Oxnard Says No Dice to Casino Bid

Faced with threats of recall and cries of moral outrage, the Oxnard City Council brushed aside labor union support for a jobs-rich, Nevada-style casino early Wednesday and killed a plan to bring Indian gambling to the city.

Opponents said the council’s vote sends a message across California that city residents will rebel when landless tribes try to stretch the intent of last year’s Proposition 1A Indian gaming initiative and create new urban reservations for casinos.

“They were trying to create a little nation within our city, and the problems would be the same anywhere in the state,” Mayor Manuel Lopez said after the council’s 5-0 midnight vote ended a raucous five-hour hearing that drew 400 people.

“We were plowing new ground,” he added, “and the people have spoken very clearly and very loudly against it.”

Shortly before the vote, the 163-member Greenville Rancheria of Maidu Indians withdrew its casino application. Its Las Vegas partner, Paragon Gaming Corp., acknowledged defeat.

“We said all along we’d come here only if the people of Oxnard wanted us,” said Paragon President Diana Bennett, daughter of Circus-Circus founder Bill Bennett. “This is democracy in action. The opposition was very passionate. They spoke from the heart. So we just have to move on.”

Paragon is also working with tribes in Eureka and near Palm Springs to develop casinos on existing reservations. And it will continue to work with the Maidu to find a city outside Ventura County for its casino, Bennett said.

The Oxnard hearing was marked by sharp comments, as labor unions squared off against religious groups, neighborhood councils assailed Las Vegas gambling promoters and local Chumash leaders accused the Maidu tribe of Northern California of invading their ancestral lands.

“I didn’t expect the Chumash to turn out like this,” said Lopez, who has opposed the casino project since it was introduced two months ago. “The fact that they so vehemently opposed it would send a very strong message to the governor and the secretary of Interior.”

If the council had approved the Maidu casino, the agreement would have been forwarded to federal and state officials for approval. Experts say only a handful of landless tribes have been allowed to set up new reservations nationwide. Two are proposed for blighted areas of Oakland and San Francisco.

Before Tuesday night’s hearing, most council members said they might delay a final decision by putting Paragon’s plan for a casino along the Ventura Freeway on the fall ballot.

Developers favored such a move, gambling that they could sell their casino to voters before election day.

But opponents, who feared a $1-million campaign by Paragon, were having none of that.

“This is a perversion of the ballot initiative you and I voted for,” resident Mark Guagliardo shouted to the council. “Protect our city! End this now!”

Proposition 1A amended the state Constitution to allow Indian tribes to operate slot machines and blackjack tables at reservation casinos.

Tribes that have lost their lands over the years maintain that this allows them to operate casinos on new urban reservations if they can gain local, state and federal approval to create the new preserves.

Former Councilwoman Jane Tolmach told council members that there would be a price to pay if they did not kill the project.

“If you put this on the ballot, I think you should put a [City Council] recall on the ballot at the same time,” she said.

Churches Present 800 Signatures

Two ministerial groups, representing about 100 churches, presented petitions with 800 signatures and asked for an immediate rejection.

Jeff Brown, a founding member of the Calvary Chapel in Oxnard, issued his own veiled threat.

“Wealthy outsiders have swept in here dangling the allure of quick cash,” he said. “Be courageous. Do the right thing. You don’t want us organizing for the fall.”

That outrage was tempered by calls of union leaders who wanted the measure on the ballot.

They said they had recently signed an agreement with Paragon guaranteeing that casino construction jobs would go to union members.

Developers said the casino would have created 688 full-time jobs with a payroll of $12 million and yielded perhaps $14 million a year in fees to Oxnard--equal to nearly 25% of the city’s current yearly budget.

“A lot of people talk about morality,” said Leo Valenzuela of the Laborers International Union. “Well, the moral issue is jobs.”

Lopez said the crowd was the largest he had seen in 33 years of public service. People lined the walls of the hot council chamber, jammed a nearby hall and foyer and wound out of City Hall into the cool evening air, where they cheered or booed as they watched on TV.

Not since 1993, when 300 people shouted down a large card-club casino for Oxnard, has the City Council faced such an outpouring of community opposition.

Councilman Tom Holden, who cast the deciding vote in 1993, again played a key role. Two months ago, Holden voted with the 3-2 majority to direct Oxnard city staff to do a full study of the Paragon proposal.

But four hours into Tuesday night’s hearing, he had heard enough, and moved to end the debate.

“We have many, many speakers left to speak,” he said. “I have a sense of where we’re going to go. This is just not a project I think should go forward.”

Applause filled the council chamber. Councilman John Zaragosa joined Holden, as did Councilman Dean Maulhardt.

“The passion I hear today is overwhelming, and I don’t think this thing has any legs to move on,” Maulhardt declared. His comments came after his sister-in-law, Marsha Maulhardt, told the council she didn’t want a casino a mile away from her home.

“My kids are fifth-generation Ventura County,” she said. “Let’s declare Ventura County as the only county in California that does not have a casino.”

A spokesman for another neighbor, CBC Federal Credit Union, said the project would change Oxnard’s image forever, and not for the better.

Chumash Object to Maidu Efforts

“Our company tag line is ‘Where your family belongs’ ” CBC President Ray Ewin said. “A casino is not a good fit. When people hear Oxnard, they will think ‘casino.’ ”

County Supervisor John Flynn, Camarillo Councilman Mike Morgan and Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Greg Totten also weighed in against the project, saying it would foster crime, undermine families and siphon money from people who need it most.

Council members said that comments of local Chumash were particularly telling.

Several Chumash speakers scolded Maidu representatives as traitors to Native American unity. “Shame on you!” they said.

“This is Chumash land,” said Vincent Armenta, chairman of the Santa Ynez band of Chumash Indians.

Prosecutor Totten said Oxnard’s message to gambling promoters should be clear: “Don’t expect to come to California after you’ve bought the name and identity of some Indian tribe from a remote location and expect the community to greet you with open arms.”