DATE: March 8, 2025
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: City Manager
SUBJECT: Hayward’s Strategic Roadmap Fiscal Year 2024-25: Strategic Planning Work Session Part 1
RECOMMENDATION
This is a work session to engage in exploring the interest and priorities of the City Council to inform the development of next year’s Strategic Roadmap and budget. No formal action will be taken at this meeting.
SUMMARY
Each year since 2020, the City Council has participated in strategic planning sessions to set priorities for the following fiscal year. This process informs the budget formation and culminates in the adoption of a Strategic Roadmap document that is included in the annual budget.
This year’s strategic planning process will be conducted at two different work sessions to better align strategic planning with the City’s operations, budget and City Council priorities. The first part, on March 08, 2025, will include highlights of the City’s operations from this fiscal year and a brief discussion on pressing issues and/or key priorities from City departments. Additionally, staff will provide a mid-year review of the FY 2024-25 Strategic Roadmap that was approved by the City Council as part of this year’s Adopted Budget. The agenda for the March 8 work session is attached, as well as the FY 2024-25 Strategic Roadmap for reference.
DISCUSSION
This special meeting of the City Council will be held in a work session format to encourage City Council members’ comments and discussion. However, per the requirements of the Brown Act, no formal actions may be taken at the Strategic Planning Work Session Part I. Therefore, any items requiring formal City Council action will be referred to future City Council meeting for consideration.
As stated above, this year’s strategic planning process will be conducted in two different work sessions. At the March 8 session, staff will frame the upcoming year and seek feedback and questions from the City Council. Staff will take detailed notes, with a particular focus on each City Council Member’s thoughts and priorities for the coming year.
Part two of the strategic planning process will occur in April. At that session, staff will summarize the City Council’s feedback received in March in terms of the seven Strategic Priority Areas and seek further input from the City Council on priorities and interests. This input will finalize the development of the FY 2025-26 Strategic Roadmap that will inform the development of the City’s budget for next year.
Lastly, this year’s process will include an introduction to the work that has occurred over the past year to create a public dashboard to report on the progress of Strategic Roadmap projects and metrics. Staff spent several months inputting data into new software to prepare for the dashboard, but the project was subsequently halted due to completing priorities and the transition in leadership. Staff recently relaunched this effort and will share a preview of the dashboard at the March 8 work session with the goal of going live by June of this year.
Of the 79 projects in the FY24-25 Strategic Roadmap, 37 (47%) are either complete or on track to be completed by June. An additional 28 (35%) are actively meeting project milestones but are multi-year efforts that will continue through to next year. Ten projects are on hold status due to staff vacancies or lack of funding. Finally, four projects are not on the work plan for this year due to operational capacity but may be included next year pending further analysis and/or resources.
Midyear Status of FY 2024-25 Strategic Roadmap Projects
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact as a result of this work session.
Prepared by: Mary Thomas, Assistant to the City Manager Approved by:
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Dr. Ana M. Alvarez, City Manager