.<\/span><\/p>\nCourt filings reveal the tribal nation believes the process was manipulated and that Cunningham secretly directed the City Council to exclude their bid in a discriminatory manner<\/strong>. Moreover, it is claimed the city violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act and the state\u2019s gambling expansion law as city officials have allegedly failed to report some communications with Bond to regulators.<\/span><\/p>\nAccording to sworn testimony from 6th Ward Ald. Keith Turner, cited by the tribe, on October 17, 2019, in a special City Council meeting, Cunningham told him: \u201cThese are the three that we want to send to Springfield.\u201d<\/strong> The Potawatomi have also pointed to financial contributions Bond has allegedly provided to council members who voted in line with Cunningham\u2019s request.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cCunningham\u2019s secret directive was the culmination of a rigged process \u2014 a process Cunningham manipulated to achieve the outcome he preferred,\u201d the Potawatomi community alleges<\/strong> in its argument against the city\u2019s request for summary judgment in the ongoing lawsuit, further reports <\/span>Chicago Tribune<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\nFormer Mayor Cunningham responded on Wednesday to the claims being leveraged against him, calling Turner\u2019s sworn account \u201ca flat-out lie.\u201d<\/strong> He further defined the bidding process as \u201copen, fair and transparent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nMeanwhile, the city argues in court documents that \u201cthe tribe\u2019s internal communications and history of litigation reveal this scorched earth lawsuit is factually suspect.\u201d<\/strong> The filing also claims the tribe is using federal courts \u201cas zoning and licensing boards of appeal,\u201d in an attempt \u201cto invoke the federal court\u2019s jurisdiction as a means of appealing\u201d Waukegan\u2019s licensing decisions.<\/span><\/p>\nAccording to the Potawatomi court filings, Bond directed more than $50,000 to Cunningham\u2019s mayoral campaign in 2017<\/strong>. This was supposedly followed up two years later with $266,000 in contributions to four successful aldermanic candidates to the nine-member Waukegan City Council.<\/span><\/p>\nThe tribe is also claiming an associate of Bond, who was in charge of a video gambling industry association founded by the former senator in 2016, \u201cset up a joint campaign office\u201d for the Bond-backed candidates, providing support including coordinating mail programs and phone banks, among other actions.<\/span><\/p>\nCommunications allegedly even continued after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the measure to create the casino license for Waukegan, in June 2019. This required communications with applicants for the license to be disclosed to the Gaming Board within 30 days.<\/span><\/p>\nNorth Point has also been accused of attempting to achieve an unfair advantage<\/strong>. The city attorney at the time, Robert Long, failed to disclose to the Gaming Board an email sent by the firm to the city in October 2019.<\/span><\/p>\nIn the email, the business suggested that if Waukegan decided to forward multiple casino applications for consideration, the developer could enter a new agreement to reduce its initial offer<\/strong> to match the terms of the project team \u201coffering a lower financial contribution to the city.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThe tribe further claims city officials also selected Neil Bluhm\u2019s Rush Street Gaming<\/a>\/Rivers Casino for consideration as a result of Rivers\u2019 teaming up with Waukegan Gaming LLC<\/strong>, the entity that had been selected by the city in an unsuccessful 2004 effort to bring a casino to town and had filed a suit seeking the new license.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cRivers punched its own ticket in the form of damaging information it unearthed in the Waukegan Gaming litigation,\u201d claims the tribe<\/strong>. Moreover, it is being alleged the city also favored Full House \u201cas a relatively weak competitor\u201d that could ‘quash’ \u201cthe perception of bias toward North Point.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n