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La Palma City reviews goals and process in annual goal-setting workshop
Summary
La Palma City held its annual goal-setting workshop with facilitator Jacob Green & Associates to review adopted goals, outline a four-step implementation process (adoption, budgeting, work plans, dashboards) and prepare for a closed-session city-manager evaluation; no formal policy votes were taken.
La Palma City held its annual goal-setting workshop on an unspecified date, convening the city council and staff with facilitator Jacob Green of Jacob Green & Associates to review and refine the city’s goals and objectives.
The session focused on keeping the city’s existing vision while improving implementation. Jacob Green opened the workshop by noting this was JGA’s third year working with the council and outlined why periodic strategic reviews matter: “Organizations are no different… to keep it operating at that high level, it needs to come off the road and be inspected,” he said, arguing the process maintains alignment rather than fixing dysfunction.
Green presented a four-step approach the council and staff will use: (1) this council workshop to confirm vision and goals, (2) bring expectations to open session for public input and adoption, (3) modify the budget to reflect adopted goals, and (4) develop work plans and dashboards so the council, manager and staff can measure progress over time. The facilitator said work planning typically involves several weeks of staff effort and monthly dashboard updates.
Council members asked whether dashboards would be publicly visible. Green said dashboards are often internal tools to keep staff aligned, but the information can inform consistent public updates about project status.
The facilitator reminded the council that the closed-session portion of the meeting would include a discussion of the city manager’s performance, which is permitted under California meeting rules for personnel evaluations. Staff later confirmed there was no reportable action from earlier closed sessions.
The workshop proceeded into a goal-by-goal review where staff summarized progress and recommended minor updates, with an emphasis on “evolution, not revolution” so as to preserve organizational stability. The meeting adjourned for a short break before moving to closed session.
The city did not take formal legislative votes on new policies during the workshop; the focus was on implementation steps, clarifying responsibilities, and preparing the adopted goals for budgeting and work-plan integration.
