P. O. Box 561, Wilton, CA 95693 916-261-7547 www.Solutions-MRG.com November 21, 2025
To: Palo Alto CAO Committee
From: Dan Rich, MRG Consultant
Re: Summary of 24-25 Performance Evaluation Process
It has been my pleasure to once again work with the CAO Committee, the full Council and the four CAO’s to facilitate the performance evaluation process this year. The purpose of this agenda item 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 changed somewhat from the original one shared with the Committee back in May.
The process was more or less the same as the previous year, but included the Auditor this year.
Similar to last year, the Committee developed specific “prompts” for each CAO to respond to in their self-evaluations (fine-tuned from the previous year). There were also changes to the questions posed to Council as part of the 1:1 interviews to better align with the prompts this year. At the closed sessions with each Appointee, the meetings were designed to be longer and have more dialogue.
At the December 10 meeting, the Committee can discuss what worked well this year and what changes might be appropriate for next year. Some possible topics to consider include:
Can the timeline be compressed more
Should the prompts for the CAOs be reduced or changed
Should the questions posed of Council be reduced or changed Should the structure of the closed session with the appointees be altered Should the Auditor be handled differently given the unique nature of the position Is there a way to better align calendar year Council priorities with FY CAO goals The CAOs will be at the meeting and might have thoughts on these or other topics.
Attachment - final process timeline
cc: CAOs
HR Director
P. O. Box 561, Wilton, CA 95693 916-261-7547 www.Solutions-MRG.com PALO ALTO 24-25 CAO EVALUATIONS – FINAL 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.
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.
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 – 8/19
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.
9/4
Dan distributes draft performance evaluations, goals, salary information to City Council (including CAOs salary “requests”).
9/12 Council comments on draft performance evaluation, goals, salary information due back to Dan.
9/18 Updated evaluations distributed to Council.
10/1 Final evaluations distributed to CAO’s (after first closed session).
P. O. Box 561, Wilton, CA 95693 916-261-7547 www.Solutions-MRG.com Date Action
Sept. – Nov.
Closed Sessions:
9/29 – Review of draft evaluations
11/3 – City Manager
11/10 – City Attorney, City Clerk, City Auditor and compensation Late Nov. Following approval from the CAO’s, MRG routes final docs via DocuSign for Mayor.
Late Nov. Schedule 30 min debrief conversation for MRG and CAO’s Council approval of Employment Agreements for CAOs
Dec 10 CAO Committee to meet and debrief on the process