Final Deal With Baseball Club Vowed by Nov. 27

Rushing forward with plans to bring a minor league baseball team to Oxnard, the City Council and the community college district trustees pledged this week to try to hammer out final agreements with the Palm Springs Suns before Thanksgiving.

Although college and city officials support the idea of relocating the Suns to Oxnard, there are still lingering questions about paying for the improvements needed at the Oxnard College baseball field where the team would play. In addition, trustees want to settle insurance liability issues before a deal is finalized.

To be included in the Western League’s 1997 roster, the agreement must be signed by a Nov. 27 deadline. Because the Suns needed more time to finalize their relocation deal, the league extended by one week the original deadline, which was Wednesday.

“If the agreement is not signed, they will not be playing in 1997,” Western League President Bruce Engel said Wednesday. “All the other teams are settled. Our roster needs to be done by Dec. 1.”

At the Ventura County Community College District meeting Tuesday night, some trustees were skeptical that liability issues, such as protection from player and fan accidents, could be settled to the satisfaction of district lawyers before next week.

“A decision of this magnitude usually comes to us a lot earlier, so we can massage it,” said trustee Allan W. Jacobs, who reminded the board that it took two years to close a deal with a recreational field hockey league that plays at Moorpark College.

“I feel a lot of trepidation about this whole thing,” Jacobs said.

Trustee John D. Tallman said a special meeting should not be scheduled next week unless all of the legal issues are addressed.

“I don’t want to come unless [the agreement] is pretty well ready, unless there’s a chance we can adopt it,” Tallman said. “It’s got to get done in its entirety.”

Despite the concerns, the board instructed Chancellor Philip Westin to continue negotiating and to bring a proposed licensing agreement to the board next week.

Westin told the board that he would know by today whether a deal is likely to be reached by the league’s deadline.

In most cases, it takes three to six months for a minor league team and a city to finalize an agreement, Engel said. Negotiations among the Long Beach Riptides, the city of Mission Viejo and Saddleback Community College to relocate the team in Orange County have been in the works for three months, and an agreement still has not been finalized.

Also on Tuesday, Oxnard council members said they hoped a final agreement could be completed before their next weekly meeting. Without voicing the same skepticism as the trustees, councilmen Tom Holden, Dean Maulhardt and Mayor Manuel Lopez did object that a preliminary agreement to relocate the Suns was signed without their knowledge.

On Oct. 28, City Manager Tom Frutchey and City Atty. Gary Gillig signed the nonbinding agreement with the team and Oxnard College without notifying the council.

“I was very critical when a reporter called me and asked me to make comments about a city item that I did not know about,” Lopez said.

Maulhardt said he, too, was concerned about the lack of notification.

“There were some procedural errors on the [agreement], and the city manager has apologized for that,” Maulhardt said.

Frutchey explained his secrecy at the council meeting by saying that he didn’t want to come to the council with a “pie-in-the-sky” proposal.

He added that the baseball team’s relocation to the city would benefit all of Ventura County, not just Oxnard.

If the Suns, which are not affiliated with a major league ballclub, decide to move to either Ventura or Camarillo after one year in Oxnard, “Great, then we would’ve done something to benefit the entire community,” Frutchey said.

Lopez and Maulhardt had additional questions with the wording of the preliminary agreement, which suggests the city would “provide start-up financing” with a loan and would “pursue a site acquisition” for a future stadium in Oxnard. Lopez said Tuesday that he would not support any future stadium deal that required city funds.

Indeed, several Oxnard residents have complained about the city financing for any aspect of the baseball deal. The city has been asked to loan the Suns $200,000 to repair the college field, add bleachers and other amenities, city staff has said.

Steve Buratti, president of the Inter Neighborhood Council Committee of Oxnard, said the community group supports the Suns coming to town provided the city does not pay for it.

The group was frustrated because the time crunch prevented its members from discussing the impact the team’s relocation would have on the city. However, the group supports the idea of minor league baseball in Oxnard, he said.

“We recommend that you conditionally approve this usage of Oxnard College,” Buratti said. “It is apparent that this could go a long way to gaining public support for the college and provide an opportunity for Oxnard College to be truly a community college.”

But Oxnard resident Don Abrams cautioned the council about taking hasty action: “A rush-rush decision may prove to be a white elephant in our fair city.”

Munoz is a Times staff writer; McDonald is a correspondent.