Public Service
A Republican, Spence was elected to the California State Assembly from Nevada County in 1860 and was later the treasurer of that county.
On December 5, 1979, Spence was elected to represent the 3rd Ward on the Los Angeles Common Council, the legislative branch of the city government, and he served until December 10, 1881.
He was mayor of the city from December 9, 1884, to December 14, 1886, and under his mayoralty the city reorganized the Police Department and the Fire Department and placed all the personnel on salary. In his final year as mayor, the city retired its last zanja, or open fresh-water ditch.
Read more about this topic: Edward F. Spence
Famous quotes containing the words public and/or service:
“The poorest children in a community now find the beneficent kindergarten open to them from the age of two-and-a-half to six years. Too young heretofore to be eligible to any public school, they have acquired in their babyhood the vicious tendencies of their own depraved neighborhoods; and to their environment at that tender age had been due the loss of decency and self-respect that no after example of education has been able to restore to them.”
—Virginia Thrall Smith (1836–1903)
“This was a great point gained; the archdeacon would certainly not come to morning service at Westminster Abbey, even though he were in London; and here the warden could rest quietly, and, when the time came, duly say his prayers.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)