Stewart Nelson

Today the Campaign Trail lead deep into the heart of Larcom Building where they used to keep St Larcom’s bones on display. The relics have been displaced (to who knows where?) by an air conditioned Dell server farm with more switches than Lombard Street in San Francisco. In charge of the operation is Daniel Rainey, Director of Information Technology. What a breath of fresh air Dan brings to the City. In 45 minutes he used the phrase “customer service orientation” at least 10 times and I really feel he means it. This is not the same type of an IT organization that brought us the Y2K problem and I suspect a big reason why is the IT Director,  Dan Rainey.

Several things were very apparent about Dan Rainey that most IT guys seem to lack; one, he spoke plain English and two, he recognizes that technology is there to serve the users that use it and not the other way around. I also got the sense that Not Invented Here, NIH, attitudes are left at the secure door. All this means that our IT infrastructure is in very capable hands. I was impressed that Dan understands the value of collaborating with the County and is actively working on key projects where we overlap needs…which is about everywhere. As taxpayers we can look forward to getting more return on our IT investments as long as Dan is Director.