Baseball Club Agrees to Relocate to Oxnard

After weeks of secret negotiations, Oxnard city officials have signed a preliminary agreement to bring a minor league baseball team to the city for the 1997-98 season. The move came as a surprise to officials in Ventura and Camarillo, who have been working to draw their own team.

Although the deal has not been finalized, the Palm Springs Suns, an independent Class-AA Western League team owned by businessman Don DiCarlo, are planning to relocate to Oxnard College by next month.

DiCarlo said he will take care of the relocation costs, estimated at more than $50,000. The city of Oxnard may loan the team about $200,000 to improve the college field with additional lighting, seating and other amenities, according to Steve Kinney, president of Oxnard’s Economic Development Corp. (EDC), who has been handling the negotiations.

The EDC, formerly Oxnard’s Redevelopment Agency, has its own board of directors, including two Oxnard councilmen, and receives nearly 80% of its budget from the city.

If the team is successful, the city and DiCarlo would discuss building a state-of-the-art multiuse stadium for the team, Kinney said. It has not yet been determined if the club would retain the name Suns if it moves to Oxnard.

“The community is perfect for minor league baseball,” said DiCarlo, whose family is bankrolled by its construction, real estate and grocery businesses in the Inland Empire and San Diego. “The number of young families is wonderful. Its geographic position in the tri-cities area is perfect. . . . This is a long-term agreement. We hope to be here for many, many years.”

Some Ventura officials scoffed at the news Thursday, saying they will press ahead with their plans.

Throughout their two-year stint in Palm Springs, the Suns struggled financially.

This year, with a couple of hotshot young players on the roster, it looked as if the Suns would be in for a winning season. But the desert’s intense heat kept many fans away--despite the installment of a mister to refresh fans and players. So, DiCarlo proposed several highly publicized gimmicks this summer, including a “Nude Night” and a “Drag Queen Night,” to attract crowds.

None of them worked.

Although he pumped about $500,000 into stadium renovations, DiCarlo would be leaving Palm Springs with several debts, including at least $28,450 in payments he owes the city for concession revenue.

Kinney said the city’s loan would be a short-term loan with interest, but did not know what type of collateral the city would ask for.

The team has also suffered due to some off-the-field incidents. The director of public relations is being prosecuted on charges of lewd conduct, and a pitcher was tried but acquitted on a rape charge.

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In addition, former Dodger General Manager Al Campanis was the Suns’ vice president in charge of player personnel in 1995. Campanis resigned from the Dodgers in 1987 after a “Nightline” interview in which he uttered several racially offensive remarks.

The Oxnard move must still go to the City Council for approval as well as the college board of trustees. The team and the city, however, must finalize the agreement by Nov. 20 so the Suns can prepare to play their 1997-98 season in Oxnard, according to Western League President Bruce Engel.

“We would be happy to have a team in that area,” said Engel. “If the necessary requirements are met, there is no reason why this shouldn’t happen. The city is working with the Suns to finalize the stadium improvements.”

Unlike the high-profile public debates in Ventura and Camarillo, Oxnard’s efforts to get a team have been conducted largely in secret--so secret that even the mayor was not aware of the deal Thursday.

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Team and city officials have scheduled a news conference for today announcing the preliminary deal.

The news surprised City Council members in Ventura, which has been the leading contender in the race to bring minor league baseball to the county. But they soon downplayed the news, with reactions that ranged from complacent to dismissive.

“Nothing that Oxnard does surprises me,” Tuttle said. “They always leap before they look.”

Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures said she did not really take Oxnard’s deal seriously, but she understood why the city would try to sign a team.

Councilman Ray Di Guilio laughed at the news. He said Oxnard is where Ventura was 10 years ago, when the Ventura Gulls played for a season at Ventura College. Di Guilio helped broker that deal.

“We’ve been there, done that,” he said. “I helped get the Gulls to Ventura and the rest is history. And they’ll rewrite it.

“All I can say is the Suns must be pretty desperate.”

He said signing a team is the easiest part of the process. It’s a community’s battle to build a stadium that is hard. He said John Hofer, the would-be developer of the stadium, could sign a team any time he wants.

The battle to bring a minor league baseball team to Ventura County has a long history. Nearly three years ago, Oxnard, Camarillo and Ventura got together to build a baseball stadium. But once Ventura was selected as the site, Camarillo and Oxnard backed out.

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Ventura has been going it alone ever since, scouring the city budget searching for money, sitting through marathon City Council meetings, and finessing agreements with the local developer.

