Brett Robinson
Courtesy of Buffalo Grove
The Village of Buffalo Grove said farewell Friday to one of its key behind-the-scenes players.
Administrative Services Director Brett Robinson has retired. He began working for the village 38 years ago, while still a student at Buffalo Grove High School. He has been there ever since, moving from the public works department to village administration.
The 55-year-old Wauconda resident eventually was the village’s purchasing manager and treasurer before assuming his latest position in 2020.
“It’s a great place to work,” said Robinson, who has no immediate post-retirement plans other than to work on personal projects. “I grew up in Buffalo Grove. I raised a family in Buffalo Grove. It’s just a really phenomenal community.”
A loyal public servant, Robinson will still play a role in retirement — the AI-powered chat bot on the village’s website is called “Mr. Robinson” and has the image of a bespectacled buffalo with a goatee and cardigan. If you have a village-related question, you can chat with “Mr. Robinson.”
Brett Robinson, with his new virtual identity, “Mr. Robinson,” the village’s AI-powered chat bot.
Courtesy of Buffalo Grove
It is a fitting virtual post-employment role for someone known within the village as the “human archive.”
Meanwhile, village President Eric Smith said, Robinson’s duties will be shared among other employees.
“Guys like that are hard to replace,” he said.
It was Robinson’s technological skills that led to the development of a computerized water pump monitoring system for the village. Many components of that system are still in place today, helping provide residents with clean drinking water.
Most significantly, as purchasing manager, he modernized the department, eliminating duplication and saving the village untold dollars, officials said.
As the man in charge of purchasing, he said he saw opportunities for obtaining those items that are similar across departments.
“If we just got together and bid all the same thing, we could save a lot of money with our own purchasing power,” he said.
Eventually that idea extended to reaching out to other communities and purchasing as part of a regional consortium.