The City of El Paso announced on Friday the addition of longtime engineer Khalil Zaied as the newest member of its Leadership Team.
Mr. Zaied currently serves as the Deputy City Mayor of Operations for the City of Baltimore, a position he was appointed to by the Mayor of Baltimore. Baltimore is a municipality with a strong-mayor form of government.
“Mr. Zaied brings a wealth of experience and a valuable skillset. We look forward to the talent and leadership he will bring to the City and know he will be a significant asset to the organization,” City Manager Tommy Gonzalez said.
In El Paso, he will be stepping into the newly created position of Deputy City Manager of Public Works and Transportation. His start date with the City of El Paso is June 30, 2016.
He will provide leadership to the departments of Capital Improvement, Streets and Maintenance, Environmental Services and Mass Transit – Sun Metro, and will serve as the liaison to the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority and utilities. Mr. Zaied will work part of the months of May and June in El Paso as he transitions from his current role to the City’s Leadership Team.
As the Deputy City Mayor of Operations for the City of Baltimore, a role he has held since 2012, Mr. Zaied leads the City’s daily operations and oversees many of its major initiatives, including the Department of Public Works, Department of Transportation and the Department of General Services and Parking Authority, among others.
In that capacity, he has led many of the initiatives for the Mayor of Baltimore including Public-Private Partnerships, municipal advertisements and the constant drive to promote the Red Line rail project. In 2010, he was appointed to lead one of Baltimore’s largest and most dynamic agencies, the Department of Transportation.
He led their DOT team to expand the award winning Charm City Circulator program, expand the in-house paving program to 40 percent of the total paving Citywide, convert street lighting to LED, establish the largest bridge repair and replacement program in the City’s history, and construct the race track for the inaugural Grand Prix race.
“Deputy Mayor Zaied has repeatedly proven himself to be a skilled and innovative leader, and he has used his talents to successfully execute a number of my administration’s major initiatives,” said Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. “Our loss in Baltimore will be El Paso’s gain.”
Mr. Zaied has also served as head of General Services and established the first building assessment and occupancy program for the City, expanded the role of the Energy office beyond buildings, and instituted the Envista program to better manage the permitting process.
Other roles in government include; Director of Planning, Design and Construction for Baltimore City Schools, Chief of Conduits, and Chief of Highways. He also served as a commissioner on the Governor’s Commission on Middle Eastern Affairs. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland College Park.
