Council reviews city manager evaluation plan and scoring; asks for comment by Dec. 31

The council discussed a proposed city manager evaluation process that would use separate surveys for council, department heads and a manager self-evaluation, drawing from ICMA and other municipal best practices. The Chair said the goal is to create a repeatable annual process; staff proposed a timeline for comment, compilation by HR, and an executive-session review in January.

Council members debated scoring definitions. Some members worried that labels such as "developing" could be read as negative and suggested clarifying definitions so all reviewers apply ratings consistently. One councillor proposed adding a separate "does not meet" category to reduce ambiguity; the group agreed to add that label and asked staff to craft definitions. Council set a deadline of Dec. 31 for revisions to the draft questions and scheduled a follow-up review in January with survey distribution to follow.