Lodi’s ‘transformative’ IT manager named city employee of the quarter
Benjamin Buecher, who has served as the City of Lodi’s information systems manager for nearly two years, was recently named employee of the quarter.
“It’s a great honor, especially for my limited time here,” said Buecher, who added it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of his co-workers.
“Everybody has to work together in order to create success.”
Buecher said he believes the reason he was chosen for such an honor was because he was able to revamp the IT department and bring back a sense of customer service along with improving the city’s network systems.
“Benjamin has really done a great job as our director. It’s not just Benjamin, it’s our whole IT department,” City Manager Steve Schwabauer said. “They are going through a couple of major projects. Right now, they’re replacing the backbone of our computer system, and they are replacing the backbone of our financial services software, so not only are we going through a hardware conversion but we’re also going through a software conversion, and its been a huge challenge.”
Deputy City Manager Jordan Ayers, who nominated Buecher for the honor, agreed with Schwabauer’s statements.
“Benjamin has been with us just short of two years and in that timeframe he has transformed our IT department,” Ayers said. “The major project he’s been working on is getting our new data center up and running. Benjamin has been absolutely diligent about keeping that project going and keeping all of the interested parties of the city informed as to what’s going on, when we’re going to have scheduled outages. If we have an unscheduled outage, he’s right on top of it. He and his staff have done an absolutely wonderful job.”
As information systems manager, Buecher leads an IT team of seven people.
“Anything and everything that the city relies on in terms of computing and networking, I help lead the team in structuring and maintaining the city’s networks,” Buecher said.
Buecher said he decided to take the job because he felt it would be a great opportunity for growth and a chance for change and expanding his career.
“You have to have a sense of daily operations for every division in the city from police, fire, electric, water, the needs of city clerk and public works. Everybody has a unique business need and sitting down and learning each department’s business is probably the biggest challenge I get, and applying technology to help meet those needs,” Buecher said.
According to Schwabauer, the employee of the quarter is nominated by their coworkers, managers and upper managers. After nominations are submitted, department heads vote on who they think is most worthy of the title. The winner of the vote becomes employee of the quarter.
The four chosen for employee of the quarter throughout the year will be eligible for employee of the year.
Even though he is eligible for employee of the year, Buecher said his career goals are more broadly based.
“I look more towards how can take the entire city to the next level of technology, what things can I look towards that help the city become more productive in their everyday business,” Buecher said.