Staff Writer
Workspace: City Chief Administrative Officer Kerri Stewart
The new Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Jacksonville was chosen, in part, for her extensive knowledge of the inner workings of City government gained through serving in five different posts over the last seven years before her current position.
Kerri Stewart has become just as familiar with the buildings that house those inner workings after moving to a new office with each new post. Since she began as a staff director in 2003, Stewart has moved to eight different offices in three different buildings.
Her latest is on the fourth floor of City Hall and is about a quarter of the size of the Mayor’s office lobby.
“I don’t spend a lot of time here. Maybe an hour or two a day,” said Stewart. “I spend most of the time attending meetings and going to other offices to meet with people.”
She is trying to schedule more time in the office, though.
“I’m working on forcing holes in my daily calendar to respond to e-mails and phone messages,” said Stewart.
Her electronic inbox receives about 50-100 e-mails each day, she said.
Scheduling is key for a job that doesn’t conform to an average 9-5 day. Stewart can also be seen attending meetings and City events an average of three days a week and also one or two Saturdays a month welcoming the opening of businesses or city facilities.
Stewart still finds some personal time. She visits the Riverside YMCA at 5 a.m. regularly to use the elliptical machines. The time is necessary to claim the machine she likes. Breakfast meetings at Uptown Market in Springfield are common to fuel up for a full day, with two poached eggs on wheat toast being her usual order.
Despite the schedule, Stewart wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Getting to work at the level I get to in this community every day has been a privilege,” said Stewart. “To serve this community that I love ... it is all the things you think it should be, a privilege, an honor. And it is never dull.”
The job also came with a distinction that she shares with recently appointed General Counsel Cindy Laquidara. They are the first women to serve the City in those positions.
“It took a few months to sink in, more that I was the CAO, than the first woman CAO,” said Stewart. “There have been some pretty amazing women leaders in this community. I’m just following the path that they made.”
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