City puts a damper on car club event
By Sylvie Belmond belmond@theacorn.com

Local Majestics Car Club members' plans to host a toy drive with a picnic and car show at Arroyo Vista Community Park with the approval of the city were derailed when the group's permit was revoked at the last minute. But the local car aficionados said they still intend to host the event because it's too late for changes.

The car club received approval to reserve the park for the toy drive in early November. They paid a $295 reservation fee to use a portion of Arroyo Vista from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sun., Dec. 9.

"We also notified the police department that were going to have the toy drive at the park and invited the DARE officers to have a booth at the event," said Rick Flores, a Moorpark resident who organized the event.

Flores said there were no problems until he received a call from Mary Lindley, director of the Parks, Recreations and Community Services Department, on Thurs., Nov. 29, advising him that the permission to use the public facilities for the event was withdrawn because changes were made to the toy drive without prior approval from the city.

"Their event scope changed and upon that, their permit was denied and they were notified they would get a full refund," said Jennifer Mellon, senior management analyst for Moorpark

They omitted some information and it turned into a bigger and different than originally anticipated, she said.

The Majestics Car Club sent out flyers advertising their event as a toy drive and car hop with food being served from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., but the original request didn't include this length of time, the food or the car hop, she explained.

Although the park can hold multiple events at once, there were also concerns about conflicts with a soccer tournament scheduled to take place earlier that morning, said Mellon.

"When they applied for the permission to use the park they didn't tell us everything they were going to do," said Hugh Riley, assistant city manager.

The setback isn't going to stop the club from hosting the event on Sunday, said Flores. It's too late to cancel the event now since flyers have gone out and he didn't seek a backup location after making the reservation in Moorpark because the initial application was approved.

"We plan to obey the rules and we will demonstrate that we can have a successful and peaceful turnout," he said.

"Although we made a few mistakes, we tried to comply with the rules and we're trying to do something good," said Flores, adding he told the Arroyo Vista Park manager that the event was going to include a hydraulic competition and food would be served and there were no objections at the time.

Event organizers anticipate about 50 to 60 cars will show up.

Flores said he spoke with several police officers who indicated they won't be impounding cars or stopping the event as long as no illegal activity goes on.

Both the city and the police are aware that the club will host the event without permission and both agencies have the ability to issue citations for organized park activities that don't have a permit at their discretion, said Mellon.

Lindley was unavailable for comments because she was out of town this week.