Edmund D Edelman

Updated on Jan 29, 2024

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Name Edmund Edelman

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Edmund D. Edelman (September 27, 1930 – September 12, 2016) was an American politician. He was a member of the Los Angeles City Council from 1965 to 1974 and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors from 1975 to 1994. He was known as an "unabashed liberal" with strong Democratic Party support.

Biography

Born in Los Angeles, Edelman attended Burnside Avenue Elementary School, Los Angeles High School and Beverly Hills High School. He grew up in a traditional Jewish family. Edelman was in the Navy in 1951 and 1952, after which he attended UCLA, where he graduated in 1954 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. He earned a bachelor of laws degree at the same university in 1958.

He was an arbitrator with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, deputy legislative counsel with the California State Legislature in 1961-62, counselor to the Subcommittee on Education of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1962–63; and special assistant to the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, 1963–64, after which he served on the Los Angeles City Council.

He was married at age 37 to Mari Mayer, 25, of Beverly Hills in 1968. They had two daughters, Erica Nancy and Emily Rose. Edelman died on September 12, 2016.

Elections

See also List of Los Angeles municipal election returns, 1965 and after

In 1965, Los Angeles City Council District 5 stretched from Fairfax Avenue on the east to the San Diego Freeway on the west and from Bel-Air and Beverly Hills on the north to Washington Boulevard on the south. It included the communities of Westwood, Beverlywood, Pico-Robertson and Beverly-Fairfax.

Edelman engaged in a rough election race to unseat incumbent Councilwoman Rosalind Wyman in the 5th District. Supported by Mayor Sam Yorty, he won the runoff vote of May 25, 1965, by 37,291 to 12,201 and became the then-youngest member of the council at age 35. His residency had been unsuccessfully challenged in court on the grounds that he had lived in Washington, D.C., for 2½ years.

Wyman and her husband, former Democratic National Committee member Eugene L. Wyman, sued Edelman for libel in 1965, claiming that his campaign had issued a brochure linking them with organized crime and using political power for personal gain. They asked for $400,000, but in the end settled out of court in 1970 after Edelman sent a $5,000 check to a scholarship fund at Northwestern University.

Edelman was reelected in 1969 over minor opposition, and in 1973 he would have faced opposition from actor William Lundigan, but the latter failed to turn in enough valid petition signatures, so the councilman went into that race unopposed.

Positions

Politics. Edelman was described as "an unabashed liberal," with "loyal Democratic Party support and little Republican appeal."

Stadium. Edelman condemned a 1965 proposal to build a 44,000-seat football stadium on the UCLA campus in Westwood.

Tax. He played a prominent role in defeating a proposed city payroll tax.

UCLA. "When a parking dispute flared between UCLA students and residents east of the campus, the councilman quietly backed the students, most of whom are not registered voters in his district, an act which infuriated the residents.".

Police. He distributed a proposed list of rules for police to follow in handling citizens' demonstrations, which he said could be "conducted as safely as the Rose Parade." Edelman voted against a request by the Police Department to have the city attorney defend two policemen who were indicted for murder in the course of their duty. He explained that the city had never before defended its employees who were charged with crimes. "I am not antipolice," he said, "but police are not above the law."

Tennis. Bowing to neighborhood pressure, Edelman abandoned his support for a proposed $1.2 million tennis complex at the Cheviot Hills Recreation Center.

Library. He attacked a decision by the Library Commission to ban all issues of Evergreen Review magazine from open shelves as a "very dangerous precedent to . . . intellectual freedom." The commission made the decision at the request of Councilman Donald Lorenzen, who had complained that a constituent had read a "very dirty story" in one of its issues.

Nudity. He aroused controversy when he was the only council member to oppose new city rules prohibiting nudity in places serving food and beverages. "No one is forced to look at nudes," he said. "The people who are frequenting these topless places are doing it of their own will." He also was the lone council member who opposed an ordinance requiring adult magazines to be covered up on news racks.

Charter. Edelman was the chairman of a committee that drafted an overhaul of the Los Angeles city charter and favored plalcing an initiative measure for its adoption on the November 1970 ballot.

Fluoridation. He was responsible for the policy of fluoridizing the city's water supply.

Commissions. Edelman was a member of nine sanitation district boards and sometimes "sat in on five different boards the same day in back-to-back meetings, collecting $50 per meeting." Council President John S. Gibson, Jr., said he asked Edelman to take on the sanitation district duties because he, Gibson, "didn't want the job myself."

Board of Supervisors

Edelman was elected in the general election of November 1974 to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors over his remaining opponent, fellow Councilman John Ferraro. He was sworn into office on December 2 of that year, succeeding Ernest E. Debs, who retired.

Edelman led successful drives to establish several new departments and agencies, among them the Department of Children and Family Services, the Department of Consumer Affairs and the Community Youth Gang Services agency. He has been recognized for his support of social services agencies dedicated to aiding the homeless, battered women, abused children, the disabled and the mentally ill, people with AIDS, and those recovering from substance abuse.

Legacy

Calabasas Edmund D. Edelman Tennis Center

Ed & Mari Edelman Chamber Music Institute

EDE Atrium at George Page Museum

Edelman Stage at Bing Theater at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

Edmund D. Edelman Children's Court is the name of the juvenile courthouse of the Los Angeles Superior Court in Monterey Park. It was named for Edelman "in recognition of his many efforts on behalf of the County’s children."

The 652-acre Edmund D. Edelman Park is accessed from Topanga Canyon Boulevard south of Mulholland Drive, for hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians on a network of trails into Summit Valley and upper Topanga Canyon.

Edelman Stage at Ford Theater

The Edmund D. Edelman Health Center was a facility named after the supervisor by the Gay and Lesbian Service Center "for his leadership on issues of importance to the lesbian and gay community."

Edmund D Edelman Hollywood Bowl Museum

Edelman Westside Mental Health Center

Edmund D. Edelman Summit Valley State Park

Highland-Camrose Bungalow Village

Lasky-De Mille Barn (Hollywood Heritage Museum)

Virginia Robinson Gardens

On Tuesday evening, August 28, 2007, the Los Angeles Philharmonic honored Edelman, on the Hollywood Bowl stage, with an award for his outstanding service to both public parks and the performing arts in Los Angeles County and dedicated the evening's concert (featuring the works of Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich and Stravinsky) to him. For the concert, he and his family were seated in a centrally located "pool" box.

Reports and publications

Building a New Vision for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California: Options for Key Policy Decisions - 2000
(Full report - Rand)

Governance in a Changing Market: The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power - 2001
(Full report - Rand)

How Expensive are Unlimited Substance Abuse Benefits Under Managed Care?
(Full report - Rand)

References

Edmund D. Edelman Wikipedia

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