Candidate finds a walk in the park can be anything but.

FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT: Gardena mayoral candidate Philip Johnson was not injured last week when shots were fired as he and a friend confronted gang members loitering in Rowley Park.

But he said the March 30 incident demonstrates the city’s Police Department is slow to respond to calls.

Johnson said he and a friend were talking in the parking lot when they noticed about a dozen gang members smoking and drinking alcohol nearby. When they asked the youths to leave, one youth reportedly punched Johnson’s friend, himself a former gang member. As several other youths threw rocks and swung baseball bats and golf clubs, Johnson said he tried to pull his friend away.

Then two shots rang out and Johnson and his friend ran to the park’s gym. No one saw who fired the gun and no one was wounded, he said.

Johnson said it took several calls to police from park staff, other witnesses and Johnson before officers arrived on the scene. All the gang members had disappeared by the time police arrived, he said.

“I’m still nervous from it . . . and the more I’ve talked about it, the more afraid I’ve gotten,” Johnson said at a candidates’ forum March 31.

But Police Chief Richard Propster wrote in a report that the police dispatch computer recorded a call from a Rowley Park employee at 6:05 p.m. and the first two-officer unit was dispatched at 6:07, arriving at the park by 6:10 p.m. Two backup units were also dispatched, for a total of six officers sent to the scene, according to Propster’s report.

“Based on the above, I feel police response was completely consistent with all expectations we have given to the community,” Propster wrote.

But Johnson said the response still was not within the three-minute time often promoted by city leaders, and he criticized what he deemed the need for several calls to get police to respond.

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LEFT UNSAID: Several seconds of footage from an El Segundo City Council candidates’ forum have been left on the city cable channel’s cutting room floor.

In response to two protests filed at City Hall, the Community Cable Advisory Committee voted 5-1 to edit out a remark made by challenger Gerhardt Van Drie before the debate made it to El Segundo residents’ living rooms.

Van Drie said during the March 23 forum that state Department of Social Services investigators found 17 children in a “shed” behind the home of Janice Wise, the sister-in-law of incumbent J.B. Wise.

Janice Wise ran a home day-care center in El Segundo. A report by the state Department of Social Services said the children were found in a “shed,” but a later reference characterized the room as an “office.” Her license to operate the center was temporarily suspended after investigators found 18 more children at her home than her license allows.

Keith Wise, the brother of J.B. Wise, said Van Drie intended to defame his family’s name and threatened legal action against the city if the comment was aired. Van Drie defended his remark, saying he was only repeating accounts of the incident in local newspapers.

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THE GREEN VOTE: During an election, there is a committee for every problem.

The latest: an environmental commission, an idea advanced by the four candidates for Manhattan Beach City Council.

“In a city with commissions for parking spaces and public works, I’m very surprised we don’t have a commission for the environment,” said lawyer James A. Shalvoy, who is running for one of two seats on the council. Retired businessman Jack Cunningham also supported the idea.

The two other candidates, lawyer Joan Jones and incumbent Connie Sieber, liked the idea as well, but said an independent citizen coalition may be more effective.

“However that happens, I’m for it,” Sieber said.

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UP AND COMING: The South Bay Republican Women Federated will hold a forum April 14 between Susan Brooks and Ron Florance, who are running in the Republican primary in the 36th Congressional District. Meeting starts at 11 a.m., forum at 1 p.m.; Torrance Holiday Inn, 21333 Hawthorne Blvd., Torrance.