The Stockton Ports are waiting in the wings, and a stadium plan is set to go before the voters this spring. But plans in Ventura have stalled as the city agonizes over how much cash it is willing to fork over for a stadium.

Camarillo has plans of their own. Snubbed by Ventura, local developers pursued their own baseball agenda. Now they say they are ready to move ahead with a privately funded baseball stadium, but there is a snag: They can’t find a team.

But Steve Loiselle, spokesman for the Camarillo stadium developer, said they’re not worried.

“Palm Springs is an unaffiliated . . . team. They are pretty low caliber. I’m not worried, but more power to ‘em.”

DiCarlo approached the cities of Oceanside and Chula Vista before going to Oxnard for his baseball relocation plans. In Oceanside, the discussion never got beyond staff meetings before the Suns moved on to Chula Vista, said Oceanside City Manager Tom Wilson.

Earlier this week, the Chula Vista City Council was considering entering an exclusive negotiation agreement with the ballclub to begin discussing possibilities of building a stadium, but DiCarlo withdrew and came to Oxnard.

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Although negotiations have been going on for several weeks, Oxnard city officials have tried to keep the agreement under wraps, fearing that any publicity would threaten the deal. Only one councilman, Bedford Pinkard, has been involved in some of the negotiations. Other council members on Thursday said they were supportive although some were concerned about the potential cost to the city.

The negotiations were so secret that Mayor Manuel Lopez did not know they were taking place. The secrecy has angered some, like Lopez, who said Oxnard’s manner of doing business needs to change.

“I’m out of the loop completely,” said Lopez. “This has been happening for a while. It doesn’t make me feel very good, but that is the way things have been happening.”

City Manager Tom Frutchey, who signed the so-called memorandum of understanding (MOU), said that he was only doing his job--recruiting a baseball team that the council has wanted for years.

“For three years the council has told me to do what I could to bring a minor league baseball team,” said Frutchey. “It was my job to follow council direction. I did not commit any council money.”

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City Atty. Gary Gillig said the agreement is not a binding document and that the city did nothing illegal.

“Any formal commitment would have to go to the City Council,” said Gillig. “It works as a guideline for future discussions and agreements.”

It may be legal, but other residents said the city has a disturbing pattern of doing business without letting the people know.

“They have done this before where they are well within their legal right but the public gets in an uproar because they didn’t know about it,” said Steve Buratti, president of the Inter-Neighborhood Council Committee.

“My God, this is something the people should hear about before an MOU is signed. Why do they feel that they can make a decision like this without a public hearing? This is going to have a direct impact on the neighborhoods in that area.

“This is one of the problems, that the city attorney advises the city staff on what they can do legally. Legally it’s fine; ethically, it’s something else.”

Times staff writer Tom Gorman contributed to this story.

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Minor League Baseball in Ventura County

VENTURA:

Stadium: City has been negotiating for months with developer John Hofer for a 4,500-seat Class-A minor league baseball stadium to be built on 20 acres of celery fields Hofer owns behind the Ventura Auto Mall south of the Ventura Freeway off Johnson Drive.

Cost: The city would finance the $10.5-million stadium and Hofer would donate the land, acquire a controlling interest in a team, and pay all operating and management costs. Separately, the city will also build better roads, curbs and lighting in the area.

Team: The Stockton Ports, a Class-A team, have said they are ready to come to Ventura as soon as stadium plans are approved.

Status: When a final deal is negotiated it will be placed before the voters next spring. If approved, the stadium could open by spring 1998.

CAMARILLO:

Stadium: Private investors in Camarillo want to build a 5,000- to 6,000-seat Class-A minor league stadium on land south of the Ventura Freeway near Las Posas Road.

Cost: Investors say they will spend up to $13 million to build the stadium. They will also pay for on-site improvements, although they may ask the city for a loan for part of those costs.

Team: None signed. Investors are seeking a Class-A team in the California League.

Status: Landowner and developer Robert Pearson has declined to identify his investors or present the Camarillo City Council with a formal plan. His spokesman says a plan will be delivered by Thanksgiving. The goal is to open a stadium by spring 1998.

OXNARD:

Stadium: None planned. The Palm Springs Suns initially would play at Oxnard College; a stadium could come later.

Cost: The city would loan the Suns more than $200,000 to upgrade the college’s baseball field, improve lighting and to build bleachers.

Team: The Suns are a Class-AA Western League team that is not affiliated with a major league club.

Status: A tentative agreement has been reached. If approved by the City Council and college trustees, the team could relocate to Oxnard by next month.