CITY OF SAN MATEO
CITY OF SAN MATEO
Agenda Report
City Hall
330 W. 20th Avenue
San Mateo CA 94403
www.cityofsanmateo.org
Agenda Number: 14 Section Name: {{section.name}} Account Number: 10-1311 File ID: {{item.tracking_number}} TO: City Council
FROM: Alex Khojikian, City Manager
PREPARED BY: City Manager's Office
MEETING DATE: May 05, 2025
SUBJECT:
City Council Priority List – Adoption
RECOMMENDATION:
Adopt the City Council Priority List for fiscal year 2025-26.
BACKGROUND:
The City Council goal setting process includes a three-step deliberation process resulting in the Adopted City Council Priority List for each fiscal year. The City Council Blue Sky workshop held on February 22, 2025, was the first step in this annual goal setting process. At that meeting, City Council received a status update on its 2024/2025 Fiscal Year Priority List, which contained 37 priorities within three timeframe categories. The categories represent expected completion within one fiscal year, 2-5 fiscal years, or 5 or more years. The List also includes a summary level work plan and estimated resource intensity for each priority. At the meeting staff made recommendations to remove, retain, or recategorize priorities based on their progress to date and work remaining. Staff was directed to:
•Remove completed items
•Make minor revisions to items that needed adjusting, such as pushing out the date of the EV fleet item from 2030 to 2035 for a more realistic completion schedule
•Combine a few related items such as those related to stormwater management and the lagoon; and, •Recategorize some items to reflect a more accurate completion schedule, such as completion of the new Wastewater Treatment Plant and completion of the Central Park Improvements.
In addition, the Council also heard a report on staff’s existing work plan items that are unrelated to formalized Council priorities but are a part of each department’s daily work. Further, each Councilmember presented three (3) proposed new priorities to be integrated into the list of Adopted City Council priorities for the new fiscal year and deliberated on whether they should be retained.
The April 21, 2025, meeting marks the second step in the process when the Council will be reviewing and providing final direction on the new draft 2025/2026 Fiscal Year Priority List. To assist in this conversation, Attachment 1 provides the full list of the original 37 Council priorities with a column on the far right noting where staff made noteworthy revisions based on status updates provided throughout the year or by Council at the Blue Sky meeting. Some minor changes have also been made since the Blue Sky meeting—for instance, an economic consultant was onboarded to assist with peer reviewing of mixed-use projects enabling the removal of former Priority #4. Also, the new proposed priorities that gained concurrence by at least three (3) Councilmembers are also integrated into this list and placed within the timeframe category where staff thought they were best suited. The new priorities are noted by the word “Added” in the far-right column and the new grand total for all priorities is 41. It is important to note that some of the proposed priorities were already accounted for in other work plan items and while they did not make it as stand-alone items, they are still
CITY OF SAN MATEO
accounted for in the Council priorities. Some examples include:
•Exploring how small/medium apartment complexes can increase in units is part of Housing Element implementation work
•Fire House 27 improvements are part of the City’s facilities assessment work •Exploring lagoon pump station options is part of the Stormwater Master Plan and is captured in former Priorities #5 and 31 (now #42).
•With the Business Improvement District Priority, it was more detailed than a similar existing priority, so it superseded the older priority.
The resource intensities included in the table remained largely unchanged for both existing and proposed priorities, as the projects are generally similar to how they were presented in February. For the existing priorities, the main revisions are related to timing/schedule and remaining work for the longer-term priorities which remain fairly resource intensive. As would be expected, the shorter-term priorities are less resource intensive either because they are nearly complete or just starting and entail primarily the exploratory or piloting phases of our work. Where the resource intensity is higher, it is generally indicative of a longer term priority that is nearing completion. Attachment 2 provides a clean copy of the new proposed Priorities.
At the meeting, staff will be available to answer any remaining questions and will be seeking final direction on the Priorities so we can proceed to the third and final step, which is to finalize and adopt the list as part of the City’s annual budgeting process. Tonight, we ask Council:
1. Do you have any final revisions to the verbiage of any of the priorities?
2. Do you have any final revisions to the category of any of the priorities?
3. Are there any priorities you wish to remove?
BUDGET IMPACT:
There is no budget impact from this agenda item. A majority of the resource requirements for the adopted Priority List are incorporated into the fiscal year 2024-25 budget proposal and the remainder will be brought back as needed, as the projects evolve following further analysis and Council direction.
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION:
This information update is not a project subject to CEQA, because it is an organizational or administrative activity that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes in the environment. (CEQA Guidelines Section 15378(b)(5).)
NOTICE PROVIDED
All meeting noticing requirements were met.
ATTACHMENTS
Att 1 – Draft Priorities Full Markup
Att 2 – Draft Priorities Clean
Att 3 – Post Packet Public Comment Received April 21st
STAFF CONTACT
Christina Horrisberger, Assistant City Manager
[email protected]
(650) 522-7210