David J. Bellis

Musician

An accomplished saxophone and clarinet player, David Bellis was a professional musician in the 1960s, performing with Jan and Dean, Dick Dale, and the Del-Tones. He also had his own jazz quintet.

Advocate and author

Bellis earned his PhD in public administration at the University of Southern California in 1977, taught at Long Beach City College and later at UCLA and USC.

He worked as a grant writer, intake worker and program evaluator for addiction treatment and gang prevention programs; served as director of economic planning for The East Los Angeles Community Union; and advocated for improvements in local, regional and federal policies regarding drug addiction and treatment.

He authored “Heroin and Politicians: The Failure of Public Policy to Control Addiction in America” (Praeger, 1981); and “Hotel Ritz — Comparing Mexican and U.S. Street Prostitutes: Factors in HIV/AIDS Transmission” (Routledge, 2003)

Signal Hill City Council

Bellis was elected to the Signal Hill City Council in 1980 and re-elected in 1984.

Curious about a council member’s votes on residential development projects in the city, Bellis, his wife Ann, and Ken Mills, editor of the Signal Hill Tribune, conducted a lengthy investigation that found evidence the council member had voted on numerous development projects in which he had a financial interest.

The councilman and the mayor were recalled from office in November 1980, the latter because of building code violations on his property. The following year, Bellis was the target of an unsuccessful recall attempt.

As City Council member and member of the Signal Hill Redevelopment Agency, Bellis advocated for controlled growth, building-height standards, view protection, and economic revitalization of the city’s core.

In 1981, with the help of other newly elected council members, Bellis oversaw a change of administration in the Signal Hill Police Department following the jail cell deaths of two inmates, including Ron Settles, an African American college-football player who had been stopped for speeding.

“Bellis also oversaw the city's redevelopment efforts, which brought the Price Club to the city and a new warehouse and office building for Eastman Inc.,” the Los Angeles Times reported later.

Bellis was reelected to a second four-year council term in 1984.

California State University, San Bernardino

Bellis resigned from the City Council and as chairman of the Redevelopment Agency in September 1986 to become associate professor of public administration at California State University, San Bernardino. He later became chairman of the public administration department, a position he held until his death from heart failure in 2006. "Among many other areas of consultation and research, the public administration professor had studied factors that contributed to the transmission of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. and Mexico," the university's magazine reported on page 7 in its fall/winter 2006-07 edition.

During his teaching career, he received the American Society for Public Administration’s Outstanding Educator Award, and 11 awards from California State University for research and teaching.

While at California State University, San Bernardino, he and his wife, Ann, and son, James, lived in the San Bernardino Mountains community of Cedar Glen. He died there and was interred at Green Hills Memorial Park in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.