ATTACHMENT A
PALO ALTO 24-25 CAO EVALUATION PROCESS TIMELINE
MRG
Date Action
CAO Committee meeting to review/finalize process (timeline and questions 5/12 for CAO's and Council to respond to)
MRG (Dan) send CAO's brief update on the tentative 2025 Evaluation 5/16
process.
June Consent Item to CC on process/timeline
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.
Dan sends Mayor & City Council self-evaluations and interview questions in 7/21 advance of individual meetings, along with most recent Citizen Survey, City Values, and current Council priorities.
Dan to conduct interviews with Mayor and Council Members in a manner that meets their time and location requirements to gather their input and 7/28 - 8/14
experiences with the three appointees.
Dan is available for in-person interviews or call/zoom
Dan distributes draft performance evaluations, goals, salary information to 9/4 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
Following approval from the CAO's, MRG routes final docs via DocuSign Mid-Oct.
for Mayor.
Schedule 30 min debrief conversation for MRG and CAO's
Late Oct.
Council approval of Employment Agreements for CAOs
Nov. CAO Committee to meet and debrief on the process
Final 5/15/25
QUESTIONS TO DRIVE THE PALO ALTO CAO EVALUATION PROCESS - Council would like the appointed officials to respond to some specific questions 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 (as it related to your role)?
b. What do you consider your key achievements in the last fiscal year, including as called out in Council-identified priorities and the specific goals identified in your performance evaluation (performance against goals, including KP's for the CM)? 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).
€ What are the trends you see from your vantage point and expertise that the City needs to be thinking about (regional, state, national, etc. issues that impact the City)?
g. What is your characterization of the effectiveness of Appointed Official/Elected Official relationships (availability, responsiveness, communication, open mindedness, etc.)
h. What are your suggested priorities for the coming year, and how would you measure their success (draft KPIs)?
i. What do you need from the Council in the next fiscal year and beyond to be successful?
÷ What is your compensation "ask"?
k. What else would you like to share with the Council?
CITY OF PALO ALTO
CITY MANAGER 2025 EVALUATION - COUNCIL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS MRG
1. What do you see as the top 2-3 strengths and achievements of City Manager from the past year?
2. How did the City Manager do on achieving Council's priority goals and his stated priorities for FY 24-25? Please be as specific as possible.
3. Does the City Manager have areas for development that should be addressed to help him grow in this role?
4. What are your observations on the organization's fiscal health (strengths and risks)?
5. Does the organization face vulnerabilities or challenges that you can see?
6. 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?
7. Please share your perception of the City Manager's leadership and how it effectively meets the needs of the organization and community (such as: vision, leading others, partnering, decisiveness/consensus decision making, developing a team, managing conflict, leveraging resources, etc.). Provide specific examples as possible.
8. How has the City Manager done in the past year in leading others?
9. Is there any feedback (positive or constructive) you would like to provide about the operation of departments (not people specific)?
10. How well does the City Manager 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 Manager's performance over the past year (e.g., Fiscal Health, Community Vitality, etc.)?
12. What do you think are the top 2-3 issues the CM should specifically focus on as priorities for FY 25-26 and beyond?
CITY OF PALO ALTO
MRG
CITY ATTORNEY 2025 EVALUATION - COUNCIL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. How satisfied are you with the verbal and written analysis, as well as advice, provided by the City Attorney regarding topic such as active litigation, settlements and pending risk issues?
a. Are you satisfied with the work of outside Counsel retained by the City Attorney?
2. What are the top 2-3 strengths and achievements of the City Attorney in the past year that should be highlighted?
3. How did the City Attorney do on supporting achievement of Council's priority goals for FY24-25 and on achieving the stated goals in her evaluation from last year? Please be as specific as possible.
4. Does the City Attorney have any areas for additional development that should be brought to her attention?
5. Does the organization face legal vulnerabilities or challenges that you can see? How well did the City Attorney do in spotting or bringing forward those or other challenges?
6. How well does the City Attorney anticipate issues and think strategically to address trends and long-term issues?
7. Are there any additional comments or suggestions that you would like to add concerning the City Attorney's performance over the past year?
8. What do you think are the top 2-3 issues the City Attorney should focus on as priorities for FY 25-26 and beyond?
CITY OF PALO ALTO
CITY CLERK 2025 EVALUATION - COUNCIL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS MRG
1. What do you see as the top 2-3 strengths and achievements of the City Clerk from the past year?
2. How did the City Clerk do overall in her achievements in the past year, and specifically in furthering Council priority goals as related to her position and her individual goals for FY24-25 (from last year's evaluation)?
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. 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.
5. Does the City Clerk have areas for development that should be addressed to help her in this role?
6. How confident are you of the City Clerk's technical competencies (records management, Brown Act, etc.)
7. 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?
8. Are there any additional comments or suggestions that you would like to add concerning the City Clerk's performance over the past year?
9. What do you think are the top 2-3 issues the City Clerk should specifically focus on as priorities for FY 25-26 and beyond?
CITY OF PALO ALTO
CITY AUDITOR 2025 EVALUATION - COUNCIL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS MRG
1. How satisfied are you with the verbal and written analysis provided by the City Auditor in the past year? Does anything in particular stand out?
2. Can you identify 2-3 areas where the City Attorney and the office demonstrated exceptional performance in 2024-25, focusing on items in the approved Annual Audit Plan.
3. Does the City Attorney have any areas for additional development that should be brought to her attention?
4. How confident are you in the City Auditor's technical competencies?
5. How well does the City Auditor think strategically to anticipate, identify and address key issues and risks in the organization?
6. Are there any additional comments or suggestions that you would like to add concerning the City Auditor's performance in the past year?
7. Do you have any thoughts on what the Auditor should focus on as priorities for FY 25- 26?
8. Is there anything else you would like to share with me?