MARTINEZ — Advocates for jobs battled Tuesday with environmentalists and gambling foes before Contra Costa County supervisors who are weighing support of a proposed Indian casino and hotel complex at Point Molate in Richmond.

The public debate came as supervisors reconsidered their long opposition to the project that promises $12 million a year in payments to the county and $20 million annually to Richmond.

Contra Costa has spent nearly $1 million opposing the Guidiville band of Pomo Indians and two other tribes over casinos in West County. But high unemployment and $150 million cut from the county budget over the past year may have brought about a draft agreement promising county support for the Point Molate project in return for the annual revenue.

Developers want to build a 124,000-square-foot casino, two hotels, 300,000 square feet of retail, parks and trails, and as many as 340 homes on 266 acres near the Chevron refinery.

The deal depends on the U.S. Department of Interior agreeing to put the land in trust for the Guidiville band.

"People in West County share one objective, economic development and quality of life," Supervisor John Gioia said. "I respect casinos as a way of meeting economic goals."

Speakers in favor pointed to construction jobs and praised the deal as a way of restoring the West County economy after decades of manufacturing job losses in manufacturing.

The deal specifies that 40 percent

of nonmanagement jobs at the casino/hotel resort go to Richmond residents and 70 percent to Contra Costa residents. The tribes have also pledged to hire a high percentage of local workers for construction that would begin in 2011 and finish in 2014, said county Administrator David Twa.

"There is 25 percent to 30 percent unemployment in the building trades in West County," said Greg Feere, executive officer of the Contra Costa Building Trades Council. "We lost the Chevron refinery project and now there is no economic stimulus going on."

A leader of sheriff's deputies said the deal offers money to bolster the ailing county budget.

"We have had to make drastic cuts and we've made almost all the cuts we can make,"said Jim Bickert, president of the deputy sheriff's association,

Opposition speakers warned of traffic and environmental problems and gambling addiction. Some also argued that Indian gaming in other parts of the state has not provided the economic benefits it promised.

"Indian gaming in rural areas has yielded three dollars in costs for every dollar in benefits," said James Butler, executive director of the Coalition Against Gambling Expansion in Sacramento. "The jobs being promised are several years off."

Gioia said opposition also is coming from other Bay Area casinos that fear competition, including one in San Pablo run by the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians.

The board may hold another public meeting before making a decision.