Bill Rosendahl

William Joseph Rosendahl (May 15, 1945 – March 30, 2016) was an American politician. He served on the Los Angeles City Council, representing Council District 11 from 2005 to 2013. He was a member of the Democratic Party.

Prior to being a councilman, Rosendahl was an educator, television broadcaster, and a vice president at Adelphia.

Rosendahl served in the U.S. Army from 1969 to 1971 during the Vietnam War. He spent a year as a psychiatric social worker, counseling troops returning from combat.

Professional career Prior to his election, Rosendahl 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 California State University, Dominguez Hills until his election, Rosendahl was best known as producer and moderator of critically acclaimed public affairs television shows.

He has hosted public affairs programs, such as Local Talk, Week in Review, and Beyond the Beltway, and produced more than 3,000 programs during his 16 years in journalism.

Rosendahl 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.

Rosendahl was active in politics throughout his life. He worked on the Eugene McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy campaigns in the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries. During the 1972 United States presidential election, he fundraised for Democratic nominee George McGovern. He later was appointed by the White House to the United States Department of State as Chief of Operations for the U.S. Trade and Development Program. He represented the Los Angeles City Council District 11, which included neighborhoods from Pacific Palisades to Westchester, Los Angeles. Vice Chair of the Trade, Commerce &Tourism, he was a member of Budget & Finance, Vice Chair of the Ad Hoc Stadium Committee, a member of the Ad Hoc on Economic Recovery & Reinvestment and a member of Board of Referred Powers.

Serving as chairman of the Transportation Committee, he attempted to use his position to ease traffic congestion in America's most congested city, using Measure R funding to push for subway construction from finally completing the Green Line to expanding the Expo Line creating new bus routes, and seeking innovative solutions to mitigate the traffic problem. He served as vice-chair of the Commerce Committee, which oversees Los Angeles World Airports, including Los Angeles International Airport. Rosendahl was also a member of the council’s Transportation Committee, Budget & Finance Committee, and Ad Hoc Committee on Homelessness, which he co-founded. He chaired of the Southern California Regional Airport Authority and one of the city's appointees to the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission.

From the time he took office in July 2005, Rosendahl focused upon: 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 neighborhoods a greater voice in city decision-making. According to some his most notable achievement was the historic agreement between LAX and airport neighbors, ending airport expansion and promoting regional aviation.

Rosendahl opted to not run for a third term after his cancer diagnosis in 2012. He was succeeded by his chief of staff, Mike Bonin Rosendahl had first suspected that he was gay during early puberty in the Boy Scouts. He noticed that he had an attraction to boys instead of girls. He later checked out a book on homosexuality from a local library and learned about the significance of Fire Island and Christopher Street to gay people. Rosendahl would come to the realization later in his life that homosexuality was simply "another expression of nature," and no reason to be ashamed.

Rosendahl had an affinity for nature and believed that having a connection to the environment was key to preserving the mental health and vitality of gay people.