After 10 months of work, Cincinnati officials have a new process for reviewing the performance of the city manager. Currently it's Patrick Duhaney.
The plan involved work with an outside facilitator that included interviews with the city manager, mayor and council members.
Duhaney said he appreciates the effort. He said expectations for his performance are in a single document.
"That basically serves as the administrative strategic plan," Duhaney said. "And basically this plan kind of codifies the different priorities that the mayor and council say strategically, this is what the administration should focus on."
Duhaney, in a written memo, said the process has several goals:
- To strengthen the alignment and relationship between the mayor, council and city manager.
- To provide a consistent mechanism for annual performance evaluations.
- To identify performance objectives for the city manager at the outset of each fiscal year.
- To provide formal feedback to the city manager, identify areas where improvements may be needed, and also to help him to develop his functional and leadership skills
Consultant Harry Kangis helped come up with the plan. He says an important part of it is setting the right priorities.
"And when you have 10 different individuals, all kind of chiming in, there is a cacophony that comes from that in terms of how does one leader such as the city manager, know what to do if they have 10 bosses, and each of them are kind of singing a different tune?" Kangis said. "So that's something that we're trying to sort out here."
Duhaney's progress will be measured each fiscal year, with a formal review near the end of June.
