RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The City Council of the City of Chicago hereby congratulates Rosemarie S. Andolino, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA), on the occasion of her retirement from the City of Chicago; and
WHEREAS, Ms. Andolino has served the City of Chicago, its residents and the traveling public throughout her 24 year career in various positions with the City Council Committee on Transportation, Mayor's Office of Correspondence, Department of Consumer Services, Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, Department of Planning and Development, O'Hare Modernization Program (OMP) and CDA ; and
WHEREAS, as First Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development (DPD), Andolino managed a $35 million budget, oversaw $100 million of land acquisition and capital investments in the Neighborhoods Alive Program, and helped secure state and federal funding for numerous city projects; and
WHEREAS, Under Ms. Andolino's leadership as Executive Director ofthe OMP and Commissioner ofthe CDA, Chicago's airports have made tremendous advancements on a number of fronts to make O'Hare and Midway "best-in-class" destinations that are worthy of our world-class city; and
WHEREAS, Ms. Andolino has skillfully managed O'Hare and Midway International Airports, which together comprise one of the world's busiest airport systems, handle 88 million passengers and 1.1 million operations each year, and have an annual operating budget of $1 billion; and
WHEREAS, Ms. Andolino has been an outstanding leader for Chicago's airports, managing a team of over 1,200 CDA employees and overseeing the operations of airports that have more than 45,000 badged employees; and
WHEREAS, Chicago's two airports are valuable assets to the City of Chicago and important economic engines for the Chicago region, generating $45 billion in annual economic activity and 540,000 jobs; and
WHEREAS, Ms. Andolino has worked tirelessly to enhance the travelers' experience, grow air service, strengthen relationships with airports and cities around the globe, increase revenues, make Chicago's airports more environmentally-friendly, and build the massive and historic O'Hare Modernization Program; and
WHEREAS, Since 2003, Ms. Andolino has successfully led the OMP - an $8 billion mega-project that is reconfiguring O'Hare's airfield into a modem, parallel runway layout to reduce delays, increase capacity, secure Chicago's aviation future and improve the,entire U.S. aviation system; and
WHEREAS, Under her direction of the OMP, the first new runway at O'Hare in 37 years.was built, a 3,000-foot extension to O'Hare's busiest runway was commissioned, the first-ever LEED-certified air traffic control tower in the U.S. was constructed, Chicago's first Group VI capable runway was opened; and construction of a third air traffic control tower and new runway is well underway and set to open in October 2015, all with no negative impacts to airport operations; and
WHEREAS, Since Andolino's appointment as Aviation Commissioner in 2009, Chicago's airports have added more than 40 new air service routes and welcomed 13 new carriers to the Chicago market, which has brought more than $2.8 billion in annual economic impact to the region; and
WHEREAS, Ms. Andolino's leadership has made Chicago a model for airport sustainability by developing the industry's first Sustainable Design and Construction Manual in 2003 and Sustainable Airport Manual (SAM) in 2009, launching the Airports Going Green conference which is now in its seventh year, creating more than 330,000 square feet of green roof space on airport facilities, building six LEED-certified airport facilities, opening the nation's first and largest on-airport apiary and the world's first aeroponic garden in an airport, and hiring a herd of grazing animals to manage vegetation on O'Hare's airfield; and
WHEREAS, In recent years, the CDA has raised the bar for airport dining, shopping and passenger amenities at O'Hare and Midway, which has also increased concessions sales by an average of nearly seven percent each year since 2009 to reach over $470 million total in 2013; and
WHEREAS, Ms. Andolino oversaw the $26 million transformation of O'Hare International Terminal 5 to create a world-class travel experience with 24 new dining and retail destinations, including 11 local Chicago brands, a redesigned, more efficient Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, and new amenities; and
WHEREAS, Under Ms. Andolino's leadership, O'Hare became the first U.S. airport to implement the award-winning Automated Passport Control (APC) system that has made the U.S. entry process at Chicago's airports faster and more efficient and was cited by President Barak Obama as a model for other U.S. airports to follow; and
WHEREAS, Since 2003, Ms. Andolino, the CDA, OMP, and O'Hare and Midway International Airports have received numerous awards from organizations within and outside the aviation industry, including the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Green Building Council, the United Nation's Environmental Programme for Liveable Communities, the Civic Federation of Chicago, and many others; and
WHEREAS, Ms. Andolino has been an extraordinary public servant for the City of Chicago and an excellent role model for women in the field of aviation and government sector; now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and Members of the City Council of the City of Chicago, assembled this eighth day of October, 2014, do hereby honor Rosemarie S. Andolino, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Aviation, upon the occasion of her retirement from the City of Chicago; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Rosemarie S. Andolino as a token of our gratitude and esteem for 24 years of distinguished public service.
Chairman, Committee on Aviation
Vice-Chairman, Committee on Aviation