Fiscal Note
No fiscal impact.
Title
Recognizing and commending Sally Jo Spaeni for her professional and personal dedication to the City of Madison, and congratulating her on the occasion of her retirement.
Body
WHEREAS, Sally Jo Spaeni has announced her plans to retire from City employment, effective May 31, 2022; and,
WHEREAS, Sally Jo leaves after 21 years in City service, a career that included stints with the Madison Police Department, City Parking Utility, Traffic Engineering and the Community Development Authority, where she was a Housing Site Manager at the Triangle, a housing development that served a growing community of older adults and people with disabilities; and,
WHEREAS, these experiences, as well as eight years of service on the Board of the Aging and Disability Resource Center, helped develop the skills and knowledge that would prepare her for her current role, in which she joined the Community Development Division in late 2018, to manage the Madison Senior Center and lead the team charged with coordinating programs and activities that help older adults in Madison age successfully; and,
WHEREAS, Sally Jo embraced the challenge of succeeding a 30-year incumbent in that position and quickly established herself as a committed and able leader, winning the confidence of her colleagues as well as the network of community partners who support the older adult population and becoming a familiar and friendly face to patrons of the Senior Center; and,
WHEREAS, under Sally Jo’s leadership the Madison Senior Center retained its coveted national accreditation, a recognition bestowed upon fewer than 175 facilities in the country, and she identified and secured budget authorization for a series of improvements at the Center which, when completed, will improve working conditions for Center staff and make the property safer and more accessible for its guests; and,
WHEREAS, like pretty much everything else in our world, Sally Jo’s tenure at the Senior Center, was significantly disrupted, and altered, by the COVID-19 pandemic; and,
WHEREAS, under her calm and collaborative leadership, Sally Jo and her team worked closely with community partners to respond to the pandemic and adjust their approach to supporting older adults, turning to virtual programming and other means to maintain contact with many older adults for whom that support was crucial and to relieve some of the isolation that so many experienced; and,
WHEREAS, Sally Jo has recognized the relative lack of diversity among participants in City-supported programs and activities, and responded to that situation by initiating conversations around what is needed to make them more inclusive, and more responsive, particularly to people of color, to those who identify as LGBTQ+ and to those of more modest means, an effort surely to be picked up and continued by Sally Jo’s successor; and,
WHEREAS, in her many roles and interactions with colleagues, clients, partners and the public, Sally Jo brought warmth, kindness and caring to bear, traits that will be sorely missed by all, and that speak volumes about who she is as a person and to her commitment to those with whom she has served and to whom she has dedicated her career; and,
WHEREAS, on the occasion of her retirement, Sally Jo will now be afforded added time to devote to her children and grandchildren; to bike, kayak and paint; and to practice what she has long been preaching - placing a priority on staying active, staying mentally sharp, and staying engaged in her community.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Mayor and the Common Council recognize and thank Sally Jo Spaeni for her service to the City of Madison and its residents, congratulate her on her well-deserved retirement from City service and wish her well in her future endeavors.