purchased the Los Angeles Chronicle, a newspaper for city employees. He became a county employee again in December 1931 as assistant chief real-estate appraiser in the County Assessor's Office. A Presbyterian, he was a member of the Elks, Knights of Pythias, Woodmen of the World, Masons and Union League. He was a Republican. He was living at 2646 South Normandie Avenue when he died on March 25, 1932. He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery. City Council Elections In the May 1921 primary election Sparks placed 15th in a citywide field of more than 30 candidates, with the top 18 being nominated for a final round in June. In the general election, he placed first and was thus chosen, along with eight other successful candidates, for a two-year term on the council. Sparks placed seventh in the citywide primary of May 1923, with 26,971 votes, and was nominated for re-election. In the June final he came in 11th, with 34,458 votes, and was defeated; only the top nine vote-getters were elected. Sparks was out of the council for two years, but in 1925 he returned as the first person to represent the 5th District under the new city charter, which replaced the former at-large election system with one based on single-member constituencies. He was elected 4,379 votes to John Topham's 3,075. In 1925, the 5th District was bounded by Washington Street on the north, the city limits on the east, Exposition Boulevard on the south and Vermont Avenue on the west. He ran again in the 1927 election but this time he was linked to the unpopular mayoral administration of George E. Cryer, and he was soundly defeated in the final round by Virgil A. Martin, 7,843-2,889. Before that election he was criticized for having mailed letters on official city stationery to people who were on a tentative list for appointment as election precinct workers, asking them to call on him to "discuss with you some matters in which I am interested." Council actions One of the first controversial votes cast by Sparks was in opposition to a proposal by religious groups for a seven-member commission to regulate the showing of motion pictures in Los Angeles. He said he was "flatly opposed" to censorship, and the idea was eventually killed by the City Council amid a storm of protests by both sides. A later resolution defending the film industry, authored by