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The Cal Cities City Managers Conference in Hollywood this year was busy, rainy and productive. In between downpours, Tripepi Smith had the opportunity to moderate three panels covering artificial intelligence, crisis communications and facilitating difficult community discussions. Our team also supported the 300+ attendee California City Management Foundation (CCMF) dinner where the food and the venue were simply astounding. Give credit to the CCMF Board for always wanting to ensure the dinner and venue quality matches that of its valued members.
One of my big takeaways this year was realizing that cities are clamoring for goal setting facilitation. It is a service our TS Talent Solutions division has provided for a couple years, but this year, as we head toward budget season, it was on the minds of many city managers.
Setting goals for cities is considered a best practice. The process helps the city council define their priorities for the next one to three years and sets a direction for city staff to execute. Setting organizational goals helps make it clear to the public and city staff what the council wants to accomplish. It also forges an agreement of sorts between the council and city manager that declares: “these are the broad strokes of what we want to do this year and how we will measure your success and the success of staff.” It is an important “agreement” that creates a framework for the council to evaluate progress and for the city staff to remain focused rather than being pulled into many other non-priority projects. Setting goals and then declaring them to the public is also effective in bringing your community members along with the city’s work and vision.
Of course, February’s city manager conference was on the precipice of starting the budget process - or deep into it for some cities - so having goals in mind prior to budget season is helpful timing. Indeed, most cities like to hammer out goals between December and March so they can align the new fiscal year budget (usually July to June each year) to match the goals the council has agreed upon for the coming year. It makes logical sense and also helps city staff be responsive to the city council’s needs and desires during the budget process. And if you want some community engagement in that goal setting process, then you are likely going to want to start even earlier - think September or October of the prior year.
Goals are a way to align teams and make progress. Goals should be bold enough to move the needle, but not so unattainable as to ensure failure (don’t make balancing the federal budget or resolving unfunded state mandates a goal for the next year). Choose goals with some reasonable aspiration and within the capacity of your organization, then let your city hall team deliver. As the staff delivers, they will gain confidence, elected officials will celebrate collaboration and the community will gain trust in the city. Everyone wins.
At Your Service,
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