The family moved to California in 1945,[1] and Ronka attended North Hollywood High School, where he played trombone in a dance-band workshop that studied music ranging from the big-band sound of the early 1930s to the progressive jazz of Stan Kenton.

"[4] A Democrat,[4] he was a member of an advisory council formed by Los Angeles District Attorney John Van de Kamp to study reform of the juvenile justice system[3] and was also active with the San Fernando Valley Bar Association.

[5] The liberal Ronka, an attorney who specialized in real estate,[6] was elected to represent Los Angeles City Council District 1 in 1977, succeeding veteran Councilman Louis R. Nowell, who did not seek reelection.

[8] The councilman took preliminary steps toward running against Baxter Ward for the county Board of Supervisors in 1972, but decided against it when private polls showed the Ronka name was not recognized in the supervisorial district.

[9] Ronka faced a recall petition in 1978 in which he was accused of, among other things, receiving unreported cash contributions from the "Mexican Mafia" and of failing to report the gift of a trip to Hawaii and ownership of real property in Westlake Village.

[14][15] He gained favorable citywide publicity in February and March 1978 when he cut short a vacation in Acapulco, Mexico, (from a planned three days to an actual twenty minutes) to return home when he heard that heavy storm waters had flooded the Sunland-Tujunga area.

The Los Angeles Times reported: "Ronka slipped out of his low-profile image when disaster struck his district Feb. 9, and subsequently he has become almost as regular a television figure as the weatherman."

Ronka warned that "Body parts and human flesh" from the flooded Verdugo Hills Cemetery and rats and poisons and dead snakes were threatening the area.

[18] It was soon determined that other council members had made the same kind of appointments,[19] and a few weeks later the U.S. Department of Labor announced that it would no longer pay the salaries—about $3 million annually—to the council-hired workers.

[4] His political campaign caused a citywide furor with television ads saying that the councilman's opponent, City Controller Ira Reiner, had represented Leslie Van Houten, an associate of mass murderer Charles Manson, as her attorney in court.

Ronka ordered the ads pulled, but the damage was done: Support fell away, and the editorial page of the Los Angeles Times withdrew its endorsement.