Jackie Rocco
Wave Staff Report
WEST HOLLYWOOD — The City Council has appointed Jackie Rocco to serve as the city’s next city manager. The announcement was made at the City Council meeting Dec. 1.
Rocco, who currently serves as assistant city manager, will take over for David Wilson, who announced that he will be retiring in January.
Rocco was selected following an extensive recruitment process conducted by the City Council.
“The selection of Jackie Rocco as our next city manager is especially meaningful for all of us in West Hollywood who have had the joy of knowing her and working with her,” Mayor Chelsea Lee Byers said. “Over the past several months, the city conducted a comprehensive national search and screened more than 70 talented candidates.
“In the end, it was clear that Jackie brings not only exceptional expertise, but also an unmatched commitment to the West Hollywood community. We are confident that we’ve chosen the very best person to help guide our city forward.”
Rocco is an accomplished professional with more than 27 years of executive and management experience in both the private and public sectors, and nearly 18 years of local government service to the West Hollywood community.
As assistant city manager, she provides leadership, executive direction and oversight of city operations and services; ensures that the city responds to the needs of the community in a timely and effective manner; and enables city management and staff to work collaboratively and creatively in addressing the issues and concerns of West Hollywood’s constituency.
Prior to becoming assistant city manager, Rocco was the city’s deputy city manager focused on development impacts and the oversight and coordination of the efforts of the departments related to private and public infrastructure and development in the city. The development impacts team is comprised of the Economic Development, Public Works and Community Development departments and the Property Development and Urban Design & Architecture Studio divisions.
Before that, Rocco served as the city’s director of public Works and was responsible for leading the department’s three divisions at that time: engineering; neighborhood and business safety (code enforcement); and parking services.
Rocco began her tenure in West Hollywood in 2008 as the city’s parking operations manager overseeing parking enforcement, on-street and off-street parking, permit parking, and taxi operations.
She then transitioned to the Economic Development Department as its business development manager responsible for managing programs and services to support the West Hollywood business community, before joining the Department of Public Works.
In recent years, Rocco completed the California City Management Foundation’s New and Future City Managers Seminar and the International City/County Management Association’s Leadership Program. She also has been instrumental in developing a forward-looking internal organizational change management plan during the past year.
Prior to joining the city, Rocco worked in organizational management, process improvement and operations. She served as: vice president of operations for a full-service parking management company; provider of parking management services to municipal and commercial clients nationwide; regional director of operations for a Fortune 500 company that provided information technology services and business process outsourcing worldwide; and acting assistant director for the Housing Authority of the city of Los Angeles.
Rocco holds a bachelor of arts degree in political science and a master of arts in urban planning from UCLA.
