Kerr has most recently served as deputy CIO for criminal justice for Ventura County, and before that he spent 19 years in IT leadership roles at Orange County.
Kerr, according to a county news release, has a deep background in overseeing county IT infrastructure, including a data center and more than 40,000 assets.
“He led a successful project that enabled police agencies to electronically submit data and reports to the District Attorney’s Office,” the announcement says, and two other counties replicated the project. “He also spearheaded a $44 million initiative to upgrade aging criminal justice systems as well as that of servers, networks, and desktop equipment.”
He holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California, and a Master of Business Administration from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He earned his Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in 2001.
Kerr’s appointment was made official Tuesday with a vote of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors. He starts his new role Monday.
Hunter, the new General Services director, most recently served as chief of real estate, contracts and logistics for the Los Angeles Department of Public Social Services (DPSS), overseeing 100 staff members and about 200 agreements exceeding $600 million annually for almost 40 departments in county government.
Fresno County decided to split off IT in January with the goal of streamlining and focusing its operations. The county’s chief operating officer, Ed Hill, told Industry Insider — California in a January interview that the county wanted a pure technology executive to head up IT.
“We have had a combination of General Services and IT that occurred long before I arrived,” Hill said. “The two functions don’t really align well, and when the last director left, it created a void. Recruiting for someone with experience in janitorial service, construction, purchasing and IT is extremely difficult, and we were not able to identify any other county that used a similar model.”
Hill added: “That’s the piece that we’re missing — the true subject matter expert in IT in that position. We want somebody to come in and truly evaluate [everything] and make their recommendation to the County Administrative Office as well as the board. I’m anticipating there will be some changes — I just don’t know what they are yet.”
Kerr succeeds Robert Bash, who had served as director of Internal Services and CIO for more than 10 years before leaving that post last May.
