Oxnard Council Asked to Delay Card Club Vote

The Oxnard Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday urged the City Council to delay a final decision on a card club until the economic benefits of casino proposals have been fully evaluated.

The directors stopped short, however, of endorsing construction of a large casino, saying they knew too little about such clubs to make an informed decision, chamber President John Waters said.

“We’re not saying we support a card club,” Waters said. “We’re saying we need more information. . . . And everybody agreed that the City Council should see what actual dollars the city can count on (from a club) before they say, ‘Yeah, we want one’ or ‘No, we don’t.’ ”

The City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to reject all gambling clubs or invite promoters to submit detailed casino applications--the step the chamber favors.

Meanwhile, in a related development, sources said an officer in an Orange County firm that announced plans for an Oxnard casino on Tuesday was linked to a previous proposal abandoned last month by a convicted felon.

John Carvelli, vice president of the Inland Group of Newport Beach, was identified earlier this year as a partner in an Oxnard casino deal promoted by Los Angeles political consultant Timothy M. Carey, sources said.

Carey, who abandoned his plans after three 1992 lewd-conduct convictions were publicized, had previously identified Carvelli as one of several businessmen with a stake in his $6-million project, the sources said.

Carvelli and his employer, prominent developer William Buck Johns, both said Tuesday that their group is buying Carey’s right to develop a nine-acre site near the Ventura Freeway. They said neither Carey nor any of his backers were involved in the new proposal.

Carvelli said Wednesday that he stands by those statements, because he was not a Carey investor.

“That is not accurate,” Carvelli said. “. . .I never gave my permission with anybody to use my name.”

Carvelli said he knows Carey through a Southern California lobbying organization, but said he rarely sees him and never discussed personally investing in Carey’s card club.

“He could say that Gov. Wilson was going to invest in his club, but what does it mean?” Carvelli said. “What he says and does don’t have much credibility.”

Carvelli’s group is one of three high-profile promoters now seeking an exclusive permit to operate Ventura County’s first card casino.

Another group is headed by Richard P. Crane Jr., a former federal organized crime prosecutor who 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 proposals go forward may be decided Tuesday after a public hearing by the 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 tax benefits would outweigh a casino’s crime-inducing potential.

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.

With their action Wednesday, Chamber of Commerce directors argued that the council should postpone its decision on the desirability of card clubs until more information is available.

The board “encourages the City Council to proceed with the evaluation of a card club ... because it will generate a needed source of revenue to the city, generate a source of revenue to local charities and provide needed jobs for Oxnard residents,” directors said in a statement.

“I think the chamber’s concern is that the City Council might take a vote strictly on public comment,” Waters said. “I think that would be unwise. They need more information.

“We’re saying the City Council needs to make a decision based on what’s best for the city of Oxnard,” he added, “and get away from the emotions and the morality issue.”

Once promoters’ plans are evaluated, the council could determine whether the economic benefits argue for a casino, he said.

Chamber directors passed Wednesday’s resolution by a vote of 13 to 5, with seven abstentions. But Waters said the split reflected a concern that directors did not know how the chamber’s 650 members feel about the issue, rather than a chasm in the business community.

The chamber will survey all its members if the City Council does not reject the idea of card clubs on Tuesday, he said.