Billing church for price of police work comes at a cost
You'd have to have been living under one of Corriganville Park's gigantic rock formations for the past 20 years not to realize Simi Valley has an image problem.

Whether perceived or real (the answer probably lies somewhere inbetween), this community has been dealing with an image of intolerance ever since a Los Angeles judge thought it a good idea to move the trial of four white police officers accused of beating Rodney G. King Jr. to the Simi Valley Courthouse. Never mind that only two members of the jury were actually from Simi.

Week after week, this newspaper is dotted with uplifting stories about good people in this community who are helping others- and yet if you ask the average Ventura County resident how they view Simi Valley, you find they perceive the city as a place where folks keep to themselves, where going against the grain is a sin, and stepping out of line can get you in deep trouble, fast.

With that in mind, the decision by Mayor Paul Miller and the City Council to try to stick the United Church of Christ with a $39,306 bill for the cost of policing last Sunday's anti-illegal immigration rally is disappointing, especially for a municipal government that in the past 18 months has banned medical marijuana clubs, street vending, and signs in the public right of way, and also tried to prohibit panhandling.

Regardless of whether or not those prohibitions make Simi Valley a better place, they sure didn't go far toward fixing the perception of Simi as unfriendly, and this latest tussle between the council and a house of worship is making headlines that won't help either.

The mayor clearly doesn't agree with the church's decision to harbor an illegal immigrant- and this paper doesn't either- but trying to make the church cover the cost of a demonstration it had no control over isn't the right course to take, and the action may even be against the law. So now the Southland will see Simi as a city that makes its residents pay for the cost of free expression, even if it's mostly outsiders who were doing the expressing.

The mayor may think he's looking after the taxpayers on this one. He may think he is representing the many residents who are staunchly opposed to the church's actions, and sending a message that the city won't tolerate organized dissent.

But in the big picture what he's really doing is pulling out Simi's unfriendly stick- and putting this city on the map for the wrong reasons yet again. Let's hope the mayor and the council give up this crusade against the church, pay the $39,306 and get back to addressing other city issues. Tell us what you think by sending an e-mail to simi@theacorn.com.