[2] Timm-Rudolph first ran for Winnipeg City Council in the 1983 municipal election as a New Democrat in the Springfield Heights division, and narrowly lost to Jim Ragsdill.
During this campaign, she proposed the creation of an auxiliary police force that would take care of simple tasks and allow officers to focus on more important matters.
[7] Thompson appointed Timm-Rudolph as acting deputy mayor in November 1995,[8] and named her to the executive policy committee (i.e. the municipal cabinet) in March 1997.
[11] Timm-Rudolph was expected to face a difficult re-election contest in 1998, but instead won without difficulty after Russ Wyatt, her main opponent, decided to withdraw at the last minute.
[13] She served on the board of the Winnipeg Convention Centre and remained a member of the public works committee, but was no longer its chair.
[17] She later said that her greatest accomplishment in office was facilitating the construction of a storm water retention basin in southeast Transcona, an area often plagued by flooding.