Laura Schmidt, Santa Cruz’s director of IT since July 2014, began serving as its interim assistant city manager on May 31. She continues concurrently as IT director. Schmidt replaces Tina Shull, the city’s assistant city manager of nine years; Shull left May 30 to become city manager for neighboring Scotts Valley. Among the takeaways:
• Schmidt has worked in technology since graduating college, and described herself as “driven by adding value and a huge desire to help the community and our organization.” Santa Cruz moved quickly to fill the position once Shull’s impending departure was clear; and Schmidt described a “quick internal process” spearheaded by City Manager Martin Bernal.
“The city needed a really quick answer, and I felt my skills could meet what they needed and they were fungible and transferrable,” said Schmidt, who was previously chief information management officer for Washoe County, Nev., and before that, held IT roles at companies including Hewlett-Packard and International Game Technology.
• As IT director, she leads a staff of 20, 18 of whom cover more than a dozen city departments. The city, she said, is “decently positioned” in technology: roughly 80 percent virtualized; at least 95 percent “vended” in terms of its applications; and running a network and infrastructure that utilize third-party providers and the city’s own fiber. Schmidt noted Santa Cruz uses a performance measures process to measure the health of its infrastructure, apps and endpoints — but is “not heavily into” developing its own fiber.
• An IT focus on customer service, forging a strategic plan and a governance model, and ensuring daily operations are “bulletproof” may have attracted notice from administration. Santa Cruz redesigned its online presence during the last two years, to showcase information residents can use; and last summer, partnered with Mendix to deliver a Community Request for Service Portal. Schmidt described her skills and abilities as “really translatable, between what we were doing well as an IT department and what he wanted to see in that role as an interim,” referring to Bernal.
In a recent comment to Times Publishing Group, Bernal cited Schmidt’s “extensive” experience in public- and private-sector strategy; and her organizational development and management of multimillion-dollar projects, adding: “She has a proven track record of working with teams to deliver ongoing services and dynamic projects.”
• As interim city manager, half of a dual role she estimates could last around six months, Schmidt will work on at least two major projects. The City Manager’s Office is sponsoring an upgrade of its document and agenda management software, an initiative that's in early stages and will likely take nine months or more. The City Manager’s Office is also partnering on an upgrade of the city’s intranet, a shift that will likely be similar to the look and feel of its public website. That effort, too, is getting underway and will likely take at least six months.
• It’s unclear whether Schmidt, who described technology as her passion, will apply for the permanent assistant city manager position. “Just being able to deliver value is something that drives me. It’s definitely been something that’s very interesting to me because it’s a challenge,” she said.
