Last Saturday’s inauguration of District 11 City Councilman Bill Rosendahl had a Pacific Palisades flavor in a Venice Beach setting. Highlands resident and Superior Court Judge Kathy Mader officiated at Rosendahl’s swearing-in ceremony, at which point her husband, Norman Kulla, assumed his official role as District 11 director and senior counsel. Kulla, an attorney who served as chairman of the Palisades Community Council this past year, will also advise Rosendahl on fiscal issues. earlier, newly elected Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was on hand to praise Rosendahl as a man “who is unabashedly a progressive [applause], and that’s a good thing. He’s also a problem solver and a consensus builder. Let’s applaud that, too.” The mayor noted that Rosendahl “is a man focused on improving transportation on a regional basis” and is “committed to building the expo [light-rail] line from downtown to Santa Monica, working with County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and with me.” ‘ “I wanted to be here today to acknowledge our friendship over the last 10 years,” Villaraigosa said to Rosendahl, who was standing at the back of the audience in the outdoor Venice Pavilion. “I’m looking forward to working with you on local issues and regional issues, and I’m looking forward to a great partnerships with a great leader and a great friend.” Former Mayor Richard Riordan and his wife, Nancy Daly, offered further accolades, with Daly recalling that she and Rosendahl attended the same high school in New Jersey (though they attended at different times) and had become friends once they met each other here as adults in Los Angeles. Riordan described the councilman as “a very spiritual guy who has remained grounded. We feel it whenever we’re with him’that great smile and that great karma that I know he’ll bring to City Hall.” After the introductory speeches, as Rosendahl shook hands and hugged his way through the crowd up to the podium, Riordan reminded everyone that “Bill started out in politics on Robert Kennedy’s 1968 campaign,” and thus the similarities in political style. Wearing a short-sleeve blue shirt and khaki pants, Rosendahl began his remarks with typical gusto. “First I want to say: great! great! great, great! everything is great, especially today.” He reiterated a core theme of his campaign'”We’re all joined at the hip”‘as he called for public hearings with Santa Monica officials to deal with jet airplane exhaust polluting Santa Monica Airport neighborhoods, and urged cooperative efforts with Veterans Administration officials and the future of the VA property between Westwood and Brentwood. “I spend a part of my day in prayer and meditation,” Rosendahl said. “It centers me, and when we’re centered, I believe we do the right thing. everything needs to be balanced and fair. We have to leave ourselves open to whatever the truth might be. We’re all in this together.” Rosendahl, who lives in Mar Vista, is perhaps the only Los Angeles politician with chickens in his backyard. As has become his custom, he held up a sack of freshly-laid eggs (“13 of them, symbolizing the current 13 members of City Council”) and presented them as a gift’on this occasion, “to Mayor Villaraigosa and his family, so they are nourished.”
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