Van Nuys Elks Set Second Vote on 2 Blacks

Two black men who were rejected in their attempt to join the Van Nuys Elks Lodge said Wednesday that they are optimistic about their chances in a second vote to be taken next week.

The lodge’s rejection of Jules S. Bagneris III and Thomas J. Montgomery on Tuesday night occurred at the same time as another lodge in Lompoc admitted its first two black members after a months-long controversy about the fraternal organization’s policies toward racial minorities.

Bagneris and Montgomery were sponsored for membership in the Van Nuys Elks by state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana), a lodge member. Rejected along with them was a Robbins aide, Jack Sheffield, who is white.

Van Nuys Elks officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Robert Vert, secretary to the national organization’s grand exalted ruler, Donald Dapelo, confirmed that the three men were rejected by the Van Nuys lodge.

Robbins said he sponsored Bagneris and Montgomery because of their civic qualifications and because, after hearing of the Lompoc controversy, he wanted the Van Nuys Elks to admit black members.

Robbins said a second vote will be held next Tuesday.

“The people of the Elks Lodge are good people and I do not believe when the votes are tallied that they will turn somebody down on the basis of their race,” Robbins said.

Bagneris, 29, president of the Lake View Terrace Homeowners Assn. who ran against Ernani Bernardi in this year’s City Council race, and Montgomery, 67, a retired state motor vehicles examiner living in Pacoima, said their race was never an issue during interviews with Elks members earlier this month.

“I would never make a blanket statement about these people because some of them have treated us very nicely,” Montgomery said.

“I was told there were some bigots in the organization, which turned out to be factual,” Montgomery said. “Somebody has to break the barriers.”

Bagneris said: “I look forward to the honor of joining the Elks next Tuesday.”

Sheffield, 58, of North Hollywood said his association with Robbins and the two black candidates may have been a reason why he was rejected. But he added: “I have no idea what was running through the minds of the men who voted that night.”

According to a source familiar with the vote who asked not to be identified, about 35 of the lodge’s 370 members showed up at Tuesday night’s meeting. Slightly more than half of them were opposed to Bagneris, Montgomery and Sheffield, the source said.

Supporters of the three rejected candidates “are going to start lobbying to get people out there” next Tuesday, he said.

The admittance of blacks Joe Martin and Ernest Hutchinson into the Lompoc Elks Lodge on Tuesday ended a bitter dispute that had divided the community and sparked reforms in how the nationwide organization chooses its members.

In July, the Elks national membership decided that lodges would admit new members who could garner a two-thirds vote. Previously, it took only three opposing votes for a prospective member to be rejected.

The Elks’ critics said that in the past the “three-vote blackball” system was used to exclude racial minorities.

Vert said he could provide no statistics on the number of black Elks members in the San Fernando Valley or elsewhere because the organization does not keep such statistics.

The Elks do not admit women members and decided in July against changing that rule.