Boxing Program Is Shut Down by City Officials : Recreation: Council questions director’s handling of disputes and feared possible violence at Las Palmas Park. A replacement effort is ordered.

A popular boxing program has been closed down by the City Council, because city officials believed its director handled conflicts between his boxers improperly and officials feared the program might spark violence at Las Palmas Park.

Meanwhile, the City Council Monday ordered Ed Montan, the new director of Recreation and Community Services, to draw up a replacement boxing program.

Rudy Campa, who started the Community Youth Boxing Program 18 months ago, said the council’s decision was unwarranted and that replacing the program won’t be easy.

“It’s not going to work like that,” said Campa of the council’s plan. A former gang member, ex-convict and recovered drug addict, Campa is known in the community for his talent in reaching youngsters. “I’ve got a lifetime of experiences. It’s hard work (to set up a boxing program) and you have to know what you are doing.”

Supporters of the program had presented the City Council a petition with 800 names of people who back Campa’s boxing program. The program serves about 30 boys and girls, from elementary to high school students.

Campa had said his boxing program--started with the blessing of former Parks and Recreation Director Jess Margarito--was the best way to keep the peace at Las Palmas Park by giving youths an alternative to violence and drugs. Conditions at the park deteriorated in 1991 when a gang shootout wounded a mother and her three children. The city then banned gang members from the park for a year, and the atmosphere there has steadily improved.

The problems over Campa’s efforts started three weeks ago when Montan saw Campa handle a disagreement between two of his boxers that started when one insulted the other’s sister. Campa stepped in and had the boys put on boxing gloves to settle the dispute. But they did not use mouth-pieces or protective head gear, which worried Montan.

The next day, after a baseball game between Campa’s boxers and a visiting team from Blythe Street in Van Nuys, a fight broke out at the park. Recreation staff members claim they saw a gun during the scuffle. But Campa and Augie Maldonado, the executive director of Salud, an agency that sponsors the program, deny that their kids were involved in the fight.

Montan said he was worried that the program could leave the city open for a lawsuit if anyone had been hurt. Campa defends his program, saying he had never had an injury in the 18 months he had the program, and that head protection and mouth guards are used whenever the boxers spar, except in a case when they were resolving an argument.

As of Sept. 12, the boxing program has been banned from using the park. The city had also banned another Salud program--the Starting at Home Youth Club--from using the park as well. On Monday night, the City Council unanimously restored the permit for the youth club but asked that a new boxing program be created.

Montan said he wanted to provide more supervision in his new program, establishing rules that would require youths to stay in school, take physicals and sign releases. He also would like to see Campa work with the new program in some capacity. “He was obviously reaching some of these kids,” Montan said Tuesday.

Montan said he would like to find a better site for the boxing program because another group has also applied to start a tennis program on the courts that Campa had been using. He said he hoped the owner of a warehouse might donate space for them.

But Campa said he blames Montan for shutting down the boxing program and said he will not deal with the city anymore. The city has donated a small amount money to the program but has not charged it to use city facilities.

“He’s the one that destroyed it,” Campa said. Instead, he will try to find a facility off city property to continue the program. Monday night, when San Fernando Mayor Raymond Ojeda refused to let Campa speak during a council debate, saying his remarks were out of order, Campa stormed out of the room followed by about a dozen of his boxers who had shown up in support.

The boxers told the City Council that since the program was closed down, they have been left with nothing to do on their afternoons but hang out at the park. They said police now harass them just for being at Las Palmas Park.