Fullerton Panel Pulls the Plug on Ice House Concerts

Planning commissioners on Wednesday revoked the entertainment permit of a controversial banquet hall despite pleas from concert promoters who promised to increase security and work with police to avoid violence during concerts.

Supporters of the Ice House told the commissioners that the permit should not be revoked because recent violence should not be blamed on hall operators or the punk rock music played by bands whose names include the Vandals, Social Distortion and Agent Orange.

“I don’t think that the problem is the music,” said 15-year-old punk rocker Joe Guibrino of Placentia.

“I think (the violence) was an unfortunate occurrence, but I don’t think it has anything to do with the Ice House,” Guibrino said.

Police had pushed to have the building’s entertainment permit revoked since February after a second stabbing in two months.

An 18-year-old man was beaten and stabbed while waiting for a performance by the Vandals, an Orange County band, on Dec. 16. He suffered a punctured lung after the attack by 11 or 12 white-supremacist skinheads, the teen-ager has said.

Then, on Feb. 10, two men who were leaving the Ice House were chased, beaten and stabbed across the street during an attack by 20 to 30 assailants, police said.

“I just won’t take the chance of somebody being killed over there, and that’s just what’s going to happen if we allow the (live concerts) to continue,” Police Chief Patrick E. McKinley said before asking the Planning Commission to revoke the permit. “There’s just nothing in it for the city of Fullerton.”

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He said his department allowed the Ice House to continue staging shows after the first stabbing because the hall agreed to replace in-house guards with professional security guards. But after the second stabbing, McKinley expressed concern and decided to seek the revocation of the hall’s concert permit.

Eric M. Addeo, head of Culture Shock, the building’s in-house promotion company, said he will appeal the Planning Commission’s decision to the City Council. He has 10 days to appeal. If he does appeal, all entertainment at the Ice House must stop, including wedding receptions, birthday parties and dance contests.

Addeo said that after the second stabbing, police told him to hire 12 off-duty police officers and pay each $50 per hour for future live concerts.

“That would put me out of business,” he said, adding that he canceled a number of concerts because he could not afford to pay the police. “If it is, hire 12 officers bottom line, then that’s it. I’m out of here.”

He tried to strike a compromise by promising to hire six police officers to patrol outside the hall and 10 private security guards to handle crowds inside the hall during concerts.

Amy Toten, Culture Shock’s band development director, told the commissioners, “I don’t want to just push the problem under the rug and not deal with it. We’re willing to work with you and try and find a solution to this problem.”

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About 15 teen-agers--mostly punk rockers--attended the commission meeting to lend support to Ice House.

The seven commissioners initially debated whether to postpone a decision Wednesday, but went ahead to revoke the entertainment permit on a 6-1 vote after McKinley told them he was pessimistic about striking an agreement over security at the Ice House.

“If we go back to the drawing board and we have another (attack), we could have somebody dead out there,” he told the commissioners.

Commissioner Paul Simons, who voted to revoke the license, said, “It just isn’t conducive to continue on with the Ice House the way it’s being managed. I would like to see them work with police. . . . I’m well in tune with the youth today. . . . If they would go to a place like this, I would want to be sure, darn sure, that they are protected and safe.”

Commissioner Mary Sandoval, who voted against revoking the permit, said she thought the current permit could be modified and would have preferred making a decision later.

“I really hate to close down one of the few live-music venues in Orange County,” she said.