Dallas' chief information officer, who oversaw the city's response to ransomware attacks and employees who deleted millions of electronic police records in recent years, is leaving.
Bill Zielinski has led the city's information technology services department since 2020 and will leave the city on April 30th. Brian Gardner, the city's chief information security officer, will serve as interim director of the department. Zielinski oversaw a department with a budget of about $132 million and earned $225,000 a year as chief information officer, according to city payroll data as of Jan. 1.
Zielinski declined to say what his next move will be, but said: dallas morning news On Tuesday, he announced that he is moving to the private sector after more than 30 years in government. He said that for the past five or six months he had been looking for a new job. He said his own resignation is not related to the departure of City Manager TC Broadnax, who was recently hired as Austin City Manager.
“A great opportunity came up, and at the end of the day, considering where I am in my career and where I am in my life, it was just a great match. So I said yes,” Zielinski said. said news. “So, I'm going to take a few weeks off and then start a new job in the private industry.”
Broadnax said in a memo to the City Council on Monday that Zielinski notified him of his resignation two weeks ago. Broadnax credited Zielinski with overseeing upgrades to the city's core network, 911 emergency communications and human resources management systems. He also said Zielinski oversaw a pilot program to address Dallas' internet access gap, ensuring all city surveillance cameras were maintained and compliant with privacy and data security laws. He also cited other accomplishments, including developing a program focused on the city and launching a monthly report to track the city's IT. Security, management, project and performance metrics.
The monthly reports were launched in 2022 after several city council members expressed concerns that they were not being briefed frequently enough on the city's IT systems. The department has come under intense scrutiny under Zielinski's leadership following several high-profile problems related to the city's IT infrastructure, including criticism that some systems were outdated.
City IT workers deleted millions of police files in 2021, but an independent investigation later found that this was likely an accident. An internal investigation found that the IT department lacked clear rules on how data was stored. That same year, an activist group announced it had received hundreds of hours of aerial surveillance footage, primarily from the Dallas Police Department, from anonymous hackers who claimed to have targeted law enforcement data on unsecured cloud storage. Also in 2021, the city had repeated problems with the system that alerts firefighters to emergency calls while inside the fire station because all fire department computers had not been upgraded from Windows 7.
Councilwoman Carla Mendelsohn said she worked with Zielinski on the monthly report.
“Bill took over a struggling department with historical underinvestment and made significant improvements in IT hardware, software, staff training and modernizing IT governance,” she said. “He learned a lot about how the city works and tried to improve the overall process.”
A 2023 ransomware attack took some of the city's computers and services offline for weeks, impacting more than 30,000 people whose addresses, Social Security numbers and other personal information were exposed in the data breach. Broadnax and other city officials said they believe the impact of the attack could have been even more severe.
“Obviously we don't want to be attacked,” Zielinski said. news on tuesday. “But in terms of our preparation, our planning and our response to it, I'm very proud of the work our team here has done.”
Zielinski said in response to the ransomware attack, city officials are focusing more on addressing digital vulnerabilities and preventing future attacks.
Last August, the City Council approved setting aside nearly $8.6 million to pay vendors for hardware, software, incident response and consulting services in response to ransomware attacks. The City Council also approved several technology upgrades last year aimed at strengthening the city's cyber defenses, including a nearly $4 million contract to get the city's IT department a new system to alert it to potential cyberattacks.
Zielinski said the city of Dallas continues to work to modernize and improve its IT systems, with plans to build a new city data center in a former IBM building near police headquarters that the city will purchase for $1. mentioned.
“There's nothing forcing me to retire. The city has been very supportive from city management to the council,” Zielinski said. “I am satisfied with the support the city has provided me and his IT organization in this role. I have and will continue to look forward to receiving such support in this organization.” ”
