California State Assembly
The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature (the upper house being the California State Senate). The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento, Califor ...
member from 1942 to 1947, a
Los Angeles city council
The Los Angeles City Council is the Legislature, lawmaking body for the Government of Los Angeles, city government of Los Angeles, California, the second largest city in the United States. It has 15 members who each represent the 15 city council ...
man from 1947 to 1958 and a member of the
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (LACBOS) is the five-member Board of Supervisors, governing body of Los Angeles County, California, United States.
History
On April 1, 1850 the citizens of Los Angeles elected a three-man Court of Se ...
from 1958 to 1974.
Biography
Debs was born in
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...
, on February 7, 1904, and came to California in a
box car
A boxcar is the North American (Association of American Railroads, AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a Railroad car#Freight cars, railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simpl ...
when he was 20 to work in the
motion picture industry
The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post- ...
as a dancer. He was also a salesman. "He had no college education and prided himself on being a
self-made man
A self-made man is a person whose success is of their own making.
Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, has been described as the greatest exemplar of the self-made man. Inspired by Franklin's autobiography, Fr ...
Placerville, California
Placerville (, ; ''placer'', Spanish for "sand deposit", representing the placer mining that was predominant in the town's development, and ''ville'', French for "town") is a city in and the county seat of El Dorado County, California, United S ...
, in 1944; they had two adopted children, David and Catherine Clare. They lived at 2416 McCready Avenue in the Silver Lake district.
He was not related to Eugene V. Debs, the labor leader and Socialist candidate for president. He said in 1947:
We're not even remotely related. I am often asked the question, however, and generally it brings up the subject of my party affiliations and general philosophy of government. Well, I guess I'd be called a conservative Democrat. I was elected to the Assembly on both the Republican and Democratic tickets. Definitely I'm against radicals and Communists. At the same time I think the little fellow should get a square deal—I'm for that, too.
Debs, a resident of Indian Wells, Riverside County, at the time, died at the age of 98 on March 17, 2002. He was survived by his wife, Betty Debs; and children David Debs, Candi Debs, Stan Grant, Lonnie Gordon and Nancy Martel. A memorial service was held in the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration.
Public service
Congress
Debs ran unsuccessfully for the Congressional seat in the 17th District in 1932. Nineteen years later, in the context of a heated City Council reelection campaign, he was accused by Walter C. Smith, an executive with
Lockheed Aircraft Lockheed (originally spelled Loughead) may refer to:
Brands and enterprises
* Lockheed Corporation, a former American aircraft manufacturer
* Lockheed Martin, formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation and Martin Marietta
** Lockheed Mar ...
sergeant-at-arms
A serjeant-at-arms or sergeant-at-arms is an officer appointed by a deliberative body, usually a legislature, to keep order during its meetings. The word "serjeant" is derived from the Latin , which means "servant". Historically, serjeants-at-a ...
in the State Assembly, and in 1942 he won election to the Assembly in the 56th District. While in the State Assembly, he authored the bill establishing the California State University at Los Angeles campus.
City Council
Elections
Debs first ran for the Los Angeles City Council District 8 seat in the "extreme southwest" of the city in 1931, but came in fourth in a field of eight candidates: Incumbent Evan Lewis was the winner. At that time, according to Walter C. Smith, he was registered in the Liberty Party. In 1947 he ran for the District 13 seat in an area that extended westward to
Vermont Avenue
Vermont Avenue is one of the longest running north–south streets in City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County, California. With a length of , is the third longest of the north–south thoroughfares in the region. For most of its length be ...
and south to Valley Boulevard; he beat incumbent John R. Roden in the runoff vote. He had no opponent in 1949, and he won reelection in the 1951 and 1953 primaries. He had no opponent in 1957.
Positions
Incinerator, 1947. After an explosion at the controversial city incinerator at Avenue 21 and Lacy Street, Debs pushed through a resolution calling for an investigation into the circumstances of letting the contract.
Psychiatrist, 1949. Debs was in the forefront of a City Council move against J. Paul de River, the only Los Angeles Police Department psychiatrist at the time, whose activities during the
Black Dahlia
Elizabeth Short (July 29, 1924 – , 1947), posthumously known as the Black Dahlia, was an American woman found murdered in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, on January 15, 1947. Her case became highly publicized owin ...
murder case were said to have resulted in the arrest of two men later released for lack of evidence. He criticized de River for having written a "luridly illustrated" book on criminal sex cases, using Police Department files as source material. "The book is filthy and shocking," said Debs, "an obvious attempt to pander to depraved tastes."
Heaters, 1957. He called for the investigation of what he said were 3,000 to 4,000 unvented gas heaters installed in the city schools.
Board of Supervisors
Debs was elected to the county Board of Supervisors in 1958, representing the 3rd District. As County Supervisor, he chaired 13 major departments and served on many committees.
During the 1960s, Debs was an implacable foe of the youth
counterculture
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...
movement centered on the county-administered
Sunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through the city of West Hollywood, California, United States. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with the city of Los Angeles near Marmont Lane to its western bord ...
. Working through the Sheriff's office, he forced the closure of several coffeehouses and
rock-and-roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African American music such as jazz, rhythm and ...
venues, such as
Pandora's Box
Pandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology connected with the myth of Pandora in Hesiod's c. 700 B.C. poem ''Works and Days''. Hesiod related that curiosity led her to open a container left in the care of her husband, thus releasing curses ...
Beverly Hills Freeway
State Route 2 (SR 2) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California. It connects the Los Angeles Basin with the San Gabriel Mountains and the Victor Valley in the Mojave Desert. The highway's southwestern end is at the intersection of C ...
and sought to turn the Sunset Strip into a new office district. With the cancellation of both freeway projects and competition from the nearby and newly built
Century City
Century City is a 176-acre (71.2 ha) neighborhood and business district in Los Angeles, California, United States. Located on the Westside to the south of Santa Monica Boulevard around 10 miles (16 km) west of downtown Los Angeles, Cent ...
as a premium office market, Debs' plans for the Strip were only partly realized.Priore, Domenic. ''Riot On Sunset Strip: Rock 'n' roll's last stand in Hollywood.'' Jawbone Press, 2007.
He appointed the final three members to the nine-member Los Angeles County Civil Defense and Disaster Commission during the nuclear crisis in the early 1960s: They were Disaster Services co-coordinator Roy D. Hoover, Sheriff Peter J. Pitchess, and businessman
Louis Lesser
Louis Lesser (June 15, 1916 – January 29, 2013) was an American businessman. He developed property across the United States, predominantly around the Los Angeles area; he also purchased and managed property. Lesser developed Barrington Plaza, ...
.Los Angeles Times, December 3, 1961 “Businessman Appointed to Civil Defense Group†/ref>
San Rafael Hills
The San Rafael Hills are a mountain range in Los Angeles County, California. They are one of the lower Transverse Ranges, and are parallel to and below the San Gabriel Mountains, adjacent to the San Gabriel Valley overlooking the Los Angeles Ba ...
above the Arroyo Seco, in the Montecito Heights neighborhood of central-northeast Los Angeles.
# Ernest Debs Park — in
Bell
A bell /ˈbɛl/ () is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be m ...