STANTON : Measure A Ballot Arguments Filed

Ballot arguments for and against Measure A, which asks voters if they want card clubs in the city, were filed Friday at City Hall.

Mayor Pro Tem Joe V. Harris and businessman Tony Lueken proclaimed their support for the measure, saying it would raise as much as $3 million annually for the city.

“Help provide Stanton with public safety and more jobs,” Harris and Lueken said in their ballot argument.

Councilman Harry Dotson wrote the argument against the measure.

“The only thing a gambling casino would do is add gangs, loan-sharking, money laundering, carjacking and narcotic traffic to armed robbery, assaults, prostitution and drug use,” Dotson warned. “Save Stanton from organized crime and its inherent problems!”

Harris and Lueken wrote that the clubs would raise up to $3 million yearly and create 300 jobs. They said the added revenue could enable the city to hire more police officers.

But Capt. Robert Eason of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which provides police services for the city, has said he thinks that the cost of patrolling a card club could eat up any revenue it may generate.

The City Council rejected a proposal for a card club in 1987, citing potential crime problems.

The council was approached early last month by Ard Keuilian, a co-owner of the Stanton Indoor Swap Meet, with a proposal to turn the building into a 40,000-square-foot card club modeled after the Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens.

Based on the profits of the Bicycle Club, Keuilian said his card club could bring in $2 million to $3 million yearly for the city, which has a budget of $8.25 million this year.

At a boisterous meeting March 9, the council voted to hold a special election to consider allowing the clubs. About 50 residents spoke out against card clubs and criticized the council for considering putting the issue on the ballot.

The June 8 election will cost about $25,000 to $30,000, according to the city clerk. Keuilian has hired the Broadway Group, a Santa Ana public relations firm, to run his campaign to have Measure A approved.

Broadway Group President Dennis Desnoo said the firm will call and send letters to voters to persuade them to approve card clubs.