In honor of former Hayward Mayor Ilene Weinreb
Mayor Barbara Halliday adjourned the Hayward City Council meeting of Dec. 1 in honor of Ilene Weinreb, Hayward’s first elected female mayor, who died on Nov. 22, 2020. She was 89 years old.
Ms. Weinreb, who was elected to the City Council in 1968, and then Mayor in 1974, was an early champion of affordable housing, Mayor Halliday said, noting her contributions included helping establish Eden Housing and serving as a long-time member of the board of directors of the Hayward-based nonprofit.
Ms. Weinreb, who served two terms as Mayor, also founded a partnership with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department called MOMS, or Maximizing Mothers to Succeed. MOMS works with incarcerated mothers to support parent-child bonding, develop personal self-sufficiency and promote family reunification.
Former Hayward Assistant City Manager Dave Berger, a contemporary, described the former Mayor as an “incredibly diverse policy expert” who “stayed true to her progressive values,” and who “shaped and influenced progress on many other policy issues in the community and, through her involvement at various government levels, in the region and beyond.”
Born Nov. 9, 1931, in Kansas City, MO, Ms. Weinreb earned a master’s degree and teaching credential from the University of Chicago, where she also met her husband, Marvin Weinreb, then a medical student, the East Bay Times reported. The couple married in 1951 and moved to Hayward in 1957. In recognition of her service to Hayward, Ms. Weinreb was the 2015 recipient of the Gail Steele Lifetime Achievement Award.
