(Bailey’s Beach Club)
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) was subjected to national scrutiny over his decades-long membership in an allegedly all-white private beach club, with his office then issuing a statement that the club did not have any restrictive policies and “has had, and has, members of color.” An investigative report showed that Pine Valley (N.J.) GC’s recent announcement that it would seek to admit women members for the first time in its more than 100-year history may have been prompted by a probe by the state Attorney General’s office into discriminatory housing practices in the borough of Pine Valley, where all of the land is owned by the club.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) was put in a national spotlight after he was confronted by a reporter from GoLocal Providence who then posted a video of Whitehouse’s responses to questions about his decades-long membership in an allegedly all-white private beach club.
“I think the people who are running the place are still working on that and I’m sorry it hasn’t happened yet,” Whitehouse told the reporter after being asked about the lack of diversity in the membership of the Newport, R.I.-based Bailey’s Beach Club, which is part of the Spouting Rock Beach Association.
Asked if such clubs should continue to exist at a time when the country is having a racial reckoning, Whitehouse replied, “It’s a long tradition in Rhode Island, and there are many of them.
“And I think we just need to work our way through the issues,” he added before leaving.
GoLocal Providence then reported that Sandra Whitehouse, the senator’s wife, is one of the three largest shareholders in the club, and that when Sheldon Whitehouse, who was first elected in 2006, initially ran for his office, he disavowed his membership and pledged to quit the club.
Reached for comment by several national and major news organizations after GoLocal Providence’s report went viral, Sen. Whitehouse’s office issued statements that said Bailey’s Beach Club “has no such restrictive [all-white] policy [and] has had, and has, members of color.”
“The Senator has dedicated his entire career to promoting equity and protecting civil rights, as his record shows,” his office added.
The New York Post also reported that efforts it made to speak with the management of Bailey’s Beach Club were unsuccessful, with the individual who answered a call refusing to transfer it to a manager and saying the club was declining to comment.
A report on NJ.com said that the decision announced in early May by Pine Valley (N.J.) Golf Club to allow women for the first time in its more than 100-year history (https://clubandresortbusiness.com/pine-valley-n-j-gc-votes-to-allow-female-members/) may have been prompted by a behind-the-scenes, years-long investigation by the state Attorney General’s office involving the exclusion of women from the borough of Pine Valley.
According to documents obtained through public-records requests, NJ.com reported, the state Division on Civil Rights has been examining policies that essentially excluded women from home ownership in the tiny municipality of Pine Valley, where all of the land is owned by the golf club.
Under the club’s rules, NJ.com reported, only members were allowed to purchase any of the 23 houses tucked away around the golf course. And only men were admitted as members. That meant until the club’s announcement, women were not permitted to buy any of those homes, giving Pine Valley perhaps the most restrictive housing policies in the state.
It is not known if the state investigation of the borough of Pine Valley had any bearing on the club’s decision to finally admit women, NJ.com reported. Pine Valley GC officials, including its General Manager, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Pine Valley Mayor Michael Kennedy also had no comment and the borough’s special attorney did not return calls in regard to the state inquiry.
A spokesman for the Division on Civil Rights within the state Attorney General’s office said only: “We don’t comment on investigations. But we can confirm that no settlement exists between the Division on Civil Rights and either the golf club or the municipality.”
One legal expert told NJ.com that the private/public marriage of the club and the municipality may well have been problematic.
“The municipality operates under the aegis of the club,” noted Linda Fisher, a Seton Hall Law professor who studies housing, mortgage fraud and foreclosure issues, and the former director of the school’s Center for Social Justice.
Private operators, in certain cases, can be considered “state actors,” Fisher explained, as when a private shopping mall serves as the de facto town square.
Because the Pine Valley Golf Club owns all of the land in the borough, its rules are essentially the rules of a public entity, NJ.com reported.
According to Fisher, federal and state law prohibits housing discrimination based on sex, NJ.com reported. There are a few exemptions, such as excluding decisions made by individual homeowners in single-family homes. But limiting ownership to golf club members who can only be male means homeownership is limited to males as well, she said, and that may be a violation of the law.
As a private club, Pine Valley is legally entitled to choose whoever it wants to admit, NJ.com noted. Federal laws do not regulate private membership clubs regarding their membership policies. Still, Fisher said, policies and practices in the private-club section have rarely been interpreted by the courts.
“Our Third Circuit [the federal appellate court covering New Jersey] did interpret that section in the context of a religious club, and decided that the exemption did not cover home purchases,” she noted.
The documents obtained by NJ Advance Media, parent company of NJ.com, showed that the investigation by the state Attorney General was sharply focused on housing, but also raised questions about employment practices in the Pine Valley borough, including the lack of women on the police force.
The inquiry goes back at least to 2019, NJ.com reported. Letters from Rachel Wainer Apter, director of the Division on Civil Rights, specifically questioned “limitations on home ownership,” while pointing out that the state’s Law Against Discrimination “prohibits municipalities from exercising the power to regulate land use or housing in a manner that discriminates on the basis of sex.”
The borough of Pine Valley initially tried to keep those letters and other records confidential, NJ.com reported. After a request was made under the state’s Open Public Records Act for any communications it had with the Attorney General’s office, the borough claimed it could “neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of documents responsive to your request.” It added that “even if such records did exist, they would be exempted from disclosure,” citing an exemption under the state law for the investigatory records of the Division on Civil Rights.
When attorneys for NJ Advance Media interceded, the borough finally released several exchanges with the division regarding questions on housing, employment and club membership that were posed in writing by the state, after the municipality retained former state Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa and his law firm to handle its response, NJ.comreported.
Those questions included requests for specific information regarding the purchase or lease of homes in the borough, who inherits a home when a male homeowner dies, as well as what conditions would be placed on the continued use or sale of the home. The division also asked what portions of the borough, if any, members of the public could enter.
In the majority of its responses, NJ.com reported, the borough noted that “many of these questions seek information that is uniquely within the custody and control of the club.”
As for the issue of housing, Pine Valley municipal officials pointed to the club for an answer as well. “There are no restrictions imposed by the borough on leasing, renting, selling or advertising single-family homes in the borough,” they responded in a letter that was written before the club decided to let women in, NJ.com reported.
The borough of Pine Valley itself may be one of the most unusual places in the state, NJ.com noted. While essentially serving as the boundaries of a private golf club, Pine Valley is a legally incorporated New Jersey municipality. With a population that officially stands at 12, it has the right of taxation, receives state aid and has its own police force. It is the second smallest municipality in the state.
The rules of the club have also been challenged in the past, NJ.com reported. A prominent cardiologist filed suit in 1986, claiming that limiting home ownership to members of the club was unconstitutional.
According to court filings, the club argued that its rules excluding non-members from buying homes in the borough “is the act of a private entity and thus not subject to legal scrutiny.”
Ultimately the matter was dismissed on a motion for summary judgment, based on the statute of limitations. The plaintiff in the case had waited too long to file his complaint, NJ.com reported.
The decision was affirmed by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in September 1990 and no one has gone to court since then, NJ.com reported.
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