Jim Whipp, an employee with the department for the past two years, provides overall support of the County and oversees the entire geographic information system for the County which supports 911, IT, Planning and Development Services, Commissioner of the Revenue, Administration, and Voter Registrar among others
Andrew Hackey has been with the department for seven years as the Network Administrator and his job consists of checking the county ’ s wifi, pulling network cabling within the various County buildings, and overseeing the County ’ s switches and firewalls.
Jim
Cole Shifflett has been with IT for seven months and leads the public safety division which supports the EMS and Fire radio systems. Currently Larry Clement is in charge of the construction and relocation of a new consolidated datacenter that will house the Public Safety Building, but Shifflett will be overseeing the datacenter upon completion. The final analyst is for GIS, which is in charge of the Broadband Authority, creating apps for tourism - based projects, and runs the County ’ s data repository.
Andrew
At the helm of the general government support for the IT department is the newest employee, Ryan “ Walker ” Merryman. Merryman ’ s main job is operating the “ Help Desk ” to maintain and manage overall operations for administrative functions. The “ Help Desk ” assists with administrative and tax functions, community development, and economic development.
Cole
Every day is different within the IT Department, and in an ever - changing, technological world, it is unlikely to slow down anytime soon. The department ’ s hard work with managing broadband during the COVID - 19 pandemic, the development of a consolidated datacenter, and creation of apps to make the lives of residents easier, demonstrates how Clement, Merryman, Hackey, Shifflett, and Whipp, all work hard for the Orange County government. They might be the ‘ men behind the curtain, ’ but their work should not be overlooked as they provide a secure system for the County and for tax payers.
Walker
Photos top to bottom: Jim Whipp, Andrew Hackey, Cole Shifflett, Walker Merryman - by Stephanie Straub, Assistant to the County Administrator and Public Information Officer
Page 4 | July, 2021
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