Delamere Francis McCloskey (April 29, 1897 – December 14, 1983) was a Canadian-born American attorney and politician, who represented the
1st District on the
Los Angeles City Council
The Los Angeles City Council is the legislative body of the Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles in California.
The council is composed of 15 members elected from single-member districts for four-year terms. The President of the Los Angeles City Counc ...
from 1941 to 1945.
Biography
McCloskey was born April 29, 1897, in Canada and
became a United States citizen in 1928. His mother's
birth name
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth r ...
was Price. McCloskey was
admitted to the bar
An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...
in California on June 3, 1930.
["Judges Race Field Large," ''Los Angeles Times,'' March 28, 1935, page A-3]
/ref>["Place Won on Ballot by Bowring, ''Los Angeles Times,'' April 17, 1935, page 1]
/ref>[California Death Index, Ancestry.com]
/ref> His wife, Irene, died of burns suffered in a December 13, 1965, accident in the back yard of their home at 13511 Hart Street, Van Nuys
Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley.
History
In 1909, t ...
. He died December 14, 1983.[
]
Public office
Elections
Municipal court
McCloskey, who was endorsed by the End Poverty in California
End Poverty in California (EPIC) was a political campaign started in 1934 by socialist writer Upton Sinclair (best known as author of ''The Jungle''). The movement formed the basis for Sinclair's campaign for Governor of California in 1934. The p ...
organization, ran second in an election to replace Municipal Judge Marchetti, Office No. 10, in the primary election of April 1935 but was challenged by the next runner-up, Lyndon Bowring, because McCloskey had not been a California lawyer for the required five years, as required by the state constitution. McCloskey argued that he would have been eligible, if elected, on the day of taking office, July 1, but the Supreme Court of California
The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacra ...
disagreed and ordered McCloskey off the final ballot in June and Bowring to take his place.[
]
City Council
''See also List of Los Angeles municipal election returns, 1939–45''
In his first bid for City Council in 1939 in Los Angeles City Council District 1
Los Angeles City Council District 1 is one of the 15 districts of the Los Angeles City Council, representing sections of Northeast Los Angeles and Northwest Los Angeles. Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez is the current representative for CD 1; she ...
, representing the San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...
, McCloskey survived the first round of voting but was defeated by the incumbent, Jim Wilson, in the final election. In the 1941 final, though, it was McCloskey who was the winner over Wilson. McCloskey had no serious opposition in 1943 and was reelected in the primary vote. In 1945, however, he was ousted by Leland S. Warburton in the final election.
Superior Court
While a City Council member in 1944, he ran for Office No. 1 in the Los Angeles County Superior Court
The Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, is the California superior court with jurisdiction over Los Angeles County, which includes the city of Los Angeles. It is the largest single unified trial court in the United States.
The ...
against the incumbent, Charles S. Burnell, but lost by a 3–1 ratio.["Candidates File for Eleven Superior Court Judgeships," ''Los Angeles Times,'' February 12, 1944, page 6]
/ref>
City Council
These are some of the positions McCloskey took while on the City Council:
Speed traps, 1941. He condemned a "speed trap
Speed limits are enforced on most public roadways by authorities, with the purpose to improve driver compliance with speed limits. Methods used include roadside speed traps set up and operated by the police and automated roadside 'speed camera' ...
" policy, "in which motorcycle policemen hide behind gas stations
A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel.
Gasoline ...
and billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
s to pounce upon the unwary motorist." He said better results could be obtained by having the officers patrol the streets in plain sight.
Stoves, 1942. McCloskey was responsible for rescuing twenty-five pot-bellied stoves, "discarded by the Fire Department, relics of those days when outlying fire stations were without gas." The stoves were reconditioned and lent to the Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
"so soldiers occupying isolated searchlight
A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direc ...
posts in the San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...
could keep warm on winter nights."
Taxes, 1943. He submitted a resolution that would have levied a 0.05% municipal sales tax
A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...
, noting that:
Since the advent of the war, many thousands of persons from other states who earn large salaries in war industries and do not own any real property
In English common law, real property, real estate, immovable property or, solely in the US and Canada, realty, is land which is the property of some person and all structures (also called improvements or fixtures) integrated with or affixe ...
have become residents . . . ho are
Ho (or the transliterations He or Heo) may refer to:
People Language and ethnicity
* Ho people, an ethnic group of India
** Ho language, a tribal language in India
* Hani people, or Ho people, an ethnic group in China, Laos and Vietnam
* Hiri M ...
receiving the benefits of representation without taxation.
Objectors, 1944. McCloskey voted in favor of a bill that would have given returned veterans preference over reemployment of conscientious objector
A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...
s who had been given leaves of absence from their city service in order to enter special work camps set aside for them. He wrote to Wendell L. Miller, a minister who objected to his stance:
... if all of our young men entered such refuges ... the nation would cease to exist and we would become vassals of the Japs
''Jap'' is an English abbreviation of the word "Japanese". Today, it is generally regarded as an ethnic slur.
In the United States, some Japanese Americans have come to find the term very offensive, even when used as an abbreviation. Prior to t ...
and the Huns
The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
.
Hog ranch, 1944. The City Council unanimously adopted McCloskey's resolution asking federal and state authorities to investigate a report that Japanese and Japanese-American
are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asia ...
detainees at Manzanar, California
Manzanar (Spanish for "apple orchard") was a town in Inyo County, California, founded by water engineer and land developer George Chaffey.
It was situated on the former narrow-gauge railway line of the Southern Pacific Railroad north of Lone Pin ...
, would be put to work operating a large hog ranch that might pollute Los Angeles municipal water supplies from the Owens Valley
Owens Valley (Numic
Numic is a branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. It includes seven languages spoken by Native American peoples traditionally living in the Great Basin, Colorado River basin, Snake River basin, and southern Great Pl ...
."City Asks Inquiry of Hog Ranch Plan," ''Los Angeles Times,'' August 21, 2011, page 6
/ref>
References
Access to the ''Los Angeles Times'' links may require the use of a library card.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:McCloskey, Delamere Francis
1897 births
1983 deaths
California lawyers
Los Angeles City Council members
20th-century American lawyers
20th-century American politicians
Canadian emigrants to the United States