Town Manager Performance Evaluation Process
Town of Chapel Hill
Adopted By Town Council __________
Purpose
The Town Council is responsible for conducting an ongoing performance evaluation process for the position of Town Manager. The purpose of this process is as follows:
Process
This process will follow an annual cycle beginning with the Town Manager’s employment anniversary date. The Town Council will meet, in closed session, with the Town Manager three times a year to execute this process. (As an example, if the anniversary date is in September, meetings would be held in February, June and October)
First Session (February, for example):
Focus: Developing a shared, written agreement of the Manager’s Performance Objectives for the next year. All relevant Town Council documents and actions should be considered as input to these Performance Objectives. (e.g, the Comprehensive Plan, Budget and Strategic Plan.) Performance Objectives should include specific, measurable action items (the “what”) as well as the values, knowledge and skills needed to deliver them (the “how”). Based on these documents and other input from the Council, the Manager will propose a set of objectives to be reviewed and modified by the Council in discussion with the Manager.
Second Session (June, for example):
Focus: Evaluating performance against agreed upon Objectives and modifying Objectives as appropriate based on current conditions (e.g., Budget approval and allocation of resources).
At the end of each quarter, the Manager will provide a written update of progress against each Objective. This document should be the basis of discussion to assure that there is strategic alignment between the Town Manager and the Town Council. Town Council should assure that all Objectives remain relevant, add any new ones as appropriate and re-prioritize, if necessary. The Town Council must assure that any committed resources are still available. Any resetting of Objectives should also be closely tied into the Strategic Planning process.
Third Meeting (October, for example):
Focus: Annual Performance Evaluation and Salary Consideration.
Feedback should be gathered formally from Council. Council should evaluate both the “what” and the “how” aspects of the Objectives. Feedback from Senior Management Team should also be gathered at this time for developmental purposes. Community feedback can also be considered. The Town Council should conduct its salary consideration in this meeting. Finally, the annual review should include some discussion of the Town Manager’s development plan for the next year, with Council giving guidance to Manager based on experience from the previous year.
Other considerations
The Town Manager evaluation process should align with the process that the Town Manager uses to evaluate town staff. This process should be owned and executed by the Town’s Human Resource Development department, who must ensure that it is designed and implemented in an efficient, fair and consistent manner.
In each annual cycle, it is imperative that the Town Manager be evaluated against the agreed-to Performance Objectives.
The Council may consider using an outside, neutral, facilitator to facilitate the three review meetings. Human Resources should assure that the process is well documented.
Time guideline for the first two meetings is ninety minutes each.
The annual performance evaluation meeting should be at least three hours.
It should be noted that this formal, annual review process, is not intended to displace the informal, ongoing discussions between the Town Manager and any individual Council member. Any Council member should feel free to provide feedback on a one-to-one basis, or to request more information on any specific action item, on an ongoing basis.