Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. has appointed several new department leaders, including promoting a new finance chief and hiring directors to oversee corrections, information technology and parks, according to a news release.
The hires come a month after the Democrat announced that a slew of officials, including the longtime budget director and police chief, were leaving — Olszewski announced the personnel changes the week following his decisive win for reelection to a second term.
Kevin Reed will now lead the Department of Budget and Finance, which drafts the county’s annual spending plan and manages its finances, after serving four years as the deputy director under former budget chief Ed Blades, a 29-year county public servant who was among the handful of top officials whose contracts was not renewed earlier this month.
Reed was hired in October 2003, according to county salary records. As deputy budget director, salary records from this financial year show he earns $102 hourly. A county spokeswoman did not say how much Reed will make as budget director.
Between 2012 and 2019, Reed served as deputy director for finance and administration and chief financial officer for the county’s Department of Health and Human Services, according to a county news release.
The Office of Information Technology will be led by Mike Fried, who has held positions with the Baltimore City Department of Health as its chief information officer and chief technology and innovation officer for the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Prior to that, he directed “enterprise solutions and engagements” for manufacturer Emerson Electric.
Fried will earn a $206,000 salary, according to a Baltimore County spokeswoman.
Walt J. Pesterfield will head the Department of Corrections, coming from Columbus, Ohio, where he was the chief adult probation officer for the Franklin County Court of Common Plea, according to a news release. Pesterfield previously worked in administrative and leadership roles at the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections in Phoenix; the Closed Study Youth Facility at the Summit View Youth Correctional Center in Las Vegas; and directed probation, pre-trial and court services for the Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit Court in Woodstock, Ill.
Pesterfield will make $195,000 yearly, the county said.
Bob Smith, a longtime county employee who’s served in various positions in the county’s Recreation and Parks Department in his 24 years with the county, according to salary records, has been appointed as the acting parks director. Smith has served as the deputy director of recreation and facilities operations for the county. He has also worked in the department as a regional coordinator and community supervisor.
Smith will earn a salary of more than $146,000, the county said.
Elisabeth A. Sachs, whom Olszewski appointed as the director of government reforms and strategic initiatives upon taking office, will also now serve as a deputy under County Administrative Officer Stacy Rodgers, “overseeing health and human services, housing, aging, and recreation and parks,” according to the county’s news release.
Sachs will continue to oversee government reform and strategic initiatives, such as Olszewski administration data analytics. Sachs has overseen development of the county’s BCSTAT program, the county’s data analysis engine that also powers the dashboards the county makes available online.
Sachs is one of three new deputy administrative officers Olszewski has hired since July as part of a new strategy to manage county government operations. In his second term, Olszewski is revising his administration’s senior leadership structure to bring in two additional deputy admin officers after his former deputy officer, Drew Vetter, resigned in July.
Olszewski has not named a permanent replacement for former Police Chief Melissa Hyatt, who was ousted this month after loud calls from the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #4, the union that represents the county’s sworn officers, to remove her. Col. Dennis J. Delp, who’s worked for the county since 1994, was named the police department’s interim chief last month.
