CITY OF PACIFICA
COUNCIL AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT
5/11/2026
1 SUBJECT:
Approve the updated City of Pacifica 2023 to 2030 Strategic Plan Mission, Vision, Values, Goals and Strategies
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Approve the updated City of Pacifica 2023 to 2030 Strategic Plan Mission, Vision, Values, Goals and Strategies (Attachment 1).
STAFF CONTACT:
Yulia Carter, Assistant City Manager
(650) 738-7409
[email protected]
BACKGROUND:
Since at least 2017 the City Council has convened annually to identify and review the key priorities to be considered during the development of the City’s next annual budget. This process has ensured that the City’s most important issues are addressed within the context of changing priorities, emergencies, and limited staffing and financial resources.
In 2023 the City Council elevated the prior annual priority setting process into a comprehensive Strategic Plan, which is a best practice for high-functioning organizations. The Strategic Plan includes a Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals to be focused on and achieved through 2030.
The Strategic Plan also includes the top Strategies necessary for achieving each Goal, with the Strategies subject to review, clarification, and prioritization during each annual process prior to the development of the City’s annual budget. This annual prioritization process to achieve longer term Goals helps focus and manage the City’s scarce resources.
A definition of each of the Strategic Plan elements is provided below:
Mission - The City’s Mission is a statement of what the City does and strives to do on an ongoing basis. It sets the boundaries and expectations for the City and its work.
Vision - The Vision statement is aspirational, identifying the desired outcome of the City’s efforts and changes over a long period of time.
Values - The listed Values for the City reflect how the City does its work, from the City Council through front-line staff. Values typically embody both current and desired approaches for internal and external performance.
Goals - The City’s Goal statements capture the primary focus for the City to Pacifica City Council 2
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achieve its Vision over the next seven years. Each Goal statement is ambitious, encompassing an aspirational set of work to be done, especially given that most City operations, funding, staffing, and time is devoted to day-to-day services and other non-discretionary work.
Strategies - The City Council has selected a limited set of top Strategies to achieve each Goal. Some Strategies may be accomplished over one to two years, while others may persist throughout the life of the Strategic Plan.
The Pacifica Strategic Plan, as adopted on May 8, 2023 and modified on May 13, 2024 and April 14, 2025, is on the City website at https://www.cityofpacifica.org/government/city-councilstrategic-plan.
DISCUSSION:
This year the City Council convened in a public workshop format on Saturday, March 7, to review progress on and possible changes to the Strategic Plan. The PowerPoint used to guide the Council workshop is provided as Attachment B.
Following a review and highlighting of the City’s many accomplishments this past year as detailed in the PowerPoint, the Council, City Manager, and City Attorney identified the following factors that have led to the City’s success over the past year:
• Council collaboration and teamwork; overcoming differences in pursuit of shared goals
• Council’s perseverance and hard work
• Community engagement and ‘showing up’ during unprecedented difficulties • Staff expertise, commitment, and hard work
• Local, regional, and federal support
• Intentionality: working together on what needs to be done • Council, staff, and community working together for shared love of community The City Council next reviewed the structure of Pacifica’s Strategic Plan and the adopted Mission, Vision and Values that guide the City. No changes were recommended or requested at this time. The facilitator indicated that 2027 or 2028 would likely be the time to for a more comprehensive review and update to the Strategic Plan given changing Council and staff leadership as well as the passage of time and emergence of new challenges and opportunities.
City staff then presented an overview of the Staff Work Program update, including the accumulation and performance on work program items by the adopted Strategic Plan Goals.
Also noted was the direct linkage between the Work Program and staff capacity, including staff vacancies. Based on the City Council’s direction during the workshop, staff will update the Work Program and present it for Council information with the City’s Proposed Budget.
The Council then received extensive public comment with the most comments received related to housing (especially affordable housing and the unhoused), climate action implementation, tree ordinance concerns, code enforcement, and infrastructure needs.
After a brief break, the facilitator and City staff reviewed and updated prior information regarding the City’s severe fiscal challenges for the years ahead, including not only extensive capital project and one-time needs, but also simply maintaining essential core services. The Council was aware of the challenges and prepared to address them during the budget Pacifica City Council 3
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discussions this year. It was recommended and agreed to retain Goal 1 - Enhance organizational and fiscal stability - as the City’s top priority as necessary to achieve any other goals and strategies.
