Picus Bill Would Ban Bias at Private Clubs

Private, predominantly male clubs that cater to some of Los Angeles’ most powerful and wealthiest men would be prohibited from barring anyone based on race, religion or sex under an anti-discrimination ordinance proposed Monday by City Councilwoman Joy Picus.

Picus, who plans to introduce the proposal at today’s City Council meeting, said it is aimed at opening to minorities, Jews and women the exclusive California and Jonathan clubs in downtown Los Angeles.

A spokesman for the 93-year-old Jonathan Club, however, denied that the club engages in discrimination, even though the club has no women in its 3,300 to 3,400 members other than widows of members. “We would resist anything that would infringe on our rights to choose our own members,” Richard Oxford, the club’s immediate past president, said in an interview. Efforts to obtain comment from the California Club were unsuccessful.

Picus said the clubs are places where important contacts are made and major business and political deals are negotiated. By restricting membership, the clubs have locked minorities and women out of important business and political opportunities, she asserted.

“When women and minorities who are perfectly capable of doing business in every way are excluded from these palaces of power, then they’re no longer equal,” Picus said at a City Hall news conference.

The proposed ordinance is patterned after a New York City law, which was upheld last week by New York’s highest state court.

It would prohibit private clubs from discriminating against persons “solely on the basis of their sex, race, religion or national origin.” The ordinance would affect clubs that have more than 400 members, provide regular meal service and are used for business purposes. Its nub is a provision that a club is not “distinctly private” if its members’ dues and expenses are reimbursed by employers as a business expense or if the clubs are frequented by non-members, albeit guests of members.

The law would allow an aggrieved party to sue a club for civil damages and, with help from the city attorney, obtain an injunction barring the club from discriminating.

City Controller Rick Tuttle, who asked Picus to carry the legislation, said it would affect fewer than a dozen clubs in Los Angeles, including some country clubs. It would not affect service clubs like the Rotary Club, which, supporters of the law contend, are already prohibited from discriminating by California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act.

“The contradiction cannot escape us,” said Tuttle, who joined Picus at the news conference. “We cannot press for sanctions against the legalized racism of South Africa while turning the other way in our own city when powerful business clubs systematically exclude women and minorities.”

The Jonathan Club spokesman said the club’s bylaws do not contain any restrictions on the sex, race or religion of members. Oxford said the club has “quite a few minority members,” although he did not know how many.

Asked about the absence of women members other than widows of members, Oxford said, “We’ve never had one sponsored.”

Mark Fabiani, counsel to Mayor Tom Bradley who helped draft the proposed law, said the mayor is “sympathetic” with the proposal. Fabiani said that Bradley, who is black, has been privately talking to leaders of the California and Jonathan clubs “for the purpose of achieving a quick and immediate end to their practices.”

The Picus proposal is expected to be referred to a council committee for public hearings before being returned to the full council for a vote. Picus said she believes the ordinance will be approved by the full council.

“If you look at the composition of the council, there’s several blacks, several Jewish members, four women, an Asian . . . the odds are with us,” she said.