Lynwood : City Council Elects First Woman Mayor

Councilwoman Evelyn Wells has been selected as the first woman mayor of Lynwood.

Wells, 42, is the first black woman and the second woman ever to be elected to the five-member City Council. She is serving her first four-year term on the council since being elected in April, 1985.

Wells was selected by a majority of her fellow council members to serve in the ceremonial mayor’s post. The mayor’s duties include presiding at council meetings and making public appearances on behalf of the city. The selection was made during the council’s annual reorganization.

She was selected by a 4-1 vote. Councilman E. L. Morris cast the dissenting vote. Morris nominated Councilman Paul Richards, who had served two consecutive terms as mayor. Richards declined the nomination and voted for Wells.

“I have become a part of history,” Wells said. She said she hopes to be able to help her colleagues start the second and third phases of a downtown redevelopment project during her mayoral term. Under the first phase, a $15-million development including a market, drug store and several smallers shops was recently completed.

Wells is the financial supervisor for the Associated Student Body office at Lynwood High School. Lynwood’s only other woman council member, Ruthann McMeekin, served one term on the council from 1954 to 1958, according to city records.