The Battle Is Over; Dinner Is Served : Jonathan Club Treats Coastal Panel After Losing Bias Dispute

Walter Winchell would have said they were “don’t invite ‘ems”--warring parties you wouldn’t want at the same dinner table.

Yet in what was billed as a strictly social occasion, the exclusive Jonathan Club played host Thursday night at its Santa Monica beachfront property to the California Coastal Commission.

The commission and the 3,000-member club, which also has a downtown facility, have been at odds since 1985, when the commission voted 9 to 3 to prevent the club from building on the beach unless it publicly renounced discrimination. That decision was upheld last month by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The dinner, arranged by aviator Brooke Knapp, an alternate member of the commission as well as the Jonathan Club’s first woman member, does not violate any statutes or regulations because there is no club matter pending before the agency, according to Duane Peterson, press secretary for the attorney general’s office.

The event has, however, drawn criticism from the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, which led the coalition of minority and women’s groups that asked the commission to make non-discrimination a condition before the club would be allowed to expand its parking lots and paddle tennis courts.

“I question the propriety of doing (the dinner),” said Betsy Rosenthal, Western states counsel for the league. “When you put members of those two groups together, the request for the development permit is likely to arise.”

Club officials, who have denied that the club discriminates against minorities and women, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Michael Wornum, chairman of the commission, said before the dinner that he did not intend to discuss the beachfront controversy at the gathering, which he described as “a gesture of reconciliation.”

“If the people we’ve defeated want to smoke the pipe of friendship with us, I think that’s the gracious thing to do,” Wornum said. “They are going to have to deal with us, just as anyone who owns beachfront property does.”

Commission member Madelyn Glickfeld originally intended to go to the dinner in hopes of “encouraging (the club) to follow the law” against discrimination and reducing tensions between the club and the commission. She changed her mind after learning of the ADL’s position.

“I realize there’s no way to alleviate concerns by the public that we won’t be discussing business,” she said.

Peter Douglas, the commission’s executive director, said the Jonathan Club extended its invitation about two months ago, while litigation over the beach issue was still before the Supreme Court. “We didn’t pursue it,” he said.

Now that “the issue is closed,” Douglas said, he has no quarrel with the dinner.

Knapp was en route to Los Angeles from Washington on Thursday; her assistant, Ellen McMahon, said about 20 to 25 people, including most members of the commission, were expected at the dinner.

In addition to its dispute with the Coastal Commission, the Jonathan Club has been sued by the city of Los Angeles for barring women from using its bar and grill. The suit, pending in Los Angeles Superior Court, is based on a non-discrimination ordinance that went into effect in June, 1987.

The club admitted a few women members when the ordinance went into effect.