Rusty Bailey

Rusty Bailey worked in the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and Executive Office of the President as a part of the two-year Presidential Management Fellows Program. He later returned to Riverside and worked as a legislative aide to County Supervisor John F. Tavaglione. He was employed at the Riverside County Economic Development Agency and taught high school government at Riverside Polytechnic High School.^[5]

Bailey served as a member of the Riverside City Council from 2007 to 2012. In 2012, Bailey began his bid for Mayor, running in a field that included 3 of his Council colleagues, including Ed Adkison, Andy Melendrez and Mike Gardner.^[6] After receiving 32.6% of the vote in the primary election, Bailey entered into a run-off election against Ed Adkison,^[7] and successfully won the race with 58.2% of the vote.^[8] Bailey was sworn in as the 17th mayor of the City of Riverside in 2012^[9] and was re-elected in 2016.^[10]

In 2019, Bailey announced that he would not seek another term as mayor and focus his efforts on the local homeless crisis as a non-profit executive for Path of Life Ministries.^[11][12] He currently works as a teacher at Poly High School.

Bailey and his wife, Judy, have two daughters.