Figuring out, more or less, the roles of Arlington Director of Strategic Initiatives Lyndsay Mitchell and her department is better understood by checking off recent accomplishments.
Be patient. The entire list of endeavors would be lengthy, but here’s a recent sampling:
- Secured two corporate headquarters relocations to Arlington: E-Space, a startup satellite manufacturer, and Acciona Facility Services, a renewable energy corporation.
- Served in an interim role in executive leadership of the Arlington Economic Development Corp. ($24 million annual budget), while also working as the interim director of economic development for the city — a duty involving about 40 tasks.
- Involved in the Sheraton Hotel redevelopment project. Add to that collaboration on the new Loews Hotel and city convention center. And the redevelopment of Lincoln Square. And a $6 million-plus redo of the aging Town North Shopping Center.
- Worked on behalf of the city to purchase the fixed base operator business at Arlington Municipal Airport.
- Coordinated the 2023 bond program effort.
- Negotiated a new three-year agreement for the Arlington Urban Design Center that expands the city’s partnership with the University of Texas at Arlington.
There’s more, lots more, but that’s the drift. In essence, Arlington municipal government is a large bureaucratic entity. The organizational nature tends to relegate fixed responsibilities to assorted departments with narrowly defined responsibilities, often with limited resources for new projects, of which there are many for this city in the middle of the Metroplex.
As governmental beasts go, it’s slow and steady. But sometimes, Mitchell notes, speed is necessary. Critically so.
“I’m never bored,” Mitchell says from her first-floor office at City Hall. “It’s fantastic to work here because I learn new stuff constantly. The city has gotten more complex as we’ve grown. Life itself has gotten more complex.”
Quick stop: Strategic planning is a process by which an organization defines its strategy or direction and makes decisions about allocating its resources – both financial and staff – needed to pursue this strategy. Through the strategic planning process, a municipal council can develop objectives and action plans to achieve the future it desires.
That said, there’s still the issue of which entities in city government will help develop and tackle the action plan/strategies speedily. And thoroughly. Often the answer, in Arlington, is to turn what might be termed the “community vision” over to the Office of Strategic Initiatives. And to Mitchell.
“There’s complexity everywhere,” Mitchell said. “And so, it becomes kind of necessary to have a group of staff that are nimble and flexible, adaptable, who can move and pivot with the changing reality and focus on the things that the council wants to be a priority. Or that the city manager’s office wants to be a priority and do it quickly.”
So, you say you’ve never heard of an Arlington Office of Strategic Initiatives?
Here’s the history: The city’s heavyweight strategic initiative endeavors originated in the planning department, of which transportation planning was a subset. That evolution eventually resulted in Strategic Initiatives becoming a separate department – a small one currently with only 14 people – in 2018. Mitchell is the second director of that department.
It’s something of a mixed-bag department, unique in Arlington’s history.
The planning department “started branching out into other projects, too, simply because they needed somebody,” Mitchell recalls.
Background on Mitchell? She graduated from Rice University and quickly found a job with the transportation division of the North Texas Council of Governments while working on a master’s degree in planning at UTA.
When an opportunity in the city’s planning and transportation department became available, she took it. Her previous focus at NTCOG on sustainable development fit nicely into the city’s needs. She assumed her current duties as Strategic Initiatives director in 2022. As an aside to the department’s mixed bag of assignments, Mitchell has been called upon to serve as interim director of assorted departments while a search is underway for a replacement.
There’s no predicting what the council or city manager will ask Strategic Initiatives to tackle, but right now, much of the office’s emphasis is on economic development issues.
“We’ve supplemented the work of the economic development staff just because there’s so much going on in Arlington, which is great, right?” Mitchell says. “Corporations, companies and entrepreneurs are interested in us. They want to do projects here. We are a can-do city. We can get to yes, but you need folks to do the work.”
Editors note: This story was updated June 13, 2024. Mitchell’s department has 14 employees, and she’s been called to serve as interim director of other departments once.
O.K. Carter is a columnist at the Arlington Report. You may contact him at o.k.carter@arlingtonreport.org
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