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Currently, as Technology Director for a local government entity, I am responsible for the strategic planning and development of all aspects of technology systems and infrastructure, serving approximately 450 employees in 36 departments across nearly 100 facilities, including emergency services like law enforcement, dispatch, and fire-rescue. I must identify, design, develop, and oversee implementation of all new technology solutions whilst maintaining helpdesk services to all our services. The scope of services we administer and support span a myriad of technology functions including, but not limited:

1. Network design, security, redundancy, monitoring, and connectivity (physical, wireless, and VPN)
2. Cybersecurity defenses (i.e. firewall administration, intrusion detection, DNS filtering, endpoint monitoring, awareness campaigns, and training)
3. Physical server and storage infrastructure
4. Backup and disaster planning and recovery
5. Software, database, application, and file hosting
6. Application, database and website design and integration
7. End user systems (i.e. computers, laptops, and peripherals)
8. Communications systems such as VoIP, cellular, fax, instant messaging and e-mail
9. Surveillance and alarm systems
10. Audio\video solutions, including live broadcasting

My role requires I monitor the needs of the organization and proactively identify upcoming requirements, determine how to on-board new solutions, and work with administration to plan and budget new technology. I serve as project manager for all technology projects, developing relationships with vendors and outside organizations, while leading in-house implementation of new technologies. Most importantly I cultivate, train and lead a small yet highly competent team of technicians that assist in the installation, configuration and maintenance of our technology services. Always on a constrained budget, we rarely outsource any work, with the exception of cyber security consultation.

I am extremely familiar with providing all tiers of technology services to many forms users, specifically public sector agencies and citizens. My responsibilities include providing technology services at every level of the local government organization, such as the court systems, emergency services, and other County operations. I am familiar with and understand the compliance of policies and procedures set forth by federal and state level agencies, such as the National Crime Information Center, the State Law Enforcement Division, the State Department of Social Services, and the State Department of Motor Vehicles with regards to cybersecurity and the safeguards they require to have in-place for sensitive data such as criminal records, court records, and vehicle records. Participating in regular audits and complying with their policies is a common function of my job.

In addition to accommodating the internal technology services utilized by public sector departments, I am also familiar with bridging the gap between those public sector services and the citizens that use those services. One of the many roles in my current organization is administering the public website; developing and integrating online services and online forms to accommodate citizen engagement with the government. Some examples would be requests for services, online applications, online payments, and online records search platforms. Due to COVID-19, I was recently tasked with, and successfully implemented, a live broadcasting solution for public viewing of County Council and Board meetings.

Since I started with Colleton County as the Database Administrator in April 2011, I have had a hand in managing IT systems. The scope of the systems I was involved in managing remained rather limited for the first 3.5 years; but, once I became Technology Director in November 2014, I had a direct hand in managing all IT systems. I have been managing IT systems for over 11 years.

I did not start network administration and had limited experience with IT hardware until I became the Technology Director in 2014. When I became the director, my first order of business was to audit our infrastructure. I realized there were volumes of improvements needed and great potential for progressive change. At that time, I assumed the role of network administrator. Since then, I have had vast experience in administering every type of network and IT hardware and I have been directly administering the network and IT hardware for more than 7.5 years now.

My experience with systems, applications and utility software pre-dates my employment history. Since I started my third year of college studying Geographic Information Systems, I have exercised a strong aptitude for working with many types of software systems, applications, and utility programs. Throughout my early employment with Prudential Financial as a marketing intern and later as a marketing analyst for United Country Real Estate, I had the opportunity to utilize a wide variety of software systems and applications. So, when I became the database administrator for Colleton County, I had a strong foundation, understanding and confidence with software systems and applications. My experience with Colleton County only broadened the scope of software, systems and applications I became competent in. For over 13 years I have been working directly with a variety of systems, applications, and utility software.

Strategic planning is one of my strongest characteristics. I think ‘outside the box’ and scrutinize opportunities from every angle to develop and implement long-term solutions. I believe failure is not an option and future proofing is a necessary in this field of work. I relish in opportunities to generate creative, effective, and cost effective solutions. For the last 8 years I have had many opportunities to exercise my strategic thinking skills to develop a wide array of solutions. I provided many examples in this web site demonstrating that I can find better ways to accomplish the same task. For example, I understood that without centralized network administration, my staff had to work harder to accomplish the same task that could otherwise be done remotely. So we implemented a central software defined network (SDN) to simplify network administration. Likewise, I was not afraid to look our telco in the eyes and tell them “we don’t need you” in order to negotiate what we needed.

