Oxnard Card Club Plan Gets a New Promoter : Gambling: A Newport Beach man hopes to build the county’s first large casino. It supplants an earlier proposal by another backer.

A prominent Orange County developer and political fund-raiser has become the latest promoter to declare his interest in building a large card club in Oxnard if the City Council votes next week to allow big-time gambling.

William Buck Johns, 51, of Newport Beach told city officials Tuesday that he hopes to construct the first large casino in Ventura County.

“It’s a development opportunity, and in this day and age those are pretty scarce,” said Johns, a supporter of such controversial projects as a high-speed train from Anaheim to Las Vegas and an international airport in San Bernardino County.

Johns’ proposal would supplant that of Timothy M. Carey, a Los Angeles County political consultant who abandoned plans for a $6-million casino last month after his record as a convicted felon became known.

Johns said he is buying Carey’s right to develop a nine-acre site near the Ventura Freeway in northeast Oxnard, but that neither Carey nor any of his backers would be involved in the new proposal.

“Tim Carey is no longer involved in this effort,” Johns said. “We’re not trying to hide from anything.”

Only Oxnard political consultant Don Gunn, who worked for Carey and directed the fall campaign of Councilman Michael Plisky, may be retained by Johns, the developer said.

Oxnard economic development chief Steven Kinney said he considers Johns’ proposal separate from Carey’s, though both projects would be built at the same Rice Road site and each is centered around a 56,000-square-foot casino.

“They emphasized that Carey is not involved in this application, so from the perspective of the city, they are in effect a brand-new group walking in the door,” Kinney said.

Johns said he became interested in an Oxnard casino after Carey’s 1992 felony convictions for lewd conduct upon a 12-year-old girl were publicized in early May.

“It was apparent that he would not be able to go ahead with the project,” Johns said. “He called me.”

Johns, who knew Carey through conservative Republican organizations, said he was impressed by Carey’s site in a new industrial park just one-half mile from the freeway.

Johns said he had contributed to the Carey-run Southern California Caucus, which was organized by former Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum.

A member of the influential Lincoln Club of Orange County, Johns helped start Project ‘90, a group that raised $700,000 in an effort to end the Democratic majority in the state Assembly.

He has hosted fund-raisers for Republicans such as Gov. Pete Wilson and former Vice President Dan Quayle from his estate overlooking Newport Bay.

His Newport Beach-based Inland Group has put together numerous developments in Riverside and Orange counties, he said. And Johns has been a key backer of a proposal to link Orange County with Las Vegas by a high-speed rail line that would also connect a proposed international airport at George Air Force Base near Hesperia with Orange County.

Johns’ aggressive promotion of the high-speed rail line prompted some criticism in 1990 after it was revealed that he hoped to develop 85 acres in an area about 25 miles from the airport, and not far from the rail line. His company also holds millions of dollars in other properties that could benefit indirectly from construction of the transportation projects.

Johns’ entry into the Oxnard card-club competition brings to three the number of high-profile groups seeking an exclusive permit to operate a card casino.

One group is headed by Richard P. Crane Jr., a former federal organized crime prosecutor who now owns all or part of five casinos in Nevada and Colorado.

The other coalition--organized by Oxnard businessman Keith Wintermute--has received early financial backing from directors of the California Commerce Club, the second-largest card casino in California.

Whether any of the three proposals goes forward may be decided Tuesday after a public hearing by the Oxnard City Council. Council members said last week that they wanted to hear more from the public before they invited casino promoters to submit formal applications and deposit $25,000 to pay for a city review.

Council members have said the basic question before them is whether the tax benefits of one of the state’s largest casinos would outweigh its crime-inducing potential.

Of the five council members, only two have stated positions, Mayor Manuel Lopez in opposition and Plisky in favor if the city can limit approval to a single casino and ensure it is cleanly run.

Council members Bedford Pinkard, Thomas Holden and Andres Herrera have said they are considering a casino only because it would help replace $4 million in budget cuts next fiscal year.

Promoters have said their casinos would provide 300 to 600 jobs and $500,000 to $1.2 million a year in gambling taxes to the city. Another $500,000 could go to charities, promoters said.

The card club would draw customers not only from Ventura County but from Santa Barbara and the San Fernando Valley, promoters said.

The nearest large, competing casino would be 70 miles away, just east of Los Angeles, though the city of Ventura already has two four-table clubs.