Tacoma city manager gets another pay raise, and some people are not happy about it
Tacoma City Manager Elizabeth Pauli received a raise and additional benefits in an annual performance review approved by the City Council at Tuesday’s regular session.
The $9,152 raise brings her annual wage to $287,872, up from $278,720 in 2021.
Pauli, who previously served as the city attorney, handles the city’s day-to-day operations. She became the first woman to serve in the city manager position in 2017 after the departure of T.C. Broadnax.
Pauli has a two-year contract approved last year. On Tuesday, the City Council also agreed to amend the contract to give her “20 days of administrative leave, a one-time lump sum payment of $20,000 into the City Manager’s 401(a) plan, and the continued payment of the maximum deferred compensation contribution including the Age 50 Catch-up annual deferral contribution, currently equal to $6,500, to the City Manager’s 457(b) plan,” according to the city’s action memorandum.
The terms are retroactive to May 16 of this year. The total cost of the raise and benefits boost is about $30,131.
Mayor Victoria Woodards offered high praise to Pauli for her role in helping to continue to lead the city through the COVID-19 pandemic and what she characterized as the one of the most difficult times in the city’s history.
“There are a lot of issues in Tacoma. There’s no doubt about that. And during COVID some of those issues have gotten worse,” Woodards said. “But I will tell you that I believe without the leadership of Elizabeth Pauli we would be in even worse shape ...”
“And I believe it is the leadership of our city manager that has kept the city headed in the right direction.”
Council members, in turn, offered strong words of support for Pauli.
“I’ve seen tremendous things happen over the last year,” said Catherine Ushka, deputy mayor. “And because we’ve been in ... we’re on our third year of constant emergency, it’s hard to mark progress sometimes.”
Ushka noted the passage of the first phase of Home in Tacoma, the city’s massive plan for rezoning and work to increase housing, among other items, and that Pauli had worked with council on improving communications with the public. She also noted the care Pauli took in working behind the scenes with the council and community, work the public didn’t see.
“It’s not just that she’s doing all of this. She’s listening, too, and trying to figure out how to be one step ahead of it,” Ushka said.
“I too cannot imagine where we’d be without you, and so thank you for your resiliency,” said council member Kristina Walker.
The review agreed with Pauli’s self evaluation in various areas. “The Mayor and Council express strong agreement with all of the ‘well-dones’ the City Manager listed in her self-evaluation, including: Home in Tacoma, Multi- Family Tax Exemptions, Non-Interim Regulations, Encampment response options, American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocations,” the review said. “Each of these areas required a significant investment of organizational time and resources to be successful, and many were ongoing concurrently.”
Criticism of raise
Ahead of the action, residents used the public comment forum to criticize the raise and said Pauli hadn’t done near enough to deserve it, specifically in areas of communication and outreach.
Some tied the current review process of the proposed Bridge Industrial warehouse site to her lack of oversight and said it represented a pattern of disconnect between what the city aspired to in its climate policy action and what it eventually could allow to be built.
“I object to the high marks for racial equality when current code allows for environmentally racist projects like Bridge Industrial,” said Heidi Stephens, who serves on the South Tacoma Neighborhood Council and has been a vocal critic of the warehouse proposal. “This falls to the city manager, who is also allowing a rushed health impact assessment that should be done carefully and correctly ... The city should not pride itself on approving permits faster than anywhere else. That says things are being skipped.”
Stephens suggested a weekly meeting between the city manager and residents to help improve communication.
“There needs to be a city manager weekly meeting, a Q&A, where we can talk directly to the city manager and get direct responses, which doesn’t seem unreasonable as part of a nearly $300,000 salary,” she said.
Tacoma resident Stacy Oaks also was critical of Pauli’s performance.
“I think it’s been expressed quite clearly that people don’t feel heard,” Oaks said. “People don’t feel like they have a voice in this government.”
April Smith, Larchmont Neighborhood Safe Streets representative, told council she thought the pay and benefits funding would be better spent on boosting council members’ pay and city services.
“I feel that is ridiculous to give another raise ... when our City Council members are doing a job that is extremely hard and demanding on them yet they also have to work second jobs to be able to afford to live in this city,” Smith said.
Last fall, the council and mayor received 4 percent pay raises for 2022 from the Citizens Commission on Elected Salaries. The commission increased the annual salary for council members to $46,789. The annual salary for the deputy mayor is $52,002.
Mayor Victoria Woodards is the highest paid council member at $106,291.
Woodards, in defending Pauli’s review, acknowledged the criticism raised during public comment.
“Every day, those issues are being addressed. We didn’t get here overnight. We won’t get out of here overnight,” she said, adding that in regards to Pauli’s dedication “to help guide this big ship to address all of those issues — we are extremely lucky.”
Review details
In her review, Pauli scored an overall 3.86 out of 5, just below “exceeds expectations,” and slightly lower than her 3.94 ranking last year. Pauli received the lowest mark (3.5) in external relations and was encouraged to “review the consultant’s recommendations related to communications, and implement as appropriate to improve City performance in this area.”
It added she should not only “Continue listening to and communicating with the community” but also “Focus on connecting with executive-level community members.”
The review also recommended she focus on “citywide succession planning for the next review period.”
Pauli’s “unwavering positivity, fortitude, and resilience in the face of successive challenge is a model for others,” the review said in its overall rating. “The City Manager continues to provide exceptional leadership for the City. Her ability to identify issues and implement innovative strategies continues to move the City in a positive direction.”
Following the vote endorsing the raise, Pauli thanked the council and offered a message for those who’d criticized her earlier in the public comment forum.
She expressed her commitment to “listen to all voices and want to make myself available to everyone in the community. That does become logistically complicated, but there’s no group or individual that I know that I can’t learn from and that I can’t take the input from.”
After thanking her staff, she noted the work ahead:
“I am committed to continuing to work on the tough issues and help this just be the best city that it can be.”
This story was originally published May 25, 2022 at 12:18 PM.
