Fiscal Note
No appropriation required.
Title
Commending Richard (Dick) Grasmick for his contributions to the City of Madison on the occasion of his retirement as Director of Information Technology.
Body
WHEREAS, Richard (Dick) Grasmick is retiring from the City of Madison on June 5, 2009, after nearly 31 years of service; and
WHEREAS, Dick began his career in October, 1978, when he accepted the position of Data Center Manager, hired by then Data Processing Director Don Ramig, and succeeded Don as Director in May of 2003; and
WHEREAS, Dick's career with the City of Madison has seen him at the forefront of many significant technological advancements:
FROM: 1978 TO: 2009
Mainframes Virtual servers
1800 bits per second 10 billion bits per second
1100 line per minute mainframe printer 75 page per minute multi-function devices
25 "dumb" terminals Over 2000 PC's and laptops
13 copper data lines to 4 locations 60 miles of fiber optic cable to 80 locations
Rotary dial phones IP telephones
Wired data connections Wireless data connections
100 million bytes of stored data 35 trillion bytes stored data
Polaroid cameras 5 mega-pixel surveillance cameras
Hormel SPAM Blocking 135,000 SPAM messages per day
Sneaker net Internet
Snail mail E-mail
Library Google
Encyclopedia Britannica Wikipedia
Spider Webs Web Sites
One Data Center Three Data Centers
Teach yourself State of the Art Training Facility
Data Processing Department Information Technology Department; and
WHEREAS, Dick's career with the City of Madison has seen him involved in many other changes, including but not limited to the outsourcing of the City Records Center to the State of Wisconsin; merger of City and County Health Departments; consolidating staff from three buildings and four floors into one floor in one building; improved cooperation with Dane County Information Management; and recently the hiring of a new director for the 911 Center; and
WHEREAS, In addition to his public service with the City of Madison, Dick also served in the United States Air Force for 9 years and the Wisconsin National Guard for 14 years retiring as a Chief Master Sergeant in 1991 for a total of 23 years of service; and
WHEREAS, Dick's love of the outdoors in all seasons, bicycling, skiing, canoeing, hunting, fishing gave him an appreciation of the responsibilities of stewardship of the land, and led to his term as Interim Superintendent of Parks in 2007-2008, a position in which he was more than just a caretaker, but a passionate leader; and
WHEREAS, Dick's professionalism, commitment, expertise, steady and thoughtful judgment has earned him respect and admiration of those lucky enough to have served with him; Dick did more than manage his staff, he mentored, lead, and encouraged people to grow; He took on a job, did it well, with total commitment and without complaint;
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Madison thank Richard Grasmick for his many years of dedicated service to the City of Madison, its citizens and partners, and wish him continued success with all his future endeavors.