Goldman, MeraLee

Metadata

Abstract

An interview with MeraLee Goldman, former mayor and member of the Beverly Hills City Council. The interview was conducted for the Women, Politics, and Activism Since Suffrage Oral History Project headed by California State University, Fullerton, and the Center for Oral and Public History. The purpose of this interview was to compile information surrounding Mrs. Goldman’s political career as a former member of the Beverly Hills City Council and as a former mayor. Specifically, this interview discusses and includes various stories of Mrs. Goldman’s childhood and family life in Chicago, Illinois; discusses her parents’ involvement in community projects, education, and culture; discusses Goldman’s educational background, including the difficulty of her mother allowing her daughter to attend Stanford; discusses the difficulty of finding a job in Chicago after graduating from Stanford; recounts stories of some of her first city planning jobs in Sunnyvale, CA, Los Angeles, CA County, and for another planning firm in the 1950; discusses why she became an freelance design consultant in 1958; discusses the story of her 2 year old daughter dying from cancer and how she started her a foundation to fund a cancer treatment center in Los Angeles; discusses the history of her first business, Rainbow Design, and its intention to benefit cancer research and sell fun products to kids; includes an anecdote regarding how a dispute with city officials over the building color of Rainbow Design led Mrs. Goldman to become involved with politics; discusses how the Mayor of Beverly Hills supported Goldman’s political initiative and asked her to serve on the city’s Architectural Commission; discusses how during her ten year service in the Architectural Commission she helped turn the image of the commission into less of an adversary and into a more public outreach organization; discusses her ten year service on the Beverly Hills Planning Commission and her work to curb the construction of monster mansions; discusses her 1979 city council campaign process, reasons for running, and victory; discusses some of her proudest achievements as Mayor of Beverly Hills, including: starting a water treatment plant for the city during her second term, the success and national attention of her Millennium/Beverly Hills Forum, and Team Beverly Hills initiative during her both her terms as Mayor; discusses how President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton supported her Millennium program and started a National Millennium Initiative as a result; discusses her strong beliefs for both male and especially female politicians to respect and understand the community, the staff, and the job - not placing personal egos above the city; discusses the importance of team work; discusses her 3rd mayoral campaign and her reasons for not taking her opponent to trial for illegally registering additional voters who lived outside Beverly Hills; includes instances where she refused to break her community ethics and morals to support bad council members and chairmen who were self-centered; discusses her views on how both men and especially women should lead and become a better leader; discusses her perspectives on the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as her views on both former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and current President Donald Trump; discusses how women should start becoming involved in politics; discusses her daughter’s path towards working for National Geographic; and discusses her first introduction to bad government officiating while working in Menlo Park, CA.