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 President Pro Tempore, California State Senate, 1994-1998 <br /> Assembly Member, California State Assembly, 1973-1982 <br /> Member, San Leandro School Board, 1968-1973 <br /> <br /> <br />PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND ROOMS <br /> <br />Surlene Grant (City Hall South Offices Community Room) <br />Surlene Grant was appointed to a position on the San Leandro City Council to fill a <br />vacancy in the District 2 seat in 1998. She was subsequently elected by the voters to <br />serve two full 4-year terms in 2000 and 2004. In doing so, Ms. Grant became the first <br />African-American and the first person of non-European descent to be appointed or <br />elected to the City Council in San Leandro, after more than a century of governance as <br />an incorporated city. <br /> <br />A key component of Ms. Grant’s tenure on the City Council was a determined effort to <br />ensure that the City’s leadership better reflected the growing diversity of the <br />community’s population. The success of these efforts is demonstrated by the increased <br />diversity in recent years of both the City Council and staff. In 2012, the City hired its first <br />Latino City Manager and, more recently, the City for the first time had a City Council <br />comprised of a majority of people of color. <br /> <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 /> <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. Most recently she was responsible for bringing the <br />Ohio State’s University’s Divided Community Project to San Leandro, a simulation <br />exercise that prepares community leaders for managing situations of civil unrest. <br /> <br />On January 16, 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 /> <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 />132