Residents Hesitant to Take Chance on Casino : Oxnard: Survey shows a cautious mood on a proposed club. A public hearing is due.

The boiler operator says give it a try. But the young mother is concerned that it could take food off a family’s table. And the printer says it’s something for nothing and there’s an ethical price to pay.

The big issue in Oxnard is casino gambling, and those were among the comments last week as civic leaders and average citizens began to weigh the prospect of building a large card club in their hometown.

While some support bringing big-time gambling to Oxnard, the mood of many residents was one of caution. Two-thirds of about 50 residents interviewed said they oppose a casino.

At the Centerpoint Mall, a cluster of employees, taking a break on a hot afternoon, said a large card club would bring nothing but crime and trouble.

“If they approve it, they better put a Gamblers Anonymous right across the street,� saleswoman Melody Singleton said.

At bustling BG’s Coffee Shop in the old downtown, longtime owner Gloria Stuart said the city needs the extra police a gambling tax could pay for.

“If this is the only way the city can make some money, let’s go for it,� she said.

At The Olive Garden restaurant, close to the site of a proposed casino along the Ventura Freeway, the general manager said a 1,000-customer-a-day card club would be good for business, but he couldn’t help worrying.

“Looking at it through the company, it could be a big boom for us,� said manager Ralph Ecton, an Oxnard native. “But I’m just not sure it would bring the type of people we want to have in this area.�

What Oxnard residents think about gambling concerns the Oxnard City Council, which last week rejected a staff recommendation to begin accepting casino applications, then set a June 22 public hearing.

Council members said they had heard so little from constituents about the card club issue--which has prompted angry debate in other cities--that they were not ready to make even a preliminary decision.

The issue has slumbered in a city government committee, because Oxnard, unlike most California cities, permitted gambling before a new state law took effect in 1984. That allows the city to sanction casinos without taking the issue to voters as a referendum.

As a result, no formal campaign has been waged, and it is only now that influential community groups--and individual residents--are beginning to address the issue.

Several Oxnard ministers said in interviews last week that they oppose casinos as ruinous to families and destructive to the city’s image and as a loose-cash invitation to organized crime.

“I’m glad they’re anxious to hear from us,� said Jeff Brown, spokesman for the Calvary Chapel of Oxnard. “They will hear from us in a big way on the 22nd. Don’t be surprised if several hundred, if not several thousand, people are at that hearing.�

Meanwhile, directors of the Oxnard Chamber of Commerce have begun to seriously discuss the issue and expect to take a position this week.

“I feel if it became a vote of the populace, it would be turned down,� said chamber President John Waters, owner of a real estate investment firm. “But I don’t know if the populace should be the ones to decide this.

“To me, it needs to be a business decision (based on) what’s best for the residents, what’s best for business and what’s best for the city. We need to get away from the personal beliefs and feelings.�

Just last week, the personal beliefs of voters defeated four card club initiatives in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Voters in Cypress, Stanton and West Hollywood all overwhelmingly rejected the clubs. In Pico Rivera, a poorer community east of Los Angeles, a casino measure narrowly lost.

In each case, fears of rising crime and unsavory elements countered promoters’ promises of hundreds of new jobs and millions of dollars in new taxes for the cash-strapped cities.

To sample the public’s view of card clubs in Ventura County, The Times last week interviewed about 50 residents and business owners, nearly all from Oxnard.

The interviews indicated that Oxnard residents are generally aware of the issue and that they have strong reservations about opening up their community to a large card club like the 50-table, 50,000-square-foot casino proposed.

About two-thirds of the residents said they would vote against a casino if the decision was theirs. Only among young men and some business operators did a casino get much backing.

While residents knew little about card clubs--or even what games could be played in them--they said a large casino would create crime problems, pull money away from needy families and encourage compulsive gamblers.

Casino opponents also said they thought a card club would stigmatize Oxnard as a city so desperate for revenue that it would profit from the vices of its residents.

“Why don’t they just go ahead and make brothels and opium dens legal, and let’s make some real money,� stationery store owner Rick Manzer said. “If the council does this, they’ve totally given up any positive image for Oxnard. We’d be in the same league as Commerce and those cities that (have lost) any kind of community feel.�

Among card club supporters, several young men said they would welcome the new recreational outlet, and some business owners said increased customer traffic would boost sales, create jobs and help pay for city services such as police protection and graffiti investigation.

Others said gamblers will gamble one way or another and that Oxnard may as well benefit from it. They argued that a quick decision by Oxnard would capture the Ventura County gambling market before other cities opt for a large casino.

“I think there are legitimate concerns that if (casino promoters) want to come up here, maybe it won’t be here but in Camarillo, and they’d benefit from the revenues,� said chamber President Waters. “If there’s going to be a card club in Camarillo, or Ventura or Oxnard, I’d rather it be in Oxnard.�

Comments by a young mother, a golf course concessionaire, a retired engineer and a bookstore manager were typical of the uneasiness and emotion many residents expressed about card clubs.

