OXNARD : Agency Abandons Plans for Card Club

The director of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Ventura County announced Friday that the group has dropped plans to seek a permit to operate a card club in northeast Oxnard, saying that months of negotiations had detracted from the charity’s work.

“The feeling at this time is that it is in our agency’s best interest to remove ourselves from the complexities surrounding the card club issue so that we can devote our full attention to servicing our clients,” said executive director Lynne West.

The decision to withdraw the proposal, made by the agency’s board Thursday, was the second time in a year the nonprofit group has dropped plans to open a card club. Last spring, the group withdrew an application to operate a card club in the Channel Islands Harbor area, citing opposition by area residents.

Michael Wooten, a key backer of the club, said Friday that the agency’s decision was not likely to affect the outcome of the proposal backed by Harbor Club Management. Wooten said Harbor Club Management first approached Big Brothers/Big Sisters because Oxnard regulations allow only established charities to receive licenses to operate card clubs.

Last month, the Oxnard City Council held a special session to study its regulation of card clubs and formed a committee to continue studying the issue.

“What’s coming out of that is the city is considering its own ‘super charity,’ ” Wooten said.

Such an approach would benefit Big Brothers/Big Sisters, as well as other Oxnard charities, without requiring the participation of any of the agencies in the card club.

But on Friday, Councilman Michael Plisky, a member of the council’s card club committee, said he is not predisposed to approving a card club.

“Right now, the question is not which charity should benefit from a card club, but whether we should even have a card club,” Plisky said.

On Thursday, a Torrance businessman filed another pre-application for a card club license with Oxnard, this one seeking to open a 56,000-square-foot card parlor near Rice Avenue and Santiago Court.

Part of the proposal by Tim Carey involves the creation of a civic foundation to distribute 4% of the club’s earnings among charities and civic groups.