Potter worked as a sales manager for Shearcut Tool Company of Encino, when he ran for the City Council in 1963, and in 1966 he was a director in the Surety National Bank of the same San Fernando Valley community.

The residents, mostly white, range[d] from Mayor Sam Yorty to rich theatrical folk in the mountains to blue collar workers in the flatlands.

When Potter was seated in July 1963, he became the City Council's youngest member at age 31, replacing Rosalind Wiener Wyman, who was 32 that year.

[6] Two men were found guilty in 1969 of offering a $6,000 bribe to Potter to obtain his support for a zone change to allow a Russian Orthodox Church to be constructed in a Sherman Oaks area restricted to residential use.

At first, the developer was required to build the road but later the city decided to convert it to a secondary highway and to finance it from gas tax revemies.

[11] He and Council Member Robert J. Stevenson took the lead in successfully opposing a proposed freeway (State Route 160) through Laurel Canyon that would have linked Slauson Avenue in Ladera Heights with the San Fernando Valley.

He suggested that newspaper and radio stations receiving city tax exemptions should also be included in the ordinance to prevent "distortions" in "articles, editorials and news.

"[14] In his 1971 election campaign, he recalled how he had "led the council fight for the city to pay for the defense of policemen indicted by the federal government in the 'mistake' shooting of Mexican nationals.