COUNCIL APPOINTED OFFICER COMMITTEE
Special Meeting
Monday, May 12, 2025
Council Chambers & Hybrid
4:00 PM
All Council Committee meetings will be held as “hybrid” meetings with the option to attend by teleconference/video conference or in person. To maximize public safety while still maintaining transparency and public access, members of the public can choose to participate from home or attend in person. Information on how the public may observe and participate in the meeting is located at the end of the agenda. Masks are strongly encouraged if attending in person. The meeting will be broadcast live on Zoom and on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/cityofpaloalto.
VIRTUAL PARTICIPATION CLICK HERE TO JOIN (https://cityofpaloalto.zoom.us/j/89296018574) Meeting ID: 892 9601 8574 Phone: 1(669)900-6833
PUBLIC COMMENTS
General Public Comment for items not on the agenda will be accepted in person for up to three minutes or an amount of time determined by the Chair. General public comment will be heard for 30 minutes. Additional public comments, if any, will be heard at the end of the agenda.
Public comments for agendized items will be accepted both in person and via Zoom for up to three minutes or an amount of time determined by the Chair. Requests to speak will be taken until 5 minutes after the staff’s presentation or as determined by the Chair. Written public comments can be submitted in advance to
[email protected] and will be provided to
the Council and available for inspection on the City’s website. Please clearly indicate which agenda item you are referencing in your subject line.
PowerPoints, videos, or other media to be presented during public comment are accepted only by email to [email protected] at least 24 hours prior to the meeting. Once received, the Clerk will have them shared at public comment for the specified item. To uphold strong cybersecurity management practices, USB’s or other physical electronic storage devices are not accepted.
Signs and symbolic materials less than 2 feet by 3 feet are permitted provided that: (1) sticks, posts, poles or similar/other type of handle objects are strictly prohibited; (2) the items do not create a facility, fire, or safety hazard; and (3) persons with such items remain seated when displaying them and must not raise the items above shoulder level, obstruct the view or passage of other attendees, or otherwise disturb the business of the meeting. 1 May 12, 2025
Materials submitted after distribution of the agenda packet are available for public inspection at www.paloalto.gov/agendas.
CALL TO ORDER
PUBLIC COMMENTS
Members of the public may speak in-person ONLY to any item NOT on the agenda. 1-3 minutes depending on number of speakers. Public Comment is limited to 30 minutes. Additional public comments, if any, will be heard at the end of the agenda.
ACTION ITEM
1. Discussion Regarding Council Appointed Officers (CAO) Annual Performance Evaluation Process Review and Goal Setting
FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
ADJOURNMENT
2 May 12, 2025
Materials submitted after distribution of the agenda packet are available for public inspection at
www.paloalto.gov/agendas
.
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Meeting ID: 892 9601 8574 Phone: 1(669)900-6833
Americans
with
Disability
Act
(ADA)
It
is
the
policy
of
the
City
of
Palo
Alto
to
offer
its
public
programs,
services
and
meetings
in
a
manner
that
is
readily
accessible
to
all.
Persons
with
disabilities
who
require
materials
in
an
appropriate
alternative
format
or
who
require
auxiliary
aids
to
access
City
meetings,
programs,
or
services
may
contact
the
City’s
ADA
Coordinator
at
(650)
329-2550
(voice)
or
by
emailing
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for
assistance
or
accommodations
must
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submitted
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of
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meeting,
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or
service.
3 May 12, 2025
Materials submitted after distribution of the agenda packet are available for public inspection at
www.paloalto.gov/agendas
.
California
Government
Code
§84308
,
commonly
referred
to
as
the
"Levine
Act,"
prohibits
an
elected
official
of
a
local
government
agency
from
participating
in
a
proceeding
involving
a
license,
permit,
or
other
entitlement
for
use
if
the
official
received
a
campaign
contribution
exceeding
$500
from
a
party
or
participant,
including
their
agents,
to
the
proceeding
within
the
last
12 months.
A
“license,
permit,
or
other
entitlement
for
use”
includes
most
land
use
and
planning
approvals
and
the
approval
of
contracts
that
are
not
subject
to
lowest
responsible
bid
procedures
and
have
a
value
over
$50,000.
A
“party”
is
a
person
who
files
an
application
for,
or
is
the
subject
of,
a
proceeding
involving
a
license,
permit,
or
other
entitlement
for
use.
A
“participant”
is
a
person
who
actively
supports
or
opposes
a
particular
decision
in
a
proceeding
involving
a
license,
permit,
or
other
entitlement
for
use,
and
has
a
financial
interest
in
the
decision.
The
Levine
Act
incorporates
the
definition
of
“financial
interest”
in
the
Political
Reform
Act,
which
encompasses
interests
in
business
entities,
real
property,
sources
of
income,
sources
of
gifts,
and
personal
finances
that
may
be
affected
by
the
Council’s
actions.