In another example, my organization was on a proprietary, inflexible phone system for years. The cost of a new commercial self-hosted VoIP system would have exceeded $200,000 and alternatively, hosted solutions, entail recurring costs and a permanent annual a budget increase. I explored open source solutions and installed myself, free of charge, an Asterisk PBX phone system on a Linux server. Overnight, we had a new, far superior self-hosted phone system. After successful testing, I received a grant through our Emergency Operations Center to purchase redundant physical versions of this system and we are now converting all VoIP phones to this system. The only cost was for new handsets, which would have been a factor regardless of what system we implemented. Nothing was outsourced to accomplish this.

Other developments I implemented to improve long-term efficiency in IT support operations are a cloud based helpdesk ticketing system and remote access technology (both free solutions), a SharePoint based asset management system, a helpdesk feedback survey, and a monitoring solution that proactively identified network and software outages.

Though I have been supervising staff for 8 years now, this was my greatest weakness when I became the director of the Technology Department. My biggest hurdle was learning to trust my staff to perform at the same level of expectations I hold for myself. What I learned was to lead by example. I am not the typical director that sits behind their desk, I am willing to crawl under a building or climb a ladder just as much as I would expect my staff to. Obviously, I have other responsibilities to balance, but gaining the respect of staff is critical for them to follow a leader. I always show or explain to my staff what I expect before I ask them to do it. Then, I follow the old adage, ‘inspect what you expect’ and follow up after installations to inspect the work, provide critique, and, if necessary, have them do the work over until it meets my expectations.

I also have learned to focus on the objective, not the process. I like the example, if you ask an employee to walk from point A to point B and walk in a straight line, they will stop when you put an obstacle in their path. However, if you ask an employee to walk from point A to point B in the shortest possible path, they will simply walk around the obstacle you place in their path. Why? When employees focus on the objective, not the process, they are more likely to overcome obstacles on their own. Micro-managing the process limits the ability of the team to be creative and think critically, overcome obstacles on their own. It is my job as a leader to encourage my employees to solve problems on their own, not micro-manage how they accomplish the assigned task.

Also, with the implementation of a helpdesk system, I can monitor support tickets and make sure their responding and completing tasks in a timely manner. I randomly follow up with end-users and ask about their support experience. However, 99.9% of the time, I receive nothing but positive feedback from users. I generate a monthly report and review with all my staff the average time to respond and close a support request. We also provide our users an online form to rate and review our helpdesk services and response. If response times are straying or negative feedback is received, we discuss how we can make improvements. I never blame a single person, as we are a team and we are all responsible for offering the highest level of support possible. I am very fortunate, my staff are a gleaming example of responsible and productive government employees. I never accept credit for my staffs’ work, I always give credit where credit is due.

With all of this in mind, I am by no means a perfect leader. Leadership is a process of constantly learning, growing, and adapting. They day I say I am a perfect leader will be the day I fail to be a good leader. It is always important to grow and learn in a leadership role.

First and foremost, my primary operational objective is to maintain and support existing services. This is something I emphasize regularly and my team clearly understands. With regards to helpdesk support, someone is always designated to triage support requests and evaluate who is best suited for each request. They are also responsible for ensuring a balance so no single technician is assigned more requests than they can handle in a given day. I cultivate a well-equipped staff with a variety of skills, but I also ensure their skills are overlapping; at all times, at least two people should have the skills necessary to accomplish the same task. Additionally, my team is aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. This allows for flexibility in assigning tickets, creating projects teams, and also doesn’t constrain the department when a staff member takes leave.

Our second objective is to improve and expand our services. These objectives are prioritized based on the needs of our user base, the priorities set forth by administration, and/or the costs savings it will bring the organization. I have been called a ‘task master’ at times. When I have an upcoming project, I go through the project from start to finish and outline the milestones and tasks required to reach each milestone, accompanied with estimated task times and established goal dates for milestones. With that, I am able to outlay the assignments of specific tasks throughout each phase of the project. Sometimes that means pairing up staff with separate strengths and other times it means assigning tasks to individuals. Of course, these decisions are always a reflection of the given task at hand and, as I have already mentioned, I always provide myself as a resource to both our helpdesk and project operations as well.

