Michael Shull Retires from Recreation and Parks After Years of Work in the Palisades

By MAGNOLIA LAFLEUR | Reporter

City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks General Manager Michael Shull is retiring from public service in June after working to improve the parks, offering social and cultural programs, and aiding in securing housing for the people experiencing homelessness during the pandemic.

“I feel excited and satisfied,” Shull shared about his retirement. “I feel it’s a good time. My wife is retired for one, and we always kind of planned well and there’s other things we want to do. I’ll probably continue to work in the parks world, just in a different capacity, probably do some volunteering and some consulting type work.

“I’ll miss the people most, we’ve made so many friendships with communities around the city. The staff are the most amazing group I’ve ever worked with and I will miss them.”

A graduate of Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering, Shull began his career in Los Angeles in the city’s Department of Public Works, Bureau of Engineering, in 1990, remaining there for 14 years.

In July 2005, Shull joined the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks and was appointed the interim general manager in 2013, only to be appointed the permanent GM in August 2014.

The department looks over 16,000 acres of parkland and works with social and cultural programs at 444 sites in Los Angeles, extending from neighborhoods in the valley to those near the beach.

Working through the COVID-19 shut down, Shull shared what a “huge challenge” all the staff were faced with through the pandemic.

“What people don’t realize about rec and parks is we are the sheltering and welfare arm for the city of LA, so we have an emergency operations center just for us, so that we can take care of the health and wellness needs of the city, so we were at front and center of everything COVID,” Shull shared. “We had 24 sites all over the city, where we were on 12-hour shifts with them. We worked together as a team to ensure that those who were most in need were provided for.”

From opening shelters to setting up cots and working with the department of mental health, Los Angeles Homeless and Housing Authority, medical services and LAPD, the rec and parks staff galvanized with local nonprofit organizations that aided in supplying food that was delivered to the homeless, feeding them three times per day. They were also doing the intake of all the homeless with daily showers, as well as having their laundry service done once a week.

The sites were led by Shull for six to eight months, serving approximately 1,200 residents, starting in April 2020.

A retirement event was put together by Joe Halper, a long time Pacific Palisades resident and LA Recreation and Parks board commissioner, as a farewell celebration at the Veterans Gardens at Palisades Recreation Center on Friday at 1:30 p.m., allowing for community members to bid their thank yous and adieus.

“He has built 90-some-odd new parks since his administration began,” Halper said. “He is very special and we were very fortunate to have him, and I’m very sad he’s decided to leave us.”

Shull’s Executive Administrative Assistant Monika Leisring, who has been with the department for 17 years, recalled her experiences, as well as her first encounter, with him fondly.

“He’s established quite a bit,” Leisring shared with the Post. “He’s very passionate about what he does, very realistic and, being a professional engineer, he was also able to tell people who said, ‘We can’t get this project done,’ ‘Well yes you can, and this is how you do it.’”

Leisring shared that Shull understood things from the ground up—whether they were dealing with the growth of a tree to a building or a new recreation center.

“I was promoted to be the secretary of building and safety when I met him in the hallway going to gather my things from the office and bumped into him and I said, ‘Hey, so sorry,’ and he said, ‘Can I give you a hand?’ and I said, ‘No but I hear you can use one,’” Leisring recalled. “He didn’t have an assistant, and that’s how it happened. I didn’t need help but I knew he would, and three days later I started working for Mike. And it’s been great, I will really miss him—that and his great taste of music.”