After obtaining his degree in Public Administration with specialization in Personnel and Finance from USC, John Nicoll started his career with the City of Burbank on October 1, 1976 as an Administrative Assistant in the Finance Department and later transferred to the Management Research Department. He married his wonderful wife, Geri, in 1977. He has two sons Jon-Paul, a senior at Sonoma State in Northern California, and Tim is in his second year at College of the Canyons in the Santa Clarita Valley.

He was promoted to Administrative Analyst I in August, 1978 and assumed total responsibility for the City's budget preparation. In November, 1979, he was promoted to an Administrative Analyst II position in the Personnel Department working with the Civil Service Board and later in Recruitment and Selection. In June, 1982 John terminated his employment with the City to go to work in private industry.

In November, 1985 John returned to work in the Finance Department to again work with the budget. In March, 1986, he was promoted to Budget Administrator, and had full responsibility to complete the compilation of the 1986/87 fiscal year budget document. This document would later be recognized as "outstanding" by the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers (CSMFO) and was the first award that Burbank had received from CSMFO for Excellence in Budgeting. The Government Finance Officer's Association awarded the City of Burbank, under John's direction, the Financial Reporting Achievement Award for 1993/94.

John was again "called upon" when the City lost its Employee Relations Administrator to the City of Garden Grove. His previous experience in the Personnel Department and his formal education (MPA) coupled with his outstanding performance made him a logical choice for the position of Employee Relations Administrator in July, 1986. This position oversaw the Human Resource section as well as Classification and Compensation, Risk Management including the City's self-insured worker's compensation and self-funded liability programs, the benefit and safety sections, and negotiated contracts with all bargaining units. As the City's Chief Negotiator for six bargaining units, he negotiated the first comprehensive labor agreements. The development of these comprehensive agreements established a workable alliance between the administration and the workforce that provided for a healthy respect for the rights and responsibilities of both labor and management.

As a part of the labor relations responsibility beyond that of the various unions, John has facilitated many successful labor relations seminars through the years in conjunction with the American Arbitration Association not only for staff and union leaders alike, but for those community leaders appointed to the Civil Service Board.

On March 1, 1988, after a rigorous nationwide recruitment, John was appointed as Management Services Director. As one of 13 executive directors for a full service charter city, the Management Services Director position required an umbrella of responsibility for Finance, Information Systems, Human Resource and benefit administration, training and development, labor relations, the citywide mail center, Reprographics, and Risk Management which included the City's self-insured general liability and workers' compensation programs. As the Mangement Services Director, he was instrumental in the development of the Adult Developmentally Disabled Work Program and coordinated the implementation of the Youth Employment Program.

During his tenure as Management Services Director, many awards have been bestowed upon the City and John as a result of his work. The Professional Esteem Award from the Burbank Police Department was awarded to him in 1980. The United Nations Children's Fund Mother Friendly Workplace Award was given to the City in 1993, as result of John implementing the City's Lactation Program for new mothers in the workplace. In 1999, the California State Assembly awarded John a Certificate of Recognition for Community Diversity Dialogue because of John's participation in the Burbank Human Relations Council and the Los Angeles County Human Relations Mutual Assistance Coalition.

John's activities have not just remained within the community of City of Burbank. John has been an MPA instructor and has taught graduate courses in Personnel, Labor Relations Entrepreneurial Management and Finance at California State University-Northridge since 1990 and graduate courses in Public Finance at the University of Southern California since 1995. He has been so popular as an instructor that he was voted Outstanding Professor of the Year at the USC-Graduate Public Administration Community in 2000.

John's expertise and knowledge has been requested by many over the years: helping cities such as Glendale and West Covina to Simi Valley, Manhattan Beach to Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, including his home town of Santa Clarita when called upon. His presence has been requested by many educational institutions as well, like Loyola Marymount University, the Mentor Program Business Seminar at Woodbury University, the UCLA Extension Public Policy Program.

After 24 years with the City of Burbank, John will be expanding his horizons even further on August 21st, 2003 when he will become the Chief Deputy Executive Officer for Ventura County responsible for labor relations and risk management. This move will enable the Nicoll family to permanently move to their home in Port Hueneme.