John P. Cassidy

See also List of Los Angeles municipal election returns, 1963 and 1967

Cassidy was a friend of City Councilman Ransom M. Callicott and served five years as the councilman's field deputy; Callicott had been elected in 1955 to represent the Los Angeles City Council District 12, which in that year covered a downtown area bounded roughly by Venice Boulevard on the south, Sunset Boulevard on the north, Catalina Street on the west and Figueroa Street on the east.[4] Callicott died in 1963, and Cassidy was appointed at the age of 59 by unanimous vote of the City Council on December 7, 1962, to succeed him until the April 2, 1963, primary election.[1] The Los Angeles Times reported:

Cassidy had been Callicott's personal choice as a successor. . . . Callicott, who died last month, asked Cassidy to move from West Los Angeles into the 12th district two years ago. The late councilman was in poor health and was understood to be grooming Cassidy for the $12,000-a-year job.[3]

Cassidy faced the downtown voters in April 1963 and was elected to a four-year term. In the meantime, though, a move was afoot to shift the 12th District City Council seat into the San Fernando Valley, which had experienced steady population growth over the years, and in July 1964 the councilman agreed to the arrangement and said he would relocate into his new district area.[5] The new Valley district included Granada Hills, Northridge, Chatsworth, Panorama City and the northern half of Canoga Park. It had a population of about 190,000.[2]

In 1967 he ran for reelection in his new area but was ousted in the final balloting by Robert M. Wilkinson, who garnered a vote of 24,312 to Cassidy's 7,127.[6] It was "a bitter campaign marked by frequent exchanges of 'smear' charges."[7]

• Cassidy generally supported the policies of Mayor Sam Yorty.[5][8]
• Basing his opposition on a postcard survey of 600 property owners, in 1963 he urged the abandonment of a $250 million controversial urban renewal project of 182 acres in his downtown district, which would establish a complex of high-rise office buildings, apartments and businesses. The "blighted area" was bounded by the Hollywood and Harbor freeways, First Street and Glendale Boulevard.[9]
• He introduced a successful resolution in 1966 honoring Police Chief William H. Parker; it stated that Parker had done "everything in his power to establish a pattern of realistic human relations in all aspects of community life." The resolution was opposed by all three Negro members of the City Council—Tom Bradley, Billy G. Mills and Gilbert W. Lindsay—and favored by the twelve white members. Cassidy said Parker had made "substantial contributions to community life."[10]
• In 1966 he was an advocate of adding fluorides to Los Angeles drinking water to bring all parts of the city up to medical standards.[11][12]
• Cassidy and nine other council members voted in favor of a resolution commending Police Chief Tom Reddin and his department for their actions in controlling a crowd of ten thousand anti-Vietnam War protesters at the Century Plaza Hotel in June 1967; there were 45 arrests and injuries to 40 marchers and four policemen. Four council members were opposed.[13]