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Sacramento, Calif., CIO Leaves

The city of Sacramento confirms that CIO Gary Cook is no longer working for the city.

The Sacramento, Calif., Information Technology Department confirmed on July 16 that Gary Cook left his position as CIO as of July 15, and is no longer working for the city.

In an internal email, City Manager John Shirey announced Cook's resignation, as well as the appointment of Maria MacGunigal as the interim director, effective immediately.

"The Information Technology Department is an important function in the day-to-day operations of the city, and I know Maria will capably lead the many talented staff members in the department until a permanent appointment is made," Shirey wrote.

Cook began his position as the city's CIO nearly three years ago, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Government Technology featured Cook’s work with the city of Sacramento’s 311 app. Cook said that projects like that 311 app are crucial steps toward changing the model of civic engagement and reaching his personal goal of making Sacramento the best managed city in California.

The city’s 311 app reduced the load placed on 311 call centers, which were logging more than 100,000 missed calls and customer hang-ups each year, according to the city. These kinds of gains in efficiencies and improved service are the kinds of projects Cook said he wanted to bring to Sacramento.

In an interview last April, Cook shared that the city was amid an ongoing trend of downsizing its server room. He and his team shared that the equipment in the server room was beginning to look more sparse as more servers became virtualized, as the city then reported 65 percent virtualization.

In January, Cook accepted an award on behalf of the city of Sacramento for finishing in the top 10 of the 2012 Digital Cities program, an award given by eRepublic, parent company to Government Technology.

At the ceremony, former Center for Digital Government Deputy Director Bill Schrier said that Sacramento’s 311 app took the concept a step beyond what other cities had done by linking the app directly into the work management systems of some of their departments.

Colin wrote for Government Technology and Emergency Management from 2010 through most of 2016.