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.

Russo served as the president of the League of California Cities from 2002–03, serving a total of nine years on the board.

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 2011 Russo was named the city manager for neighboring Alameda, California.

In 2015, Russo was named the city manager of Riverside, California. 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 2018, the Irvine City Council voted unanimously to name Russo as the city manager for Irvine, California. In 2019, Russo was included on the Orange County Register list of 100 Top Influencers