OK expected for reduced license fee for Hollywood Park card club.

The Inglewood City Council is expected to approve on March 16 an ordinance allowing Hollywood Park to pay a $3 million license fee for a gambling card club in exchange for a reduction in such fees during the next five years.

The council voted unanimously last week to approve the measure for Hollywood Park -- currently in the midst of a highly touted $100 million expansion which is expected to create 3,000 new local jobs. On Tuesday, the council is slated to adopt the ordinance.

However, some local residents are upset by the ordinance, saying that Hollywood Park has falsely promoted its expansion plan, which includes a police station, upscale shops, a card club approved by voters last November, and a 16,000-seat music dome.

Opponents predict some of the projects, especially the music dome, and promised jobs will never materialize.

"These guys were hailed as the saviors of Inglewood, but there's the potential this whole expansion was a fraud from the get-go and all they wanted was the card club," said Mike Triggs, a local activist who fought against the card club in November.

As an example, Triggs pointed to a recent stock offering prospectus in which the racetrack tells the Securities and Exchange Commission that it "is not committed to go forward" with the music dome.

"Any future decision to construct such a facility would be dependent upon ... the availability of significant additional financing on terms acceptable to the company," the document states.

However, Michael Finnigan, chief financial officer for Hollywood Park, called Triggs' claims "sour grapes," noting that a promised golf center has been completed and created 50 new jobs.

"Some people said we wouldn't build the golf, we did the golf," said Finnigan. "I would say to them (opponents), 'Just relax. Everything you've cried doom and gloom about never materialized."

He said the wording relating to the music dome in the SEC prospectus is as "conservative as you can make it."

"You try to make sure that public investors aren't attracted to projects that will never come about," said Finnigan.

But Triggs argued that Hollywood Park has repeatedly promised, in city council meetings, in published campaign literature and press reports, to build the music dome.

"We were promised upscale shops, a new police station and a music dome, so far all we've got is a card club," Triggs said. As a result, he thinks the ordinance is not in the city's best interest.

The license tax, based on the card club's gross game-related revenues, will be the city's principal source of revenue from the club.

"This ordinance is not the best deal for anyone but ... Hollywood Park," said Triggs. "Hollywood Park gets five years of tax concessions and $3 million just balances the city budget this year. We're told as residents we should be glad we're getting this $3 million. What's $3 million to the hundreds of millions Hollywood Park takes from this community?"

However, Paul Eckles, city manager of Inglewood, said the $3 million advance fee payment is a sound business proposition, which has "the character of a loan," although it isn't a loan.

"The city is going through, like a lot of Southern California cities, a bit of a budget crisis. We'll be fine in the long run when the card club revenues start coming in," he said.

Eckles said if the card club is very successful, Hollywood Park could save up to 20 percent over the next five years by paying the $3 million now. But he argued the city will be doing better by then, so it's better for the city to get the money now.

"If the club is very successful, they will get a good return, but the city will be doing well too," said Eckles.