Council Seeks Answers on Bias Concerns

The Avalon City Council has asked officials of the all-male Tuna Club to meet with them in July to discuss concerns that some of the club’s practices discriminate against women.

Avalon City Manager Chuck Prince said Friday that “there are some continuing concerns” about reports that the facility is segregated--divided into men-only and women-only areas. “If that’s the nature of the practice,” Prince said, “simply an explanation isn’t sufficient. They’re going to have to change that practice.”

In a letter last month, City Atty. Michael Jenkins notified the sportfishing club that such separate rooms would constitute sexual discrimination, “which would be unacceptable to the city and unlawful in a publicly owned facility.”

The club on Santa Catalina Island leases its oceanfront facilities from the city.

The club pays the city annual rent of $4,800 for the tidelands property under a 10-year lease that expires in December. The club once owned the property, but donated it to the city more than 50 years ago.

In a March 14 letter to the city, club President Jim Martin said the club “does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion or national origin in its membership policies and practices.”

However, Jenkins took issue with the letter’s statement that the use of club facilities is “a matter internal to the operation of the club.”

Martin, who is also the club’s spokesman, was unavailable for comment Friday.

Councilwoman Irene Strobel, who initiated the city’s inquiry into the club’s policies last October, said in an interview that the city and the Tuna Club have exchanged letters “for months and apparently a meeting is the only way the city is going to get a satisfactory answer.”