Fiscal Note
No appropriation required.
Title
Congratulating Lisa Veldran on her retirement and thanking her for 36 ½ years of dedicated and exemplary service to the City of Madison.
Body
WHEREAS, Lisa Veldran has worked in the City’s Social Services Department, City Clerk’s Office and Common Council Office over the years as a clerk typist, administrative clerk, administrative assistant and ends her career as the Council’s Legislative Services and Office Manager; and,
WHEREAS, Lisa started her full-time employment with the City of Madison on September 4, 1984 as a clerk/typist in the city’s Social Services Department having previously worked as an LTE in the department in 1983; and,
WHEREAS, when the County assumed social services from the City, she bumped into a vacant clerical position that was shared between the Common Council Office and the City Clerk’s Office in December of 1985 and thus began her long storied career working with alders; and,
WHEREAS, she has worked with 126 alders, and in that position Lisa was the person they turned to for assistance, advice, to act as a sounding board and sometimes as a shoulder to cry on; and,
WHEREAS, Lisa has served under six Mayoral administrations; Mayors Skornicka, Sensenbrenner, Soglin (twice), Bauman, Cieslewicz and Rhodes-Conway and 29 Council Presidents starting with former Ald. Gerry Born in 1985 and ending with Ald. Sheri Carter in 2021; and,
WHEREAS, Lisa has staffed well over 1,000+ meetings of various Council committees, subcommittees, work groups from the CCOC/CCEC, to three subcommittees on restricting committees to committees on a wide range of topics from snow removal, the budget process, and everything in between during her tenure; and,
WHEREAS, Lisa has conducted new alder orientations for twelve classes of incoming rookies, often being the first city employee to meet with newly elected alders and always leaving them with the mantra as they navigated their new city government environment - “there is no stupid question - just ask”; and,
WHEREAS, Lisa has often been “in the room where it happened” most notably the banning of handguns, the smoking ban, the building of Monona Terrace, the building of the Overture Center and its subsequent restructuring of ownership, the many debates on the Edgewater Hotel and of course many, many more issues that greatly affected the city and its residents, and;
WHEREAS, Lisa was part of the project team that reviewed and selected Legistar in 2005 as the city’s legislative management system and continued to play a crucial part in its implementation and the day-to-day operations of the database by training city staff, answering questions from staff and the public and “cleaning up” files and history lines so final actions made sense on Council agendas; and,
WHEREAS, unfortunately she will not be around for the latest upgrade to the audio system in Room 201, the completion of the Judge Doyle Square project, or the remodeling of the Council Office; and,
WHEREAS, her last day working in the City-County Building will be April 2, 2021,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Mayor and the Common Council of the City of Madison hereby express their deep appreciation to Lisa Veldran for her many years of dedicated service and contributions to the city and wish her well in her retirement as she spends more time with her husband, Matt, daughter, Lily and son, Max.