IT Veteran Is New Tech Leader at East Bay City

A longtime public-sector IT executive is taking a key tech role with a municipality in California’s East Bay.

The city in question borders Oakland, is home to more than 90,000 residents, and placed seventh in the Center for Digital Government’s* 2018 Digital Cities Survey.

City Manager Fran Robustelli has appointed Michael Sinor as San Leandro’s new chief technology officer. Sinor’s first day was Monday. He succeeds Tony Batalla, who held the position for eight years before joining Oakland as its chief information officer and IT director in April.

Sinor was most recently interim IT director at the city of Berkeley where, since late 2021, he oversaw an IT department of 50 staffers, per a city news release. His LinkedIn profile indicates he became director of IT at Berkeley in November. Previously, Sinor had a lengthy career with the city of Roseville, starting in December 1999 as an analyst and being “subsequently promoted to leadership positions, where he gained experience delivering innovative technology solutions for increased staff productivity and customer service efficiency,” per the news release. Sinor was assistant IT director at Roseville until November.

As chief technology officer at San Leandro, Sinor will be responsible for information management and service to city departments as well as for innovation, telecommunications, the city’s free Wi-Fi hot spots and its central services. He’s identified four action items as early priorities, Sinor told Industry Insider — California via email:

• Striking a balance between IT service delivery and technology innovation
• Leveraging technology to increase operational efficiencies across the city
• Implementing a new enterprise resource management (ERP) solution
• Improving community interaction and engagement with innovative technologies
  

“The city of San Leandro is a great organization, and I’m humbled to be given the opportunity to work with a talented city team to continue leveraging technology and innovation to provide the highest level of services to the community,” Sinor said in a statement.

Sinor has a Bachelor of Science degree in Earth Science from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He also is certified by the Certified Government Chief Information Officer (CGCIO) Program at Rutgers University. Sinor has three children and devotes his free time to coaching youth basketball.

*The Center for Digital Government is part of e.Republic, parent company of Industry Insider — California.