Officials Eager to Offer Better Vision of City

It turned out to be a double welcome Monday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library near Simi Valley.

Reagan welcomed former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev to the library to celebrate an end to the Cold War.

And Simi Valley officials welcomed the opportunity to reshape the public’s perception of their city in the wake of the not-guilty verdicts in the Rodney G. King case.

After the verdicts, the city received dozens of outraged phone calls from across the country, an outpouring that labeled both Simi Valley and Ventura County as racist.

At Monday’s festivities at the library, Simi Valley officials appeared eager to talk to several of the 200 journalists covering the event to try to dispel any misconceptions about the city.

“We’re feeling like a victim of this too,” Mayor Greg Stratton told one reporter. “In a sense we’ve been blamed for part of this.”

Then, as he has done over and over the past few days, Stratton reminded reporters that it was a Los Angeles County trial and that only two jurors were actually from Simi Valley. The only reason the city ended up with the trial is because it had an empty courthouse available, he said.

“There are some who have still not gotten the message,” he said. “But I think people are finally beginning to recognize we were just the site for this trial.”

For all the press attention they received, Stratton and other city officials expressed relief that the day’s focus was more on Reagan and Gorbachev than the events of the last few days.

“It certainly changes the spotlight and hopefully the view the public will have of Simi Valley,” the mayor said of Monday’s event.

Councilman Bill Davis agreed.

“Anything we get in the headlines and in the press about Simi Valley and the presidential library and about the Gorbachev thing is probably going to take some of the heat off the Rodney King trial in Simi Valley,” Davis said.

Indeed, Assistant City Manager Mike Sedell said city officials have been engaged in a “full-court press” to reshape the public’s perception of Simi Valley in the wake of the King verdicts.

Councilwoman Judy Mikels appeared on last Thursday’s edition of the CBS News magazine “Street Stories,” which focused that night on Simi Valley.

Stratton appeared on “Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt,” another CBS News program. On Monday, he was interviewed for “Now It Can Be Told,” the syndicated series hosted by Geraldo Rivera.

Davis stressed to reporters Monday that Simi Valley residents are helping in the cleanup effort in Los Angeles.

“A number of people are collecting clothing and food and stuff from Simi Valley and shipping it to Los Angeles,” he said. “There was a pretty good size group of people who went over there yesterday to help.

“I don’t think they identified themselves, you know, ‘Here we are, we’re Simi Valley people,’ ” Davis said. “But they were there doing their job and helping people.”

Stratton continued his defense of the city at Monday night’s City Council meeting.

“We were put on the map with the opening of the Reagan library, and we would prefer to be known for that,” Stratton said. “We have tried to cope with this the best we can.”

Meanwhile, Monday’s ceremony managed to lift the spirits of a few.

Thousand Oaks resident Julie Bryan said she was excited because two of her young daughters were among the 150 students who make up the Conejo Valley Unified School District Elementary Choir, chosen to perform for Reagan and Gorbachev.

“They were really thrilled,” Bryan said of her girls. “I think for our children and our family, Gorbachev was the one who led the race for peace and freedom. And now my kids are feeling a little more secure about this world, that they’re not going to go up in a bomb.”

Gail Lowe Parrino, principal of Acacia Elementary School, which contributed 54 students to the choir, said the outing was more than just another field trip for the students.

“They definitely realized what they were doing,” she said. “They were thrilled about being able to perform in front of two world leaders. It was the opportunity of a lifetime.”

Outside the Reagan library entrance, some came to praise Gorbachev and some to condemn him.

Members of the John Birch Society waved picket signs denouncing him as a “bad man.”

“We still see Gorbachev as a world-class criminal,” said Mark Walsh, 50, coordinator of the society’s Simi Valley chapter.

“We believe communism is not dead,” Walsh said. “The secret police are still there and they’re pleading for more American tax dollars, and we feel that Americans are stretched to the breaking point now.”

Gorbachev fans waited farther up the driveway leading to the library, peering into the blacked-out windows of passing limousines.

“I admire Mikhail Gorbachev. He really benefited the Russian people,” said Carol Anderson, 48, a Simi Valley homemaker. “I’m kind of sorry he’s still not in power. . . . He changed the world, didn’t he?”

And then there was Christopher McGrath, trying to register voters for his newly founded Rock and Roll Party, which he said supports the rights and views of people ages 18 to 49.

“When we have rock-and-roll police chiefs, rock-and-roll mayors, rock-and-roll supervisors,” he said, “we can make it known that the rock-and-roll community can focus on the peaceful issues and turn their attention away from gangs and turmoil.”

Times staff writers Mack Reed and Psyche Pascual contributed to this story.