HR1161 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR1161 LRB095 20401 GRL 47934 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are pleased to honor William T. Lichter for his 23 years of dedicated service as Village Manager of Lombard; and

WHEREAS, William T. Lichter earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Vermont and his master's degree in public administration from American University; he is currently completing his dissertation for his Ph.D in Political Science from Northern Illinois University; and

WHEREAS, William T. Lichter began service for the Village of Lombard on January 7, 1985, when he became the 9th Village Manager for the village; prior to becoming Village Manager, he served as the Assistant City Manager of Mentor, Ohio and as an Administrative Assistant in Grand Rapids, Michigan; he currently has more than 30 years of ICMA recognized service; and

WHEREAS, As Village Manager for the Village of Lombard, William T. Lichter has brought several critical issues to closure to secure the long-term financial health of the community, including revenue enhancement, balancing the budget, securing the long term vision of the community as a hospitality/restaurant destination, repositioning the retail base and addressing downtown development; he introduced multi-year financial forecasting as a tool to effectively guide the Village Board and Finance Committee's discussions on the availability of resources to fund new programs and services to help guide the recent economic slowdown from 2000 through 2005; despite many hard choices, he managed to bring the economic slowdown under control through hiring freezes and tax hikes; and

WHEREAS, William T. Lichter was also responsible for the massive growth in revenue for the Village of Lombard through such ventures as the creation of a hotel/conference center owned by the Village, an undertaking that required lobbying the State legislature to change State law and garnering the support of the Village Board for the project through cost and time delays; thanks to the efforts of Mr. Lichter, the hotel project remained ahead of schedule and under budget, with eventual direct ownership by the Village of Lombard; Mr. Lichter's persistence will see in excess of $50 million annually expended in the local economy of Lombard in addition to funds distributed to other governments as part of the annual hotel surpluses; he was also responsible for the redevelopment of a regional shopping mall which had a 240,000 big box anchor close several years; due to Mr. Lichter's help, the redevelopment efforts will now bring $2.7 million into the Village coffers annually, an impressive turnaround from a potentially disastrous economic situation; and

WHEREAS, William T. Lichter was instrumental in the growth of the Village's technology base, which has expanded during his tenure from a system of eight stand-alone personal computers and mainframe system to an expansive system of local and wide area networks of more than 200 personal computers and a mid-range computer with an enterprise software system; he supported the creation of a Technology Reserve Policy which provides for funds to be allocated on an annual basis toward the future replacement and enhancement of Village hardware and software systems; he also outsourced the information technology department so that it could provide the most advanced skill sets to the Village of Lombard; and

WHEREAS, Under William T. Lichter's direction, the Village of Lombard created a formal performance management system which is used to guide supervisors in measuring individual performance and the attainment of uniform goals and objectives; he personally hosted a training session for newly elected officials as part of the Illinois Municipal Conference to familiarize them with various parts of Village government; he also hosted two delegations of Chinese officials interested in the operation of local government; and

WHEREAS, Due to William T. Lichter's efforts, the Village of Lombard has received the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for 20 consecutive years and the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for 19 consecutive years; and

WHEREAS, William T. Lichter's superb performance as Village Manager of Lombard is a model of good, honest, and productive public service for the people of the State of Illinois; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we honor William T. Lichter for his 23 years of dedicated service to the citizens of the Village of Lombard and wish him continued success in the future; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to William T. Lichter as a symbol of our esteem and respect.