Deputy City Manager Lemuel Randolph

Currently, Lemuel serves the City of Arlington as the deputy city manager for Housing Authority, Human Resources, Information Technology, Municipal Court, Public Works & Transportation and Water Utilities. 

Lemuel Randolph was named director of the Arlington, Texas Parks and Recreation Department in 2014. In his seven-year tenure as Director his department received its’ initial CAPRA accreditation and subsequent CAPRA re-accreditation, was named a NRPA Gold Medal finalist in four out of five years and was awarded the NRPA Gold Medal as best parks and recreation agency in the country in 2018. He has also shepherded over $150M in voter approved park bonds over three elections in five years. Arlington has expanded its parks system to 99 locations under Randolph's tenure, and also embarked on numerous large-scale capital projects including the recently opened Beacon Recreation Center, East Library and Recreation Center, and Texas Rangers Golf Club. Additionally, his department was honored with the National Alliance for Youth Sports and Athletics Business Excellence in Youth Sports Award, the 3CMA Savvy Award for Brochures and Publications and the Cartegraph Excellence in Operations Management Award. 

Prior to taking the helm in Arlington, Randolph was the Director of Parks, Recreation and Open Space as well as Interim Deputy City Manager for the City of McKinney. Randolph’s numerous accomplishments in McKinney include the creation of the Parks Master Plan, the opening of Phase 1 of Bonnie Wenk Park, featuring the city’s first dog park as well as 5 miles of bike trail extensions. He constructed a 30,000-square-foot skate park, negotiated an agreement with Plano Sports Authority to build a 90,000-square-foot recreation facility at Gabe Nesbitt Community Park, developed 12 neighborhood parks, and acquired over 550 acres dedicated to future city parks. During his tenure, the McKinney Parks, Recreation and Open Space Department was recognized with the Gold Medal Award from the Texas Recreation and Park Society for excellence in recreation and parks management and the USTA Featured Facility Award – the first time ever awarded to a municipality.

Randolph has over 30 years of experience in leadership positions with previous roles in US Department of Labor, Arlington, (VA), Missouri City (TX), Sugar Land (TX) and San Bernardino (CA).

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Lemuel holds a BA in Economics from Hampton University and a MPA in public policy from Texas Southern University. He enjoys travel, biking, unique restaurants and cultural festivals. He and his wife Mia have two sons, Lemuel II, a recent graduate of Hampton University, Evan, a senior at UTA and a daughter, Michal, a sophomore at Howard University.