Jacki Bacharach has been the Executive Director of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments, a joint powers authority of 16 cities and unincorporated county area in the southwest portion of Los Angeles County since 1998. Her duties include program and project management and grant administration – including oversight responsibility for the South Bay Environmental Services Center, transportation projects promoting slow speed zero emission vehicles and the South Bay’s Measure R and Measure M transportation programs. Special initiatives are as diverse as services for homeless and for seniors, creation of the South Bay Fiber Network, climate action plan implementation strategies and legislative advocacy.
She is also a member of the Los Angeles County Quality and Productivity Commission appointed by Supervisor Janice Hahn.
Previously, she served for 14 years as Mayor and Councilmember in the City of Rancho Palos Verdes and on the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (LACTC) for 12 years. (LACTC is the agency that was responsible for transportation planning in Los Angeles until 1993 when Metro was formed). She chaired the Commission’s Planning and Rail Construction Committees and the Commission itself. She led the committees through the development of the overall rail plan for L.A. County as well as overseeing the construction of the Metro Blue and Green Lines.
She served as the Founding Chair of the Southern California Regional Rail Authority - the five-county agency that is operating the Metrolink commuter rail system. Additionally, she was a Founding Vice Chair for the Los Angeles-San Diego Rail Corridor Agency overseeing and improving L.A.-San Diego Amtrak service. And, she was a charter member of the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority dealing with landside access to the Ports of LA and Long Beach. For the League of California Cities, she chaired the Transportation and Communications Committee which included technology issues.
She served as a member of the National Commission on Intermodal Transportation appointed by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Federico Peña as well as working with the Secretary as a member of President Clinton’s Transition Team Transportation Cluster Group. In both of these positions, she was the only member from California.