Buffalo, an anti-casino organization who has battled the construction of the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino, said he does not believe TERO should apply in this instance.

“While TERO may have been proven in a native Tribal court, never has it been proven in a federal or state court in the United States,” he added.

A spokesperson for the Department of the Interior’s Bureau for Indian Affairs said the land in question is not sovereign land.

“In order for a territory to be considered sovereign, they must be registered with us, in our computers and the lands that are in question are not, meaning that they are private or public lands, and not-native,” the representative said.

IDA attorney Mark Gabriele said he would look into the issue if it is brought up at this week’s NCIDA meeting. According to Gabriele, if there are any violations of the rider, the IDA would be forced to place the LGCC on 30 days notice to fix the problem or jeopardize its tax breaks.

“I would ask for the opinion of the Bureau for Indian affairs to find out the status of that land,” Gabriele said.

The IDA’s regular board meeting begins at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Niagara County Center for Economic Development offices, Vantage Center, 6311 Inducon Corporate Drive, Suite One, Sanborn.