Oxnard Mayor Quits Panel on Casino Plan : Gambling: Manuel Lopez finds the idea of card clubs ‘reprehensible.’ In another development, the city attorney says gaming decision does not require a referendum.

Mayor Manuel Lopez has resigned from a city committee that is reviewing proposals to bring a large card club casino to Oxnard, declaring that he opposes big-time gambling and cannot analyze the issue with an open mind.

“I find the idea of card clubs in Oxnard reprehensible and have not seen, read or heard anything that is likely to change my mind, so I am unable to provide an objective evaluation,” Lopez said in his resignation letter to the City Council.

Lopez said he decided to resign even before discovering last week that a convicted felon is involved in one of two casino proposals now before the city.

“That just reinforced my negative feelings about it,” Lopez said.

In a related development, Oxnard City Atty. Gary Gillig said Monday that a decision on whether Oxnard should approve a large casino does not have to be made with a ballot referendum as is generally required in California, because Oxnard allowed gambling before the new state gaming law went into effect in 1984.

Gillig said the new state law specifically exempts such pre-existing ordinances from its requirements.

The full City Council is expected to take up the gambling issue in June after preliminary investigation by the special city committee from which Lopez resigned.

And according to Gillig, the City Council can approve card clubs simply by amending the existing ordinance, which allows gambling only when it is sponsored by charity, fraternal, labor and religious groups for their members and guests.

Though the large new Oxnard casinos would be open to the public--and would far exceed the size of current charitable games--Gillig said amending the existing ordinance would be sufficient.

“There’s nothing in the (current) ordinance that talks about number of tables,” Gillig said.

However, a state gaming control lawyer said Monday that Oxnard might “violate the legislative intent” of the 1984 state law if the City Council does not put the issue on the ballot.

“It would seem to violate the legislative intent, which says that card clubs are not authorized and (the issue) has to go to the people,” Assistant Atty. Gen. Paul Bishop said. “To the extent that they’re expanding the scope of the ordinance, I could see how the people could be concerned.”

But Bishop said his office, which acts as counsel to state gaming officials, bows to local jurisdictions’ authority on such matters.

“Normally it’s the city attorney that advises the locals on an ordinance,” Bishop said, “and to my knowledge we’ve never tried to litigate whether an ordinance was properly passed. It is presumed to be valid unless someone does challenge it.”

Lopez, the only member of the Oxnard council to openly oppose card clubs, said he opposes amending the city gambling ordinance, but might support putting the issue on the November, 1994, general election ballot.

“If the majority of voters think that it is good for the city, then I would go along with it,” the mayor said. “But if I’m deciding, I would vote no.”

Lopez said he opposes the type of 50-table, 50,000-square-foot card club being proposed by two applicants in Oxnard.

Oxnard need only go back to the post-World War II era, Lopez said, to see the problems that grow out of active gambling clubs.

Involvement in such a club tainted a former police chief and led to his resignation, he said, adding: “It just does not seem to me to be anything that will add to the quality of life in the community.”

But most council members have said they are analyzing card clubs because they are a potential source of new revenue to offset sharp cuts in state funding.

After council members learned last week that card club promoter Timothy M. Carey was convicted of lewd conduct with a minor in 1992, they said they were leery of gambling but needed to continue to study it as a fund-raising option.

Oxnard must slash $4 million from its $60-million budget for the fiscal year beginning in July. That follows a $2.5-million cut this fiscal year.

Promoters have said that Oxnard could expect to reap between $500,000 and $2 million a year in gambling taxes, with another $500,000 annually going to local charities.