top of page

Understanding the City Manager Evaluation Process

As residents of our city, you have a right to know how your local government is run and how our top officials are held accountable.

 

When the City Commission conducts the City Manager’s annual performance evaluation, citizens often ask: "Why can't we see the results?"

 

Montana law balances the public's right to know with an individual's right to privacy. Because of this, personal job performance reviews are legally confidential.

 

However, while the final "report card" is private, the expectations, categories, and metrics should be 100% public information.

What is the City Manager Evaluated On?

As part of this review, we looked for publicly available documents describing how the City Manager's performance is evaluated.

 

Specifically, we looked for annual goals, measurable performance indicators, evaluation criteria, and public reports showing progress toward organizational priorities.

 

We were unable to locate a public-facing document that describes the performance criteria used to evaluate the City Manager.

 

If the City has adopted a formal evaluation framework, we welcome the opportunity to include it here.

As an example, these are the objective performance categories established by state municipal guidelines and the International City/County Management Association (ICMA)

📁 1. Fiscal Management & Budgeting

  • The Goal: Responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

  • The Metric: Preparing a balanced budget, controlling expenses, and aligning spending with Commission priorities.

 

👥 2. Organizational Leadership & Staff Relations

  • The Goal: Effective oversight of city personnel.

  • The Metric: Maintaining staff morale, hiring qualified department heads, and ensuring smooth operations across police, fire, and public works.

 

📜 3. Policy Execution

  • The Goal: Turning community vision into reality.

  • The Metric: Successfully carrying out the goals, ordinances, and infrastructure plans passed by your elected City Commission.

 

💬 4. Community Relations & Public Service

  • The Goal: Responsiveness to the public.

  • The Metric: Treating citizens, local business owners, and the media with professional respect, and addressing community complaints efficiently.

 

🏛️ 5. Commission-Manager Relations

  • The Goal: Objective, non-political partnership.

  • The Metric: Providing prompt, transparent, and equal information to all elected commissioners so they can make informed decisions.

 

🚀 6. Progress on Annual Strategic Goals

  • The Goal: Meeting specific milestone targets.

  • The Metric: Hitting targeted deadlines for major local projects, such as affordable housing initiatives, street repairs, or water system upgrades.

These are the two publicly available documents related to the City Manager's evaluation.

Livingston Enterprise Article--6-month evaluation (June 6, 2023)

Livingston Enterprise Article--Annual evaluation (Dec 5, 2025)

 

Questions 
 

  • What specific performance goals or evaluation criteria does the City Commission use to evaluate the City Manager each year, and are those criteria available to the public?

  • If the City's Organizational Strategic Plan expired at the end of 2024, what goals or strategic priorities is the City Manager currently being evaluated against?

  • Will the Commission consider adopting a public performance dashboard or annual report so residents can see how the City is progressing toward its priorities and how the City Manager's performance is being measured?

bottom of page