Apopka Interim City Administrator Radley Williams.
By Roger Jimenez, Interning Correspondent for The Apopka Voice
It's been a busy summer for Radley Williams, splitting his time between leading Apopka's Parks and Recreation Department and filling the city's top administrative seat, all while overseeing multimillion-dollar projects.
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But Williams found some time to meet with The Apopka Voice and provide insight into his role as Interim City Administrator, what it's like to be a major component of Apopka's city government, and his accomplishments.
In April, just a few weeks after Mayor Bryan Nelson terminated Jacob Smith as the city administrator, he asked Williams if he would be interested in taking over on an interim basis.
"I had a conversation with the mayor. He asked if I would step in and help assist in that role," he said. "I felt I had a good rapport, good relationship built with our department heads, and I was more than willing to help."
While it's not clear yet whether Williams will permanently fill the role, he has already been hard at work.
"I've looked at the role as coming in and providing some stability and assisting our departments where I can. One of the big tasks that we've looked at is our Public Services department. We really took a deep look at the operations and made some structural changes to really split that department into two departments, one being our Public Works department and the other being our Utility Operations department. So that was something I felt like I could help assist with and take some of our team-building skills to help improve the operation."
Williams didn't become Interim City Administrator overnight. His career path—spanning from part-time park assistant to department head—has been built on decades of community involvement, close collaboration, and steady leadership.
"I've been involved in city government, prior to Apopka, with the city of Lake Mary for over 17 years, and I worked in every level of the Parks and Rec Department, all the way up to Assistant Director. So, coming over to Apopka in the Director role was a smooth transition. Every city is a little bit different, but the government operations are very similar."
Williams has been a part of Apopka leadership since 2022, but his extensive experience with city government began as a part-time Recreation Assistant for the city of Lake Mary back in 2002, where he would provide customer service, enforce park rules, and take on janitorial duties. From there, he worked his way up to crew leader, then manager, eventually becoming Lake Mary's Assistant Parks and Recreation Director in 2020. He would become Apopka's Parks and Rec Director just two years later.
Lake Mary has a population of around 18,000, just a fraction of Apopka's approximately 61,000 residents. But the big jump in workspace and the number of residents that his work would impact never phased Williams.
"I mean, Apopka has much larger facilities. The Northwest Recreation Complex is a massive complex; most city governments don't have one that size. It's normally a county-style park, and some counties don't even have parks that size. So that was a really exciting attraction for me to move into," he said. "But when it comes down to it, the government operations are pretty similar across the board. We all have the same regulations and typically have very similar policies built in. So I was pretty comfortable with getting up to speed on the larger operations that we have at Apopka, which was my main focus when I first started."
During his time in Apopka as Parks and Recreation Director, Williams has helped bring rejuvenating change to the city's landscape, green lighting projects such as the all-inclusive playground at the Northwest Recreation Complex, and the Action Sports Park along the West Orange Trail. But what he's looking forward to the most right now is the amphitheater upgrades.
"You can't do these things without a great team, of course, but I think our biggest achievement so far is the Orange County Tourism grant that we were awarded last year for $13.1 million to upgrade our amphitheater out of the Northwest complex, and also add four additional base softball fields," he said. "I felt like that was a process that allowed our team to come together and highlight the facility we have, highlight how those improvements can add to the tourism and economic impact that we have for Orange County as a whole… And we're just at the beginning of that. We started working with some designs on the amphitheater upgrades, and the ball fields are getting ready to get cranking too."
In the meantime, he commends the hard work that Interim Parks and Recreation Director Cindy Edwards has taken on this summer while he juggles work.
"Cindy has been doing an awesome job through the summer, and the summer is always one of the busier times of the year for Parks and Rec because of our summer programming. So the fact that she was able to jump in before the summer started and really keep the department moving and functioning at a high level through the summer was amazing to see. Big kudos to her for jumping into the role and helping out there."
Should the City decide to employ someone else as city administrator, Williams has no plans to vacate his role as Parks and Recreation Director, stating that his love for the city keeps him here.
"I love it here in the city of Apopka… The opportunity for those types of complexes is amazing here in Apopka, and it's always the best joy when you get one of these parks open and you see the enjoyment that the families have at the park or the facility. And to know that you're a part of it, with the team that helped bring that to life, it's always a fun and exciting thing to see."
