Simi Valley Struggling With Image After Pro-Gun Incidents

Four years after the image troubles caused by the 1992 Rodney G. King trial here, Simi Valley leaders are worrying whether a new public relations problem is brewing.

This time the trouble revolves mainly around the pro-gun zeal of Councilwoman Sandi Webb and a vocal group of Simi Valley gun advocates lobbying for the city to make it easier for residents to arm themselves.

Although Simi Valley regularly hovers among the top three safest cities in the nation, more than 250 gun advocates packed a City Council hearing last week to ask Police Chief Randy Adams for fewer restrictions on gun permits.

It was a noisy, four-hour meeting.

National Rifle Assn. members repeatedly booed speakers who backed Adams’ requirements that handgun permit applicants pass mental exams, get fingerprinted and buy $1-million insurance policies.

And all that came after the latest incident involving Webb--the controversial finger-flipping episode in Washington earlier this month.

Although Webb apologized for gesturing obscenely at Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) in a disagreement over the assault weapons ban, the councilwoman’s brazen middle finger is taking shape--for better or worse--as a widely recognized symbol of Simi Valley attitude.

Her gesture hit the pages of the Sacramento Bee, the Atlanta Constitution--even the Washington Post.

And it only bolstered Webb’s image as a controversial, if unintentional, figurehead for Simi Valley.

“I feel really bad for the people of Simi Valley . . . because Sandi Webb has sort of become what people view of Simi Valley,” said Sandy Cooney, California director of a lobbying group called Handgun Control Inc.

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Cooney also described the outpouring of pro-gun sentiment in the city as another public relations problem for Simi Valley.

“If that’s a reflection of what goes on in Simi Valley, it’s extremely unfortunate,” Cooney said of the NRA meeting. “It sends a terrible message not only to other towns but to the people that live in that town and to the kids.”

Mayor Pro Tem Bill Davis agreed that the public face Webb puts on the community belies the residents’ nature as moderate, responsible folks.

“Outside the city is where the stigma goes on, because the people out in the state don’t know the rest of us on the council,” he said.

“All they know is you’ve got a councilwoman who goes to Los Angeles carrying a gun, goes to Washington before the California senator and gives her the finger,” Davis said. “They don’t realize that this is one of the safest cities in the country and she’s only one of the five [council members].”

Former Ventura County Supervisor Madge Schaefer said, “I think Simi Valley has suffered some unfair slings and arrows, there’s no doubt about it.”

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The city was unjustly blamed in 1992 when a Ventura County jury that included only two Simi Valley residents found four white LAPD officers not guilty in the King beating, Schaefer said.

“There’s a lot to be said [in favor of] Simi Valley. Unfortunately, what seems to surface and get lots of headlines is this kind of thing, where the pistol-packin’ mama brought it home,” Schaefer said.

“Simi Valley does have an image problem. And that’s too bad because I think it’s got some good leadership, and it’s a nice-looking city and it’s got a lot to be proud of. But things like this keep popping up.”

NRA member Steven Paine said that although the city took its lumps over the King trial, he has heard no criticism of Simi Valley over Webb’s gesture or the behavior of her supporters.

“Although I’ve heard an awful lot of self-examination and criticism by the people who live in Simi Valley,” added Paine. “I think there are many who empathize with the views expressed by Sandi Webb but wish she hadn’t expressed them in quite that way.”

Any negative reputation for the city is undeserved, he said.

“If the people in Simi Valley were carrying guns around and shooting people all the time, we’d be reading about it in the Los Angeles Times,” said Paine, a lawyer who holds one of the 21 privately held concealed-handgun permits here.

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“None of my friends and neighbors have come to me expressing concerns about being perceived as rednecks. I think the impression is of a quiet bedroom community of hard-working people.”

Many Simi Valley residents hate the tarnish that they say Webb and the gun advocates have put on their city.

Yet even outsiders are coming to admit that their jaundiced view of Simi Valley may be unfairly colored by a vocal pro-gun minority.

“When I hear of places like Simi Valley, I think, ‘Where are these guys? Is this some place way out in the desert? Is this a sleepy little bedroom community somewhere that’s completely divorced from the realities of urban life?’ ” said Assemblyman Louis Caldera (D-Los Angeles). “It sounds like the Wild West. Probably one of the last frontiers on the Wild West.”

But Caldera added, “A lot of police and cops live out there, so I’m sure there’s a lot of good, decent people there.”

That, said school board member and lifelong Simi Valley resident Debbie Sandland, is precisely the point.

“I’m kind of concerned about where we’re going on this,” Sandland said. “Maybe I misjudge things, but I feel very comfortable and safe in Simi Valley, and I don’t want to see a change. It could be very irresponsible if we relax and give the image that we’re a bunch of gun-wielding rednecks who don’t trust our police to protect us.”

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Even the NRA says Webb’s gesture and last week’s raucous opposition to the new concealed-handgun permit policies should not be allowed to color Simi Valley’s image.

“I think we can be polite in our disagreements,” said Tanya Metaksa, chief lobbyist for the NRA in Washington. “I don’t think calling people names or gesticulating is necessary.”

As for Simi Valley, Metaksa said the NRA’s support of looser gun permit policies here is just the forefront of a nationwide movement.

“I think they represent a trend in which people want the ability to defend themselves against armed criminals who disobey laws and attack the law-abiding,” she said. “I think you’re seeing this across the country.”

Webb herself is eager to put the bird-flipping incident behind her.

“If they would stop blowing it out of proportion, then it would die its deserved death,” she said.

Although Webb was upset that some supporters drowned out her critics at last week’s City Council meeting with boos and rude noises, she wishes the critics could just let the incident drop.

“I’m sorry if people can’t accept an apology,” Webb said. “Dianne Feinstein did.”