County of Santa Barbara creates new Information Technology Department

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. – The County of Santa Barbara announced its first new department in over a decade, the Information Technology Department (ITD), which got started on Jul. 1 of this year.

Previously, Information & Communications Technology was a division of the General Services Department.

This transition to a stand-alone department will allow the ITD to improve productivity, cybersecurity, continuity, and efficiency county-wide, details the County's government in a press release.

The County's Chief Information Officer, Chris Chirgwin, is the new department's head. Chirgwin joined the county government in September of 2022.

“The Information Technology Department is committed to driving innovative and strategic solutions that
will enable our entire community to thrive. We are looking at how county residents receive services and
how departments operate, in order to better serve all constituents,” said Chirgwin. “When the right technologies are used in a strategic and coordinated way, everyone benefits.”

According to the County, ITD will continue to use a multi-departmental approach to modernizing technology and increase efficiency by focusing on the digitization process.

An example of these changes is the Enterprise Resource Planning system which is replacing over 60 legacy applications and modernizes how the County manages finances, human resources, and payroll among other applications.

“County leadership, including the Board of Supervisors, have recognized the critical role that
Information Technology plays across all departments and in nearly every service we provide. As part of
the County’s Renew Initiative to transform our organization, we needed to elevate IT by having a Chief
Information Officer to provide strategic IT leadership and to leverage IT more effectively across the
entire county,” said County Executive Officer Mona Miyasato.