Another raise for Pauli as Tacoma council praises city manager’s handling of COVID-19
Tacoma City Council is recommending a 3 percent wage adjustment to City Manager Elizabeth Pauli’s annual salary, translating to $7,924.80 more a year than she currently makes.
The recommendation comes after a review in September in which the City Council rated Pauli’s overall performance as city manager a 4 out of 5, with 4 being “exceeds expectations.”
City Council will vote on final approval of the wage adjustment at Tuesday’s meeting. The Tacoma city charter requires the council to review the city manager’s performance annually. This year, the review was delayed due to COVID-19.
“The Council appreciates the City Manager’s nimbleness and responsiveness in addressing the COVID challenge,” the review states. “The pandemic presented an opportunity to restore faith in government, and the City Manager has led with a steady hand, showing her command of the issues.”
The wage increase means that Pauli’s annual salary will increase from $264,638 to $272,563, retroactive to May 16, 2020.
The city will also pay $6,500 for retirement savings and approximately $2,000 to reflect the increase in cost of benefits, which are based on percentage of salary, for a total fiscal impact of $16,500, according to city documents.
In 2019, City County approved increases to Pauli’s annual salary from roughly $250,000 in 2018 to $264,638.
All non-represented city employee salary schedules were increased by a 3 percent general wage adjustment in January 2020. Pauli’s could not be adjusted until after her annual performance review.
In the performance review, City Council members said they appreciated how quickly the Friday COVID-19 meetings were set up when the pandemic struck in March and how rapidly the city pivoted to a virtual work environment.
“The Council commends the City Manager being proactive about addressing budget cuts, layoffs, and furloughs early in the pandemic,” the review states. “This work has put the City in better shape for 2021. The City Manager has developed a highly performing team across the board. She knows her strengths and surrounds herself with staff who stay on top of the ever-changing environment.”
The Council did highlight some areas for improvement, including better use of social media to reflect initiatives the city is working on and a greater emphasis on reporting the outcomes of those initiatives.
“The Council requests that the City Manager continue to build staff performance and performance management. The listening sessions with employees of color revealed that there is work to be done,” the review states.
Pauli became the first woman city manager for Tacoma in 2017.
This story was originally published October 4, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
