The Palm Springs City Council will meet for a closed session special meeting on Saturday, November 20 to discuss future goals and priorities and develop performance expectations for the city manager.
The 9:30 AM meeting has been planned for weeks. It will take place virtually. Residents are invited to participate in public comment via Zoom and can learn how to do that by visiting this site.
The special closed session meeting is critical in order to provide guidance and direction to the city manager so that the Council’s expectations are clearly defined and achievable for organizational success. It is also a unique opportunity to discuss balancing numerous programs, projects and initiatives competing for limited time and financial resources.
Prior to the meeting, city staff completed advance work polling residents, boards and commissions, and city staff to get additional perspective on priority areas. Councilmembers have also been interviewed by Jeanette Williams with the Centre for Organization Effectiveness, who will help synthesize information and present findings during the meeting. This input is meant to ensure the City Council has broad perspective from which to establish goals and priorities.
“The goal of establishing clear priorities is to ensure that the City Manager is
accountable to make progress on the most important items first, even if lower priority items receive less attention,” said City Manager Justin Clifton.
“This work is instrumental to creating high accountability for future performance evaluations and will lead to the development of a draft Strategic Plan document that will be presented to the City Council during an open, public meeting where community members will have the opportunity to comment and provide input.”
The goal is to have the city’s strategic plan adopted with additional direction to staff in advance of the fiscal year 2022 budget process, where staff will present options to fund any priorities that need additional resources.