John A. Russo (born February 6, 1959) is an American politician and former city manager from two cities in the state of California.
Russo was a member of the Oakland City Council from 1994-2000, where he served as chair of the finance committee and became a leading advocate for fiscal accountability and governmental reform. In September 2000, he became the city's first elected lawyer of Oakland, California after a slightly disputed aspect of Jerry Brown's Mayor Measure X's initiative changed the city's prosecutor post from the designated elected.
In 2007, during his second term as a city attorney, Russo failed to secure a seat to the California's 16th District Representative in 2006. In June 2008, Russo was re-elected for a third term as a city lawyer, running without resistance.
In February 2011, after a clash with new Oakland mayor Jean Quan on his choice to use a private lawyer to advise his office on selected city issues Russo City Prosecutor Office was implemented and named the city manager for neighboring Alameda, California. Russo became the city manager of Alameda on June 13, 2011.
In February, 2015, Russo resigned as city manager of Alameda to become manager of the Riverside, California city from May 4, 2015. He served in that position for almost three years, building reform and accountability practices and improving projects in arts and culture, agreement to bring the Marin Cheech Center for Arts, Culture and Industry to Riverside. According to Press Company, "Russo, who has served as City Manager since 2015, has been behind such initiatives as the Sunray Ordinance to improve transparency in the city government, stronger budget processes and rotating audit systems 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, advised by City Attorney Gary Guess is unlawful, since Riverside Charter does not authorize the Mayor to veto the charterer's contract. In March, 2018, Mayor Rusty Bailey filed a lawsuit against Riverside, the first mayor in California history to take such action, claiming the right to veto the city manager contract. On April 17, 2018 the council voted 4-3 to dismiss Russo without cause.
Russo served as president of the California City League from 2002-03, serving a total of nine years on board.
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John Russo was born and raised in the Carroll Gardens section of Italian immigrants in Brooklyn, New York. His father, a construction worker and vice-president of the union, and his mother, a tailor, moved to the United States from London in 1958 five months before he was born. Russo attended Xaverian School in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, NY. He graduated with honors in economics and political science from Yale University and obtained a law degree from the Law School of New York University.
After two years working as a Legal Aid at St. Lawrence. Louis, Missouri, Russo moved to Oakland in 1987. He served as president of the Friends of Oakland Parks and Recreation, the treasurer of the East Bay League of Conservation Voters, and pro bono lawyer for several environmental and nonprofit associations.
In June 1994, John was elected to the Oakland City Council, where he became the council's primary advisor for fiscal accountability and government reform. In his six years on board, John implements community policing, develops the first balanced budget within a generation, and works closely with the Women's Voters League, writing Oakland's open government law called "sunshine" ordinance.
In 2002, John served as president of the California City League spearheading the initiative to protect local tax revenues from mismanagement of the state fiscal and to change the California Constitution to ensure public access to government records and decision-making. His ability to work 'across the hall' earned him a seat on the City National League Council, an organization representing more than 18,000 towns and cities, in December 2003.
Maps John A. Russo (politician)
Legal Corps Offices Around
In 2001, Russo founded the Environmental Law Corps, an organization to help address chronic urban issues. Lawyers of the Corps Law, generally graduates of a new law school, focus on quality of life issues and deal with cases involving drug trafficking and code building violations. The Law Corps also leads the crackdown of Oakland in liquor stores that are considered to be a scene in the community as they provide shelter to deal with drugs and other disorders. In 2006, the Town National League called Oakland one of nine 2006 award winners for city excellence, and one of three Golden award winners honoring the work of the Environmental Law Corps.
Open Government Program
As a city lawyer, Russo created the Open Government Program. The program ensures that Oakland residents have full access to information about their city and that the business of city government will be done in the light of day. Three laws cited to support the intent of the Open Government Program: The Ralph M. Brown Act (California Law, Governmental Code, Section 54950 - 54962): The California Public Records Act (California Law, Governmental Code, Section 6250-6277) ; Oakland Sunshine Ordinance (Title 2, Chapter 2.20).
Determination of the rider
In 2003, Russo's office negotiated the largest legal settlement in Oakland's history. Plaintiffs who claim they were victims by a group of mischievous police known as "Riders" share $ 10.5 million in damages. The settlement brought a major change to police operations and was in touch with the public. This case fenced off the city because it was the largest police abuse case in Oakland in decades. Despite the expensive price in the settlement, Russo said the cases could spend tens of millions more if they went to court, showing that victims had spent more than 25 years, combined, jailed on false charges. In comparison, Los Angeles spends $ 40 million to finalize litigation stemming from the Rampart corruption scandal.
Payments went to 119 plaintiffs who filed federal civil rights lawsuits claiming four police officers kidnapped, beat and infused drugs on them during the summer of 2000. Plaintiffs alleged that the Oakland Police Department either pushed or turned a blind eye to abuse. US District Court Judge Thelton Henderson agreed to a civil settlement after 18 months of negotiations.
"We do not bury our heads in the sand We confess our mistakes freely, and we work hand in hand to fix the problem rather than hide from or deny the problem," said City Attorney John Russo. "Many plaintiffs are people who have a bad history with the law," Russo said. But "there are some people who have no problem with the law being caught up in this overzealous behavior, and even those who are career criminals are entitled to their constitutional rights."