If
you
qualify
as
a
“party”
or
“participant”
to
a
proceeding,
and
you
have
made
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campaign
contribution
to
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Council
Member
exceeding
$500
made
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last
12 months,
you
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the
campaign contribution before making your comments.
4 May 12, 2025
Materials submitted after distribution of the agenda packet are available for public inspection at
www.paloalto.gov/agendas
.
P. O. Box 561, Wilton, CA 95693 916-261-7547 www.Solutions-MRG.com
April 14, 2025
To: Palo Alto CAO Committee
From: Dan Rich, MRG Consultant
Re: Kick-off of 24-25 Performance Evaluation Process
It is time to start the evaluation process for your CAO’s! As a reminder, last year included several changes in the process from previous years. Specifically, 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). And 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. Given where we were in the fiscal year, and the time it takes to develop good KPI’s, the priority was for the city manager, but the Attorney and Clerk also developed “non-binding” measures.
Based on last years’ experience, I would respectfully suggest considering a few additional changes for this year:
1. Better utilize Council’s adopted priorities to guide the process/evaluation
2. Fewer Questions for Council interviews
3. Better align CAO “prompts” with Council questions
4. Do interviews before the summer break
5. Fewer cities for salary comps
6. Have a higher bar for items making the written report (majority must have said it?) or have a “majority” report and an addendum with “other comments”
7. Better connect the Council identified “opportunities for growth” with the appointee’s proposed goals
8. Structure the closed session to focus more on two-way dialogue and to utilize the prompts
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I have updated the proposed appointee “guiding prompts” and the Council interview questions (changes from last year in red and strikeout) with those ideas in mind.
At the meeting, the Committee can get input from the appointees and then discuss the overall process. Specifically it would be good to leave the meeting with consensus on the timeline, appointee prompts and Council interview questions.
I look forward to having a dialogue with you, and getting clear direction from you, on May 12.
Attachments -
A. Proposed process timeline
B. Draft Appointee guiding questions
C. Draft Council interview questions
cc: CAOs
HR Director
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DRAFT PALO ALTO 24-25 CAO EVALUATION PROCESS TIMELINE
Date Action
5/12
CAO Committee meeting to review/finalize process (timeline and questions for CAO’s and Council to respond to)
5/16 MRG (Dan) send CAO’s brief update on the tentative 2025 Evaluation process.
Late May Verbal update on process to full Council by CAO Chair Stone at meeting 6/6
Process, timeline and self-evaluation prompts distributed to CAOs.
Sandra sends to Council.
7/17 CAO’s to provide Dan with self-evaluation.
7/21
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.
7/28 – 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.
9/15
Updated evaluations distributed to Council.
9/18
Final evaluations distributed to CAO’s (after first closed session).
Mid-Sept to Early-
Oct
Closed Sessions
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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 Council approval of Employment Agreements for CAOs
Nov. CAO Committee to meet and debrief on the process
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DRAFT - 4/11/25
QUESTIONS TO DRIVE THE PALO ALTO CAO EVALUATION PROCESS
Council would like the appointed officials to respond to some specific prompts in the self-evaluation, which will help focus the Council interviews and final evaluation:
a. What is your overall assessment of the state of the Palo Alto organization? b. What are your, and the organization’s, areas of strength and key achievements in the last fiscal year, particularly as called out in Council-identified priorities and the specific goals identified in your performance evaluation? c. What do you see as areas of concern or vulnerability (to include organization- wide and department-specific comments, but not personnel-specific). d. How are your direct reports performing? (for example: productivity, morale, collaboration, communication, recruitment, etc.).
e. What are your observations on the organization’s fiscal health (strengths and risks).
f. Are there regional, state, or national issues/trends that the City should be paying attention to? What are the trends you see within your purview that the City needs to be thinking about?
g. What is your characterization of the effectiveness of Appointed Official/Elected Official relationships (availability, responsiveness, communication, etc.) h. What are your specific suggested priorities for the coming year, and how would you measure their success (KPIs)?
i. What do you need from the Council in the next fiscal year and beyond to be successful?
j. What is your compensation “ask”?
k. What else would you like to share with the Council?
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CITY OF PALO ALTO
DRAFT CITY MANAGER 2025 EVALUATION – COUNCIL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Identify 2 – 3 areas where the City Manager and the City organization demonstrated extraordinary excellence in FY 23-24 from the self-evaluation.
2. What do you see as the top 2-3 STRENGTHS of the City organization (and City Manager) that should be leveraged in 24-25 from the past year?
3. How did the City Manager do on achieving Council’s priority goals and his stated priorities and KPIs for FY 24-25?
4. Does the City Manager have BLINDSPOTS or areas for development that should be addressed to help him grow in this role?
