Mayor's Corner: Recent Leadership Hires Bring Talent And Experience To City Hall

In a dense city with diverse needs, it is essential to have an excellent team of directors and leaders within our departments at City Hall. Recently, the City of Lakewood was excited to welcome three more talented members to our team who are passionate about public service.

In July, Renee Mahoney took the reins as our new Finance Director following the recent retirement of Peter Rancatore, who finished a long and distinguished public sector career. Director Mahoney comes to the Lakewood City Hall with her own impressive resume that includes over thirty years in government finance leadership positions. Her specific experience is highly relevant to Lakewood, with her previously serving an inner ring suburb – Assistant Finance Director of Shaker Heights – and also with our west side communities – as Director of Finance for the City of Bay Village and in her additional role as Fiscal Officer for the Westshore Council of Governments. An added benefit for Director Mahoney will be her new 5-minute commute – she’s a proud and long-time Lakewood resident.

In June, we were also thrilled to welcome Angela Byington as our new Director of Planning and Development, as Shawn Leininger departed to take the assistant city manager position in Hilton Head, South Carolina. With decades of experience in government working in both planning and development, Director Byington was a great find for Lakewood. Our approach is a bit different than other cities in that Lakewood combines the economic and community development work and the planning work in a single department. Other municipalities typically split this work among multiple directors and departments, but Director Byington’s background allows Lakewood to keep these roles unified. She comes to our city directly from her role as Community Development Director at Perkins, Ohio, and previously served in director positions in planning and development for the City of Sandusky and the City of Elyria prior to that.

Part of Director Byington’s work will be to ensure that Lakewood’s recently adopted Climate Action Plan is implemented, and one other recent hire will be key to that effort. For the first time, the City of Lakewood now has a team member fully dedicated to this work with Jill Bartolotta as our first Climate Action and Sustainability Coordinator. In this role, Ms. Bartolotta will dedicate her time to carrying out the Climate Action Plan and supporting other sustainability initiatives for the City. Early efforts will focus on ways to reduce the City’s greenhouse gas emissions, waste, and overall carbon footprint while also supporting ecological improvements, and conducting outreach and education. Keep an eye out for her “Sustainability Tips” for Lakewoodites, which will appear in the City’s monthly e-newsletter.

These three new additions will continue to build the strength of high-performing talent we have in the City of Lakewood. Each of these new additions brings key experience, but also fresh perspectives from other communities and workplaces that will add to our capacity at City Hall and ensure that we explore new improvements in our methods. I look forward to working with these dedicated professionals to serve our residents and taxpayers.