Union Aids Laguna Niguel Group to Spite Vegas Foe : Conservation: Casino proprietor Jack B. Binion owns a tract covered by the anti-growth initiative.

A hotel-workers union whose nasty nine-month battle for a casino contract has been marked by spit fights and slugfests on picket lines in Las Vegas has found a way to carry its cause to the rolling hills of south Orange County.

For the last several months, union attorneys have quietly assisted a band of homeowners struggling to save from development the last picturesque ridgelines in Laguna Niguel.

The peculiar alliance between organized labor and residents of this staunchly Republican community is rooted in the identity of a single ridgeline property owner: Jack B. Binion, proprietor of the Horseshoe Club casino on a gaudy Vegas strip known as Glitter Gulch. Binion has plans to build 32 homes on 22 acres that offer breathtaking vistas of neighboring Laguna Beach.

But homeowners argue that putting houses on that ridge and other nearby landscapes will ruin views from surrounding areas.

While the homeowners want Binion stopped, union leaders acknowledge that they hope their presence in the campaign will at least tweak the anti-labor casino owner or, better yet, force him back to the bargaining table in Las Vegas.

So far, the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International, the umbrella organization for the Culinary Union, has provided the homeowners with legal services at virtually no cost and has even drafted a proposed ballot initiative to block development. At a public hearing next week, Laguna Niguel’s City Council is scheduled to discuss the proposed initiative, which is supported by a petition bearing 4,000 signatures.

However, at least one uncomfortable civic activist has resigned from the Ridgeline Protection and Preservation Committee. “Although I continue to believe that the ridgeline in Laguna Niguel should be protected from indiscriminate development,” Donna Meehan wrote in a recent letter to the City Council, “it appears that this initiative, whatever its intent, may have impacts far beyond what I believe the committee and many residents . . . intended.”

Laguna Niguel officials complain that the vicious animosity between Binion and the union is coloring the ridgeline fight. Under the proposed initiative, hillside building would be prohibited within 300 feet of a ridgeline, and development within 500 feet would be limited.

City officials, who generally oppose the measure as too restrictive, say the ordinance could affect at least 72 individual property owners who are already planning to build ridgeline houses, as well as the owners of two large tracts--one of which Binion owns with partner William Baxter; the other is owned by Hon Development Co.

“The language in the initiative was made to be so restrictive as to make the Binion land worthless,” Laguna Niguel Planning Commission member James Holmsted complained, adding that he favors some lesser measure to protect the city’s remaining ridgelines.

“I think it was done so vindictively that the rest of the city is in a quandary,” Holmsted continued. “I think (the initiative) fooled a lot of people in the beginning and made them think they were doing the right thing.”

Binion, 53, did not return calls for comment. In a previous interview, however, he said the Horseshoe Club’s dispute with the union stems from his desire for more power to fire incompetent or dishonest workers without union interference. He said union rules do not allow him to reward good employees or deal effectively with bad ones.

Binion’s attorney, William C. Holzwarth of Irvine, scoffed about how the contract deadlock has slipped over into the Laguna Niguel controversy.

“I would venture to guess the union doesn’t even know what a ridgeline is,” Holzwarth said. “It’s so clearly a case of a union not being able to negotiate fairly and so doing it in a way that most people would consider unfair.”

Union leaders acknowledged in interviews last week that their legal counsel helped draft the initiative and that they continue to offer aid and advice from time to time.

However, they said, the union has contributed no money to the drive.

Residents pushing the initiative also acknowledged that one of the union’s arbitration attorneys--Richard B. McCracken, who practices in San Francisco and Las Vegas--appeared at a City Council meeting in Laguna Niguel to argue their case and drafted a letter to the city attorney on their behalf.

The citizens group said it has been billed $250 for those services.

“That’s pretty cheap for a guy to come all the way down from San Francisco,” Laguna Niguel Councilman Thomas W. Wilson said.

Wilson said he first began to suspect the union’s involvement when he went to Las Vegas a few months ago and saw bumper stickers saying, “Save the Laguna Niguel Ridgeline” posted outside the Horseshoe Club, where union picket lines are strung.

“I have some concerns about a union getting involved in the writing of an ordinance in the city of Laguna Niguel,” Wilson continued. “I don’t think the union’s interest is to make Laguna Niguel a better city.”

Local organizers of the ridgeline battle dismiss such concerns.

“If we happen to have similar interests, so what?” asked Greg DeSantis, a Laguna Beach resident backing the voter initiative. “I look at the union as a gift. I’m sick of the smoke screen people are trying to put up.”

Union leaders argue that all’s fair in their contract war with Binion, who they contend has repeatedly refused to bargain in good faith and has been abusive to casino employees.

In fact, union leaders said, the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Binion last week, alleging that he had stepped on, shoved and verbally abused a worker.

The Horseshoe Club’s reputation has also been rumpled by criminal charges recently filed against several casino employees, including two Binion relatives. A federal indictment accuses the eight employees of kidnaping, robbing and beating unwanted customers--blacks in particular--in violation of anti-racketeering law.

The union leaders also dismiss the notion that their involvement in the ridgeline fight represents unfair outside influence in a local dispute.

“It’s hard to say who’s the insider and who’s the true outsider,” said Sumante Ray, a research analyst in Los Angeles for the union.

Ray, who has been one of the union’s principal liaisons with the ridgeline coalition, said he began several months ago contacting activists whose names appeared in newspapers.

“There’s several outside influences involved, including Mr. Binion himself, who’s no Laguna Niguel resident,” Ray continued “The ‘inside-outside’ is somewhat of a non-issue.”

Paul M. Christiansen, the only member of the City Council to endorse the ridgeline initiative, argues that the union’s involvement is an inflammatory side issue being used to shift the focus from more serious questions.

Union involvement is being harped on, Christiansen complained, simply because it can be expected to generate a negative response in a conservative stronghold such as south Orange County.

“No one raises an eyebrow when there’s five different lawyers from New York and everywhere representing Binion,” Christiansen said. “It is when the dirty word union comes up that it becomes an issue.”

Still, Christiansen was quick to divorce himself from the union people. He acknowledged that he was contacted several months ago by union representatives.

When he received their letter, Christiansen said, he “crumpled it up in the trash,” because he considers involvement by “an outside organization” to be “unnecessary.”

Local residents contend that without the union’s help they would have little hope of battling a powerful and wealthy development industry.

Leslie Earnest contributed to this report.