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Shady Past Dies Hard
for Yosemite Operator Delaware North builds a solid reputation, park officials say by Michael Doyle The independent counsel's examination of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt issued last week and a defamation suit settled earlier spotlight how business competitors still whisper about Buffalo, N.Y.-based Delaware North Co. This persistence of old stories also sheds light on the bare-knuckled lobbying world. "I'm at a point now where I just have to kind of chuckle," said Gary Fraker, vice president of Delaware North's business development division."It's amazing to me that something this old keeps coming up." Fraker, a 24-year Delaware North veteran, ran Yosemite operations until recently and from his Fresno base will lead the company's ventures into other parks. The company was neither the subject of the independent counsel's report nor party to the defamation lawsuit. The company's reputation, though, did come into play when lobbyists sought to block a proposed Indian casino. The lobbyists falsely linked Delaware North to the casino proposal and circulated stories about Delaware North's colorful past. This lobbying campaign, in turn, came under the scrutiny of independent counsel Carol Elder Bruce. Bruce was investigating whether Babbitt lied to lawmakers about his handling of the casino application in Hudson, Wis. "Neither Bruce Babbitt nor any government official at Interior or the White House entered into any sort of specific and corrupt agreement to influence the outcome of the Hudson casino application," Bruce concluded in her 484-page report issued Tuesday. During her 21-month investigation, Bruce brought her spotlight to bear on the Delaware North stories. The company began as Emprise 85 years ago with popcorn stands and expanded into racetracks and sports concessions. Renamed Delaware North, the company moved into national parks in 1993 with the high-profile Yosemite concessions contract. Since then, it has won contracts at Sequoia National Park, California's Asilomar Conference Grounds and others. "We've been very much impressed with their professionalism," Sequoia National Park concessions manager Peggy Williams said. "They've gone to great lengths to try to build something both they and the people of the United States could be proud of." Delaware North built the new $14 million Wuksachi Village to house Sequoia visitors. The company also is making improvements at Yosemite, including new facilities at Glacier Point. "They've been really great to work with, and they certainly know what the national parks are all about," Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said. But before Delaware North entered Yosemite, competitors reminded regulators of the company's time as Emprise. Under its late founder, Louis Jacobs, father of current president Jeremy Jacobs, Emprise had some dealings with organized crime figures. Congressional hearings revealed old company practices that included secret cash payments to politicians in the 1950s. In 1972, Emprise was convicted of conspiracy and fined $10,000 for concealing mob interest in the Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Since then, company officials say they've diligently cleaned house. "Those are things that happened more than 40 years ago," Delaware North spokeswoman Karen Liberatore said. "A lot of time has passed, and the company is run entirely differently." For some, though, the old stories still pack a punch. And in 1995, Bruce's report shows, lobbyists for Minnesota tribes competing with the proposed Hudson casino were "pursuing a strategy of tainting the Hudson application by claiming that Delaware North Companies owned the track." Delaware North did own another Wisconsin dog track but had nothing to do with the Hudson casino proposal. Nonetheless, Bruce reported, lobbyists spread assertions "that there were persistent rumors that Delaware North had connections to organized crime." These lobbyists, with the firm O'Connor and Hannan, included a former Illinois congressman and two partners who also have represented firms such as General Electric, Lockheed Martin and Atlantic Richfield. Memos uncovered by Bruce show the lobbyists spread the Delaware North stories to White House staffers, Washington Post reporters, the head of the Democratic National Committee and top Interior Department officials. In June 1995, the lobbyists met with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. The lobbyists also insisted on privacy. "I thought maybe it was something that was so sensitive and secret that they couldn't talk about it except to me," McCain later testified. The lobbyists discussed Delaware North with McCain, showed him a critical newspaper article about the company and later contended that McCain offered to alert Justice Department officials. McCain, though, testified he never did anything with the information. The lobbying campaign went well beyond the Delaware North stories. Eventually, Babbitt overturned a favorable staff recommendation and rejected the Hudson casino application. In his formal response to the Bruce report, lobbyist Patrick O'Connor says Bruce's study "serves as a soap box" to criticize lobbying and fund-raising practices and amounts to a "waste and abuse of taxpayers' funds." When the Hudson casino supporters discovered what had happened, they sued the lobbyists for defamation. A federal judge initially dismissed the suit, because the lobbyists were impugning Delaware North's reputation and not that of Hudson casino. An appellate panel, though, revived the lawsuit because the Delaware North allegations could raise inferences about the Hudson casino's background. In May, the lobbyists settled the defamation suit by agreeing to pay a total of $1,000. "We'd gotten to the point where the cost of proceeding would have exceeded what we could have gotten out of it," said Mark Goff, spokesman for the plaintiffs. Delaware North officials anticipate new business opportunities in state and federal parks. They'd just as soon not hear much more about the old Emprise allegations, but know old stories die hard. "Every once in a while," Fraker said, "it keeps coming back." |
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