Meet
Palmdale Mayor
Steve Hofbauer
Steve Hofbauer has an unequaled record of attracting high-quality jobs to Palmdale, and dramatically cutting crime and improving public safety. Formally the city Audit Committee Chairman, he assured transparent financial records and worked to cut wasteful spending, to assure your tax dollars are wisely spent.
Steve Hofbauer works with our legislators and industry leaders to protect aerospace jobs and attract new manufacturing jobs to Palmdale and the region, to better diversify our economy and workforce, earning us recognition as the Most Business-Friendly City in LA County.
Locally, Steve is a director with the AVTA - the Antelope Valley Transit Authority - where he has worked collaboratively with our other transit agency partners, setting transformative policies that have changed that bus agency into a respected industry leader, and a model other agencies look to. We have brought literally TENS OF MILLIONS in innovative grants to replace aging diesel buses with state-of-the-art electric buses, putting more AV residents to work locally. We are adding new 60 ft articulated buses, and improving local and commuter route and service times. In his role as a Transit Director, he has served as the delegate for the Metro Transit Needs Hearing Board, to ensure Federal and State compliance.
Steve also represents us on the local Sanitation Board, the Palmdale-Poncitlan Sister Cities Committee, as an alternate to the Recycled Water Agency, the High Desert Corridor authority, and the North County Transportation Agency.
Steve has served as our representative to SCAG - the Southern California Association of Governments, for more than a decade. During this time he has been re-elected time and again by his colleagues in Palmdale and Lancaster to the Regional Planning Council. There, Steve also serves on the Transportation Committee, which is responsible for the framework of every transportation and road project in Southern California. Steve previously served on the Housing Committee, where over three to four years he worked on three different hearing and appeals boards to achieve a more equitable distribution of low-income housing, reducing our state mandates from 18,000 to about 4,000 in Palmdale, and a similar amount in Lancaster.
Steve's work has identified millions in new transportation grants to improve roads, add bikeways, buses, and Safe Routes to Schools, all bringing more local jobs. As acting mayor, he saved millions more in disputed highway funds for Hwy 14 and 138 congestion relief. Those projects are underway now.
Steve Hofbauer is also our representative to the League of CA Cities, where he has served as Vice President, and just completed two years as the president of the vast Desert Mountain Division, stretching from Mammoth on the North, to 29 Palms on the South. He has been active through the Legislative Committee, reinforcing the prime directive of the League - local control for our communities. He also serves on the statewide Public Safety Committee, analyzing state legislation, to help cities and our partners advise legislators and take policy-level positions on these matters.
Steve also represents us on the Contract Cities Association, ensuring fair contract law enforcement and other municipal contracts, and keeping a lid on city liability exposure. There he also serves in the familiar role of legislative committee member, with many issues having similar interests for cities.
Steve volunteers with our local emergency communications service (ARES) and disaster communications services and is working to upgrade equipment and operations at our hospitals, city, and transit emergency operations centers. He is our regional rep to the FirstNet interoperability program.
He was twice awarded Paramedic of the Year by the local chambers of commerce. He was named LA County's Community Protector of the Year, for his heroic efforts captured on international news of the harrowing hours-long rescue and treatment of victims of the infamous Northridge Meadows apartment earthquake collapse. Steve was also recognized for his compassionate volunteer efforts afterward, distributing toys to kids in makeshift earthquake refugee camps set up in parks and gymnasiums. He was awarded the Council and District Boy Scout Leadership and Youth Service recognition, as well as our local Pete Knight American Heroes Award. With a reputation as "the hardest working councilman, by far" Steve was honored with the CA Cities Larry Chimbole Lifetime Public Service Award.
Steve gets results by working locally and regionally to bring jobs and tax dollars home. Re-elect someone who fights for us, re-elect Steve Hofbauer.