Victoria Woodards

Victoria R. Woodards (born July 16, 1965) Prior to her tenure as mayor, she served for seven years as an at-large member of the Tacoma City Council.

Early life and education Victoria (Vicky) Woodards was born on July 16, 1965, to Cornelius and Valerie Woodards in Riverside, California. During her childhood, the Woodards family moved to London, England before settling in Tacoma, Washington due to Cornelius serving in the United States Air Force. She graduated from Lincoln in 1983 and enlisted in the United States Army shortly after.

Early professional life in politics Before making the transition to politics, Woodards worked in the business world. In 2009, she was elected to an at-large member position on Tacoma's City Council. As a member of the City Council, Woodards influenced the establishment of the city's Office of Equity and Human Rights by proposing the Equity and Empowerment initiative. During the 2015 Tacoma City Council Election, Woodards endorsed candidate Keith Blocker, for District 3. After Woodards announced to the public that she would be running for mayor, it was reported that 55 people were competing for her spot on Tacoma City Council.

On July 16, 2016, Woodards published a piece in the opinion section of The News Tribune. The title of the article Woodards published was "Forget us vs. them; racial healing starts with me". Her home suffered a complete loss with damages estimating to be $225,000. In the midst of the campaign, Woodards also faced claims that she "falsely stated" that she had an associate degree from Pierce College. Woodards never published or claimed to have an associate degree to the public, only stating it once within her application to be appointed for Metro Parks Tacoma open seat in 2004. Woodards said her primary concerns as mayor would entail reinvesting in Public Safety, increasing Tacoma's safety net for the homeless and those with mental health issues, and bringing family wage jobs to Tacoma. Woodards endorsed the proposed Liquid Natural Gas facility, which had been a controversial matter, for Tacoma's tide flats. Merritt, who had been endorsed by the Sierra Club of Washington, was not in support of the Liquid Natural Gas proposal.

Woodards was elected with 19,186 votes, and Merritt received 16,090 votes. With the election taking place around the COVID-19 pandemic, Haverly stated that the city was "like a ghost town" due to downtown business closures. Woodards said she disagreed with Haverly, and ensured that the city issued loans and grants to many businesses to keep them running.

Mayoral career Victoria Woodards was first elected as mayor of Tacoma in the year 2017, and won a second term in 2021. She serves on the advisory board of the United States Conference of Mayors and is vice-chair of the organization's Committee on Jobs, Education, and the Workforce.

Initiatives, programs and campaigns established during mayoral terms In 2021, Woodards along with Tacoma Deputy Mayor John Hines launched Tidy-Up Tacoma. Tidy-Up Tacoma is a citywide initiative meant to help stop excessive street waste and vandalism. The initiative is meant to bring volunteers together to "clean up" the city of Tacoma. GRIT is an income program meant to serve low-income residents of Tacoma. GRIT was funded both privately and publicly; using Tacoma's $500,000 share of the 15 million dollars that Jack Dorsey donated to Mayors for Guaranteed Income (MGI) as well as $100,000 from a collaboration with United Way of Pierce County. The purpose of the GRIT is to redefine the story of those within poverty systems as well as to help provide those who are "Asset Limited, Isolated, Constricted and Employed" with resources.

Woodards also helped launch the Safe Youth Campaign in 2022, which focused on the spike of violence among youth in Tacoma.

Woodards alongside April Black who is the executive director of Tacoma Housing Authority co wrote and published an article in The News Tribune titled "Tacoma is desperate for more affordable housing. To build it we need the state’s help". The article outlined the work that Woodards and Tacoma City Council have done to help support the heighted cost of living in Tacoma.

Tacoma Police Chief Controversy In October 2024, Mayor Woodards voiced her support for Tacoma Police Chief Avery Moore after being placed on administrative leave for his personal use of a city asset. Furthermore, Woodards acknowledged her appreciation for the city's engagement and concern of the matter. She pledged transparency throughout the investigation.

Reformat of State of the City Address The state of the city address is traditionally a formal, annual address issued by the mayor to their council, local officials and leaders, and residents. The address provides the mayor an opportunity to lay out their vision for the future of the city and reflect on past milestones. In 2024, Woodards announces a reformatted approach to the address. Instead of the usual format, she invited residents to a local high school, where she and other local officials would engage directly with the public at "Feedback Stations," allowing attendees to ask questions and share their concerns. "The new format allows us to continue to hear directly from residents, but in a different and focused way that gives us a foundation to really weave in a tailored response that engages the public in a positive dialogue over the summer," Woodards said.

Racism During a November 2023 city council meeting, several callers spewed racial, anti semitic slurs during the public comment period. One caller hurled the N-world at the mayor, she then proceeded to de-escalate the situation by acknowledging the caller for his question and informing him that his microphone would be muted. The council took a brief recess and later voted to forgo the second half of the public comment.

Involvement during mayoral terms outside of Tacoma As Tacoma Mayor, Woodards, was involved with urban leadership at the local and national level. In 2022, Woodards was elected President of the National League of Cities. The National League of Cities (NLC) is an organization of city, town and village leaders.

Although her term was one year as president of the NLC, Woodards continued with her local leadership in the city of Tacoma. Woodards created the first Youth Commission for Tacoma and expanded Student Government Day.

In June 2024, Woodards travelled to China for a sisters city summit organized by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. During a May 2025 trip to China, she toured a Comac facility in Shanghai and praised the Chinese government for "safeguarding" religious liberty.

Endorsements as mayor of Tacoma In October 2022, Tacoma City Council voted to pass an ordinance banning homeless encampments that were set up within less than 10 blocks away from one of Tacoma's temporary homeless shelter. Woodards offered her support for this ordinance stating that it is meant to "help people accept services that are offered".

Controversy as mayor In 2022, it was reported that Woodards had failed to file her personal financial affairs statement in a timely matter. The Washington Public Disclosure Commission reported that this happened two years in a row and fined her $500.