Being a rural County with a smaller tax base, we must accomplish as much as possible with our operating budget. Over the years, I have successfully demonstrated the importance of keeping technology hardware and software current and have managed to petition to increase our operating budget approximately 83% over the last 7 years to a current fiscal year operating budget of $888,000. Some of this increase is due to two new positions within my department.

Often, I find creative ways to develop cost savings whenever possible. I explore and implement open-source or free software solutions. I have worked with emergency management to find grants that cover the cost of solutions benefiting their operational preparedness as well as the County as a whole. I centralize resources when possible; for example, our Elections and Voter Registration office needed a letter opener and I agreed to pay for the equipment if they leave it in the mail room for other departments after each election season. Lastly, I seek out state and federal resources to improve our operations. In particular, enhancing cybersecurity defenses.

With regards to capital projects, I have had my hand in the technology implementation of every County capital project. I am always a point of contact in new construction and develop the capital requests for technology equipment in all projects. The largest project recently completed was a $2.2 million office building with an estimated $250k budget for all technology equipment. I have also had to develop other capital budget requests such as a $215k storage and backup solution for the County. For our law enforcement department, I led their technology planning and design for a new $7.5 million complex, upgraded their server, storage and backup systems costing approximately $40,000, and upgraded their patrol fleet computing systems which cost approximately $145,000. Right now, I am in the architecture planning phase of renovating and redesigning our core network data center facility from the ground up with a $800k budget.

When I took over the technology department, there was a palpable lack of trust and respect among other departments for the Technology Department. It seemed to me that the Technology Department had significant room for improvement to better serve the organization as a whole. I made it my objective to bridge gaps and build relationships. Our job, as a department, is to help others do their job better, faster, and easier. At the end of the day, we are problem solvers. It took a lot of effort and communication, but over time I overcame these challenges. In particular, our Sheriff’s Office and Fire Rescue departments clearly did not think highly of the Technology Department. The Fire Marshall, for example, doubled as the helpdesk technician for Fire Rescue and the Sheriff’s Office did not consult with the Technology Department whatsoever. And, other departments made rogue technology purchases then expected IT to support them. Today, we regularly consult, if not lead, on all technology projects and purchases with every single department now that they understand we are here as a resource and only want to help them make the best technology decisions possible.

My team is intentionally diverse. We all have strengths and weaknesses, but as a unit we make a formidable team. In the beginning, the IT staff did not have processes and procedures in place. There was a lack of transparency as to who did what and how each person spent their day. The introduction of a helpdesk system naturally brought transparency and accountability to everyone’s participation in the department. Through leadership by example, I cultivated a team that learned to appreciate how a little extra effort goes a long way. Finally, I have maintained an open door policy since day one. Transparency is key.

Prior to becoming director, I exemplified great success in all the projects I was involved in. I had opportunities to develop solutions, integrate technologies, and grow our services within the narrow scope of my work at the time. I always received praise and positive feedback for my efforts during this time. But, I had blinders on and never saw the big picture of the entire department.

Then, I became the Technology Director and I spent my first few years ‘in the weeds’ trying to bring the whole system up to par. Once those blinders were removed, I was dissatisfied with where we stood were as a department. Services were lacking, infrastructure was difficult to work with, critical systems were plagued with problems, and staff were unmotivated. I think at times others, even myself, doubted if I would succeed. It took a few years of working 60+ hour weeks to get our department where it needed to be. But my personality, my pride, would not give into the pressure and I prevailed.

Now that I have rebuilt the system from the ground up, we are no longer plagued with problems, we provide more services than ever, and we rapidly resolve support requests. I have had the same team for 4 years and I don’t question for a moment that any of them are unhappy or consider resigning. My subordinates respect me and enjoy their jobs. My peers appreciate me and look to me for advice. My supervisors admire me and blindly trust my decisions. Not only do other department heads praise my department, they praise me and my staff. The County Administrator has even gone so far as to write a letter of recommendation for me. Best of all, I am happy and feel valued in this organization.

You may refer to my References Feedback for additional, direct responses, provided by others that know me professionally.