Clarence E. Coe

Clarence Elliot Coe (January 23, 1873 – September 5, 1943) was one of the first settlers and farmers in Palms, California, and a member of the Los Angeles Police Commission from 1929 to 1931 and of the Los Angeles City Council from 1931 to 1933.

In 1901, Coe was the vice president of the Young People's Union of the United Brethren Churches of Southern California. Later, he was a trustee in the Palms School District, a member of the Republican County Central Committee and vice president of the Col. R.M. Baker Home for Retired Ministers. He and Charles W. Dempster were nominated in the primary over J.C. Barthel, the incumbent, who ran in the final election as a write-in. Coe received the most votes in the final election, 5,460, over Dempster, with 4,444, and Barthel, with 3,621; thus he did not have a majority but was the victor anyway. He was defeated for reelection in 1933 by Charles Winchester Breedlove, 9,082 votes to Breedlove's 11,275.

Positions

On the Police Commission, Coe consistently voted against the granting of permits for fortune tellers and clairvoyants, and when he got to the City Council, he submitted a resolution that would have outlawed palmistry, astrology and phrenology, calling them "unessential and unuseful." As a councilman, he "joined the group opposing the Mayor [Porter] and has been with that group ever since." Coe voted in summer 1931 against instructing the city attorney to appeal a judge's decision ordering the city to stop the practice of segregating its swimming pools by race. The vote was 6 in favor of an appeal and 8 opposed, including Coe, a vote that resulted in the pools' being immediately desegregated.