Adam Rodewald

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Opposition to the Oneida Nation’s efforts to reclaim land from Green Bay led the City Council to back out of a 15-year service agreement with the tribe Wednesday.

Tribal leaders warned the Council’s 9-3 decision could damage relations between the overlapping governments, and aldermen who wanted to maintain the contract said the move may cost taxpayers money.

But those who favored ending the agreement said it puts the city in position to stop the tribe from removing as much as $840 million from its tax roll as it reclaims former reservation land and moves it into federally-protected, tax-exempt trusts.

“This is going to restore the city’s ability to apply and enforce our ordinances over many properties we can’t right now … and it will restore the city’s ability to object to applications for more land going into (tax-exempt) trust, something we currently can’t do because the service agreement applies a gag order on us to doing that,” said Alderman Tom Sladek, whose district lies entirely within the original Oneida reservation boundaries.

Oneida Business Committee Chairwoman Tina Danforth said the city’s decision “is very disheartening” and will hinder government-to-government collaboration.

“For nearly 200 years Oneida people have lived here, a place we call home. We have expressed to the Green Bay City Council that we are not going anywhere. Neither of our communities are going away, and it behooves us to work together in striving for what is best for all residents,” Danforth said.

The Council’s decision came nearly a year after negotiations began to save the contract, under which the tribe makes direct payments to the city for garbage pickup and other city services on property-tax-exempt tribal land. In exchange, the city had agreed not to oppose the tribe's transfer of properties it owns into the tribe's federal tax-exempt trust.

The sides began renegotiating portions of the agreement in April 2015, but talks quickly stalled as they were unable to move past the trust lands issue. The transfers are a key component of the tribe's plan to reclaim its original 65,400-acre reservation. About 14 percent of Green Bay lies within the original reservation boundaries, and the Oneida are unwilling to back down from plans to reclaim that land.

Critics of the service agreement could erode hundreds of millions from the city’s $6 billion tax base and force property owners elsewhere in the city to pay more to maintain municipal services. The city also would lose jurisdictional control of that land, meaning it can't pursue new development or enforce ordinances there.

“If you take 14 percent of your land mass and it goes away, six-sevenths of the city will have to pick up the slack,” Alderman Mark Steuer said.

But walking away from the agreement carries its own costs. The tribe would have paid Green Bay nearly $300,000 annually for services provided on tribal land in 2016 and beyond.

Alderman David Nennig, who opposed terminating the agreement, said the city will still be on the hook for providing those services. He said that is one of the main reasons the city entered the agreement seven years ago.

“Without a service agreement, those services to trust properties will be paid by taxpayers throughout the community without getting a dime back from the Oneida Nation. Now, I don’t think that’s right,” Nennig said.

Aldermen Tim De Wane and Randy Scannell also voted against ending the contract. They said opposing the tribe’s land acquisitions could carry hefty legal fees and is not respectful of the tribe’s right to govern as a sovereign nation.

“I think the Oneidas feel they have the right to put that land in trust. If we reflect on what we went through not long ago with how we felt about the state taking away our rights on zoning, I think we need to respect the Oneida tribe’s right to put that land into trust,” Scannell said.

The tribe has been acquiring land and moving it into tax-exempt trusts at a pace of roughly seven parcels every two or three years, Danforth said.

The tribe has banked tens of millions of dollars since 2011 to fund its plan for reclaiming 75 percent of its original 65,400-acre reservation by 2033. The tribe currently sets aside $12 million annually for land purchases. That amount is scheduled to increase by 10 percent every five years until 2033, according to a 2010 spending resolution.

“With respect to our citizens of the Oneida Nation and our longstanding goal to recover our original homeland, we will carry out our goals and pursuit of land into trust. We are not just a property owner. We are a government,” Danforth said.

The City Council left the door open Wednesday to negotiating a new service agreement from scratch. Sladek said starting over would put the city in “a position of strength” to ask for more concessions from the tribe.

Danforth said the tribe is open to collaborating with the city, but expressed little confidence in establishing a new service agreement.

“At this point, it is what it is. I don’t think there’s any discussion to be had. It can’t all be one-sided,” she said.

arodewal@pressgazettemedia.com and follow him on Twitter @AdamGRodewald and on Facebook at Facebook.com/AdamGRodewald.