Attorney: Council grasped bingo bill

Port Richey council members think they should have known more before okaying bingo halls.

By MATTHEW WAITE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 25, 2003

PORT RICHEY -- City Attorney Paul Marino thinks the Port Richey City Council knew what it was doing when it passed regulations last fall that put commercial bingo back into Pasco County after 10 years of exile.

Council members were given copies of the proposed city ordinance and the Pasco County ordinance, Marino wrote in an e-mail message in response to the Times seeking comment. The difference "should have been obvious to anyone who read the ordinance," Marino wrote.

"You are suggesting that this City Council, which is the most intellectual group to manage the city in recent years, is incapable of reading a proposed ordinance and comparing it with the county ordinance (a copy of which they had) in order to make an informed decision," Marino wrote.

But two council members, who said last week that they didn't have any idea what the consequences of Port Richey's ordinance would be, said Monday that it is Marino's job to advise them on what ordinances do.

"Even if we did have all the information, we needed some advice," council member Phyllis Grae said, adding that she is not blaming Marino for the predicament in which the city's finds itself.

"I think that's why we hire an attorney," council member Bill Bennett said.

Mayor Eloise Taylor put amending or removing the bingo ordinance on the agenda for tonight's meeting. She said if she knew what she knows now about the ordinance, she would not have voted for it last fall.

"It's obvious more information should have been forthcoming when we adopted the ordinance," Taylor said. She said she questioned the ordinance, but "in retrospect, I didn't get straight answers."

Marino's e-mail came in response to a series of questions from the Times. Marino generally refuses to return phone calls from the Times.

Since 1993, Pasco County's bingo ordinance has kept commercial bingo halls out of Pasco by limiting bingo halls to two sessions per week. Port Richey's bingo ordinance does not limit the number of games in halls.

Last summer, former Mayor James Carter told City Manager Vince Lupo that "several" businesses were talking about opening bingo halls in Port Richey and the city had no ordinances to regulate them. When Lupo brought up bingo to the council on July 9, he did not say what businesses wanted to open halls.

Later, Carter provided the city a copy of an ordinance that he wrote. Marino wrote that he considered state and county laws, Jacksonville's ordinance and "information provided to me and the council by former Mayor James Carter" when drafting Port Richey's bingo ordinance.

Debate on the ordinance stretched over two months, yet no one on the council questioned how many times per week a hall could hold bingo. The ordinance passed on a 5-0 vote in September.

This month, the Kolokithas family, owners of the local cruise-to-nowhere gambling boat, paid $1-million for the old Red Cross building at Ridge Road and Congress Street and opened up a bingo hall. Carter is a Kolokithas employee, acting as a city lobbyist.

Mollie Kolokithas said last week that the bingo hall can't survive under rules such as the county ordinance. If the city places similar restrictions on the business, she said, she will sue to stay open.

One council member, Dale Massad, said he knew Port Richey's ordinance allowed commercial bingo halls into the city.

"I didn't have a problem with that," Massad said. "I understood what it said and I voted for it."

Massad recently cut the ribbon on the unveiling of the Kolokithas family's new gambling boat. Marino also attended the ceremony, according to the Port Richey Periodical, a city newsletter that the Kolokithas family bankrolls.

Marino, defending Port Richey's bingo ordinance, wrote that the city is giving small charities a chance against their "more affluent counterparts."

Pasco County's bingo ordinance "appears to serve the interests of larger non-profits to the detriment to all other smaller charities who cannot afford to lease a facility," Marino wrote in his e-mail.

Not true, said assistant County Attorney Joe Richards. The county exempts small bingo games of fewer than 50 people out of regulations, shifting the burden onto larger bingo games.

"Those (small) games don't bring in enough money to warrant us getting involved," Richards said Monday. The Pasco County Board of Commissioners considered requiring small games to register with the county, but rejected the idea in December.

Complicating tonight's debate will be Marino's absence. He told the council two weeks ago that he wouldn't be at the meeting. Massad said they should wait for Marino to return.

-- Matthew Waite covers Port Richey city government. He can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6247, or toll free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6247. His e-mail address is waite@sptimes.com .

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