MLT city manager likely headed to City of Lakewood

It appears Mountlake Terrace City Manager John Caulfield will be leaving his post later this summer to take the City Manager position at Lakewood, Pierce County’s second largest city just south of Tacoma.

The Lakewood City Council voted unanimously Thursday night to offer the position to Caulfield, then adjourned into executive session to discuss terms of a contract with a representative of the MLT City Manager. After two days of meetings and interviews in Lakewood early in the week, Caulfield is now believed to be visiting family back in his home town of Boston.

“I think there is a lot of excitement down here,” said City of Lakewood Communications Director Jeff Brewster after the council vote. “The council members all expressed that Caulfield appeared to have the strengths of our past two city managers.” Other reasons expressed by council members for Caulfield’s selection included his experience as a city manager and his work in helping plan the revitalization of Mountlake Terrace’s downtown.

Caulfield is quoted in the Tacoma News Tribune on Wednesday as saying he “would very much like to be the next Lakewood City Manager.”

If Caulfield accepts the offer from Lakewood, he will take over management of a city with more than twice as many businesses of Mountlake Terrace, almost three times the population, and more than four times the land area. While Mountlake Terrace has a general government budget just below $20 million, Lakewood’s general city budget is approximately $34.1 million.

Caulfield was one of six finalists for the Lakewood position. That number whittled down to two this week as two candidates accepted city manager offers elsewhere and two others stepped away from consideration.

Caulfield has past connections with Pierce County; before coming to Mountlake Terrace in January 2006 he served nine years at the City of University Place, the last four as its Assistant City Manager. Caulfield was also stationed at Fort Lewis while serving as a Ranger in the U.S. Army

No timeline was provided as to when Caulfield would begin his duties in Lakewood should he accept the offer.

If Caulfield does step down from his current post with Mountlake Terrace, it will leave city officials there with yet another big issue to contend with over the next few months. Five of the seven Mountlake Terrace City Council members are running for re-election this November, while the full council is expected to begin considerations July 1 on a possible ballot measure to raise the city’s portion of property taxes. City officials have hinted that funds raised from a property tax levy lift would go to pay the lease on current space used for interim City Hall beginning in 2014.