BEVERLY HILLS―Jimmy Delshad, made history March 27, 2007, in taking the oath as the first Iranian-born mayor of Beverly Hills, and is one of the United States' highest ranking Iranian-American elected officials.
The installation ceremony took place in front of the Beverly Hills City Hall, before an enthusiastic crowd of 700-800, and received wide media attention.
Delshad was sworn-in as a returning councilmember by Max Webb, a Holocaust survivor and philanthropist. Delshad was sworn in as mayor by Fred Hayman, an immigrant himself, considered to be the "father of Rodeo Drive."
Local elected officials who attended the ceremony included California State Assemblyman Mike Feuer who presented Delshad a State Assembly proclamation, West Hollywood City Councilman Jeffrey Prang, former Beverly Hills mayors and members of the Beverly Hills Board of Education.
The two candidates with the highest electoral votes fill the two open seats on the Beverly Hills city council, and the most senior out of the 5 councilmembers is then selected Mayor. Delshad had the second highest vote count, but because he was the most senior councilmember he became Mayor.
The final electoral results were: city planning commissioner Nancy Krasne 2710 (23%), Vice-Mayor Jimmy Delshad 2579 (22%), Mayor Steve Webb 2408 (21%), attorney Maggie Soleimani 2299 (20%), business consultant Shahram Melamed 1266 (11%), and journalist Lizza Monet Morales 347 (3%).
It is estimated that 8,000 of the 35,000 Beverly Hills residents are of Iranian descent, many immigrating after the 1979 downfall of the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
The voting ballots were printed for the first time in English and Farsi amid some voter dissension and complaints. Although Delshad was opposed to translating the ballots into Farsi the forces in the community succeeded in printing the new bilingual ballot.
The fact that three out of the six candidates are of Iranian descent, i.e., Delshad, Soleimani and Melamed, gives ample evidence of the growing Iranian cultural influence in Beverly Hills.
Iranian New Year Recognition
Another example of the Iranian cultural influence is the "Pupil Free Day" at Beverly Hills High School and the four Beverly Hills Elementary Schools for the Iranian New Year called Norooz or Noruz. The free day was given this year on March 21 to accommodate the New Year celebration.
Born in Shiraz, Iran, Jimmy Delshad, 66, immigrated to the United States when he was a teenager. He graduated from California State University, Northridge, and embarked on a very successful career in computer storage technology, marketing his own company's products all over the world; a business he sold in 1999.
As an Iranian Jew, Delshad's victory was not only celebrated by the thousands of Iranian-Americans in Beverly Hills but also by the large Iranian-Jewish community in the greater Los Angeles area.
Best known for his Smart City Initiatives, Delshad promotes the adoption of the latest technological advances to enhance Beverly Hills' safety and quality of life.
Delshad says these Smart City Initiatives include:
- "Smart Traffic Signals that change according to traffic density and not according to the present schedule."
- "Parking meters that take dollar bills and credit cards and will respond to your cell phone for extending the time on the parking meter."
- "Reusing 'gray water' and wireless water meters to conserve and monitor water use for public parks and private purposes."
- "Proactive Intelligent Video Cameras for monitoring of our schools perimeters, parking lots and our shopping centers to help prevent crime or terrorism and improve our homeland security."
- "Automatic License Plate Recognition that scans car license plates in milliseconds and can wirelessly report any stolen car with outstanding warrants so that our police can stop them as soon as possible."
- "Free Internet and wireless broadband communication services to help our public- safety first responders."
- Supporting the previous mayor's (Steve Webb) initiative, "to allow Beverly Hills to use photo radar for issuing tickets to speeders in our residential neighborhood, where speed humps are not practical."
- "Taking a 'Smart Growth' approach to development that recognizes and responds to the needs of residents and business."
- "Incentives to encourage a 'Green Building Initiative' for buildings that conserve electricity, water and are friendlier to our environment by using fewer natural resources and emitting fewer greenhouse gases through a new Fast Track Permit Process."
In addition, Delshad established the citizen hotline, 1-310-AMERICA, linking directly to the Mayor, for reports of dangerous conditions such as sidewalk and road repair safety hazards.
Delshad received congratulations from dignitaries around the world, including those from Iran, Israel, and Austria.
Mayor Delshad stated that he chose to serve on the city council as "a debt to this city and this country that welcomed me and allowed me to use my talents to build a successful life" as well as "to open doors for others who would see me as an example."
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