It won't be a long, costly arbitration process after all.

Continuing a recent trend of unexpected decisions, the board of supervisors couldn't agree on whether to participate in a binding arbitration process that will result in the county's second casino project moving forward. With District 5 Supervisor Brian Oneto abstaining due to a perceived conflict of interest, the remaining four board members deadlocked for the third time in three weeks on the controversial Buena Vista casino issue.

As a result, county officials won't be able to lobby for a project alternative in arbitration they feel could better mitigate the negative impacts of a multi-level gaming facility five miles east of the city of Ione.

"This should be a very short process given that the county didn't submit a proposal," acknowledged County Administrative Officer Terri Daly. She said the county won't argue for a particular arbitrator either, which is a moot issue now that there's only one proposal for one to pick.

A decision could come within 30 to 90 days, though it will likely be soon once an arbitrator is assigned by the American Arbitration Association. The tribe expects construction to take roughly 16 months, and hopes to open its gaming facility in the summer of 2009.

Opponents in Ione and the nearby town of Buena Vista, where a casino is planned on 17 acres of tribal land along Coal Mine Road, have cited the project's proposed location, public safety issues, water monitoring and an inadequate supply as lingering concerns.

The supervisors who last week blocked approval of an Intergovernmental Services Agreement with the five-member Buena Vista Band of Me-Wuk Indians, Chairman Richard Forster and District 4's Louis Boitano, said they were siding with their constituencies in rejecting an agreement that was poised to be accepted a day before the March 11 vote.

The county seemingly dodged a bullet Wednesday when the tribe submitted a proposal virtually identical to the one a deadlocked board left on the table last week.

Except for a provision that would have reimbursed the county $1.4 million in legal costs, the agreement remains largely the same. The project would remain scaled down to 950 slots, with a one-time expansion to 1,650, which would reopen negotiations. The tribe's proposal also offers the county a one-time payment of $18 million and annual payments of $7.7 million for the life of the 20-year compact.

The county would divvy up the payments among law enforcement, fire protection, water modeling and other areas.

"We could have made substantial and justifiable changes to the ISA that would have been much more favorable to the tribe, but chose not to," said John Tang, chief executive officer of the tribe. "Half the supervisors who voted supported the negotiated ISA. We want to support that."

One of the surprise concessions that remains intact is the county's continued ability to prevent a casino through the federal court process. That was one of the last concessions the tribe agreed to in the hopes of gaining supervisors' approval. At the board's March 4 meeting, Forster said he would sign any agreement that allowed the county to continue a 2 1/2-year-old federal lawsuit challenging the compact and the eligibility of the land for Indian gaming. Forster reneged on that offer last week.

That suit has gone unheard for nearly three years.

Based on casino deals in other communities, the language of the state compact and the studied impacts of the Jackson Rancheria Casino and Hotel, county officials feared losing $4 million a year in the arbitration process. In anticipation of arbitration, the district attorney's office last week was reviewing more than 2,700 case files to show the correlation between area crime and Jackson's casino.

District Attorney Todd Riebe told the Ledger Dispatch last week that his office had been able to show a stronger correlation than previously identified.

Jerry Cassesi, chairman of Friends of Amador County, a local citizen's group opposed to a casino in Buena Vista, believed arbitration could have brought more money to the city of Ione, which is set to receive $100,000 a year under the proposed agreement.

"You enter into arbitration because you have to enter into arbitration," he told the Ledger Dispatch last week.

That reflected popular opinion until Wednesday, when the county announced it would sit the process out. The tribe, too was surprised, according to spokesman Ryan Rauzon. County Administrative Officer Terri Daly suggested the cost of a lengthy arbitration process could have factored into the board's deadlock.

"Going through arbitration is like going through a trial," she said. The county would have to hire and prepare consultants, a process that is expected to cost around $500,000.

Now that arbitration is imminent, time is running out for the county to stop the casino. Daly said there has still been no direction out of closed session on whether to pursue an injunction against the construction of a casino once the arbitration process ends this spring, nor has there been any direction to look into purchasing a bond if the county is successful in winning an injunction before the federal judge that has not considered its current suit for nearly three years.

If the county wins an injunction, "the tribe would require a bond on our part as insurance," she said. If the county delays the construction of a casino for a year and the county's suit is ultimately unsuccessful, "we would have to pay for damages," Daly added.

As for how much such a bond would be for, that remains unknown.