SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego City Council Tuesday approved a 25-year extension of the Boy Scouts' lease in Balboa Park, with an option for another 15 years.

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Heated Debate Preceeds Council Vote

The City Council approved the lease on a 6-3 vote during a City Council meeting that dragged on for more than seven hours.

For more than 80 years, the prime location has cost the Boy Scouts next to nothing to lease, 10News reported. Now critics wanted to see that deal brought to an end.

Camp Balboa has been home to the Scouts since 1948. In 1957, the organization signed a lease deal with the city costing just $1 a year for 50 years.

While the Scouts haven't had to fork over much for their lease, they have put nearly $5 million into its headquarters on the land, 10News reported.

Tuesdays vote was controversial because, as a private organization, the Boy Scouts elects to exclude homosexuals and people who do not believe in God.

Under the lease, the Boy Scouts will continue to use 15.6 acres for $1 a year. The Girl Scouts' lease in Balboa Park also was renewed Tuesday.

The Boy Scouts' lease was due to expire in 2007, but the organization sought an early extension. They were seeking 50 years, but agreed to the 25-year term with a 15-year option.

Councilwoman Toni Atkins, who is gay, said that the Boy Scouts have helped many quality people, but "the fact that you've left some people behind and they've had to hide that fact is not OK with me today."

"It's days like today that remind me that while I may be allowed to sit at the table, liberty and justice for all doesn't mean me tonight," she said. "So every Monday when we give the Pledge of Allegiance, and we say 'liberty and justice for all,' I have to ask, 'Why does that exclude me?'"

Some observers maligned those opposed to the lease as being too politically correct, but Atkins did not see the issue in those terms.

"I don't see how someone can confuse political correctness with civil rights," she said.

Council members Donna Frye and Ralph Inzunza also voted against the lease.

Mayor Dick Murphy said the Boy Scouts teach character, community service, love of the outdoors and other "things that are very valuable."

"I do not agree with the national Boy Scout policy regarding gays," he said. "The bottom line is this: I support the Boy Scout lease because I am unwilling to punish 25,000 San Diego Boy Scouts by prohibiting them from using Balboa Park in order to send a protest to national scout leaders in Texas."

Councilman Jim Madaffer, a former scout and member of the Pacific Council's board of directors until he took his council office, also said he doesn't agree with the national policy, and called discrimination "deplorable."

But -- like many other supporters -- Madaffer said he doesn't want "a fight between adults" to affect the youths.

Those in favor of the lease urged the council to consider the overall mission of the organization, not just its policies banning gays and atheists.

"I understand the Boy Scouts' policy, and I have supported it for years," said Herb Johnson, an area vice president who said he has been involved with the Boy Scouts for decades. "I have also struggled with that policy."

The policy against homosexuals is "untimely and it needs to be changed," he said.

"I have never seen overt discrimination of gays in 30 years, but I know it's there," Johnson said. "The real issue is, I've decided to stay and fight the battle from the inside."

Frye invoked the city's Human Dignity Ordinance, which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation. She noted that she swore to uphold the law when she joined the council, and that the lawmaking body has "the ability to change it, but not to ignore it."

Many of the public speakers against the lease said tax dollars shouldn't subsidize discrimination.

Assemblywoman Christine Kehoe, a former city councilwoman who is openly gay, was among them.

"The terrible tragedy is that behind the public message of wholesome character-building, there is an underlying message of prejudice and intolerance," Kehoe said.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that the private organization could exclude anyone it wished.

Dale Kelly Bankhead, of the American Civil Liberties Union, urged the City Council to end what she called a "partnership of discrimination." The ACLU has sued in an effort to break the lease arrangement.

Scoutmasters and former Boy Scouts -- some of them on the opposition side - - spoke fondly of their experiences. One ex-scout recalled his years with the group as the best of his life, but said he was denied Eagle status because he is gay.

"It makes me sad to see how the leaders of the Boy Scout movement have manipulated the ideals of the program to allow them to pick and choose which boys can benefit from the enriching experience that scouting offers," said Ron Sanders, a teacher and former Eagle Scout.

Wearing his old uniform, schoolteacher Mick Rabin said he publicly gave up his old Eagle Scout badge because the group has "turned the rank of Eagle from a badge of honor to a weight of shame and disillusionment."

"San Diego has an opportunity to tell the Boy Scouts of America that its policies of discrimination are harmful and wrong," he said.

Dan McAllister, the volunteer president of the Pacific Desert Council, apologized because a few people who addressed the council in favor of the lease made inflammatory comments about homosexuals.

The lease requires the Boy Scouts to spend at least $1.7 million on the property during the first seven years of the renewed agreement.