4th Council district residents will choose the new Councilmember in early 2015 in a winner-take-all election in which the person elected may receive less than voter majority (as Robert Garcia did in 2009 in the 1st district, succeeding then-Sacramento bound Bonnie Lowenthal.)

O'Donnell was elected to the Council in 2004 in the same cycle as now-retired 8th dist. Councilwoman Rae Gabelich in an election marked by neighborhood concerns over City Hall's Long Beach Airport policies. O'Donnell announced his candidacy for a 2012 election cycle Assembly bid but bowed out when incumbent Bonnie Lowenthal ended a state Senate bid and instead sought a final Assembly term. O'Donnell then sought a third four-year City Council term, using the term-limit bypass procedure, mounting a write-in campaign in April 2012 and winning a place on a June 2012 runoff ballot where he prevailed with large election expenditures by organized labor.

Whoever is elected in the 4th Council district -- which stretches from ELB's Los Altos neighborhoods to the Central LB-adjacent Zaferia area -- will have a co-equal vote on all Council matters from budget priorities (including police and fire staffing) to proposed developments, taxpayer impacting policies and neighborhood quality of life issues affecting decisions citywide.

O'Donnell's exit by early December means he likely won't cast a decisional Council vote on a controversial transaction in which the City would make annual payments (escalating at CPA rate each year) for roughly 40 year and convey valuable Ocean Blvd./Magnolia Ave. property under LB's former courthouse to a private developer/operator in exchange for building and operating a new LB Civic Center. That vote would be cast by an eight-member Council...in which a 4-4 deadlock is mathematically possible.