Meetings at Casino Raise Questions

Gamblers at the Commerce Casino’s high-limit Texas Hold ‘Em tables didn’t appear to notice as armed sheriff’s deputies shuffled past them on their way toward a red-carpeted stairwell. Some deputies were in uniform, guns holstered at their waists or strapped to their thighs.

It was 8 a.m. on a recent Thursday, and the world’s largest poker club was playing host to a divergent clientele: serious gamblers, some with more than $1,000 in chips, and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department brass on their way to a management seminar.

For more than a year, Sheriff Lee Baca’s top executives have held quarterly conferences in a ballroom at the Commerce Casino’s hotel. The unlikely meeting spot concerns some sheriff’s officials, who fear the appearance of a conflict of interest because the department is responsible for enforcing state gambling laws at the casino.

Some sheriff’s officials say they’re also concerned about the appearance that Baca is funneling business to a casino that has long supported his political career.

Since taking office in 1999, Baca has accepted more than $25,000 in political contributions from the casino, its shareholders and employees. The casino has donated more than $100,000 to the sheriff’s youth charity.

Casino executives have given the sheriff gifts worth more than $2,300 since 1999, according to statements of economic interest that the sheriff files with the county. Among the gifts were basketball and concert tickets, food and wine, golf fees and a $1,500 sculpture for Baca’s 1999 wedding.

Three Commerce Casino executives -- Ralph Wong, Harvey Ross and Haig Papaian -- hold concealed weapons permits approved by the Sheriff’s Department. A Baca spokesman said the permits were originally approved by Sheriff Sherman Block and were renewed by the department because of ongoing threats at the casino.

In 2004, the Commerce Casino donated $10,000 to the campaign for Measure A, a Baca-led initiative that would have raised the sales tax to fund law enforcement in Los Angeles County. In the same election, Baca endorsed a statewide proposition that could have allowed the Commerce Casino to install more than 1,000 slot machines. Voters rejected both measures.

The management meetings at the Commerce Casino are daylong events that typically include awards ceremonies and policy discussion. Sheriff’s managers are required by the department to pay for the catered meetings, said Undersheriff Larry Waldie, who organizes the events. At $35 a head, the 125-person meeting Oct. 20 generated about $4,000 for the casino.

In addition to the one-day management meetings, the sheriff’s department held its recent medal of valor awards ceremony for deputies at the casino hotel. Parties for retiring deputies also are often held there.

The Commerce Casino, which opened in 1983, has a history of political corruption. In 1985, four City of Commerce officials and the casino’s former president were convicted of corruption charges related to the awarding of secret shares of the casino to city officials who approved it.

Critics say the department could easily find a suitable meeting place without a casino or corruption history.

“I think it shows some poor judgment to have it there,” said Greg Emerson, general counsel to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Professional Assn., a deputies union. “I’ve heard deputies talk about it. They think it has something to do with campaign contributions. Whatever the reason, it appears bad.”

Several ranking officials who attend the meetings said they wished they were held elsewhere. They spoke on the condition that their names not be published, citing fear of retaliation.

“I dislike it because I know a substantial portion of the general public wonders whether any aspect of the gambling business is upright. It’s all appearance,” said one sheriff’s official.

Baca said he believed the casino was a clean operation, and he praised it for making donations to community charities.

“I don’t see anything wrong with attending a meeting in a banquet room of a hotel attached to a casino,” Baca said.

“I find it incredulous a law enforcement officer would feel somehow uncomfortable in a secure establishment, licensed by the state of California.

“If they’re afraid of going to a banquet room attached to a casino,” Baca said, “then they might feel uncomfortable dealing with homeless people on the streets or arresting prostitutes. They’re probably in the wrong business.”

Andy Schneiderman, vice president of the Commerce Casino, said the Sheriff’s Department is one of many business and government groups, including State Farm Insurance and Mary Kay cosmetics, that use banquet facilities at the casino-owned hotel, a Crowne Plaza franchise.

“We have the largest banquet facility between Anaheim and downtown in an area that’s underserved,” Schneiderman said.

Some sheriff’s officials said they didn’t have a problem meeting at the Commerce Casino’s hotel, which is convenient for sheriff’s staffers driving from as far away as Walnut and Lancaster. They said most of them avoid the gambling area by parking in a rear lot and taking an elevator to the second floor.

“It was centrally located, and they had everything we needed: video, audio, adequate parking and food,” said Chuck Jackson, who retired this year as a chief assigned to the sheriff’s corrections system. “I heard some people grumble about holding meetings in a card casino. But it’s not like we’re going to a bordello.”

Joseph D. McNamara, a former police chief in San Jose and now a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, said he didn’t buy the criticism.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s a legal business,” McNamara said. “The people who are concerned, it’s probably their religious convictions.”

Still, the idea of meeting in a casino troubles others.

“If I was in charge, I wouldn’t meet in a casino. It raises appearance issues,” said Richard E. Drooyan, the former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the Commerce city officials in 1985. “Ultimately, it’s a judgment call for the sheriff.”

Merrick Bobb, who monitors the Sheriff’s Department under a contract with the county, said the casino meetings raise flags.

“There are appearance issues when the Sheriff’s Department does business in a casino,” Bobb said. “Whatever you think about gambling, casinos are thought of by some as immoral activity or activity that is surrounded by alcohol and prostitution.”

The Sheriff’s Department has received two complaints of prostitution in the casino parking lot in the last four years, and they were reported by casino management, said sheriff’s Lt. Ruth Nelson, who supervises the department’s vice unit. Nelson’s unit also enforces gambling laws at the casino.

“I have a fairly favorable opinion of them,” Nelson said. “The times we’ve had to ask for their cooperation, they’ve been very open, supplying surveillance tapes and cooperating with us.”

The Commerce Casino, the largest land-based card club in the world, with 243 gaming tables and a 91,000-square-foot casino floor, is a potent political force locally and statewide.

It donated $2.4 million to campaigns in 2004. In the first nine months of this year, the casino donated $224,000 to political favorites, including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley and former Gov. Jerry Brown’s attorney general campaign.

Behind glass in a casino hallway are photographs of casino officials posing with elected officials, including Villaraigosa, former Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti and former Mayor Tom Bradley. Baca is pictured with casino board member Papaian, who also sits on the board of the sheriff’s youth foundation.

Last year, Commerce City Councilwoman Nancy Ramos acknowledged that the Commerce Casino paid $1,900 for her three-night vacation at the Bellagio hotel and casino in Las Vegas. Because of the gift, Ramos said, she would abstain from voting on all casino matters.

Baca has a long relationship with gambling interests. In addition to accepting more than $25,000 from the Commerce Casino and its employees, Baca has received contributions from the Hustler Casino in Gardena, the Ocean’s Eleven Casino in Oceanside, the Hawaiian Gardens Casino and Hollywood Park’s casino.

Baca says the casino controversies of the mid-1980s are history. He says he doesn’t gamble and doesn’t give a second thought to the casino meetings.

“We haven’t seen the crime problems people talk about” related to casinos, Baca said. “It’s an industry that’s here. Let’s make the best of it.”