Tacoma City Council selects interim city manager. Here’s what we know
Hyun Kim, Tacoma’s deputy city manager for internal services, will serve as Tacoma’s interim city manager this summer, after weeks of interviews and hours of closed-session City Council meetings.
Kim’s selection at the council’s April 29 meeting comes after current longtime city manager Elizabeth Pauli announced her retirement earlier this year effective July 1. Officials at the time decided that the council would begin a search for an interim replacement, to allow a new, full council to select a permanent city manager in the fall as the terms for five council members will be up in December.
The council unanimously approved Kim’s nomination, with the exception of Deputy Mayor Kiara Daniels, who was absent from the meeting. Council members thanked all the candidates who applied and said Kim has already been a “strong” leader for the city.
“Hyun has proven his leadership skills, his ability to understand what needs to happen and what the current issues are here at the city, but also he has a vision for what the city can be and should be,” Mayor Victoria Woodards said at the meeting.
Kim has served as Tacoma’s deputy city manager for internal services since June 2023, coming to Tacoma after having worked as city administrator for Gillette in Wyoming, and city manager for the city of Fife before that.
His term as interim city manager will start on June 30 and will end once the council appoints a permanent city manager or removes Kim from his position, according to a release from the city. Kim’s salary has yet to be finalized as the council’s vote authorizes the city’s director of human resources to begin negotiating a contract with him to be approved by the council at a later meeting.
Kim’s total salary as deputy city manager in 2023 was $132,740.88, according to The News Tribune’s salary database. Pauli’s current two-year contract to serve as city manager pays her $309,556 per year after council authorized a 7.5% raise in 2022.
The city of Tacoma employs over 4,000 staff and has a roughly $4.7 billion budget. Kim as interim city manager will be part of the city’s council-manager form of governance, in which an elected council is responsible for setting policy for the city and the city manager is responsible for administering it.
