Bradley Warns Club Against 2nd Vote to Let Women Enroll

Mayor Tom Bradley told the president of the California Club in a strongly worded letter Tuesday that a second vote planned in the exclusive downtown club on whether to admit women as members should not be held.

Reminding the club’s president, Lawrence P. Day, that Los Angeles has had an ordinance on the books since June 29 mandating a non-discriminatory membership policy at the city’s large private clubs, Bradley declared:

“It is axiomatic that groups cannot be permitted to vote on whether to comply with a City law--especially a law that aims to guarantee equal rights.

“But even more fundamentally, such a vote would constitute a referendum on whether women should be treated equally. And on that issue there can be no vote; the question has already been decided.

“For the California Club to vote on such a basic issue of fairness would send exactly the wrong message about Los Angeles, and about the opportunities that are available in this city for all people.”

Accordingly, Bradley wrote, “I trust that you will do all in your power to prevent (dissident) members from calling such a vote.”

Calls to Day for comment were not returned.

Difficult Position Told

But a club member who is privy to the deliberations of the club’s leadership said the mayor’s letter puts Day in a difficult position. “Poor Larry Day,” he commented.

Day, a Pasadena insurance broker, recently acceded to demands from a group of 66 dissidents within the club’s 1,275 regular members that he call a second, more precise vote on the question of defying the ordinance and refusing to admit women.

But so far no vote has been called and no wording has even been decided upon, club members said Tuesday. Meanwhile, the dissidents, led by a former club president, John M. Robinson, who has argued that private clubs have a right to discriminate, last week sent a new letter demanding that Day stand by his promise and call the vote.

The California Club is regarded as not only the oldest but the most prestigious private membership club in the city. It has long included as its members many of the city’s business elite.

Last June, the club membership voted by a heavy margin to remove a clause in the 101-year-old club’s bylaws barring women. Of the 1,275 members, a total of 1,045, or more than 81%, sent in their ballots. Of these, 952, or 90%, voted for the change in bylaws, 81 voted against and 12 returned ballots abstaining.

Names Posted

Just last month, the club posted the names of its first two prospective women members, E. Cameron Cooper, a senior vice president of Arco, and Linda Hartwick, a senior associate of the executive search firm of Korn-Ferry International. They have yet to win final approval of the membership committee and pass through a waiting list, but normally these matters, after their names are posted, are regarded as a formality.

The club member who spoke on the matter Tuesday said that Day and the club’s board of directors were confident that if a second vote were held, “the votes would be there” again in favor of women.

“Larry figures he has got the votes,” the member said. “There’s no question the votes are there.”

Expected Reaction

But, at the same time, the member said. “I’m sure he (Day) won’t give the (mayor’s) letter short shrift.”

Meanwhile, in another development Tuesday, Phyllis Alexander, the wife of Dr. Joseph L. Alexander, a surgeon and former Army colonel who had been scheduled to sign the club register and become the first black in the club’s history on Monday, disclosed that he had decided to delay signing in until later in the week.

Phyllis Alexander said that Alexander, 58, had been so besieged by news media calls asking to record the event that “he decided to soft pedal it” and not actually go Monday.

She said he will sign in when he can do so quietly.