A proclamation in recognition of Matt Wager, Director of Traffic Engineering Services and Traffic Operations, upon his retirement.
And I get to read the next proclamation. Okay. Thank you very much. I am going to read proclamation number 31 in recognition of Matt Wager, Director of Traffic, Engineering Services and Traffic Operations. Whereas Matt Wagers started his career with Denver Public Works in September 1991 as assistant director of traffic operations and has served the Department and Denver's residents diligently for 22 years. And. Whereas, Mr. Wager proved to be a highly talented manager, leader, collaborator, problem solver and team member who advanced to the positions of Director of Traffic Operations in 2006 and Director of Traffic Engineering Services in April 2013. And. Whereas, Matt has been at the forefront of ensuring traffic flows smoothly in Denver and has contributed to the success of many significant events that put Denver in the national and world spotlight, such as the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the National Basic Basketball Association, All-Star Game, the Democratic National Convention in 2008 and the 2012 presidential debate . And. Whereas, Matt places a high importance on understanding and recognizing the contributions of his employees. Is quick to thank his team for a job well done and whose thoughtful nature ensures decisions are responsibly made. And. Whereas, Matt's legacy will be forever remembered through his numerous professional accomplishments, including overseeing the implementation of a fiber optic cable network for Denver's traffic signal system. The development of three state of the art traffic management centers spearheading a major overhaul in the city's sign and pavement marking maintenance program execution of the Denver Public Works Strategic Transportation Plan, implementation of the 15th Street Bikeway striping of the hundred miles of bike lane in Denver. His work towards balancing all modes of transportation in the city. And. Whereas, Matt, strength, integrity, leadership his unfailing commitment to always cross the crosswalk and superhuman ability to go without a coat on Denver's most frigid days may be it Broncos could use it will be greatly missed by his friends and coworkers. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the council, the city and county of Denver, that Section one. The Council hereby recognizes Matt Wager thanks him for his dedication to the residents of the city and county of Denver and wishes him well in his future. Section two that the clerk of the city and county of Denver shall attest. And a fix the seal of the city and county of Denver to this proclamation and that a copy be transmitted to Matt Wager. And then I call on myself. I move that proclamation 31 be adopted. Second. It has been seconded and now we are open for comments and I call on myself again. Matt, I. I can hardly believe that I'm the one that's reading the proclamation about your retirement. I've only known you well, just almost. Three. Years, and I have just had the most wonderful time getting to know you as a colleague. And I know you work on streets, but I think you walk on water and I see all your colleagues, all the usual suspects from public works and transportation. And I know how much they all admire you and respect you and how much they're going to miss you. Your manner with constituents is wonderful. You can call a crowd like I've never seen anybody do, and I've I've watched you to see if I could pick up some hints on that. And then your ability to think up creative traffic solutions is just wonderful. It's going to be terribly missed. I know my district is better off for having you help us, and I am very sad that you're going to leave us, but very happy that you're going to get to retire. And we will miss you. And now I'm going to call on Councilman Nevett. Thank you, Madam President. I was. I was nervous a few minutes ago. Now I'm terrified. I hope there's nobody else important in this retiring fear. Madam President, I think we ought to put a moratorium on that. So I don't know. Again, you know, you've been such a. A great person to be able to work with in public works. And there's not a lot of you know, it's a turn of phrase. People say, oh, your your fingerprints are all over something. Your fingerprints are all over the city. Your fingerprints are literally all over the city. And that's that's pretty cool. So thank you. Thank you. Councilman Nevett, Councilwoman Robb. Thank you, Madam President. You know, I really don't know which profession is more loved by the public lawyers or traffic engineers, but we are unfortunately sending off to stellar employees in those fields. I want to take the privilege to tell an almost personal story. My assistant, Nora Kimball, reminded me of this today as we were thinking about the meeting tonight. It was probably four or five years ago when my office was still on Colfax, and I'll try not to embellish the story. It was Christmas Eve. I had an issue she was working out for a constituent and was on the phone talking to Matt, who was also working on Christmas Eve on a traffic issue. And finally. He said, What are you. Doing there? You know, they both got to talking. What do you do? And is still in the office on Christmas Eve? And Nora says, well, someone came by and slashed my tires and I'm waiting. I got to figure out how to get my tire change. He was like, Oh, that's too bad. How horrible. And the conversation ended. I'm sure the constituents problem was solved. The next thing Nora knew, there was Matt Wager stopping traffic in Colfax and changing Norris Tire and talk about above and beyond. So that's really great. Oh, that's a great story. Thank you, Councilwoman Robb. Okay, Madam Secretary, I think we're ready for that roll call. Madam President, I Brooks Brown. I thought I heard Tin Can Each Layman by Lopez. Hi, Monteiro. Nevitt. Hi. Ortega. Hi, Rob. Hi, Sheppard. Hi. Yeah. Okay. Madam Secretary, close the voting. Announced the. Results. 12 days. 12 eyes. The proclamation does pass. Now I'm going to. There's another person that wants to speak. I'm going to let you have the last word, Matt. So I'd like to call on Leslie Thomas up to the podium. Thank you, Madam President. My name is Leslie Thomas, and I'm the city engineer and deputy manager of Public Works. And I have had the privilege of knowing Matt since the very first day. He started in 1991 because I was busy, wrote a mailing STS and I wrote a meld of all of his traffic signal wires and he called me and he said, Hi, I'm Matt and you send me your plans, which I thought I did, but I didn't, and I did it again. And Matt called and said, Hi, I'm Matt, will you send me your plans? Which is what Matt does with every one of us who don't meet his standards. Anyway. He has made us all much better engineers and public works people just by being Matt. So for those of you who don't know, you all do though. He puts customer service as a priority for himself and his team and has done so many things for the city. He keeps Denver moving and as if you guys have all noted, you see him everywhere you turn, you see him at every stop sign, at every street corner. Our parking signs are legible now thanks to Mac. And he makes those lights turn red, yellow and green, all in the right order for all of us. So thanks so much for Matt and I really has been a privilege to work with him. Thank you very. Much, Leslie. Now, Matt, would you like to come to the podium? But good evening, Council. Matt Wager, Director of Traffic Engineering Services for another four days. And I just want to say that all of the accomplishments that that Councilwoman Sussman read and Leslie read were done by a team, our traffic engineering team and our public works team. And that's the only way that the city grows and accomplishes anything. And I really feel. City Council is a very important part of that team as well, and I couldn't have had any of those accomplishments without the support of all the council members and our city and our public works team. So I just want to say thank you. In the 22 years I've been here, there was no light rail when I started. There was a very small convention center with with Carrigan Hall sitting beside it. When you came into downtown, you came in over a viaduct. If you were coming from the northwest, there were no bike lanes in the downtown area at all in the central business district. And when I look back, it seemed like it was just a few minutes. But when I think about how things have changed in Denver and how much better our transportation system is today, I'm happy and proud to have had the opportunity to work with you on it, and I think you have a good team taking over for me and they'll continue all of the progress we've made. So thank you. Our deepest thanks. It is going to be hard missing all those folks that are retiring. I think it's time for the resolutions. Madam Secretary, will you please read the resolutions from.