Cal-ICMA Presidential Message— New Survey Now Open

Dear Cal-ICMA Members,

The Cal-ICMA Talent Initiative Committee is launching a new survey to support the next generation of leaders in California. While recent large-scale surveys have focused heavily on chief administrative officers (CAOs) and assistant chief administrative officers (ACAOs), this survey looks further into the talent pipeline to better understand the professionals who may become our future local government managers. city and county managers.

The findings will directly inform the Talent Initiative and help shape future programs, events, and articles and other resources designed to serve future government leaders and strengthen California’s local government leadership pipeline.

Please take a few minutes to complete the survey by October 31, 2026. The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete and responses are confidential. Overall findings will be shared at future professional conferences and through Cal-ICMA & ICMA publications.

We also encourage you to share the survey with colleagues and others in your California professional networks so that we receive a broad range of responses from California professionals with different backgrounds, experiences, organizations, and career paths. This extended reach will help us develop a more representative picture of California’s emerging local government workforce.

Cal-ICMA looks forward to interpreting and analyzing the results and sharing them widely to help better serve the next generation of local government leaders.

If you have any questions, please contact Cal-ICMA at cal-icma@icma.org.