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hired its first Latino City Manager and, more recently, the City for the first time had a <br />City Council comprised of a majority of people of color. <br />Other significant accomplishments achieved during Ms. Grant’s tenure on the City <br />Council included passage of an inclusionary housing ordinance, a local purchasing <br />policy, founding of the African American Business Council, and approval of the South <br />Area Development Plan. <br />Subsequent to her service on the City Council, Ms. Grant has remained deeply involved <br />in San Leandro in a volunteer capacity. Highlights of this work include serving as <br />chairperson of a working group that produced the 2013 Local Inclusion Policy, actively <br />participating in the Unity in the Community effort, assisting with the public outreach <br />component of the City’s most recent General Plan update, serving on the Board of <br />Directors of the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce, serving as a community <br />representative on various recruitment panels, serving on the City’s Redevelopment <br />Successor Agency Oversight Board and most recently bringing the Ohio State’s <br />University’s Divided Community Project to San Leandro, a simulation exercise that <br />prepares community leaders for managing situations of civil unrest. <br />On February 5, 2018, the City Council voted unanimously to name City Hall South Offices <br />Community Room at 999 East 14th Street (the former California Conservatory Theater) <br />after Surlene Grant. <br />Helen Lawrence South Office <br />Helen Lawrence was born in Horta, Fayal in the Azores Island, Portugal. As an infant, she <br />immigrated with her family to the city of Oakland in 1894. She graduated from Oakland’s <br />Fremont High School and later graduated from San Jose State Teacher’s College. She later <br />taught in San Leandro for six years before marrying Jorge Lawrence, Supreme Director of <br />the Portuguese Fraternal Society, U.P.E.C. <br />During her years as a San Leandro resident, Mrs. Lawrence volunteered for several agencies. <br />In 1935, when Councilmember George Weldon resigned, several councilmembers asked <br />Lawrence to fill the vacancy and she accepted. On May 21, 1941, Mayor Mark DuTiel <br />resigned. After his resignation Mrs. Lawrence’s colleagues nominated her Mayor, the first <br />woman in San Leandro’s history to serve this position as well as the first person of Portuguese <br />descent to serve as mayor in the United States. She served 3 years as Mayor. She was also <br />voted President of the Council. <br />Dave Karp Senior Facility <br />Dave S. Karp served as San Leandro’s mayor for seven years. He served as a <br />Councilmember for District 1 for four year and was elected mayor on April 8, 1986. He was <br />born on April 5, 1935 and was a resident of San Leandro for many years. He was married to <br />Marcia Karp, who served as a board member for the Friends of the San Leandro Library for <br />many years until she died in 2012. He served on several city advisory commissions, including <br />the Board of Zoning Adjustments and the Site Development Commission. He was Vice <br />Chairman of both the Executive Committee and the Charter Revision Committee for San <br />Leandro’s Future. He also served on the Alameda County Parks and Recreation Commission <br />and was a director of the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce. <br />390