Finance and Management Committee
January 27, 2026
AGENDA REPORT
TO: Jestin D. Johnson FROM: Monica Elise Davis
City Administrator Deputy City Administrator
SUBJECT: FY 2025-2028 Citywide Strategic Plan
Six-Month Update
DATE: January 12, 2026
City Administrator Approval Date:
RECOMMENDATION
Staff Recommends That The City Council Receive An Informational Report From The City Administrator On The FY 2025-2028 Citywide Strategic Plan Six-Month Update.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As Oakland continues to navigate significant fiscal challenges, the City remains committed to fostering a thriving, equitable, and resilient community. Transparency, accountability, and a people-centered approach continue to guide how the City addresses both immediate service demands and long-term recovery. While difficult decisions are required, the FY 2025-2028 Citywide Strategic Plan (“Strategic Plan”) provides a framework to support fiscal recovery to keep core services, programs, and workforce priorities aligned with community needs and to keep stakeholders informed of our progress.
This report provides the City Council with a six-month update on the implementation of the Strategic Plan. The strategic plan moved from planning into the early implementation phase by establishing cross-departmental teams aligned with the plan’s five strategic priorities:
streamlining operations; fostering cross-departmental collaboration; enhance communication and coordination; optimize workforce management; and align budget with citywide priorities.
The last six months have focused on foundational work, including strengthening coordination across departments, identifying operational and communication barriers, aligning budget practices with citywide goals, and providing regular status updates to agency directors to keep them informed of progress. Overall, implementation is in its early but productive phase, and continued leadership alignment and City Council support will be critical to sustaining momentum and advancing toward measurable outcomes.
BACKGROUND / LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
Under the direction of City Administrator Jestin Johnson, the City initiated a strategic planning process in March 2024 to develop a citywide strategic plan responsive to Oakland’s fiscal Jestin Johnson (Jan 15, 2026 16:02:39 PST)
Jan 15, 2026
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: FY 2025-2028 Citywide Strategic Plan Six-Month Update Date: January 12, 2026 Page 2
Finance and Management Committee
January 27, 2026
conditions, operational challenges, and long-term service goals. The process was designed to balance the City’s fiscal recovery efforts with the need to maintain core services and support the workforce while advancing equity.
In early March 2024, a strategic planning process commenced to facilitate a thoughtful and responsive process for the development of a Strategic Plan that addresses Oakland’s resource and budget constraints, challenges, and opportunities, ensuring short-term and long-term plans for its workforce and residents.
The initial phase of the process focused on establishing a shared framework for long-term improvement. Through this work, five strategic priorities were identified to guide city operations and decision-making. These priorities focus on improving operational efficiency, strengthening cross-departmental collaboration, enhancing internal communication, optimizing workforce systems, and aligning budget decisions with citywide priorities and equity goals.
To support this process, the Strategic Plan established cross-departmental implementation teams aligned to each priority area. The teams focused on clarifying scope, identifying barriers, reviewing existing systems and processes, and initiating early coordination and pilot efforts to support sustainable citywide change.
ANALYSIS AND POLICY ALTERNATIVES
At the six-month mark, implementation of the FY 2025–2028 Citywide Strategic Plan reflects steady progress consistent with a multi-year organizational change effort. During this period, cross-departmental implementation teams clarified scope, roles, and responsibilities; reviewed existing systems and processes; and identified barriers that impact efficiency, coordination, and transparency.
Across all priorities, teams have emphasized collaboration, equity-informed decision-making, and transparency. Early work has included reviewing citywide operational processes, strengthening interdepartmental coordination, assessing internal communication practices, evaluating workforce systems, and integrating strategic and equity considerations into budget development.
The Strategic Plan is now transitioning into a more measurable execution phase, with future work focused on launching pilot efforts, refining tools and practices, and establishing performance measures to assess progress and outcomes over time. No alternative policy actions are recommended at this time, as this report is informational.
Detailed information on implementation progress by strategic priority, including six-month status updates, key focus areas, and cross-departmental coordination efforts, is provided in Attachment A.
FISCAL IMPACT
No fiscal impacts are associated with the production of this informational report; however, the implementation of the FY 2025-2028 Citywide Strategic Plan endeavors to support the Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: FY 2025-2028 Citywide Strategic Plan Six-Month Update Date: January 12, 2026 Page 3
Finance and Management Committee
January 27, 2026
alignment of fiscal resources and improve the efficiency of work that can optimize and/or reduce future expenditures.
PUBLIC OUTREACH / INTEREST
No public outreach was conducted in preparing this information report beyond the required posting on the City of Oakland’s website. A comprehensive review of existing planning documents developed across the City were evaluated as a part of the development of the FY 2025-2028 Citywide Strategic Plan. Further, the Community Engagement Working Group and the Department Leads for the Departmental Racial Equity Team were consulted in the development of the FY 2025-2028 Citywide Strategic Plan.
COORDINATION
Production of the FY 2025-2028 Citywide Strategic Plan was done in concert with consultants, Be Present Consult, LLC.
SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITIES
Economic: There are no known economic opportunities associated with the production of this informational report. However, there may be future work on the Strategic Priorities, which may have a direct or indirect impact on the economic activities of the City.
Environmental: There are no known environmental opportunities associated with the production of this informational report. However, there may be future work on the Strategic Priorities which may directly or indirectly impact the City’s environmental, resiliency, and sustainability activities.
Race & Equity: The role and advisement of the City of Oakland’s Department of Race & Equity, which assists all City Departments and Divisions in promoting equity, was integral in the development of this Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan includes data related to the established City equity indicators, and the intent is to refresh this data on an annual basis as we progress through the Strategic Plan Implementation Phase to measure movement in these equity indicators.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: FY 2025-2028 Citywide Strategic Plan Six-Month Update Date: January 12, 2026 Page 4
Finance and Management Committee
January 27, 2026
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Staff Recommends That The City Council Receive An Informational Report From The City Administrator On The FY 2025-2028 Citywide Strategic Plan Six-Month Update.
For questions regarding this report, please contact Monica Elise Davis, Deputy City Administrator, at 510-238-7985.
Respectfully submitted,
MONICA ELISE DAVIS
Deputy City Administrator
City Administrator’s Office
Reviewed by:
Candice Parker, City Administrator Analyst
Prepared by:
Tiffany Kirkpatrick
Finance Department
Attachment (1):
A: Six-Month Status Update on FY 2025-2028 Citywide Strategic Plan
Monica Davis (Jan 15, 2026 12:51:59 PST)