ELECTIONS LAWNDALE : Red Cross Feels Heat for Letting Candidate Put Name on Flyer : Campaign: City Council hopeful Ron Maxwell says he got permission to put a political message on an earthquake safety handbill. The Red Cross says it was all a misunderstanding.

The American Red Cross helps victims of earthquakes, floods and fires, but the group has found itself in the middle of a political firestorm after allowing a Lawndale City Council candidate to put his name on an earthquake survival flyer.

The handbill has the Red Cross’ popular public service announcement, “27 things to help you survive an earthquake,” on the back of a political statement by candidate Ron Maxwell.

Noting that he printed a disclaimer on the announcement stating that the Red Cross does not support political candidates, Maxwell, 27, says he is bewildered by the attention the flyer has received.

“I wanted to do it as a public service . . . for the benefit of the community,” Maxwell said. “I was surprised, if not a little shocked, that my opponents would be against my informing people how to better prepare themselves for an earthquake.”

Red Cross spokeswoman Peggy McGinley said Maxwell received permission to hand out copies of the earthquake announcement under the words “Distributed as a public service by Ron Maxwell, for City Council.” But she said Red Cross officials did not know he was planning to put the message on the back of a campaign flyer until they received calls about the matter from angry council candidates and city officials.

They also didn’t know the group’s logo would appear on the flyer in black rather than red, in violation of the copyright, she said.

Maxwell, who spent $400 to print 15,000 copies of the flyer, has agreed to Red Cross officials’ request that he stop distributing it and has retrieved several bundles of flyers from campaign volunteers who were helping him pass them out.

“We’ve had nothing but cooperation from Ron Maxwell,” McGinley said. “It simply seems to be a misunderstanding or miscommunication.”

The controversy nevertheless comes at a sensitive time for Maxwell, who is considered an underdog candidate in the November election.

Maxwell is one of four candidates vying for a council seat that was left open when former Councilman Harold Hoffman was elected mayor in April. Also running for the seat are Bob Cerny, Norm Lagerquist and Gary McDonald.

In an attempt at control damage, Maxwell has spent extra time walking precincts to explain his case to the voters, a tactic he said has brought good results.

But Councilwoman Carol Norman, who has endorsed Lagerquist in the race and is among those who complained about the flyer, remains skeptical about Maxwell’s intentions.

“He’s either extremely dumb or he (did) it intentionally,” Norman said. “I don’t think politically it was the smartest thing for him to do because it shows him to be less than honorable in his campaigning.”

Norman also said the flyer controversy echoes an incident last year in which Maxwell sent out a mailer urging people to vote and using his title as a parks and recreation commissioner. Although Maxwell maintained that he did nothing wrong in sending out that mailer, the City Council nevertheless voted 3 to 2 to remove him from the commission.

Maxwell has made earthquake preparedness a key issue in his campaign for the council seat. In his campaign literature, he contends that the city lacks its own emergency plan in case of an earthquake and that the county’s disaster plan is inadequate to address Lawndale’s needs.

City Manager Charles Thompson acknowledged that the city does not have “any elaborate organization” and that it would be “largely dependent on county police, fire and public works” in the aftermath of an earthquake. But he said the city does have an emergency plan that describes the chain of command and procedures city officials should follow to set in motion state and federal funding.

Maxwell said he decided to distribute the earthquake instructions only after a campaign volunteer received authorization to do so from Peggy Brutsche, director of emergency services planning and training for the Los Angeles chapter of the Red Cross.

The campaign worker, Bill Foss, said he gave Brutsche two copies of the two-sided flyer three weeks ago, before any were passed out, and that Brutsche told him it would be OK to use it.

“I put it in her hand and specifically pointed to the disclaimer, and she saw the other side had a political message on it,” Foss said. “I really, honestly, feel that we covered our bases as best we could. We really tried to do the right thing.”

Both Maxwell and Foss said they were shocked later to learn that Red Cross officials were upset about the flyer. Both said Brutsche must have been unaware of the organization’s policies when she gave Foss permission to pass them out.

Brutsche was out of town. But McGinley, who said she spoke to Brutsche on Friday about the incident, insisted that Brutsche did not know the announcement was going to be distributed on the back of a political statement.

McGinley also disputed the contention that Brutsche was unaware of the organization’s policies and said Maxwell simply misunderstood the rules.

Brutsche “is our expert on the guidelines,” McGinley said. “She deals with these kinds of requests very routinely. . . . She was very familiar and very well qualified to make these decisions.”

Kevin Ilion, the South Bay district spokesman for the Red Cross, said he received several angry calls about the flyers before he asked Maxwell to stop distributing them.

But he added: “We’re trying to downplay the incident because it sounded like a misunderstanding on Mr. Maxwell’s part, and we know it’s election time and didn’t want this to be a negative reflection on him.”