Elizabeth Pauli era over in Tacoma. Now ex-city manager reflects on her tenure
As Tacoma’s longtime city manager gears up for retirement, Elizabeth Pauli said helping keep city employees safe and productive through the pandemic is among her top accomplishments.
Pauli, 65, served as Tacoma’s city manager for eight years, a key leader in Tacoma’s council-manager form of government, in which the city manager serves as chief executive officer and head of the city government’s administrative branch. Pauli’s departure is one of several leadership transitions on the horizon for Tacoma, which could see turnover in seven of its top positions including mayor, police chief and several City Council positions.
Pauli is leaving behind a city that’s contending with a budget deficit and the ever-changing local impact of a new presidential administration. Though her tenure was not without controversy — which endured up until her final City Council meeting — the outgoing city manager said she is proud of the work she did to maintain city services while keeping employees safe during the pandemic and helping build the city’s financial reserves. The next city manager, she said, likely will need to contend with a long-term solution to the city’s budget woes.
The city was tasked with closing a $24 million gap in its $4.7 billion biennial budget last year. City officials have said that Tacoma’s expenses are growing faster than its revenues, with a 2.6% growth in revenues compared to a projected 4.3% growth in expenses.
“We’ve built and maintained really solid reserves on the financial side in addition to focusing our budget on fiscal sustainability, important standards,” Pauli told The News Tribune in a virtual interview. “We also approached our budget with looking really hard through the lens of belief and trust with the community, and I think that was another success.”
Mayor Victoria Woodards commended Pauli for the same accomplishments.
“Elizabeth showed up with her full self every single day, committed to making the best decision she could based on all the information she had,” Woodards told The News Tribune. “And she came from a place of humility. She came from a place of compassion, and it showed up.”
Pauli came to Tacoma in 1998 as Tacoma’s chief assistant city attorney, later promoted to acting city attorney in 2004 and then permanent city attorney in 2005. She was selected to be interim city manager in 2017 and then appointed to the permanent role a few months later following a nationwide search. Pauli said her background with the city meant she was already familiar with the city and the state and local laws that affect Tacoma when she took on the reins.
She was also the first woman to hold the role of city manager in Tacoma. Pauli said it was a “special privilege” to hold that title, though it wasn’t the focus of her approach to leadership and decision-making.
“I wanted to be certain that I was a good example for anyone that was watching from that perspective,” she said.
Pauli said after her last day, she plans to have an “unstructured” summer, spending time outdoors and with family.
“I don’t think I’m going to be particularly good at the unstructured part, but I’m going to try, and then I’m going to work my way back into what do I intentionally want to bring back in? Because I’m certainly not done working and serving the community,” she said.
Interim city manager Hyun Kim will take over following Pauli’s departure, having already started sitting in the city manager’s chair at council meetings leading up to Pauli’s last day. The council selected Kim on April 29 to serve as interim city manager with a salary of $309,566, according to Kim’s employment agreement. City officials in January said they plan to hold off on a search for a permanent city manager until after the election this fall, which could result in four new council members and a new mayor.
Pauli said Kim’s leadership will help steer the city through its upcoming leadership transition, particularly because he’s not a newcomer, having served as Tacoma’s deputy city manager for internal services since 2023.
“I think from the administrative standpoint we’re really solid and with Hyun Kim’s leadership, and him having been here over the last couple years and working closely with the departments, I expect that to be very smooth,” Pauli said. “It probably feels like a lot when you see the list, but it’s not uncommon for these kinds of transitions to take place.”
Criticism and a silent departure
Pauli’s tenure was not without detractors.
She drew repeated criticism over the size of her salary and after she didn’t immediately fire the police officers involved in Manuel Ellis’ death. Ellis died in in handcuffs while being restrained by Tacoma police in March 2020. Ellis’ family recently reached a $6 million settlement with the city after a wrongful death lawsuit.
“I think anyone seated in these positions comes in knowing that not all of your decisions will be understood or accepted, and that’s just the way it’s going to be,” Pauli told The News Tribune. “At the same time, anytime that there’s criticism in in any form, I think it’s important for an individual in a leadership position to sit back and determine, what if anything, can they learn from from that voice of criticism, and so that’s the approach that I took to hearing those things over the years.”
Controversy over her leadership persisted until her last City Council meeting on July 1, with activists calling for the position of city manager to be eliminated and clashing with Mayor Victoria Woodards before and during the meeting.
Activists with the Climate Alliance of the South Sound planned to rally before the meeting and speak during public comment to criticize the role Pauli played in advancing projects that contributed to pollution in Tacoma, like a controversial South Tacoma mega-warehouse project. They also planned to criticize the position of city manager itself for being undemocratic, arguing that the city manager wields a sizable amount of power and makes a significant amount of money but isn’t elected by the residents of Tacoma.
“I, in particular, don’t like Elizabeth Pauli, but she is not the problem in and of herself. It’s this position, or the position of city manager,” Gemini Gnull, a founding member of the alliance, told The News Tribune. “A requirement for having more democracy for the people of Tacoma is going to be the removal of the city manager position in favor of a different style of government.”
Pauli was scheduled to be recognized at the July 1 council meeting in the form of a “special staff recognition” that was listed on the agenda. Woodards approached the activists as they were making signs outside City Hall before the meeting and asked them not to speak at the July 1 meeting.
“She [has] given up almost 28 years of her life to serve this city in various positions, and although she got paid for that, she was an employee, it still is a sacrifice to dedicate that much time and energy to an organization,” Woodards told The News Tribune after the meeting. “I said, ‘You all, next week is community forum, you could come back and protest then, but I’m just asking that you consider letting her enjoy her last council meeting.’”
“I’d rather not do it at all, if we can’t do it in a way that honors her work,” Woodards said of Pauli’s recognition when activists with the Climate Alliance of the South Sound indicated that they plan to speak at the meeting anyway.
During the meeting, Deputy Mayor Kiara Daniels moved to remove the item from the agenda during the meeting, and after a second from Council Member Kristina Walker, the council voted unanimously to remove the item from the agenda.
Since public comment at the meeting only applied to comments on items on the agenda for that meeting, the activists couldn’t speak directly about Pauli or the position of the city manager, and instead spoke about the council’s proclamation of July as Pride month in Tacoma, tying the proclamation to the issue of the city manager.
“I am so glad that you decided to endorse and promote Pride month and celebrations of Pride in Tacoma. But we need to do more, we need to take a look at the system of governance that we have so that we have more effective protection and promotion for all people in the city of Tacoma,” activist Marilyn Kimmerling said during the meeting.
They later criticized city leaders for the last-minute change to the agenda.
“To me, this is absolutely a form of repression and violation of our rights to free speech,” Climate Alliance co-founder Aife Pasquale told The News Tribune after the meeting.