5. What are your observations on the organization’s fiscal health (strengths and risks)?
6. Does the organization face vulnerabilities that you can see?
7. How does the City Manager provide the elected officials with the support needed to govern effectively (availability, responsiveness, communication, etc.); are there specific opportunities or areas for him to grow?
8. Please share your perception of the City Manager’s leadership and how it effectively meets the needs of the organization and community (leading others, partnering, decisiveness/consensus decision making, developing a team, managing conflict, etc.).
Provide specific examples as possible.
9. Are you satisfied with the team contributions and collaboration of the City Manager, City Clerk and City Attorney? Do they work together effectively to further the City’s interests?
10. Is there any feedback (positive or constructive) you would like to provide about the operation of departments (not people specific)?
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11. How strong do you feel the City Manager’s technical competencies are (financial management, land use, etc.)?
12. How has the City Manager done in the past year in leading others?
13. How well does the City Manager anticipate issues and think strategically to address trends and long-term issues?
14. Are there any additional comments or suggestions that you would like to add concerning the City Manager’s performance over the past year (e.g., Fiscal Health, Community Vitality, etc.)?
15. Do you have any thoughts on What do you think are the top 2-3 issues the CM should specifically focus on as priorities for FY 25-26 and beyond?
16. Is there anything else you would like to share with me?
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CITY OF PALO ALTO
CITY ATTORNEY DRAFT 2025 EVALUATION – COUNCIL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Describe the regular communication you have with the City Attorney – what is working and what could be improved?
2. Are you satisfied with the verbal and written analysis provided by the City Attorney regarding active litigation, settlements and pending risk issues? What is working well and what could be improved?
a. Are you satisfied with the work of outside Counsel retained by the City Attorney?
3. Are you satisfied with the team contributions and collaboration of the City Attorney with the City Clerk and City Manager – as well as other departments? Do the CAO’s work together effectively to further the City’s interests?
4. What are the top 2-3 STRENGTHS of the City Attorney in the past year that should be highlighted?
5. How did the City Attorney do on achieving supporting achievement of Council’s priority goals and on achieving the stated priorities goals in last year’s evaluation for FY 24-25?
6. Identify 2-3 areas where the City Attorney and the office demonstrated exceptional performance in 2023-24 (from her self-evaluation, Council goals, or otherwise).
7. Does the City Attorney have any BLINDSPOTS or areas for additional development that should be brought to her attention?
8. Does the organization face legal vulnerabilities that you can see?
9. How strong do you feel the City Attorney’s technical competencies are (Brown Act, Public Records Act, land use law, etc.)
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10. How well does the City Attorney anticipate issues and think strategically to address trends and long-term issues?
11. Are there any additional comments or suggestions that you would like to add concerning the City Attorney’s performance to date?
17. Do you have any thoughts on what the CA should focus on as priorities for FY 24-25 and beyond? What do you think are the top 2-3 issues the Attorney should specifically focus on as priorities for FY 25-26 and beyond?
12. Is there anything else you would like to share with me?
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CITY OF PALO ALTO
CITY CLERK DRAFT 2025 2024 EVALUATION – COUNCIL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What do you see as the top 2-3 STRENGTHS of the City Clerk that should be leveraged in 24-25 from the past year?
18. Identify 2 – 3 areas where the City Clerk demonstrated excellence in FY 23-24 from her self-evaluation. How did the City Clerk do in achieving her goals for FY 23-24?
2. How did the City Clerk do on achieving Council’s priority goals and her stated priorities for FY 24-25?
3. How does the City Clerk provide the elected officials with the support needed to govern effectively (availability, responsiveness, communication, etc.); are there specific opportunities or areas for her to grow?
4. Does the City Clerk have BLINDSPOTS or areas for development that should be addressed to help her in this role?
5. Please share your perception of the City Clerk’s leadership and how it effectively meets the needs of the Council, her team, and community. Provide specific examples as possible.
6. Are you satisfied with the team contributions and collaboration of the City Clerk with the City Manager and City Attorney – as well as with other departments? Do the CAO’s work together effectively to further the City’s interests?
7. How strong do you feel the City Clerk’s technical competencies are (records management, Brown Act, etc.)
8. How well does the City Clerk anticipate issues and think strategically to address trends and long- term issues? Are there innovations you are looking for in the Clerk’s office?
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9. Are there any additional comments or suggestions that you would like to add concerning the City Clerk’s performance to date?
10 Do you have any thoughts on what the Clerk should focus on as priorities for FY 24-25 and beyond? What do you think are the top 2-3 issues the Clerk should specifically focus on as priorities for FY 25-26 and beyond?
11 Is there anything else you would like to share with me?
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