Voters OK Term Limits in Torrance, Gambling in Inglewood : Among other ballot measures, Hawthorne voters reject a card club, and commercial zoning for a beachfront parcel is denied in Hermosa Beach.

Deciding local ballot measures on Tuesday, voters approved term limits in Torrance and gambling in Inglewood and rejected commercial development of a beachfront parcel in Hermosa Beach.

In all, there were eight ballot questions in five South Bay cities. The closest contest occurred in Inglewood, where a proposed card club at Hollywood Park Race Track narrowly won approval with 51.7% of the vote.

“I think we dodged a bullet,” said Inglewood City Manager Paul Eckles, who, along with Mayor Edward Vincent and the City Council, backed the club as a way to generate new tax revenues and halt further cutbacks in services.

Local ballot measures elsewhere in the South Bay drew more decisive reactions from the electorate.

Sixty-five percent of Hawthorne voters, for instance, rejected a proposed card club there. And a measure that would have doubled utility taxes in the city went down to defeat with almost 88% of the voters opposing it.

Meanwhile, Torrance voters made it clear they want term limits for their City Council members, casting more than 76% of their votes for such a measure. Under the terms of Proposition Y, council members are limited to two consecutive, four-year terms, and those currently serving on the council are considered to be serving their first terms.

In the wake of a financial scandal that cost the city $6.2 million, Torrance voters also overwhelmingly said that they want to go on electing their city treasurer and city clerk, rather than have the council appoint the two officials.

City Treasurer Thomas C. Rupert was the target of heavy criticism for entrusting city investment funds to Steven D. Wymer, an Orange County financier who in September pleaded guilty to securities fraud involving Torrance and several public agencies across the state.

Rupert, who has been city treasurer since 1964, said he was not surprised by the results of the balloting.

“This is the second time it’s been on the ballot since I’ve been in office,” he said. “I think that people want to elect their officials, not appoint them.”

By a wide margin, Hermosa Beach voters said they want a park on the old Biltmore Hotel site located on The Strand between 14th and 15th streets. Proposition D, approved by 63% of voters, changes the zoning on the vacant oceanfront property from commercial and residential to open space.

Just a year ago, however, the voters said they wanted the city to sell the parcel for development, leading Mayor Robert Essertier to predict Wednesday that the controversy over the parcel will continue.

In Lawndale, voters approved a new General Plan that contains a provision restricting the city’s right to acquire property under eminent domain. The plan also called for the elimination of a proposed high-density “urban village” that would have featured commercial, residential and retail development along a stretch of Hawthorne Boulevard between Marine Avenue and Manhattan Beach Boulevard.

The card club measures in Inglewood and Hawthorne produced the most lively and expensive campaigns, with competing gaming interests bankrolling both sides of the issue.

Though card club opponents complained that the clubs would produce crime and questioned the morality of gambling enterprises, they waged their campaigns with money that came largely from George Hardie, owner and operator of the Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens, one of the state’s largest card casinos.

Hardie and some other gaming experts insisted that there are not enough gamblers to fill clubs in every city that wants one.

Inglewood officials, however, are counting heavily on the promises of Hollywood Park’s owners that the club will produce 2,600 new jobs and $10 million a year in new tax revenues.

“I think this will give the city the chance to fill the budget hole left by the recession . . . and the civil disturbance (of last spring),” Councilman Jose Fernandez said.

The first step now that the election is over, said Councilman Daniel Tabor, is for the city to write an ordinance setting up the franchise fee structure for the card club. Then, Tabor said, the council will begin determining such questions as whether the school district--and, perhaps, some community organizations--will get a share of the revenues.

City Manager Eckles said the city could begin to receive tax revenue from the club, which is to be built inside the existing Cary Grant Pavilion, as early as next summer.

“We hope to open in the third or fourth quarter of 1993,” Hollywood Park Chairman R. D. Hubbard said.

Hubbard said he believes Inglewood voters were willing to accept the card club because they have lived for 54 years with the racetrack. “I think the citizens love Hollywood Park. They know we’re a good neighbor,” he said.

While Inglewood officials were happily anticipating their new revenues Wednesday, Hawthorne officials were wondering how they would continue balancing their budget.

City leaders were officially neutral on the card club measure in Hawthorne but acknowledged that with voters turning down both measures, tougher budget decisions loom.

“We’re going to have to do something drastic,” Mayor Steve Andersen said. “The forecast is that we’re in for another dose of massive cuts.”

Staff writers Lorna Fernandes, Anthony Millican and Otto Strong contributed to this story.