Not long ago, Redondo Beach Mayor Brad...

Not long ago, Redondo Beach Mayor Brad Parton was asked to proclaim that this is Women’s History Month. Fine, said Parton, which women? And thus did the mayor make a little local history of his own.

The reason was that the request came from the local chapter of the National Organization for Women, a feminist group whose politics, generally, are to Parton’s left.

Parton said he “didn’t want to look political” by issuing the only proclamation to a group with a political viewpoint as distinctive as NOW’s.

“So to be fair,” he said, “I told my secretary to contact both them and the Concerned Women for America, which is on the other side of the political stream.”

The two groups showed up at last week’s City Council meeting, where Parton presented a proclamation to each. The groups were equally gracious, but not equally pleased. This week, NOW fired off an angry letter to the mayor, protesting “the manner in which you handled the presentation” and charging that Parton “negated the sincerity of our beliefs, allowing your personal, political opinions to intrude on a public service ceremony.”

“At no time were we informed that this proclamation would be ‘shared’ with the Concerned Women for America,” NOW co-coordinator Florence E. Moore wrote. “We have no interests in common with this group. Our goals and beliefs are diametrically opposed to theirs. . . . By your action you created a divisive, political issue where none existed.”

Moore said that similar proclamations had been issued by other South Bay cities but that Redondo Beach was the only one to include the CWA, which is known locally for its opposition to abortion and for other conservative stands but which has no official South Bay office through which it could be reached for comment.