Suns’ Debts Cloud City’s Loan Offer

Eager to see a minor league baseball team come to Oxnard, city officials are nonetheless leery of lending Palm Springs Suns owner Don DiCarlo money for ball field upgrades, given the team’s history of debt.

“I don’t want to lend him any money,” said Councilman John Zaragoza. “Since we are going to wait until 1998, he should find his own money.”

During the team’s two-year stay in Palm Springs, at least eight claims totaling more than $42,000 were filed by DiCarlo’s former friends, the team’s manager and former coaches seeking back salaries and loan repayments, according to court documents and interviews.

Others, who didn’t file claims, say they are owed money by DiCarlo.

“A lot of people in town were critical of him,” said Ross Bergman, a Riverside attorney who is representing a couple suing DiCarlo and his partners.

Though DiCarlo denies any wrongdoing and said he spent thousands of dollars clearing up the debts, the claims were taken seriously by the Western League and resulted in the team being placed on probation for seven weeks in 1995, said league officials.

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DiCarlo said the debts are part of the past and he is looking forward to a fresh start in Oxnard.

“The problem is that bringing up old stuff like that, it just doesn’t have any relevance anymore,” DiCarlo said. “We are trying to do a good thing for Ventura County and Oxnard. Having the [claims] dug up in the paper every time is really a slap in the face.”

However, city leaders said they are concerned about the history of alleged debt problems since they are considering lending DiCarlo $250,000 to upgrade the rundown Oxnard College baseball field, if he can’t find the money elsewhere.

Since Western League officials have said the team is not included on the 1997 roster, Mayor Manuel Lopez said there is enough time for DiCarlo to find another lender.

“Since they are not going to be playing in ‘97, I do not see why the city should be a lender,” said Lopez. “I don’t think I would loan them my own personal money; I don’t see why I should put the taxpayers’ money in jeopardy.”

Indeed, one creditor and friend of DiCarlo said the city should think carefully about making any loans.

“I wouldn’t lend him $250,000,” said Dave Helman, a sporting goods store owner who said DiCarlo owes him $2,000 for baseball caps. “But that is the nature of the beast with minor league baseball. Any city would be taking a chance.”

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From July 1995 through last November, seven complaints were filed by former employees against the Palm Springs Suns for allegedly unpaid salaries, said Ritchie Jenkins, senior deputy labor commissioner with the state Department of Industrial Relations.

Three of the seven claims were dismissed, but the team was ordered to pay back wages to four former employees, Jenkins said.

The hearing officer granted former coach Leondaus Lacy $14,381 in wages, penalties, interest and court fees, Jenkins said. Former coach John Verhoeven was awarded $7,023 in back wages, and former manager Bill Sudakis received $3,830, according to the claims. A claim for $100 by a fourth former employee also was paid.

Jenkins said the labor commission had never received as many claims against a professional sports organization.

“It’s very rare,” she said. “Basically, this is the only [team] that I remember coming down with as many claims.”

DiCarlo said those claims were made during a change in partnerships and that all the debts have been repaid.

“When we bought the team from the previous partners there were problems that had to be straightened out,” said DiCarlo. He is listed in at least one suit as being one of several partners of the team since 1994.

In addition to the claims, a lawsuit was filed against DiCarlo in March by a couple who said they gave him $15,000 as start-up capital for the team when it arrived in Palm Springs.

According to the suit, Pamela and Larvin Houston thought they would become partners in the team’s formation and operation. But within a few months, the Houstons allege, DiCarlo took their money and brought them into the deal with “the intent to defraud” them.

After two years of asking DiCarlo for their money back, they decided to sue, said Bergman, the Houstons’ attorney.

“He made a lot of promises over and over and eventually we had to file a lawsuit,” said Bergman.

DiCarlo said a settlement will be worked out, but that the Houstons were the ones who did not follow through on their promises.

Not all of DiCarlo’s creditors took him to court.

KESQ-TV General Manager Bill Evans said DiCarlo never paid the station for nearly a year’s worth of game announcing. Evans said he was owed about $20,000 for the 1994 broadcasts but resolved the dispute with DiCarlo without filing a lawsuit.

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“We resolved it to their satisfaction,” said Evans, noting that the station got some free tickets and Suns merchandise in exchange for the money. “We resolved it because we knew we weren’t going to get anything out of it. . . . I knew how many people were standing in line. He had a lot bigger fish to fry.”

DiCarlo said he does not owe the station anything and the settlement was amicable.

In addition to its other debts, the team still owes the city of Palm Springs $28,450 in stadium rental payments and other charges, city officials there have said.

Helman, the sporting goods store owner, said he hopes DiCarlo has learned his lesson.

“He learned a lot from his experience in Palm Springs,” said Helman, who noted that DiCarlo once worked for him as a debt collector in Helman’s store. “He knows from his past mistakes that he can’t burn people, he has to keep costs down and he can’t make any promises he can’t keep.”