Based on Council feedback received prior to the workshop, the Council then discussed an overall sense of exhaustion felt by every member of the Council, and by the staff and public as well. This shared exhaustion has resulted from not only the significant issues facing the City, but also the length and frequency of Council meetings, repeated delays in decision making, and a focus on consensus rather than resolution. The facilitator highlighted that even more significant challenges lie ahead during the next year, including:
• Tackling the fiscal challenges and difficult decisions, as previously discussed; • Council and staff leadership transitions through December; and • Ongoing significant policy issues and projects.
Although the Council’s annual teamwork session will be held following the arrival of the new City Manager, the facilitator highlighted a number of items carrying forward from last year’s Governance Workshop for mayoral and Council consideration, as detailed in the workshop PowerPoint, The Mayor and Council discussed possible Council meeting improvements and agreed to try them during the upcoming meetings. In addition, City staff will try additional approaches to both respond to Council inquiries in advance and to avoid loss of daytime staff capacity due to prolonged and frequent Council meetings.
After lunch the Council focused on reviewing the Strategic Plan Goals one-by-one.
Recommend deletions were accepted and possible additions were proposed. All changes requested by a majority of Council are included in the attached revised Strategic Plan summary, all under Goals and Strategies on page 2 (Attachment 1). A ‘red-lined’ version is also attached for easy identification of proposed changes (Attachment 2).
Several added clauses are included under various Strategies based on the Council’s discussion. However, the facilitator has suggested that these may best be addressed in the Work Program rather than as focused items within the Strategies. Staff request Council discussion and direction on placement of these focused items, whether within the Strategies language or as Work Program items.
Pursuant to Council discussion and direction, City staff recommends Council adoption of the updated City of Pacifica 2023 to 2030 Strategic Plan as provided in Attachment A.
Following the Council’s review of the Goals and Strategies, the facilitator again summarized the strategic plan best practices, many of which have been embraced by Pacifica:
• Posting the Mission, Vision, Values, Goals and Strategies on the City’s web page, around City Hall and other City facilities open to the public, and in the City Council Chambers.
• Incorporating the Strategic Plan in the City’s budget and other guiding documents. • Refer to the Strategic Plan Goals and Strategies as appropriate in Council staff reports. • Provide periodic updates on the Strategic Plan at Council meetings or in semiannual staff reports. • Council consideration of which Strategies to delay or drop when providing midcycle direction on new or emerging priorities. • Conduct annual reviews and updates to the Strategic Plan, focusing on achievements and changes related to the Strategies for each Goal. It is not uncommon in other agencies to drop and add Strategies each year in furtherance of Pacifica City Council 4
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the Strategic Plan.
At the end of the workshop, each Council member and the Council appointees were asked to submit and anonymously read a single top priority for Pacific during the year ahead. The responses included the following, in no particular order. • Implement a broad-based community wide long term visioning process for Pacifica’s coast in support of LCLUP certification
• Provide sustainable staffing with an average number of employees doing an average amount of work for an average check
• A bathroom at Fairmont Park, please!
• Guide Pacifica to a more sustainable future for the community we serve • Watch Pacifica continue to succeed!
• Take care of each other
• Assure that staff and Council have the support needed to make the City Manager transition go as smoothly as possible.
The City Council’s action on proposed updates to the Strategic Plan will be the culmination of a thorough and thoughtful consideration of the challenges and opportunities facing the City of Pacifica and will provide a guide for achieving the Council’s Vision and Goals for the City.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no direct or immediate fiscal impact associated with the City Council’s adoption of the Strategic Plan. However, the Strategic Plan will serve as the Council’s guide for allocation of resources in the budget process and for staff’s prioritization of work given limited resources.
ORIGINATED BY:
City Manager's Office
ATTACHMENT LIST:
Attachment 1 - PacificaStrategicPlanSummary-ProposedUpdate2026 (DOCX) Attachment 2 - PacificaStrategicPlanSummary-ProposedUpdates2026 - REDLINE (DOCX)