The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors has denied a request from the Ghost Mountain Riders MC for a permit to sell alcohol at the First Daze-O-Summer Run this weekend. The event has been held for the past 22 years without incident.
The local Sheriff published a press release in March claiming a member of the Mongols, Mongol Eric “Li’l Pee-Ka” Garcia was last seen in a San Jose bar named the Park Lane Lounge at two in the morning “in the company of persons associated with the Ghost Mountain Riders Motorcycle Club.” “Ii’l Pee-Ka was later found murdered. The release did not say how those persons were associated with the club, or if they were suspect in the murder.
The event benefits a campground for disabled kids called Camp Krem, and on average 200-300 motorcyclists participate. The County Supervisors wanted $2,100 for the permit and the Sheriff’s department required the club to hire off-duty deputies as security (because of the alcohol) at $525 per deputy.
At the Supervisors’ meeting, Chief Deputy Jim Hart said, “we would approve the permit if there was hired security to be on scene, and they have told us they aren’t willing to pay for security to be at Camp Krem when the party takes place.” Hart also told the Supervisors that the event was likely to snarl traffic with a pack of motorcycles “25 miles long.”
According to a club spokesman, the club earns less from the bar than the permit would have cost so the club has scrapped the plans for the bar. “We’ll just have to make up the donation to the camp in($2,100) in some other way.
Not having a permit means the attendees won’t be able to ride as a group to the camp, as in previous years.
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