About Bill: Biography

Los Angeles Councilman Bill Rosendahl won election in May 2005 with a commanding mandate for positive change. He represents the 11th District, which includes the communities of Brentwood, Del Rey, Mar Vista, Marina del Rey, Pacific Palisades, Palms, Playa del Rey, Playa Vista, Venice, West LA and Westchester.

Bill serves as chair of the council’s powerful Public Works Committee, which has oversight of most essential city services, such as tree trimming, street repair, street lighting, street beautification projects, and capital improvements. He serves as vice-chair of the Commerce Committee, which oversees Los Angeles World Airports, including Los Angeles International Airport. Bill is also a member of the council’s Transportation Committee, Budget & Finance Committee, and Ad Hoc Committee on Homelessness, which he co-founded. He is also the chair of the Southern California Regional Airport Authority and one of the city's appointees to the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission and the Exposition Light Rail Construction Authority.

Since taking office in July 2005, Bill has focused on: stopping the expansion of Los Angeles International Airport, promoting mass transit, enhancing public safety, curbing overdevelopment, standing up for tenants’ rights and for affordable housing, seeking solutions to the problem of homelessness, and giving our neighborhoods a greater voice in city decision-making. His most notable achievement so far has been the historic agreement between LAX and airport neighbors, ending airport expansion and promoting regional aviation.

A resident of Mar Vista, the largest community in the 11th District, Bill is the first openly gay man elected to the Los Angeles City Council, and is the city’s highest-ranking GLBT official.

Prior to his election, Bill was an educator and an award-winning television broadcaster with a long record as a leader in Los Angeles civic affairs.

While he served as Distinguished Professor at Cal State Dominguez Hills until his election, Bill is best known as producer and moderator of critically-acclaimed public affairs television shows. As host of "Local Talk", "Week in Review" and "Beyond the Beltway" Bill created a needed forum for discussion of public affairs. An advocate of empowering people through information, Bill produced more than 3,000 programs over 16 years, opening the airwaves to all viewpoints and steering thoughtful dialogue on the most complex and controversial issues.

As a cable executive, Bill fought tirelessly for better service, upgraded technology, more local programming choices, and better wages and working conditions for his employees.

Bill's public service won him the Cable Ace Award, The Diamond Award, the Freedom of Information Award, the Los Angeles League of Women Voters Public Service Award and the Beacon Award for Cable's Free Air Time Project.

Bill also engaged himself in civic life. He chaired the California Commission on Tax Policy in the New Economy, served as president of the Los Angeles Press Club, as chairman of the Cable and Telecommunication Association and was a member of the education fund of the Los Angeles League of Women Voters. He was a regular moderator of community forums, steering discussions on various issues including charter reform, secession and the formation of neighborhood councils.

Prior to his cable TV career, Bill was a White House appointee to the State Department as Chief of Operations for the U.S. Trade and Development Program, served as an associate in philanthropic work for John D. Rockefeller, III and worked on many political campaigns, including Robert Kennedy's 1968 presidential bid.

A Vietnam-era veteran, Bill served in the U.S. Army from 1969-71, spending a year as a psychiatric social worker, counseling troops returning from combat. As special assistant to the commanding general at Ft. Carson, Colorado, he won national recognition for reorganizing the base and boosting morale of the service people. Bill is currently a member of The American Legion, Post 283, in Pacific Palisades.

Bill holds a Master of Social Work (MSW) from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science & Economics from St. Vincent College, Latrobe, PA. He is also as a world traveler who has visited 52 countries.