Custom Car Show Canceled by Redondo’s City Council : Charity: City officials fear a repeat of last year’s event, which attracted some gang members. The sponsoring Rotary Club is seeking an alternative site.

Fearing what they term a “gang show,” Redondo Beach City Council members have slammed the brakes on a local Rotary Club’s third annual Custom and Lowrider Car Show.

The sponsor, the North Redondo Beach Rotary Club, says the annual event, featuring hundreds of elaborate low-slung vehicles, generates thousands of dollars for local charities.

But council members, citing unruliness and the presence of gang members at last year’s show, voted 4 to 0 Tuesday to deny the club permission to stage the event Oct. 20 at Aviation Park.

“I’m a Rotarian . . . but I can’t in clear conscience support this event,” said Councilman Terry Ward. “This is just opening up what we’re trying to fight in North Redondo, and that’s gangs.”

Ward remarked that the show could have included “the spray paint event and the drive-by shooting event.”

Such comments angered North Redondo BeachRotary Club President Tom Fouts, who said council members and the police officers advising them painted an overly threatening picture of the car show.

“I blame the Police Department to a large degree for characterizing practically everyone who goes to the show as a gangster,” Fouts said Wednesday.

He said the council vote comes as a blow to his club.

“We’re extremely disappointed,” Fouts said. “Last year we made about $25,000 on the show. That provided the resources for a vast part of our philanthropic work for the whole year.”

Last year’s show unexpectedly attracted 600 cars--three times the number of the year before--after a car show that had been scheduled for the same day was canceled in the San Fernando Valley.

According to a city report, alcohol was smuggled in, police officers broke up a number of near fights, and at one point spectators surged onto the stage and treated themselves to trophies and score sheets. No arrests were reported.

Police said poor crowd control resulted in several near-misses in a car-hopping contest in which hydraulic suspension systems are manipulated to make vehicles bounce up and down.

Gang members, they said, were at the car show in force. Said Phil Keenan, a detective with the city Police Department’s gang unit: “We were a little bit overwhelmed.”

Keenan told council members that an orderly car show could be held this year if the city staffed it with 10 uniformed officers, two members of the gang unit, two supervisors and five reserve officers.

The Rotary Club, meanwhile, had agreed not to hold two potentially unruly events, bikini and macho man contests. At Mayor Brad Parton’s urging, council members decided against a car show under any conditions.

“I don’t think we want this in our community,” said Parton, one of several officials who referred to the event jokingly as a “gang show.”

Rotary Club member Phil Toomey, a Redondo Beach attorney, criticized Parton for painting car show enthusiasts with “too broad a brush.” Parton replied: “Maybe it’s 5% (who are gang members). But that 5% could be problems.”

Fouts noted that the first time the event was held, in 1988, it was peaceful. He said the only reason the crowd got out of hand at last year’s show was that the attendance was so much larger than expected.

“The only real problems that occurred were late in the day,” Fouts said. “We didn’t have time to get the judging done because we were only geared up to judge 250 to 300 cars maximum. People didn’t get proper recognition and they got impatient.”

Fouts said the Rotary Club is trying to find an alternate site for the show but it is uncertain whether arrangements can be made in time. One site he said the club is pursuing is Alondra Park.

Councilwoman Kay Horrell said Tuesday she attended the first Custom and Lowrider Car Show and considered it a success. But she said police reports that gang members commonly show up at such events have made her reluctant to let the local car show continue.

“For some reason it attracted the wrong elements,” Horrell said. “I’m fearful of these kinds of events in our community.”