CITIES : Red Onion, State Meet on Club’s Entry Policy

Officials of Red Onion Restaurants, trying to stem the tide of complaints that they consistently bar minorities from their nightclubs, met with state investigators for the first time “to take a hard look at the problem,” the chain’s attorney said.

News broke last month that the state was investigating complaints from six men--two blacks, two Latinos and two Middle Easterners--that they had been barred from the Red Onion in Santa Ana and given phony explanations.

Since then, dozens of other complaints have been filed, including some from former employees who said their bosses told them to “clean up the crowd” when it became “too dark.”

Now the company has begun keeping records of those turned away from their doors. It also has hired Nat Trives, a professor from Cal State Los Angeles who was once appointed by a judge to oversee integration of the San Francisco Police Department, to come up with a “racially neutral” admission policy and a “needs assessment” study for the company.

Before meeting with state investigators, company officials had invited 30 community minority leaders to the restaurant “to open up lines of communication.”

To show good faith, company officials said, they would begin offering internships to minority students and awarding scholarships to needy Santa Ana students.

“My honest belief is that they are more concerned with their corporate image than the people that they have injured and humiliated in the process,” said Joyce Owens-Smith, president of the Orange County Urban League, who attended the meeting.

But Stephen Solomon, Red Onion vice president, said: “You have to be responsible to be responsive. This is a challenge we feel will make the corporation better, make us grow larger and increase business at the same time.”