Interim City Manager Paula Boggs Muething may soon officially be able to drop the "interm" from her title. Mayor John Cranley today announced Boggs Muething as his pick to fill the City Manager position.
"Governing in 2020 is like experiencing life in dog years. As I've said many times, the four great crises of the year — COVID, the recession, racial justice cries and epic gun violence — are all happening at the same time," said Cranley during today's press conference. "I've been around for a while, so has solicitor and now City Manager Paula Boggs Muething, and it has called upon everything that we have collectively done in our careers — together and sometimes separately at different points in our careers — to fight for the city that we love."
Cranley continued, saying, "It has been the greatest challenge and the greatest opportunity of our lives and there's no one I'd rather do it with than Paula Boggs Muething. I have full faith in her and her abilities."
He said she deserves and has earned the official title of city manager.
Boggs Muething accepted the nomination, saying, "I am incredibly honored (and) humbled by the mayor's appointment and hopeful to be approved by the full council."
Cincinnati City Council will take up the legislation to confirm Boggs Muething's position next week.
In June, council unanimously approved her — then the city solicitor — as acting city manager to replace Patrick Duhaney. Duhaney accepted a position as city manager of Virginia Beach this summer.
Boggs Muething is the city's second female city manager and the first Asian American to hold the role. During today's press conference, she referenced her childhood spent in Elizabethtown, Kentucky and with her family in Japan, calling her upbringing "Jappalachian" or "Appalasian."
She had been solicitor since late 2014. The city solicitor's office represents the city in lawsuits and helps council members draw up the legal language for legislation.
Prior to her time with the city, Boggs Muething was vice president of community revitalization at The Port. She graduated from University of Cincinnati's College of Law in 2003 and later attended Harvard's Kennedy School. She started her career as a litigator for the City of Cincinnati.
Duhaney recommended Boggs Muething as his successor. And, at that time, Cranley wrote that she had his "unqualified support."
"She is one of the smartest, effective, and principle-based public servants I have ever known," he wrote in response to Duhaney's recommendation. "I believe she will not only manage these times, but help the city make history in building a more inclusive community."
