HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report 2511-5566CITY OF PALO ALTO
Council Appointed Officer Committee
Special Meeting
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
4:30 PM
Agenda Item
1.Discussion, Debrief and Recommendation to the City Council Regarding the Council
Appointed Officer (CAO) Performance Evaluation Process; CEQA status – not a project
Council Appointed Officers Committee
Staff Report
Report Type: ACTION ITEM
Lead Department: Human Resources
Meeting Date: December 10, 2025
Report #:2511-5566
TITLE
Discussion, Debrief and Recommendation to the City Council Regarding the Council Appointed
Officer (CAO) Performance Evaluation Process; CEQA status – not a project
RECOMMENDATION
Review and debrief on the CAO performance evaluation process during FY 2025 and potential
recommendation to the City Council regarding changes prospectively.
DISCUSSION
The CAO Committee kicked off the FY25 annual performance evaluation process with an
overview and goal setting discussion on May 12, 2025. The City Council has now completed the
FY25 annual performance evaluation process to ensure that the Council Appointed Officers
(CAO) are meeting City Council objectives and priorities. The purpose of this agenda item is to
debrief on the process so that any desired adjustments for next year can be discussed and if
needed, incorporated into next year’s CAO performance evaluation process.
A summary of the 24-25 CAO evaluation performance process was prepared by Daniel Rich, the
Municipal Resources Group consultant who facilitated this year’s process. The summary memo
and timeline are attached (Attachment A).
FISCAL/RESOURCE IMPACT
Funding for annual CAO performance evaluation facilitation services is budgeted in the Office of
the City Clerk operating budget. Depending on the Committee’s recommendation, additional
resources may be needed to support the process.
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
This discussion item has been coordinated with the CAO Committee Chair, the professional
services consultant and internal stakeholders. Public comment will be available during the
Committee deliberations.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
ATTACHMENTS
APPROVED BY:
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