Healy was a
City Council member between 1904 and 1909, when he was described as a "kindly, good-natured man of large family and patriotic impulses." The
Los Angeles Herald said of him in 1907 that he was "the most picturesque character in the present council. He is known as "
Buttermilk Barney," as he is an
abstainer, is always clad in green and wears no
neckties." He represented the Eighth Ward on the east side of the city, which the
Times called "the
ward with the greatest percentages of the saloon vote," the newspaper noting that Healy "was an uncompromising Republican" in "the strongest Democratic ward in the city." He also authored an
ordinance, adopted unanimously, that made it unlawful to grant a
saloon license anywhere within 600 feet of a
public school building. In 1907 he introduced an
ordinance that would have made it a
misdemeanor for a
landlord to refuse to rent to a family with children. He said: Healy's first attempt was derailed by the city attorney, who advised that it would probably be
unconstitutional. The councilman then amended his proposal to instead simply set a higher license fee on landlords who bar children, an exclusionary practice, he said, that placed "a premium on
race suicide, and I'm going to fight it." The council approved the ordinance, but the city attorney again ruled the idea to be unconstitutional. On December 7, 1909, Los Angeles changed its voting for City Council members from individual
wards to
all-city voting, with the top nine candidates being elected. Healy took the eleventh spot and so left the council on December 10, 1909. Afterward, in an article examining what the outgoing City Council members would do since "they lost their salaries of $100 a month and perquisites," the
Los Angeles Herald said that "Barney Healy's income . . . seems to have been spent freely. Healy's faults did not include niggardliness, and no tale of hard luck ever failed to reach his pocketbook." Healy ran for the council again in 1910 and was defeated. An unsuccessful effort was made to have the City Council appoint him as an officer in the street-cleaning department. In 1912 he was made a
bailiff and
deputy sheriff in a
Superior Court at a salary of $100 a month. == Notes and references ==