Watertown council signals move to public performance discussions for city manager

Mayor (unnamed) and several council members told the Aug. 4 meeting they intend to hold more public discussions about the city manager position, performance goals and succession planning. The mayor summarized work done in the past year, including a midterm review committee and a succession-planning committee, and said the council's oversight of the city-manager role should be more transparent. The mayor said city-manager discussions do not automatically require executive session and that "performance goals and things like that are entirely appropriate for the city of Watertown to know about." The council described a plan to give the city manager roughly a month to meet with stakeholders and set proposed goals; council and staff will then discuss the manager's goals publicly and only use executive session for matters that meet the statute's confidentiality exceptions. Council members emphasized the intent to make the process public to the extent allowed by law while preserving necessary confidentiality for HR or legal matters. The city manager said he is preparing draft objectives to present publicly at the next meeting or by early September.