At the Culver City Council meeting on Jan 26, 2026, council unanimously approved the reorganization of the City Manager’s Office to align the executive leadership structure with the City Manager’s Fiscal Year 2026-2027 strategic priorities.
Over the past several years, the City’s work has continued to grow in both scale and complexity particularly in areas such as housing and homelessness, infrastructure investment, fiscal stewardship, and community-facing service delivery. These evolving demands have increased expectations on our organization and highlighted the importance of investing in leadership capacity, workforce capability, and long-term talent retention to sustain high-quality public service.
In response, City Manager Odis Jones evaluated the City’s executive structure, classifications, and leadership framework with the goal of better aligning our organization with City Council priorities, public-sector best practices, and the needs of our workforce. The approved changes are designed to strengthen enterprise-wide leadership capacity, reinforce accountability and coordination, and represent a deliberate investment in our people supporting talent development, retention, and succession readiness across the organization.
Key elements of the reorganization include:
Establishes a Senior Assistant City Manager role to serve as principal deputy and support coordinated execution across major service areas
Clarifies executive focus areas by creating new Assistant City Manager roles to align with Fiscal, Sustainability & Transparency and Economic Development, Vitality & Equity functional areas.
Elevates the Human Resources function to a Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) role to reflect expanded, enterprise-wide workforce and talent responsibilities
Creates a dedicated Performance Management function within the City Manager’s Office to ensure City Council priorities are translated into measurable outcomes and tracked consistently
Strengthens executive coordination and City Council support through a Senior Executive Assistant to the City Manager
The reorganization includes the planned development of aa formal executive performance management and pay-for-performance framework aligned with International City/County Management Association best practices.
This framework will emphasize clear goals, measurable outcomes, accountability, and continuous development, reinforcing a culture of learning, improvement, and professional growth at all levels of the organization.
The Adopted Budget for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 will support these changes without additional appropriation due to salary savings from existing vacant positions and the time needed to recruit for new positions. The costs for Fiscal Year 2026-2027 will be included in the upcoming budget and will be balanced by reductions in other areas. Likewise, any costs for the performance management and the pay-for-performance framework will be included in next fiscal year’s budget.
City of Culver City
