Howard W. Davis

[15] In January 1930, Davis and seven other council members who had voted in favor of granting a rock-crushing permit in the Santa Monica Mountains were unsuccessfully targeted for recall on the grounds that the eight have conspired with ... Alphonzo Bell, Samuel Traylor and Chapin A.Day, all multi-millionaires, to grant this group a special spot zoning permit to crush and ship ... from the high-class residential section of Santa Monica, limestone and rock for cement.[16]Davis was among six council members who in May 1930 unsuccessfully opposed allocating funds to make a study of leveling Bunker Hill, "which stands as a hindrance to traffic and a bar to development in the northwestern downtown territory.[18] In April 1933, Davis wrote a lengthy article in the Los Angeles Times ("as told to Mary June Burton") detailing the joys and sorrows of being a City Council member.[26] Even before Davis was seated, he was named by the council as what some called a "lobbyist" for the city in Sacramento, seeking action on legislation that would benefit Los Angeles, particularly the distribution of gasoline-tax revenues.[27] On December 15, 1938, Davis and Howard Baker, a former business associate, were indicted on two counts of bribery conspiracy in connection with the obtaining of spot zoning permits for operating in the rich oil fields of the Wilmington district near Long Beach.[28] In February 1939, a grand jury, at the instigation of District Attorney Buron Fitts, also voted 38 charges of misconduct, in a rare move designed to force Davis from office.[32] In the primary election the Tuesday after the court decision, Davis was eliminated from the field, placing third after Negro newspaper publisher Leon H. Washington Jr. and Carl C. Rasmussen.The votes were 7,097 for Rasmussen, 5,528 for Don A. Allen, 5,211 for Jonathan Lyle Caston, 2,536 for Davis, 1,074 for James F. Collins, 863 for Vince Monroe Townsend Jr., 261 for Harold Draper and 200 for Richard H.