Efoe Pili, West Valley City manager, on his path to municipal leadership and priorities

Efoe Pili told W Convos that he has worked in local government for about 20 years and began his career in Eagle Mountain, Utah, as a management intern. Two months into that internship, Pili said, the mayor was accused of embezzlement, stepped down and an interim mayor fired staff; Pili said he became acting city administrator as an intern, which he described as the start of his municipal career.

"I became the acting city administrator as an intern," Pili said, recounting the early turn in his career. He later worked in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and said he has been with West Valley City for a little over a year.

On the role itself, Pili said the city manager in West Valley serves as the chief executive and chief administrative officer, supervising all departments "either indirectly or directly" and bearing ultimate responsibility for managing the city. He described West Valley as "dynamic" and emphasized its diversity, noting a large Polynesian population and saying the city is the state's second-largest with about 150,000 residents.

Pili emphasized the need to do more to highlight local economic assets: "We need to shout it from the rooftops," he said, arguing the city must better educate residents about local employers and growth. He cited multiple local firms across aerospace, defense and manufacturing and highlighted food and cultural assets as examples of the city's diversity.

On personal background, Pili said his undergraduate degree is in political science and his master's is in public administration; he also said he had aimed to play professional football before shifting to public service and had planned at one time to return to Samoa, where he was born and raised, to enter government there.

He closed the interview stressing that West Valley residents show "a lot of pride" for their city, and that city leaders should amplify the city's successes to residents.