In addition, he said, the settlement prevented the US Department of Justice from imposing changes to the police department through a consent decision, as has been done in other cities facing police abuse scandals such as Los Angeles. Russo said the change would make it easier for police to identify problem officers and deal with them.
At the height of their careers, the so-called "Riders" are regarded as the best and brightest veterans, tried by the rookie police. Their specialty: to bring in famous drug dealers in record numbers from crime-ridden streets in West Oakland.
The alleged offense was revealed after a novice officer, just 10 days in the workplace and just out of the police academy, resigned and reported the activities of his former colleagues to the internal affairs division of the police department.
Anti-bias policy
In 2002, two Oakland employees had posted flyers at work that advertised the "Good News Employees Association," a group created to promote "natural family, marriage, and family values." The aviator also said, "We believe a natural family is defined as a man and a woman, their children by birth or adoption, or the remaining remnant thereof."
The brochure was sent in response to a message of celebration sent from former homeless City councilor Danny Wan to city staff on National Day of Exit in 2002.
One pilot was installed just outside the booth of a lesbian colleague. When he complained about homophobic leaflets, the city prosecutor's office investigated and concluded "the leaflet caused disruption at work and violated the city's anti-discrimination policy," according to Angela Padilla, one of the lawyers representing the city. in the case of the initial court.
The plaintiffs state in their deposition that gay and lesbian employees like "weeds" at work, and that their intention is "to keep [the workplace] from indulging, to keep from decomposing, so as not to deteriorate."
The plaintiffs are invited to post different leaflets without discriminatory language, but instead they choose to sue the city for violations of their free speech rights. The case was brought to justice, and most of the cases were dismissed in March 2004, while the issue of freedom of speech was rejected in July 2005.
According to 9th Circuit Court Judge Richard Clifton, the leaflet presents homosexuality as something that hurts the "integrity" of the workplace, violates Oakland's non-discrimination policy based on sexual orientation in the workplace. The plaintiffs then appealed to the Supreme Court, but the court refused to hear the appeal.
The case gained national attention when columnist George Will criticized Oakland for violating the plaintiff's right to freedom of speech.
In response to Will, printed in the San Francisco Chronicle, Russo reminds readers that plaintiffs deliberately seek to exclude their LGBT counterparts. Russo pointed out that instead of just a liberal matter, it was a conservative judge, a Bush representative, who said, "It is difficult to avoid conclusions, 'We have no ethics, we have no integrity because these people are here.'"
Safety belt sting
In 2007, Russo was caught in a law enforcement campaign to capture the seat belt traps. Russo got a ticket and the incident ended in the local media.
In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Russo admitted that he did not wear his seat belt when he was withdrawn by the officer at about 5:30 am. on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland. He said that he had been disturbed when he left the popular Fentons Creamery with his 8-year-old twin boy in the back seat of the Honda Civic hybrid in 2004.
In response to the ticket, the Disgusting Public Service Announcement was made with Russo, his twin son, and a friend, to contribute to the national law enforcement publication campaign, "Clicks or Tickets" which included videos posted to YouTube and ads that appeared between locations another, the Oakland BART station.
Awards
In 2006, the Town National League called Oakland as one of the nine winners of the 2006 Award for City Excellence, and one of three Golden award winners honoring the work of the Environmental Law Corps. In 2005, the program won the Grand Prize, Helen Putnam Award for Excellence from the National League City.
In August 2005, John Russo was elected a California Northern Super Lawyer by his colleagues and independent research from Legal & amp; Political Magazine .
In 2004, the California City League gave John Russo the Local Democracy Prize Winner for his work to strengthen democracy at the local level. In addition, the California Minoraw Monitoring Program (CMCP) rewards the John Essex City and Guy Rounsaville City Law Firms in the Home Diversity Award to demonstrate superior commitment to diversity; this is the first time a public agency has received an award in program history for thirteen years.
In 2003, California Lawyer Magazine named John Russo as Lawyer of the Year for Government/Public Policy. The Annual Award for the Annual Lawyer (California Lawyer) for the Year of 2003, recognized by Russo City Attorney for advocacy and innovation in public law while saving taxpayer money.
As key defense advocate for Oakland, Russo paid off a civil lawsuit with a widespread charge of police abuse of $ 10.8 million, only $ 2.2 million from taxpayers, with the rest being paid by the overpaid insurance company. Despite this payment, he managed to reduce city spending on lawyers and lawsuits by $ 3.5 million compared to the previous fiscal year. At the local level, the innovative Russo, privately-funded Environmental Law Corps helps cope with rotting diseases by, inter alia, entering into an agreement with Union Pacific Railroad to clean up illegally dumped waste along the railroad tracks, which will save the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees cleaning during the ten-year period of the agreement.
The award also recognizes Russo for winning an appeal decision enforcing the city's anti-predator levy laws and successfully filing a petition to California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi to investigate the Zip Code discrimination in car insurance.
"There are some achievements made by California lawyers that have such a far-reaching impact that they are unrecognizable," the magazine's editor said. "Lawyers selected as Lawyers of the Year for 2003 substantially affect a particular public or industry policy, bring significant developments in their field of practice or in the management of law firms, or achieve important victories for clients or for the public on difficult, risky issues high. "
In the fall of 2003, John Russo received the Beacon Award of the California First Amendment Coalition for leadership in promoting public access to the government and going "beyond the norm to ensure government transparency."
References
External links
- Riverside City's official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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