GARDEN GROVE : City Delays Decision on Card Club Poll

The City Council has delayed taking action on whether to ask residents in a straw poll how they feel about having a card club in the city.

The council was expected to decide Tuesday whether to put the question on water bills that go to homes and businesses over the next three months.

But Councilman Bruce A. Broadwater was out of town and Mayor Frank Kessler delayed the vote until March 16, when all five council members are expected to be on hand.

Supporters say a card club could bring as much as $1 million a month to a city that is facing a possible $7-million deficit in next fiscal year’s budget.

Councilman Mark Leyes, the council’s leading critic of a card club, futilely urged his colleagues “to stand up now and vote no.”

But Kessler, along with Councilmen Robert F. Dinsen and Ho Chung, declined to take that step.

Leyes said he believes that representatives of gambling interests “have duped and misled” local officials into believing that they are interested in operating in Garden Grove.

He said that gambling “is a cutthroat business” and that card club owners are pitting Orange County cities against each other.

City Manager George Tindall said no proposals have been submitted for a card club in Garden Grove, although some operators have sent out feelers to see if the city might be interested.

Tindall last week took the issue to council members who were sitting as the Joint Economic Development Committee. The council indicated at the time that it would favor putting the issue before residents and businesses in a straw vote but put off official action until this week’s council meeting.

Dinsen said the response from residents would give officials a signal on whether to pursue serious negotiations with gambling operators.

The Cypress City Council recently voted to put a proposal on the June 8 citywide ballot on whether to allow a card club to operate at the Los Alamitos Race Course.