"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."
