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About the City Manager

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City Manager Rickelle Williams

Rickelle Williams
City Manager

Rickelle Williams is an effective, intuitive administrator, strategic thinker, and team builder. On April 2, 2025, Williams began service as City Manager of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Broward County’s largest municipality with more than 180,000 permanent residents, over 23,000 businesses and 19 million visitors annually. In her capacity as City Manager, Williams is responsible for managing a budget of approximately $1.2 billion and leading over 3,000 city employees spanning multiple departments, with direct oversight of Fort Lauderdale’s Police and Fire Departments.

Prior to being appointed as Fort Lauderdale’s City Manager, Williams served in multiple executive roles at the City of Miami Beach. Beginning in 2020 as Economic Development Director, Williams initially focused primarily on economic growth and diversification, including, but not limited to, establishing the North Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, overseeing and implementing planning studies; negotiating and shepherding public/private partnerships (P3s) for arts and culture facilities, workforce housing development and the Miami Beach Convention Center Hotel; creating the Job Creation Incentive Program and an Expedited Plan Review and Permitting Program for targeted industries; creating three COVID-19 small business recovery business grant programs; and facilitating streetscape project planning for commercial corridors. She was responsible for strengthening Miami Beach’s commercial character, attracting and retaining businesses, promoting community development, growing the pool of quality talent, catalyzing economic investment and real estate development; and serving as a critical resource to local and regional businesses.

She later served as Assistant City Manager, overseeing a portfolio of various administrative and operational departments, including Economic Development, Housing and Community Services, Parking, Planning & Zoning, Transportation & Mobility, and Tourism & Culture. She was responsible for oversight of the City’s two community redevelopment agencies, Miami Beach Convention Center operations, and provided leadership to the City’s partnership with the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau.

In April 2024, Williams was appointed as Miami Beach’s Interim City Manager, managing a $952 million budget and 2,300 employees, including oversight of the City's Police, Fire, Finance, Intergovernmental Affairs, and Communications departments. She was also responsible for the collective bargaining process with multiple labor unions, the annual budget development process and the appointment of the City’s (and Miami-Dade County’s) first woman Fire Chief. Her strong business acumen, methodical management style, and stellar communication and interpersonal skills contributed to demonstrated success in economic and community development initiatives during her tenure with the City of Miami Beach.

Prior to joining the City of Miami Beach, Williams served as Executive Director at the Dania Beach Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), where she developed and managed programs and initiatives to nurture an innovative and inclusive economy, including marketing a successful mixed-use development with over 1 million square feet of retail/restaurants, creating an affordable housing program to enable single-family infill housing development and down-payment assistance for low-to-moderate income households. She facilitated development of a job creation incentive package for a major airline relocation and secured $1 million in grant funding in support of a 300-unit market-rate residential development. Williams developed and implemented a rebranding initiative, led a multitude of successful economic development programs that produced jobs, and supported businesses by leveraging commercial and residential improvement initiatives, workforce training, arts and cultural events, and capital projects.

Earlier in her career, Williams served as the Economic Development Manager for the Miami-Dade Economic Advocacy Trust, an agency of Miami-Dade County, focused on economic investment in targeted urban areas and housing and employment opportunities. She also worked as the Capital Improvement Projects Coordinator at the City of Miami Gardens, administering a $60 Million General Obligation Bond program for public facilities and public safety infrastructure and technology. In addition, Williams has also worked as a Project Development Analyst at the Housing Finance Authority of Miami-Dade County, which offers bond financing for multifamily affordable housing developments and down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers.

Williams holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) and graduate certificate in Community Development from Florida International University (FIU) and a Master of Arts (MA) in Mass Communication from the University of Florida. She has achieved International City/County Manager Association (ICMA) Credentialed Manager Candidate status and is also an International Economic Development Council Certified Economic Developer (CEcD). Williams is certified as a LEED Accredited Professional (LEED AP®) and Florida Redevelopment Association Redevelopment Administrator (FRA-RA). She is a member of the Florida City and County Management Association and the Broward County City Managers’ Association. She enjoys spending time with family and friends.

Awards, Honors and Recognition: