OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Tacoma City Council Special Meeting for City Manager Finalist Interviews (February 26, 2026)

City Council — Thursday, February 26, 2026
BodyTacoma, Washington
SessionCity Council
DateThursday, February 26, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 2:26:10

Transcript — Verbatim
0:01

Good morning.

0:02

I'd like to call to order the city council special meeting of February 26, 2026.

0:06

Clerk, please call the roll.

0:09

Deputy Mayor Bushnell?

0:10

Present.

0:11

Councilmember Diaz?

0:12

Here.

0:13

Councilmember Heinz.

0:14

Here.

0:15

Councilmember Palmer.

0:16

Councilmember Rumba?

0:18

Here.

0:18

Councilmember Sidalgay?

0:19

Here.

0:19

Councilmember Scott?

0:20

Here.

0:21

Councilmember Walker?

0:22

Here.

0:22

Mayor Ibsen?

0:23

Here.

0:25

All right.

0:25

I'd like to call on Ben Thurgood, our facilitator for today's interviews to get us started.

0:31

Good morning, Council.

0:32

Hello, I'm Ben Thurgood, Continuous Improvement Officer for the City of Tacoma.

0:36

And I'm here to facilitate this interview.

0:38

My role is to open and close the interviews, clarify who will ask which questions, keep the interview on time and ensure consistent experience across interviews.

0:47

Before we begin, I'd like to give you and the viewing public some background on the process.

0:51

The City of Tacoma has been working with Profman and City Human Resources since August of 2025 on this important recruitment for our next city manager.

1:00

The process included a national search, which resulted in 72 applications from 16 states in the District of Columbia, 40 from within Washington, and 32 from outside of the state.

1:10

Profman conducted an initial screening of all applicants, reviewing resumes, cover letters, and written responses submitted as part of the application process.

1:19

Based on the qualifications outlined in the city manager's formal position description and input from the mayor and the city council, 19 applicants were identified as meeting or exceeding the minimum requirements, and were invited to participate in preliminary Zoom interviews with Prothman.

1:34

Following these interviews, two applicants withdrew from the process.

1:37

Profman then conducted in-depth interviews with the remaining 17 candidates and prepared detailed interview notes and application materials for your review.

1:46

After reviewing those materials, the council invited five candidates to advance to the next step.

1:54

One additional candidate withdrew at that stage.

1:57

And the council completed interviews with four remaining candidates.

2:01

Following deliberations in executive session, the council voted in open session to invite two candidates forward as finalists for the position, bringing us to today's interviews.

2:10

And now transitioning to the interviews.

2:12

As you know, there will be two interviewing candidates today, Hyan Kim and Yolanda Lewis.

2:18

Each interview will last 45 minutes with a 15-minute feedback session in between interviews.

2:24

The goal of the interview is to assess each candidate fairly and consistently against job-related competencies and requirements, using a structured process that minimizes bias and ensures equal opportunity for each candidate.

2:36

The interview process provides an opportunity for both the panel and candidates to learn about one another and assess how effectively they can work together.

2:43

It is also a chance to evaluate the candidates' leadership and management abilities as well as their capacity to lead the organization and serve the community.

2:52

During the interview, please ask questions as written in the same order for each candidate.

2:57

Feel free to ask follow-up questions to gain clarity and understanding, but try to avoid asking substantially new or different questions to ensure consistency across the interviews.

3:06

Let's begin by assigning the interview questions.

3:09

So there are nine questions.

3:11

I heard one idea to have it be by your position number on council, or we could start in one place and go clockwise.

3:19

Is there a desire?

3:21

Preferences.

3:26

So make me go first.

3:28

Let's do it.

3:31

Okay.

3:32

Iceberg.

3:34

And that gets us all the way one through nine, correct?

3:37

Well, maybe taking nine.

3:40

I can do nine, sure.

3:44

Perfect.

3:47

Okay.

3:48

So now our first candidate will be ready at 10:30 a.m.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Procedural███████████████████████████████████35%
Personnel Matters██████████████████████████████30%
Strategic Planning█████████9%
Community Engagement████████8%
Fiscal Sustainability████████8%
Economic Development████4%
Engineering And Infrastructure██2%
Affordable Housing██2%
Public Safety█1%
Summary of Proceedings

Tacoma City Council Special Meeting for City Manager Finalist Interviews (February 26, 2026)

The City Council held a special meeting on February 26, 2026, to conduct structured interviews with two finalists for the position of city manager: Hyan Kim (interim city manager) and Yolanda Lewis. The process, facilitated by Continuous Improvement Officer Ben Thurgood, included a 45-minute interview with each candidate, with consistent questions asked to ensure fairness. The meeting included roll call, a review of the selection process, and council member responses to a candidate question about partnership.

Process Overview

  • The search, conducted with Prothman and City Human Resources since August 2025, resulted in 72 applications (40 from Washington state, 32 from outside the state).
  • After initial screening, 19 applicants were invited for preliminary Zoom interviews; 2 withdrew.
  • Subsequent in-depth interviews narrowed the field to 4 candidates after 1 withdrew, and the council voted to invite 2 finalists (Hyan Kim and Yolanda Lewis) for today's interviews.

Interviews

  • Each interview lasted 45 minutes, with a 15-minute feedback session between them. Questions were asked in the same order for each candidate.
  • The council asked 9 questions, covering topics such as impressions from the first interview, strategic planning experience, adaptability, accountability, Tacoma's strategic plans, coaching senior leaders, communication style, economic development, and an open-ended question for the candidate.

