Council Members Split on Whether to Consider Casino

Rejected last month by Ventura County officials, a Nevada gambling concern is awaiting word from Oxnard on whether it can proceed with an Indian gaming casino along the Ventura Freeway.

Though Mayor Manuel Lopez and Councilman John Zaragoza say they will never support the plan, their council colleagues, Tom Holden and Dean Maulhardt, have promised to study the gaming company’s proposal before making a decision. Councilman Bedford Pinkard was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

“I don’t think that this type of business is conducive to the city of Oxnard,” Zaragoza said. “I know they say it won’t, but I think it will bring more crime and undesirable types to the city.

“I have nothing against Las Vegas,” he continued. “A lot of people go there for vacation, but you leave it there and come back home.”

But considering the potential financial windfall a casino could bring Oxnard, Maulhardt insists, council members would be foolish not to at least study the project’s merits.

“I do not reject it out of hand,” Maulhardt said. “I am open-minded to look at the facts. It’s a major issue, and I would be willing to sit down and talk to [casino developers].”

City staff members are collecting information on the potential effect a casino might have on crime, traffic, litigation and Oxnard’s general fund. A staff report is expected to be delivered to the City Council in late April or early May.

Paragon Gaming Corp. of Las Vegas, now in partnership with a Northern California Indian tribe, decided to ignore strong resistance to a similar plan it unveiled in January to open a casino at Channel Islands Harbor.

That project would have converted 10 acres of the 110-acre harbor into an Indian reservation containing a 250-room hotel with entertainment showrooms, restaurants and shops. Supporters of that plan estimated a financial benefit to the county of at least $18 million annually.

Both projects are an outgrowth of Proposition 1A, the ballot measure that amended the state constitution to allow tribes to operate slot machines and blackjack tables at their reservation casinos. A handful of proposals has surfaced to build casinos in urban, rather than rural, locations for those tribes without existing tribal lands.

Ventura County officials, concerned about the change a casino would bring to the harbor’s retail community, strongly opposed the project.

The latest plan would bring a 150,000-square-foot casino, including 175 gaming tables and 2,000 slot machines, to the current site of the struggling Oxnard Factory Outlet. The project also would include a 250-room hotel, showrooms, restaurants and a multiuse meeting facility, according to project supporters.

Joining Paragon Gaming this time is the Greenville Rancheria of Maidu Indians, a tribe based in Northern California that has no existing tribal lands.

A member of the tribe presented the council with a letter March 13 outlining the plan and highlighting the potential economic benefits to Oxnard, including the creation of 1,500 jobs. Lorie Jaimes, tribal chairwoman for the Maidu tribe, said concerns about crime near such a casino are unfounded.

“I don’t see it that way,” Jaimes said. “It is not something that attracts crime. It helps the community and the cities with money.”

Jaimes said “it was too early in the process” to predict how much money could be funneled into Oxnard from the casino.

If the City Council rebuffs the plan, Jaimes would not rule out the tribe’s looking elsewhere in Ventura County for a casino site.

Mary Rose, a spokeswoman for Paragon, said federal law requires that at least 60% of the revenue go to the tribe operating the casino. The other 40% could be split between the Las Vegas company and the city, Rose said.

Others involved in the proposal said an offer has been made to buy 25 acres for a casino at the factory outlet site, but they declined to give further details.

Police Chief Art Lopez, one of the city officials compiling information for the council, said the fears of casino opponents may be unfounded.

“We are finding out some real positive stuff,” said Lopez, who toured a similar Indian-run casino in Palm Springs. “We’re not seeing the kind of things we thought we would see. . . . People have a perception it increases crime, but there is no direct correlation between crime at [the Palm Springs casino] and an increase in crime.”

Mayor Lopez is not persuaded, and said he’ll vote against any casino proposal that makes it to the City Council.