Randy Hemann, city manager of Oak Ridge since Nov. 1, 2023, will speak on the “State of the City of Oak Ridge” on Tuesday, Mar. 4, at noon during the “Lunch with the League” meeting of the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge.  

The public is invited to attend the lunch and lecture between 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. at the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike. All are welcome to bring their lunch or purchase a boxed lunch for a nominal fee. Coffee and tea will be served. The presentation at noon will end after an hour with questions and answers. 

A native of Huntington, W. V., Hemann earned a B.A. degree in political science at Marshall University and a master’s degree in public administration from East Carolina University.

He assumed his Oak Ridge position after 10 years of city management experience in North Carolina. For four years he was town manager of Mooresville, where he helped the community add a new police headquarters, a new fire station, a new park, a library branch and the largest skatepark in the Southeast. 

As an assistant manager in High Point, N.C., for four years, he helped construct a $36 million baseball stadium that spurred downtown growth, streamline the building inspections process and increase community code enforcement to aid cleanup of the community. In the previous two years he was city manager of Oxford, N.C.

Earlier in his career, Hemann spent 27 years working in the field of downtown development in three cities in North Carolina – Salisbury, Kinston and Benson. 

In Salisbury he contributed to two downtown master plans that resulted in over $70 million in investment; as a result, the city was designated as one of 10 Great Neighborhoods in the U.S. by the American Planning Association. Hemann capped off his downtown development by presenting Salisbury’s success story to 1,200 attendees at the 2012 National Main Street Conference. 

He has been married for 38 years to his wife, Paula, and they have a 24-year-old son and three grandchildren.