Cincinnati City Manager Sheryl Long will get feedback on her first full year on the job soon.
Cincinnati City Council is beginning its annual review of the city manager. They'll be assessing Long on her performance in 10 key areas, as well as asking her to report on her priorities for the year ahead.
"This evaluation of the city manager is our public declaration of our values and our priorities," Councilmember Reggie Harris said. "As the city manager is talking to city employees, city employees are also hearing from council, 'These are the things we're looking for her to lead on.' "
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The areas councilmembers will be focusing on as they review Long's performance are:
- Public safety and health
- Growing economic opportunities
- Thriving neighborhoods
- Fiscal stability
- Excellent and equitable service delivery
- Management, recruitment, retention, employee morale, major hires
- Government efficiency and use of data
- Relationship with council and the mayor
- Internal and external communication
Long will complete a self-assessment in early November. Afterward, council will consider her responses and discuss her job performance. They'll do so in their Budget and Finance Committee, which includes all councilmembers. That discussion could go into executive session since it involves employment matters.
After that discussion, Councilmembers Liz Keating and Jeff Cramerding will write a public report on council's assessment, which is scheduled to be released Dec. 4.
Keating has also suggested council bring back a practice first introduced by then-Councilmember Jeff Berding in 2006: a three-member committee charged with continuously reviewing the city manager at regular intervals throughout the year.
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"I've been here for almost three years now, and we've never done that," Keating said. "So just throwing it out there that previous councils have found that effective and productive."
There's an ordinance on the books calling for three council members to serve on the committee overseeing the manager, but it hasn't been used for a number of years. The city's law department told council it would need to research the matter further before issuing suggestions about that approach.