Everett G. Burkhalter

Burkhalter served in the State Assembly from 1942 to 1953.[4]

See also List of Los Angeles municipal election returns, 1939 and following.

Burkhalter made his first bid for local office in 1939, when he finished third in a field of four candidates for the Los Angeles City Council District 1 seat held by Jim Wilson. At that time, the district covered the San Fernando Valley, the Los Feliz section east of Griffith Park Drive and north of Franklin Avenue, the section between Vermont and Talmadge avenues south to Santa Monica Boulevard, and the Riverside Drive area west of Glendale Boulevard.[5] But Burkhalter was elected in his second attempt, in 1953, replacing Leland S. Warburton in the district, which then covered only the San Fernando Valley, having given up the Los Feliz and Atwater areas. It was still the Valley's only councilmanic district.

Burkhalter was reelected in 1957 and 1961 to four-year terms, but he resigned from the council in 1962 when he won an election for Congress.

Burkhalter supported the plan to bring the Los Angeles Dodgers to Chavez Ravine in Los Angeles and voted for Bunker Hill development.[3] Some of his other positions:

Employment, 1958. He voted in favor of establishing a Fair Employment Practices Commission in Los Angeles. The plan lost on a 7-7 tie vote.[6]

Television, 1958. Burkhalter voted in opposition to pay television in Los Angeles.[7]

Smog, 1959. He engaged in a war of words with officials at Kaiser Steel in Fontana when he accused the steelmakers of loosing a "stream of smoke from the plant . . . into the general Los Angeles area. On some days the emissions . . . can be observed from the top of the City Hall."[8]

Movies, 1961. He submitted a resolution urging that a Congressional committee study the problem of American movies' being made overseas. He noted a report that "60% of this country's movies will be made in Europe this year" and that "Communists are being hired in at least one foreign country and that they are doing the work formerly done" in Los Angeles. The resolution was adopted after being amended to include the music industry at the suggestion of Councilman Ernani Bernardi.[9]

HUAC, 1962. Burkhalter announced he would start a fund to send "to Russia" protesters picketing a House Committee on Un-American Activities meeting in Los Angeles, "if they desired to go."[10]

Zoo, 1962. He fought vehemently—but unsuccessfully—to move the Los Angeles Zoo from its location in Griffith Park to Roger Jessup Park in Pacoima, a step that had been recommended by architect Charles Luckman.[11]

Burkhalter served one term in the U.S. Congress from 1962 to 1964 as a Democrat.[4]