City Manager Goals and Objectives

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Steve Adler
Posts: 533
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 2:12 pm

City Manager Goals and Objectives

Post by Steve Adler »

Council Members,

I am providing what I think captures our discussion in providing direction to City Manager Ott for next year's performance review from our last meeting. MPT Tovo assisted me with these notes. Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.

Steve
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Dear City Manager Ott:

While your personnel review process has taken longer than any of us had anticipated, the conversations have been very constructive at many levels. We’re close to completing now.

There is so much going so well for the City and my continued sense, since the beginning of the process, is that we are very thankful for your service. In our sessions together we have discussed and noted many things we believe you have done very well. Following the review, I’m sure that Council Members will make some form of individual statements.

This part of the process is now to identify the content of Section 6 of the personnel review. These are the goals or objectives and areas of requested attention and will serve as a starting point for next year’s evaluation.

Here is what I took from our executive session conversation. The Council will want you to review these points and suggest the best form for them to be included in Section 6. (Since the Council Members are seeing this message for the first time, too, they are encouraged to comment if any feel I have not captured well our conversation.)

Departments.

The Council would like you to be aware of performance challenges in departments and be more proactive about addressing those challenges before they rise to the level of being community-wide issues.

The Council would like you to be proactive about building community confidence is the following departments in particular:

Planning and Zoning
Austin Code

The following departments or projects are either getting new levels of funding, resources, or attention or are dealing with projects that the Council believes require special focus and significant progress:

Transportation
Housing and Community Development
Code Next
Spirit of East Austin
Equity Office
Austin Energy

Council and Manager (staff) relations.

The Council expressed a need for you to establish more defined yet flexible operating procedures/policies/or conventions as concerns the interaction between Council Members and their offices with City staff (at multiple levels) to increase the flow of information, information gathering, policy development assistance, teaching and education, as well as earlier notice of staff and city activities driving district changes and impacts. We recognize you will need to balance this Council need against staff needs to perform other aspects of their jobs.

General Substantive Areas of Priority Focus.

The Council would like you to prioritize the following substantive issue areas: homelessness, affordability, transportation, and economic development policies. This will require Council/Manager strategic planning and setting of appropriate goals, metrics, and prioritization.
Mayor