P. O. Box 561, Wilton, CA 95693 916-261-7547 www.Solutions-MRG.com
November 26, 2024
To: Palo Alto CAO Committee
From: Dan Rich, MRG Consultant
Re: Summary of 23-24 Performance Evaluation Process
It has been my pleasure to work with the CAO Committee, the full Council and the CAO’s to facilitate the performance evaluation process this year. The purpose of this agenda item #2 is to debrief on the process so that any desired adjustments for next year can be captured while still fresh.
As a reminder, attached is the final schedule for this year’s process, which did change a bit from the original one shared with the Committee back in June (and the timing/order of the closed sessions changed as well).
One of the main changes in the process from previous years was the Committee developed specific “prompts” for each CAO to respond to in their self-evaluations. There was also fine tuning of the questions posed to Council as part of the 1:1 interviews. And additional information was provided to Council prior to the interviews (Citizen Survey, City Values and Council priorities). At the closed sessions with each Appointee, the meetings were designed to be longer and have more dialogue. Finally, during the evaluation process, Council expressed an interest in the CAO’s developing “key performance indicators” (KPIs) for their 24-25 goals.
At the meeting, the Committee can discuss what worked well this year and what changes might be appropriate for next year.
Attachment - final process timeline
cc: CAOs
HR Director
P. O. Box 561, Wilton, CA 95693 916-261-7547 www.Solutions-MRG.com
Date Action
5/23 MRG (Dan) send CAO’s brief update on the tentative 2024 Evaluation process.
5/29 & 6/14
CAO Committee meeting to review/finalize process (review timeline and questions for CAO’s to respond to)
6/18 Verbal update on process to Council by Vice Mayor at meeting
6/20
Process, timeline and self-evaluation prompts distributed to CAOs.
Sandra sends to Council.
7/17 CAO’s to provide Dan with self-evaluation.
7/20
Dan sends Mayor & City Council self-evaluations and interview questions in advance of individual meetings, along with most recent Citizen Survey, City Values, and current Council priorities.
7/30 – 8/8
Dan to conduct interviews with Mayor and Council Members in a manner that meets their time and location requirements to gather their input and experiences with the three appointees.
Dan is available for in-person interviews or call/zoom
9/4
Dan distributes draft performance evaluations, goals, salary information to City Council (including CAOs salary “requests”).
9/11
Council comments on draft performance evaluation, goals, salary information due back to Dan.
9/13
Updated evaluations distributed to Council.
9/18
Final evaluations distributed to CAO’s (after first closed session).
Mid-Sept to Mid-Oct
Closed Sessions (first three all 2 hours)
1. September 16 – Review, finalize written evaluations
2. September 23 - Stump/An Yun
3. September 30 - Shikada
4. October 7 - Discuss compensation
P. O. Box 561, Wilton, CA 95693 916-261-7547 www.Solutions-MRG.com
Date Action
Mid-Oct. Following approval from the CAO’s, MRG routes final docs via DocuSign for Mayor.
Late Oct. Schedule 30 min debrief conversation for MRG and CAO’s * Dan/Doreen to schedule 30 min meetings
Nov. CAO Committee to meet and debrief on the process