Supremacist’s Rally Worries Simi Valley : Race relations: City leaders say the event’s ‘bad timing’ could take attention away from their annual festival and revive tensions related to the Rodney King case.

City leaders are concerned that a Saturday rally led by a white supremacist will revive the city’s unwanted ties to the Rodney G. King case and steal the spotlight from Simi Valley Days, their annual home-grown festival of barn dancing, a chili cook-off and a horse show.

Simi Valley Police Chief Lindsey P. Miller said he will not allow Barrett and his supporters to conduct a parade through town, as Barrett had requested. They will, however, be guarded by local police and about 100 Ventura County sheriff’s deputies.

Some community leaders said they were disappointed that the Barrett rally, and a counterdemonstration that might involve 400 people, were bound to receive far more attention from the news media than the chili cook-off, which may draw up to 4,000 people.

“I know it’s very newsworthy to have someone like a white supremacist coming here,” said Burt von Bieberstein, publicity chairman for Simi Valley Days, “but it doesn’t represent Simi Valley.”

Barrett and six followers tried to stage a similar rally June 6, but police halted it after violence erupted among some of the 300 counterdemonstrators.

Still, organizers of the Simi Valley Days said they were not tempted to reschedule their events after Barrett chose Saturday for his return date.

“We’re not going to let someone like Barrett come in here and dictate what events we can and cannot have,” said Frank W. White, chairman of the chili cook-off.

“I think personally that it’s bad timing,” said Mayor Greg Stratton, noting that he will be at the courthouse so he can authorize a call for outside assistance if violence erupts. “My Rotary Club is doing the chili cook-off, and I’m not excited about the fact that I may have to miss it.”

City officials had asked Gov. Pete Wilson to provide National Guard troops after Ventura County Sheriff John Gillespie said he could not afford to send extra deputies to the event.

But state officials said this week that they do not plan to send guardsmen. They said the city should look to neighboring law enforcement agencies for help under mutual-aid programs.

Simi Valley Days organizers said they do not expect Barrett’s rally to keep residents from attending their festival, which started in the 1930s and has evolved into a series of family-oriented events to raise funds for civic groups. But Stratton said the prospect of a volatile rally and counterdemonstration could scare away out-of-towners.

Barrett arrived in Simi Valley on Thursday and announced at a press conference that he expected violence over the weekend from his opponents. Officials in other cities where Barrett has marched said he has a history of trying to stir up emotions in communities where racial tensions exist.

Later in the day, Barrett passed out flyers at two shopping centers. He stopped Ann Arledge, a 13-year Simi Valley resident, on the way to her car. “The fact that he’s coming here is really offensive to me,” Arledge said.