John A. Russo (politician), Date of Birth, Place of Birth
TweetJohn A. Russo (politician)
American politician, City manager of Alameda, California
Date of Birth: 06-Feb-1959
Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York, United States
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Aquarius 
About John A. Russo (politician)
- John A.
- Russo (born February 6, 1959) is a former American politician, city attorney, and city manager with municipal management experience in four cities in the state of California. Russo was a member of the Oakland City Council from 1994–2000, where he served as finance committee chair and became a leading advocate for fiscal accountability and government reform.
- In September 2000, he became the first elected city attorney of Oakland, California after a little-debated aspect of Jerry Brown's strong-mayor initiative, Measure X, changed the city attorney post from an appointed to an elected one.In 2007, during his second term as city attorney, Russo ran unsuccessfully for the California Assembly 16th District seat in 2006.
- In June 2008, Russo was re-elected to a third term as city attorney, running unopposed. In February, 2011, after clashes with new Oakland mayor Jean Quan over her choice to use a private attorney to advise her office on city matters elected City Attorney Russo applied for and was named the city manager for neighboring Alameda, California.
- Russo became Alameda city manager on June 13, 2011.In February, 2015, Russo resigned as Alameda city manager to become the city manager of Riverside, California beginning May 4, 2015.
- He served in that position for nearly three years, establishing practices of reform and accountability and increasing projects in arts and culture, including initiating the deal to bring the Cheech Marin Center for Art, Culture, and Industry to Riverside.
- According to the Press Enterprise, "Russo, who has served as City Manager since 2015, has been behind initiatives like the Sunshine Ordinance to improve transparency in city government, a more robust budget process and a rotating system of audits of all city departments." In February, 2018, the city council voted 5-2 to extend Russo's contract for 7 years, but at the end of the meeting, Mayor Rusty Bailey acted to veto the decision, which the City Attorney Gary Guess advised was unlawful, since the Riverside charter did not allow the Mayor to veto contracts of charter officers.
- In March, 2018, Mayor Rusty Bailey filed a lawsuit against the city of Riverside, the first Mayor in the history of California to take such an action, claiming the right to veto the city manager contract.
- On April 17, 2018 the council voted 4-3 to fire Russo without cause.
- On July 10, 2018, the Irvine City Council voted unanimously to name Russo as the city manager for Irvine, California.
- Russo served as the president of the League of California Cities from 2002–03, serving a total of nine years on the board.
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