Rose Parade Diversity Effort Widened : New Year’s Day: Organizers of the march and football game say the new panel will increase role of minorities and women. Critics say the executive committee will still call the shots.

Pasadena’s Tournament of Roses, under pressure by community critics to open its ranks to minorities and women, announced the formation Wednesday of a committee to oversee efforts to ensure equal opportunity in contracting, hiring and membership recruitment.

Five of the 14 members of the new Executive Police Council will be either minorities or women, said Jack French, executive director of the tournament, which stages the annual Rose Parade and Rose Bowl football game.

The announcement was the latest in a series of concessions by the 98-year-old organization to critics who accused it of practicing racial exclusion.

In December, the tournament formed a membership diversity committee to seek ways to bring more minorities and women into the organization. In April, it recruited 107 new members, almost half of them minorities or women.

But critics have continued to apply the heat to the tournament, which has traditionally been dominated by Anglo men.

A spokesman for the Ad Hoc Committee to End Discrimination, a group of critics who have been holding discussions with tournament officials, dismissed the latest initiative as meaningless.

“The executive committee is still in charge, and they don’t have any minorities,” said Jim Morris, a Pasadena developer and a leader of the ad hoc committee.

French conceded that nine of the 14-member council will be the tournament’s Anglo male executive committee members.

“But if things ever came down to a vote, I’m sure it would be sort of like Congress, with Republicans going over to the Democratic side,” French said. “I have a feeling that every issue will be considered on its merits, rather than on the basis of race or gender.”

French said the five-person contingent of women or minorities, who will be selected from the tournament’s membership ranks, will have a decision-making role rather than merely serving in an advisory capacity.

The ad hoc group is expected to announce a boycott of the Rose Parade at a news conference today, along with other protests directed at the tournament.