About Terry

First appointed to the City Council in February, 2010, after the untimely passing of former Mayor Ken Genser, Councilmember Terry O'Day was elected to complete the Mayor's term in November, 2010. A longtime community organizer, environmental leader, and socially responsible business executive, Terry has a proven history of fighting to give working families good jobs, great schools, and greener, safer communities. With a BA in Public Policy from Stanford University and an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA, Terry brings a unique combination of community service and private sector experience to the City Council.

As Chair of the Planning Commission, Terry led the fight to protect our human-scale neighborhoods, increase affordable housing in the City, reduce traffic through the Expo Light Rail, and create a more open, inclusive process for planning decisions. As a councilmember, Terry introduced the Arizona boycott, adopted California's strictest global warming land use regulations, improved the water quality at our beaches, helped prevent teacher layoffs and program cuts in our schools and protected tenants rights, invested in bike and pedestrian safety, and always supported the highest quality police and fire protection.

As the co-founder of several green businesses and the executive director of Environment Now, an organization that works for cleaner air and water, and against oil companies, Terry has earned an international reputation as an environmental leader. With over two decades of national and local policy experience, Terry has the expertise to turn progressive ideas into fiscally responsible, progressive policies. Today, he is also helping to build electric vehicle charging networks to facilitate the conversion of our transportation fleet into clean electric vehicles.

Terry and his wife, Tiffany, a director with the internationally-acclaimed Center for Autism and Related Disorders, live in the Pico neighborhood with their two daughters who are five and seven years old.