City Council
Staff Report
From: City Manager
Report Type: ACTION ITEMS
Lead Department: City Manager
Meeting Date: January 24, 2026
Report #:2511-5584
TITLE
City Council Retreat: Discussion and Selection of the 2026 City Council Priorities and Ad Hoc Committees. CEQA Status -- Not a Project.
RECOMMENDATION
City Council discussion and adoption of 2026 Priorities and planned Ad Hoc Committees.
BACKGROUND
Each year the Council reviews and establishes its priorities at its Annual Council Retreat. A Council priority is defined as a topic that will receive particular and significant attention during the year1 . There is a goal of no more than three to four priorities per year. The Council’s 2025 Priorities are:
Climate Action and Adaptation, & Natural Environment Protection Economic Development & Retail Vibrancy
Implementing Housing Strategies for Social & Economic Balance Public Safety, Wellness & Belonging
The City Council has reviewed and adjusted its approach to annual priority setting in each of the past few years. In 2024, the City Council discussed making priorities more strategic and extending priorities and their strategies to a two-year cycle to allow more time to achieve 1 City Council Procedures and Protocols Handbook, page 36:
https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/files/assets/public/v/6/city-clerk/city-charterprocedures/2024-adopted-council- protocols-and-procedures-manual-10.2024.pdf
Council goals.3 In 2025, the City Council incorporated review of ad hoc committees into priority setting.4
ANALYSIS
The plan for the City Council’s Annual Retreat has been updated following the feedback from the January 12, 2026 study session5 and in consultation with the Mayor. This report outlines and provides context for the planned discussion.
Amy Howorth from MRG will serve as facilitator. The retreat will begin with welcoming remarks by the Mayor, who will go over retreat intention and focus for the day. During introductions, each Council member will reflect on the question “what surprises you about being a Councilmember?” Public comment will follow this item.
Discussion and selection of priorities
Discuss key inputs
Staff will present key inputs to inform the Council’s discussion of 2026 priorities, including the Community Survey on 2026 Council Priorities (Attachment B) and an initial staff compilation of potential 2026 priority objectives (Attachment A). The draft objectives represent staff’s initial identification of projects that are high priority and will require substantive City Council involvement. All are intended to reflect SMARTIE (Specific, Measurable, Realistic, Time-bound, Inclusive, and Equitable) framing. These projects are organized into Group 1, Group 2, and Staff Not Recommended, as defined below:
Group 1: Objectives that are mission-critical and must be achieved to meet legal, operational, safety, or strategic requirements. Would require active management and regular reporting.
Group 2: Value-adding initiatives that are important, improve quality or advance longer- term goals, but flexible in timing and dependent on capacity or completion of Group 1 priorities. These do not create immediate risk if delayed. 3 City Council Meeting 1/16/2024:
https://cityofpaloalto.primegov.com/meetings/ItemWithTemplateType?id=3921&meetingTemplateType=2&comp iledMeetingDocumentId=8890
4 City Council Meeting 1/13/2025:
https://cityofpaloalto.primegov.com/meetings/ItemWithTemplateType?id=6814&meetingTemplateType=2&comp iledMeetingDocumentId=12765
5 City Council Meeting 1/12/26:
https://cityofpaloalto.primegov.com/meetings/ItemWithTemplateType?id=10217&meetingTemplateType=2&com piledMeetingDocumentId=18242
Staff Not Recommended: Objectives in this category are not recommended to be part of the 2026 list of objectives, for a variety of reasons including staff capacity, feasibility challenges, or work is already underway.
These key inputs, along with the 2025 Community Survey report, will serve as foundational information to support the Council’s work of defining the 2026 priorities and areas of focus.
Discussion of terminology and process for selecting priorities The Council discussed options for framing its 2026 priorities during a January 12, 2026 study session, and reached consensus on the need to be more focused and intentional within the existing framework. The Council noted that the 2025 priorities are very broad, while the associated objectives are highly specific, indicating interest in an intermediate layer to help guide Council focus within each priority area while providing flexibility for staff. During this segment of the retreat, the Council will discuss nomenclature to better define its priorities and goals. The current definitions in the Council Procedures and Protocols Handbook include:
Priority: a topic that will receive particular, and significant attention during the year. Council value: an enduring goal and intention to guide the work of the Council, which allow and maintain enduring intentions while also selecting annual priorities that reflect short-term projects and goals.
Objective: A discrete project or milestone intended to be achieved within the year.
Additionally, the Handbook articulates a goal of no more than three to four priorities per year with a two- to three-year time limit, and that Council can identify two to three specific objectives within a priority.
Selection of 2026 priorities
Once the Council reaches consensus on nomenclature for its 2026 priorities, it will proceed with identification and prioritization process, which may involve selecting a subset of objectives identified by staff or articulating higher-level goals for the year.
Discussion of Council ad hoc committees and other strategies to achieve goals.
The retreat provides an opportunity for Council to engage in a discussion of how it should allocate its limited time to advance agreed-upon priorities. This is specifically applicable to the selection of ad hoc committees, which would logically corollate to the work of advancing City Council priorities. To begin that discussion, similar to last year, Council would discuss the following questions:
1. How does the Council envision its engagement in advancing the Priorities? If involving ad hoc committees, what should be the scope and goals for these committees? Last year, the Council continued its strategic approach to advancing its identified priorities, including identification of ad hoc committees to advance specific goals. In 2025, there were four ad hoc committees in addition to the Council’s Standing Committees (Finance, Policy & Services, Council Appointed Officers, and City/Schools Liaison). The ad hoc committees selected at the 2025 retreat included:
Climate Action & Sustainability
Cubberley
Rail
Retail
In addition, over the course of the year several other ad hoc committees were established:
Downtown housing plan & SB79
Oversized vehicle regulation
Synthetic turf
Valley Water Shoreline funding reallocation
The Council Handbook defines ad hoc committees as a temporary advisory committee limited to a single purpose and is not intended to be perpetual but rather to be dissolved in a finite period of time, once its specific task is completed. The Handbook also states that if an ad hoc does not complete its task by the end of the calendar year, it shall not continue unless reappointed by the new Mayor in the following year. The City Council should discuss ad hoc committees for 2026. Should the City Council wish to maintain high visibility on issues, alternatives to ad hoc committees that balance councilmember and staff resources, and capacity include periodic information reports and/or use of existing standing committees. Staff recommends Council determine the ad hoc committees for 2026, reducing the number of ad hocs committees to align with the number of Council priorities (no more than 3-4).
Next Steps
The final item on the agenda will close the retreat with discussion of follow-up required. This may include finalization of objectives for the year as well as 2026 Standing Committee workplans.
FISCAL/RESOURCE IMPACT
Selection of Council priorities for 2026 does not have a direct fiscal impact. However, the implementation of these priorities and associated work plans involves significant allocation of financial and staff resources. Any new programs identified at the retreat may require resourcing consideration through the FY 2027 Budget Adoption process. Additionally, staff will evaluate the resource impact of the identified priorities as part of the development of the Five-Year Capital Improvement Plan and identify major variables and funding needs to advance the Council’s vision.
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
The community was solicited for their input and suggestion regarding Council priorities through the Open City Hall survey platform from December 18, 2025, through January 11, 2026, as well as email communication to the City Council directly through [email protected].
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Council action on this item is not a project as defined by CEQA because the Council Retreat and discussion on the 2025 Priorities is a continuing administrative or maintenance activity (general policy and procedure making. CEQA Guidelines section 15378 (b)(2).
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A: 2026 Potential Priorities & Objectives
Attachment B: Community Survey on 2026 Council Priorities APPROVED BY:
Ed Shikada, City Manager