Hayward City Council convened a special strategic roadmap retreat on March 8 to review departmental capacity, midyear deliverables and a forthcoming public project dashboard intended to track progress on council priorities.

City Manager (staff member) framed the event as a work session and reminded participants that “this is a work session, so no formal city council action will be taken,” while department heads presented brief updates to guide council priority‑setting for FY2026.

The retreat featured a demonstration of a project dashboard staff said will be public and updated quarterly. Mary Thomas, who led the session facilitation, said the tool will show objectives, project lists, percent complete and Gantt charts and allow staff to tag projects that implement multiple plans (for example, the capital improvement program and climate action plan). Thomas said staff expect a live public launch by June and that quarterly prompts will request status updates from project managers.

Department heads highlighted accomplishments and continuing gaps. City departments reported completing or advancing dozens of roadmap projects, while noting a number of multi‑year projects remain in progress or on hold because of funding or staffing shortages. The city manager’s office said the roadmap review will be completed in a second session: staff will present a pre‑survey of council priorities, incorporate council feedback and return with a revised package ahead of final FY26 budget decisions.

Council members asked questions about dashboard content and cross‑referencing with the capital improvement program. Department staff said the dashboard will allow tagging so a single project appears where it supports multiple plans.

The retreat was also used to gather further direction from council on strategic priorities and to surface resource constraints across departments before staff finalize budget proposals and proposed implementation timelines.

Looking forward, staff will circulate materials summarizing today’s input, run the council pre‑survey and continue dashboard development for a public rollout later this spring.