| Gilbert D. Smith | |
| Office: | Mayor of Carson |
| Term Start1: | 1970 |
| Term End1: | 1971 |
| Predecessor1: | John L. Junk |
| Successor1: | John H. Leahy |
| Term Start2: | 1974 |
| Term End2: | 1975 |
| Predecessor2: | Sak Yamamoto |
| Successor2: | Clarence A. Bridgers |
| Office4: | City Council of Carson |
| Term Start4: | February 1968 |
| Term End4: | March 1980 |
| Spouse: | Glenda Smith |
| Children: | 3 |
Gilbert D. Smith (born 1933/1934) is an American politician who served as the first African-American mayor of Carson, California.
Smith was born in Los Angeles and attended Los Angeles public schools.[1] In 1952, he graduated from Manual Arts High School and then went on to study commercial art at the Los Angeles Trade–Technical College.[1] He operates his own commercial art business.[1] Smith was active in community organizations which led to his involvement in the Dominguez-Carson incorporation movement (Dominguez being one of the proposed names for the new city) and served as chairman of the Dominguez-Carson Coordinating Council.[1]
In 1968, he was elected as one of five members to the first City Council of Carson, incorporated February 20, 1968.[2] In 1970, he was elected to a four-year term on the City Council and[3] then was appointed mayor in a unanimous vote by the City Council[4] succeeding John L. Junk.[5] Carson was less than 20% African-American at the time.[4] In June 1970, he implemented a summer jobs program to take idle teens off the streets.[6] He also set an action list to tackle the largest problems that he identified in the city: the limited regulation of the city's 97 junk and salvage yards; the proximity of residential areas to the city's seven refineries; and the future use of closed dump sites.[1] The city of 75,000 was also bisected by three freeways diving the city into separate communities and had little in the way of shopping or recreation.[7]
In November 1970, the city was raked with allegations of bribery charging the city's prior mayor, John Junk, an incumbent councilmember, Dannie H. Spence, a former deputy district attorney and attorney general who were both from Carson, a member of Carson's Environmental Control Commission, and a former member of the Parks and Recreation Commission; they were all charged with soliciting bribes to resolve zoning matters.[7] Smith froze all new zoning requests for review.[7] In December 1970, he dedicated the Main Street project, paid for with gas taxes, which created a shopping and recreational street for the city.[8] In January 1971, he was appointed to the transportation committee of League of California Cities, Los Angeles County Division.[9] In May 1971, the City Council appointed John H. Leahy as mayor.[10] In October 1971, the city broken ground on a new post office.[11] In May 1973, Smith unsuccessfully ran for the open seat in the 67th district of the California Assembly after the death of Larry Townsend running on a platform of using tax revenues to develop more mass transportation to reduce pollution, and to reevaluate the need for so many freeways, in particular, the Century Freeway.[12] In March 1974, he won re-election to the City Council in a nine-way race competing for two open seats finishing second with 991 votes to John A. Marbut (1,050 votes).[13] He was reappointed mayor,[14] succeeding Sak Yamamoto,[15] and was faced with the approval of a $5.4 million budget with nearly all of it dedicated to the current provision of services (with a $22,000 cushion).[16] In May 1975, he was named a vice chairman of the United Way.[17] In 1975, John Marbut was appointed mayor.[18] In the same year, the Council rejected opening new waste facilities in city.[18] In January 1977, he was named as president of the California League of Cities and tasked with assisting California cities to manage reductions in property taxes without losing revenues.[19] [20] Smith was credited with helping to transform Carson from a hodgepodge city of salvage yards and refineries bisected by highways to a city with a vibrant shopping corridor that derives all its revenues from sales and gas taxes.[19] In March 1978, he won re-election to the City Council in a ten-way race competing for two open seats finishing first with 3,065 votes to John A. Marbut (3,031 votes).[21] Smith announced that he would resign in November 1979 although after the successful recall of councilmen Sak Yamamoto and John Marbut, he would stay on until March 1980.[22]
He is married to Glenda Smith; they have three sons.[1]