A native of the Eastside of Los Angeles, Rocky Delgadillo became the highest-ranking Latino to win citywide office in more than 100 years when he was elected Los Angeles City Attorney on June 5, 2001.

Running unopposed, he was re-elected in March 2005 to a second four-year term. Upon first taking office, Delgadillo began implementing innovative programs to achieve his vision of a better and safer Los Angeles. His top priorities include fighting crime, improving quality of life in our neighborhoods and reducing the city's civil liabilities. Many of the crimes the City Attorney's Office prosecutes are gang- and narcotics-related. Delgadillo has enforced and increased the number of gang injunctions to take on notorious gangs that terrorize neighborhoods.

Delgadillo has more than quadrupled the number of gang injunctions in the city to 33, contributing to a steep decline in crime in the affected areas. At the same time, effective legal work by his team helped bring to a close the Rampart scandal at a substantial savings. When the case broke in 2000, it was projected that some 120 cases could cost Los Angeles as much as $125 million in liability payments. Four years later, Delgadillo's team had negotiated settlements totaling $70 million in more than 200 cases, a projected $55 million savings over the next several years. He urged the city to apply to the hiring and training of new police officers.

Liability savings under Delgadillo extended beyond the Rampart scandal. General liability payouts in Delgadillo's first term fell by 60 percent, to $33 million. Delgadillo's efforts went well beyond fiscal responsibility. Education and after-school activities help deter teens from joining gangs. That's why Delgadillo created Operation Bright Future, a tough anti-truancy program that targets sixth-graders with excessive absences. Operation Bright Future teaches parents about the importance of education and ultimately holds parents legally responsible for making sure their kids go to school.

Delgadillo's signature program is the Neighborhood Prosecutor Program. For the first time in the city's history, prosecutors work in the neighborhoods, get to know residents on a first name basis, and attack quality-of-life crimes where they occur. Neighborhood Prosecutors work with residents, elected officials and city agencies to drastically cut illegal dumping, graffiti and illegal street racing, to name a few of the problems. The program won a city Productivity Award in 2002 for its first-year achievements.

Delgadillo also has focused on fighting child abuse; elder and dependent adult abuse; immigration fraud; and environmental crimes, particularly in populated urban centers. In addition to his success as a prosecutor, Delgadillo has helped make neighborhoods safer by slashing the city's liability costs by 45 percent and freeing up nearly $18 million to help pay for police and other crucial city services.

Before his election, Delgadillo was the Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles for Economic Development, where he worked to attract new jobs for the neighborhoods that needed them the most. He created an efficient, neighborhood-friendly approach to business development and helped bring more than $20 billion in private investment to the city in four years.

Prior to joining the mayor's office, Delgadillo was Director of Business Development for Rebuild LA, a nonprofit formed to bring investment into Los Angeles neighborhoods ravaged during the 1992 civil unrest, and served as a senior attorney at O'Melveny & Myers.

Delgadillo attended public schools, including Franklin High School in Highland Park. He earned a scholarship to Harvard University, where he graduated with honors, and received his law degree from Columbia Law School. In 1982, Rocky Delgadillo won the Robert F. Kennedy Award from Harvard University. The Kennedy Award is given annually to a member of the varsity football team who demonstrates a strong desire, determination, and willingness to work hard as a valuable member of the team earning the respect and admiration of his teammates and coaches. The LA County Democratic Party bestowed its annual John F. Kennedy Award to Rocky Delgadillo in 2002.

Delgadillo and his wife, Michelle, live in Los Angeles' Windsor Village neighborhood with their sons, Christian and Preston.