“I’m personally not in favor of it,� said Barbara Wamhoff, who runs the food outlets at River Ridge Golf Course. “It’s the gambling. We haven’t experienced it yet. And you just don’t know what it might bring to this area.�

Rebecca Ramon, the mother of two small children, said she puts gambling, drugs and alcohol all in the same category.

“With people gambling, they just run up their family expenses and leave their children without any money,� Ramon said, wheeling her 10-month-old son, Julian, out of The Esplanade mall. “The families will suffer.�

Engineer Bill Parman, completing his morning walk inside the mall, said, “The Mafia uses gambling so they can get a toehold on government.�

And because so many gamblers who can’t afford to lose are drawn by the prospect of quick riches, taxes from a casino would be regressive, Parman said. “They would be from those who can’t afford to pay for food and clothing.�

But John McDougal, 36, a mall bookstore manager, said his first reaction to casino plans was to applaud the tax benefits.

“Plus it’s probably a lot of fun,� he said.

Nor does he believe a casino would increase crime.

“Fillmore has had a card club just about since I can remember, and I don’t remember reading about any problems they had,� McDougal said.

The Fillmore club has closed, but two other small card clubs remain open in Ventura, where police say crime has not been a problem.

Several Oxnard residents said they have had experiences with card clubs. And they too are split on a casino’s virtues.

S.R. Johnson, a Hueneme Bay retiree, said he worked for years as a manager of a Gardena card club owned by his father.

“I didn’t see any crime,� Johnson said, “and as long as I worked there, I never played.�

Barber Lee Shakeley, 51, a resident of Bell until he moved to Oxnard in 1990, said he watched in the 1980s as the Bell Club opened amid a hidden-ownership scandal and closed last year when the owner fled the country during a state investigation.

“It did bring in a lot of money, but I’ve never seen a city that can keep the criminals out,� he said. “It’s a short-term fix, but it’ll corrupt what morals the politicians have up here because you’re talking big money.�

A discussion by five employees at the Centerpoint Mall also helped define the casino issue.

In their own small plebiscite, four male and female workers between the ages of 32 and 44 voted against a casino, saying the city needs new businesses that reinforce family values, not tear them down.

“It’s OK in Vegas, but they ought to keep it there,� 32-year-old James Flaherty said.

But the fifth employee, Daniel Rodriguez, 20, said: “It’s the old people that say that. We need some excitement around here. The young people want it.�

To which Barbara Robledo, 44, responded: “You wait till you have children. You’ll think like us.�

Interviews with 11 business owners or operators also revealed a sharp split, seven for a club and four against it.

Reynaldo Trejo, owner of a downtown jewelry store, was upbeat.

“It’s going to give us more jobs and bring more tourism to the city,� he said. He said he viewed visitors a club would lure from the San Fernando Valley not as strangers, but as customers.

“It’ll build up more traffic,� Trejo said. “They’ll look around and see the area somewhat.�

But a few stores away on South B Street, printer B.T. Martin said: “It’s more of the something-for-nothing mentality. I think there would be an ethical price to pay.�

Several Oxnard ministers made the same point.

Msgr. Peter Nugent, pastor of the 10,000-member Santa Clara Church, said he worries about crime influences.

“It wouldn’t be a plus,� he said. “And I could see it affecting the community morale, how we consider ourselves as a city.�

Nugent, who is president of a local ministerial alliance, said the card club issue snuck up on the 12-church group, which has not yet taken a formal position.

But other pastors said an inter-church telephone network is forming to oppose a casino.

“I see it as enticing people away from what they should be doing,� said Father Anthony Guillen, pastor at All Saints Episcopal Church. “We have a lot of farm workers. And people of a lower economic level are more apt to hope they might be able to get something for nothing. Lots of times people don’t realize what they’re pouring down the drain.�

Of the five Oxnard City Council members, only two have stated positions on a card club, Mayor Manuel Lopez in opposition and Councilman Michael Plisky in favor if the city can limit approval to a single casino and ensure it is cleanly run.

Councilmen Bedford Pinkard, Thomas Holden and Andres Herrera have said they are considering a casino only because it would replace part of the $4 million in cuts expected in the city’s $60-million general fund next fiscal year.

Three casino promoters have expressed interest in an Oxnard club. The two who have submitted preliminary proposals estimate a 50-table club would produce at least 300 jobs and between $500,000 and $1.2 million a year in gambling taxes.

Pinkard and Holden have said that if community opinion is widely split at the June 22 hearing, they might want to put a card club referendum on the November ballot.

Pinkard went even further in an interview last week.

“I want to get the true feelings from the community,� he said. “After that, it would be my recommendation that we go to the ballot. I would like to see the voters make this choice.