Medford City Council voted Thursday to take a neutral stance on a proposed tribal casino on Highway 99 in Medford.

A divided Medford City Council on Thursday night reversed its long-standing opposition to a proposed casino.

The council voted 5-3 for a resolution that shifted the city to a neutral position with the Coquille Indian Tribe to gain more leverage as the city negotiates with the tribe for an agreement to provide police, fire and other city services on proposed tribal land.

Former Mayor Gary Wheeler submitted a letter opposed to dropping the opposition to the casino, which would be built on 2.4 acres of land along Highway 99 in south Medford.

“That would be a mistake,” Wheeler stated in a letter read aloud by former Jackson County commissioner Sue Kupillas, who also voiced her opposition.

In 2013, the council, led by Wheeler, adopted a resolution opposing the designation of the property as tribal land by the United States Department of the Interior.

An agreement between the city and the Coquille is needed because the “fee-to-trust” federal designation would put the 2.4 acres of tribal land outside Medford’s regulatory authority and set the stage for the Coquille to build a casino.

In 2013, when the council officially opposed the casino, the city had little information to determine the impact of the casino on city services and worried about the effects of a massive gambling operation on the surrounding community. Since then, the Coquille has built the Compass by Margaritaville hotel adjacent to the proposed tribal property where Roxy Ann Lanes is located. The tribe has provided the city with $500,000 in system development fees for the hotel.

The city has more detailed information about the casino after the release Nov. 25, 2022, of a 1,919-page draft environmental impact statement.

The original proposal, opposed by former Gov. Kate Brown, the Cow Creek Tribe in Douglas County and others, was rejected by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2020 after an eight-year effort by the Coquille tribe, which operates a casino in North Bend. Since then, the Tribe has renewed its effort to get a casino.

Councilor Nick Card proposed delaying acting on the resolution while he and other new council members had a chance to digest the issues.

“In my two months as a counselor, this is the biggest fire hose I’ve been drinking from,” he said.

Councilor Sarah Spansail, who seconded the motion to continue, said she needed more time to study the resolution and the long history of the city’s relationship with the Coquille.

“I did not know there was a resolution on the books opposing the casino,” she said. “I don’t feel comfortable reversing what the previous council did.”

The motion to continue was tied 4-4, and Mayor Randy Sparacino broke the tie by opposing it.

Councilor Jessica Ayres also voted to continue the resolution to get newer councilors, including herself, up to speed on the issue.

“The business community reaching out to me is in total opposition,” she said.

Councilor Kevin Stine said, “If the entire business community cared, why did they not show up.”

He said he hasn’t received any emails or calls about this resolution, adding most community members are not concerned about the issue. He said the major concern people have in the community is the ongoing situation with homelessness.

Sparacino said the only opposition he’s heard previously was from lobbyists of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, which runs Seven Feathers in Canyonville.

Other councilors, including Eric Stark, said the neutral resolution helps place the city in a nonpolitical position in regard to an issue that is decided at the federal level anyway.

Jessica Bochart-Leusch, a member of the Cow Creek Tribal Board of Directors, urged the council to deny the resolution of neutrality.

She said an environmental impact statement indicates her tribe would lose 25% of its profits if the Coquille casino is built.

“We feel it would be much, much more,” she said.

Over the past few months, the city and the Coquille have engaged in negotiations with the city, which would provide various city services on what could become tribal land. The agreement is needed because federally recognized tribal land generally operates outside normal state and local regulations.

Eric Mitton, Medford city attorney, said the city would be in a better negotiating position with the Coquille if the council approved a position of “conditional neutrality.”

Without getting into details of the negotiations, Mitton said the city has been reviewing the Coquille’s proposals.

“The ball’s in our court,” he said.