Godfather Frank honored for Log Cabin work

OUR LAGUNA

The Log Cabin Club will honor its Laguna Beach godfather, Frank

Ricchiazzi, Jan. 25 in Los Angeles.

Ricchiazzi is a founder of the club, which will celebrate its 25th

anniversary that night.

“We are the oldest partisan organization fighting for civil

equality for the gay community in the United States,” Ricchiazzi

said. “I am overwhelmed that 25 years have passed so quickly and

overwhelmed at all the good we have done.

“We began the first club with nine members. Now there are seven

clubs in California, with 1,000 members, and over 30 clubs

nationwide, with more than 11,000 members.

Log Cabin opened its only office in the 1990s in Washington, D.C.

“For the past 10 years, we have been the point organization for

all federal AIDS spending in the United States,” Ricchiazzi said.

The club was founded to combat state Sen. John Briggs position in

1977 that no homosexuals should be allowed to teach school, according

to Ricchiazzi.

“That was the stimulus for the first gay political movement in

California,” Ricchiazzi said. “We’ve done great in California, where

legislation has been passed banning discrimination in housing and

employment based on sexual orientation. But there are 18 states where

sodomy is illegal between two men, but not between heterosexual

couples.

“The important thing to remember is that Log Cabin Republicans

never wanted anything but equality. Just to be equal, that’s all.”

A big moment for gays came just one year ago, when President

George W. Bush approved an openly gay man as ambassador to Romania

and introduced the ambassador’s partner at the ceremony.

“When Bush started making appointments of gays, the Christian

Right went berserk,” Ricchiazzi said. “But he continued to make the

appointments. He has lived up to his campaign promises to appoint

qualified gays to positions in his administration.

“Our need right now is to revitalize the Republican Party in

California. We want to help make the state party a party of inclusion

and tolerance.”

The anniversary party will not be the usual, stuffy, black-tie

affair.

“Godfather Frank doesn’t want that,” Ricchiazzi said.

Dinner will be buffet-style at the Garden of Eden on La Brea,

where many major political events are held.

Laguna Beach residents Alex Wentzel and his partner, Dick

Anderson, and Ricchiazzi’s partner, Borden Moller, will be honored at

the dinner as individual contributors. Long-term leaders Len Olds and

Hugh Rouse, both of Laguna, also will be honored. The club will

recognize Ricchiazzi with the Lifetime Service Award.

City Councilwomen Cheryl Kinsman and Elizabeth Pearson and former

Mayor Kathleen Blackburn, all of whom Ricchiazzi has supported, and

Melissa and Michael O’Neal will attend the dinner. It’s a

double-barreled event for Kinsman. Wentzel works at the accounting

firm owned by Kinsman and her husband, Michael.

“Laguna Beach has a significant number of people who have had a

lot to do with the growth of Log Cabin,” Ricchiazzi said.

STATE OF THE CITY

Mayor Toni Iseman was the guest speaker Monday night at the

January Laguna Canyon Conservancy dinner-meeting.

It was an opportunity for Iseman to drum up support for projects

dear to her heart and opposition to those she opposes. She was

preaching to the choir. The conservancy is loaded with Iseman

loyalists.

“Toni has done so much for the community and in representing the

public,” said conservancy President Carolyn Wood, who was served up a

rendition of “Happy Birthday” at the dinner.

Iseman, who usually speaks off the cuff, brought a “cheat sheet”

to the podium to check off as she spoke.

She first paid tribute to the conservancy and what it has

accomplished.

“We fought hard to save the canyon,”” Iseman said. “Can you

imagine what it would be like if we hadn’t had that focus?”

Iseman urged the members to harness that focus in an effort retain

the character of the city.

“I love seeing you here on Monday nights, but I need to see you on

Tuesdays,” Iseman said.

She was talking about council meetings, at which items of interest

to conservancy members are debated and decided -- or undecided.

“At the last council meeting, there was an agenda item to move the

corporation yard to ACT V,” said Iseman, a proposal she has long

opposed and thought was dead on a 4-1 vote by the last council.

At another meeting, the council voted down a traffic study,

subsequently put back on track.

“But a council majority is talking about ACT V before doing the

study,” said Iseman, an avid supporter of maximum peripheral parking

in the canyon.

“Moving the corporation yard would reduce parking at ACT V from

450 spaces to 160 to 180 spaces,” she said.

Supporters of the move claim it is the only feasible way to make

room for a showcase Village Entrance project, a project devoutly

desired by members of the Village Entrance Task Force, who spent a

year working on the project.

The Village Entrance will be the sole subject discussed at a

special council meeting Jan. 28.

Iseman also reported that the council voted 4-1 -- Iseman being

the one dissenter -- to go back to the county and reopen discussions

about the flood control project on Broadway, which she had

successfully opposed, along with three other council members last

year.

Project supporters found it hard to swallow the refusal of county

funds for the project.

“That’s like, ‘Little girl, do you want some candy?’” Iseman said.

On Tuesday, the council will be discussing the Driftwood

subdivision. She urged conservancy members to attend.

“I resent the implication that people can’t talk about a project

if they are not within 300 feet,” Iseman said “It’s all our town.”

Her personal crusade during her term as mayor will be the

reduction of noise and light pollution.

“The council listens a lot to people, so that is why I want to see

you guys on Tuesdays, not just Mondays,” Iseman said.

Among those at the meeting: former conservancy Executive Director

Michael Phillips, former Mayors Charleton Boyd and Ann Christoph,

City Clerk Verna Rollinger, city Open Space Committee Chair Don

Black, former Planning Commissioner Doug Reilly, former Design Review

Board members Peter Weisbrod and Helen Krugman, Laguna Canyon

Foundation Executive Director Mary Fegraus, and Laguna Beach

Historical Society board member Anne Frank. Gene Felder served as

master of ceremonies.

“Why does the conservancy get such a good crowd month after month

when other organizations can’t get people to attend meetings,” member

Marian Jacobs asked.

Good question. Got an answer?

* OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box

248, Laguna Beach, 92652, hand-deliver to 384 Forest Ave., Suite 22;

call 494-4321 or fax 494-8979.