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By Kimberly Pierceall, The
Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Calif.McClatchy-Tribune Business News
Dec. 4, 2006 - Within a two-day span, three top executives for the 27-story Morongo Casino Resort & Spa have left, tribal officials said. Employees of the 310-room resort were told Friday about the resignation of longtime General Manager Bill Davis. The day before, officials with the tribal-owned resort dismissed the casino's directors of information technology and slots, Jim Forrest and Dan Savage. Waltona Manion, a public relations consultant for the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, said Davis' resignation and Forrest and Savage's dismissal were a result of the tribe's long-range planning and not because of a single event. "Bill Davis is leaving (Morongo Casino Resort & Spa) and this will lead us in some new directions," the unsigned e-mail to employees said. "We are indebted to Mr. Davis, as he played a longtime role in Morongo's growth." The tribe is looking for permanent replacements for all three positions. Davis was on vacation in Arizona and a message left at his home was not returned Monday. Phone numbers listed for Forrest and Savage were not in service and they could not be reached for comment. In an e-mail to employees Friday, the tribe said that the search for a new general manager could take three to four months. Las Vegas-based gaming consultant Saverio "Sal" Scheri will lead a transition team to oversee the resort's daily operations and help recruit the new general manager, according to the e-mail. Davis was hired to be the casino's assistant manager in 1997 and was later promoted to general manager when the tribe began planning its high-rise Cabazon casino resort that opened in 2004. Since then the resort has faced a federal lawsuit that was later dismissed from the Las Vegas-based N9NE Group, which had managed the resort's bars and restaurants before the tribe ended the business partnership last year. ----- To see more of The Press-Enterprise, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.PE.com.
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