Hyan Kim (Interim City Manager)

  • Impression from first interview: Noted the council's aspiration to do great things and its clear-eyed vision for the community.
  • Strategic planning experience: Described 20 years of municipal experience, including work on the 167 Gateway Project and Port of Tacoma Interchange, and emphasized the importance of continuous improvement and community buy-in.
  • Adaptability: Described pivoting federal funding strategies and cited a housing project in Boulder City where a three-phase takedown allowed for affordable housing units after initial failures.
  • Accountability: Shared an example of placing himself on administrative leave after a grant application was not submitted on time, emphasizing that accountability starts at the top.
  • Tacoma's strategic plans: Called them ambitious and stressed the need to balance foundational basics with aspirational goals, using a "bus driver" analogy.
  • Coaching: Emphasized developing senior leaders to be accountable, coaches, and kind, noting current department directors are willing to be nimble.
  • Communication style: Hoped former colleagues would say he never surprised them and that he was kind.
  • Economic development: Identified the structural deficit as a limiting factor and stressed the need to close it while doing the basics well.
  • Questions for council: Asked if the council is open to a true partnership, including doing hard things together. Council members responded with affirmatives, emphasizing partnership, transparency, and mutual accountability.

Yolanda Lewis (Finalist)

  • Impression from first interview: Described it as "confirmation" that the council is focused on innovation, change, preparation, and strategy-driven results.
  • Strategic planning experience: Noted prior experience as a strategic planner for the state of Georgia, designing long-range plans for 159 counties (11 million people), and cited creating Fulton County's first strategic plan with key performance indicators.
  • Adaptability: Described a flexible leadership style and gave examples of pivoting crisis response strategies after community feedback and reworking a salary study that wasn't in employees' best interest.
  • Accountability: Emphasized setting clear benchmarks and KPIs, telling the story of both successes and failures, and having hard conversations with department heads.
  • Tacoma's strategic plans: Called the plans ambitious and essential, and stressed building an operational infrastructure to accelerate them, including financial operations, risk management, and innovation.
  • Coaching: Described building succession plans and investing in senior leaders, including helping an employee with 15–20 years of institutional knowledge become a trainer.
  • Communication style: Believed former colleagues would describe her as honest, transparent, inclusive, and clear about her path to support priorities.
  • Economic development: Acknowledged not being an economic development specialist but emphasized being supportive and thoughtful about partnerships and listening to the team and council.
  • Questions for council: Asked what the council wants to see in the new city manager. Council members responded with expectations for partnership, communication, managing up, being a leader of leaders, budget expertise, creativity, and adaptability.
  • Follow-up question: Asked how the council expects the city manager to help resolve the structural deficit. Council members emphasized presenting options, understanding trade-offs, innovation, and clear communication about the narrative and impacts.

Key Outcomes

  • The council completed interviews with both finalists and then convened into executive session at approximately 12:15 PM to evaluate their qualifications.
  • The meeting adjourned after the executive session call; no other votes or decisions were recorded during the open session.

Meeting Transcript

Good morning. I'd like to call to order the city council special meeting of February 26, 2026. Clerk, please call the roll. Deputy Mayor Bushnell? Present. Councilmember Diaz? Here. Councilmember Heinz. Here. Councilmember Palmer. Councilmember Rumba? Here. Councilmember Sidalgay? Here. Councilmember Scott? Here. Councilmember Walker? Here. Mayor Ibsen? Here. All right. I'd like to call on Ben Thurgood, our facilitator for today's interviews to get us started. Good morning, Council. Hello, I'm Ben Thurgood, Continuous Improvement Officer for the City of Tacoma. And I'm here to facilitate this interview. My role is to open and close the interviews, clarify who will ask which questions, keep the interview on time and ensure consistent experience across interviews. Before we begin, I'd like to give you and the viewing public some background on the process. The City of Tacoma has been working with Profman and City Human Resources since August of 2025 on this important recruitment for our next city manager. The process included a national search, which resulted in 72 applications from 16 states in the District of Columbia, 40 from within Washington, and 32 from outside of the state. Profman conducted an initial screening of all applicants, reviewing resumes, cover letters, and written responses submitted as part of the application process. Based on the qualifications outlined in the city manager's formal position description and input from the mayor and the city council, 19 applicants were identified as meeting or exceeding the minimum requirements, and were invited to participate in preliminary Zoom interviews with Prothman. Following these interviews, two applicants withdrew from the process. Profman then conducted in-depth interviews with the remaining 17 candidates and prepared detailed interview notes and application materials for your review. After reviewing those materials, the council invited five candidates to advance to the next step. One additional candidate withdrew at that stage. And the council completed interviews with four remaining candidates. Following deliberations in executive session, the council voted in open session to invite two candidates forward as finalists for the position, bringing us to today's interviews. And now transitioning to the interviews. As you know, there will be two interviewing candidates today, Hyan Kim and Yolanda Lewis. Each interview will last 45 minutes with a 15-minute feedback session in between interviews. The goal of the interview is to assess each candidate fairly and consistently against job-related competencies and requirements, using a structured process that minimizes bias and ensures equal opportunity for each candidate. The interview process provides an opportunity for both the panel and candidates to learn about one another and assess how effectively they can work together. It is also a chance to evaluate the candidates' leadership and management abilities as well as their capacity to lead the organization and serve the community. During the interview, please ask questions as written in the same order for each candidate. Feel free to ask follow-up questions to gain clarity and understanding, but try to avoid asking substantially new or different questions to ensure consistency across the interviews. Let's begin by assigning the interview questions. So there are nine questions. I heard one idea to have it be by your position number on council, or we could start in one place and go clockwise. Is there a desire? Preferences.

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