Jack D. Maltester

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Jack D. Maltester was mayor of San Leandro, California for twenty years, from 1958 to 1978.

Maltester was appointed to the San Leandro City Council in 1948 to replace Helen Lawrence and served until the next election in April 1948. In 1956, Maltester was elected to the City Council and was elected Vice Mayor by the City Council. In 1958, Maltester was elected Mayor by the City Council. In 1962, he became the first Mayor of San Leandro to be elected by popular ballot. He was re-elected three times. In April 1974, voters passed a charter amendment limiting City Council members and the Mayor to two consecutive terms, preventing Maltester from running for a fifth consecutive term. [1] During his term, the San Leandro shoreline and marine recreational area were developed, a library was built and BART extended a line to the city.[2]

In 1963, responding to the national Civil Rights Movement, Maltester proposed a Committee on Human Rights and Responsibilities. The City Council rebuffed this initiative three times. Throughout the sixties, Maltester and the City Council lowered the city's tax rates to offset rising property assessments.^[1]

Maltester served as President of the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) from 1969 to 1970. In 1971, he sponsored a resolution at the annual USCM meeting in Philadelphia, entitled "Withdrawal from Vietnam and Reordering of National Priorities", calling upon then-President of the United States, Richard Nixon, "to do all within his power to bring about a complete withdrawal of all American forces from Vietnam by December 31, 1971." Speaking in support of the resolution, Maltester said:

I might ask you: Have we left anything up until now to the military experts or have we been running a political war in Vietnam? My city, a small city in California with less than 70,000 people, proposed this resolution and it is supported by the citizens of the community. It is not a resolution of condemnation. It is not offered in rancor. It is a positive statement of principle. To support this position, I believe, is an obligation none of us can ignore in the name of humanity. I ask your vote for an end to this war.

The resolution was adopted by the body of mayors after a vigorous debate, including speeches by conference guest speakers John Kerry and John O'Neill. New York City Mayor John Lindsay and Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley were numbered among those who voted for the resolution.[3]

In 1992, the channel leading into the San Leandro Marina was named the "Jack D. Maltester Channel". [4]