Cal Cities seeking proposals for fire chief and municipal finance conferences

Apr 6, 2022

The League of California Cities is seeking unique, forward-looking topics for two December conferences, the Fire Chiefs Leadership Seminar and Municipal Finance Institute. Both events take place at the Hyatt Regency Monterey, Dec. 7-8, 2022.

Cal Cities’ member-led programming committees are looking for thorough, thoughtful, and complete proposals for sessions that would help city leaders to improve their communities, leadership abilities, and knowledge. Submissions from individuals, groups, businesses, and organizations on any topic of interest are welcome.

Fire Chiefs Leadership Seminar

The Fire Chiefs Leadership Seminar will bring together 150 California fire service professionals, including fire chiefs, chief officers, and union leadership for two days of education and peer-to-peer sharing. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Leadership
  • Topics for new fire chiefs
  • Firefighters Procedural Bill of Rights Act
  • Conflict resolution and accountability
  • Employee discipline, investigations, conflict resolution, and how to determine "appropriate" discipline for behavior correction
  • Labor management relations
  • The fire chief's relationship with city council members
  • Succession planning
  • Emergency response
  • COVID-19 related challenges
  • Late-breaking changes in emergency management services
  • And other related, challenging topics

The deadline to submit a proposal is Tuesday, May 31, 2022. Session proposal tips, along with last year’s schedule and session materials are available on the Fire Chiefs Leadership Seminar webpage.

Municipal Finance Institute

Designed for city officials and staff involved in fiscal planning for municipalities, the Municipal Finance Institute connects finance directors and other municipal finance professionals with the essential information they need for their job.

Finance professionals who hold a license as a California Certified Public Accountant through the California Board of Accountancy may be eligible to earn Continuing Professional Education credits during the institute.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Leadership
  • Housing and development fees
  • Public finance and how cities can raise revenue, including via voter-led initiatives
  • How to manage costs, find efficiencies, and other best practices
  • Unfunded pension liability strategies
  • Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement No. 87
  • And other finance manager topics

The deadline to submit a proposal is Thursday, June 23, 2022. Session proposal tips and previous session materials are available on the Municipal Finance Institute webpage.

General call for proposals instructions

Member-driven and member-led programming is a cornerstone of Cal Cities’ educational activities. Over 95% of all programming comes directly from Cal Cities’ open calls for proposals. Cal Cities encourages session proposals that are creative and modern in their programming and format.

Session proposals will be evaluated by a diverse group of Cal Cities members through an online survey. Proposals are evaluated on their broad appeal, topic timeliness, originality, innovation, interactivity, creativity, supporting evidence, the ability to provoke discussion or thought, and the absence of product or vendor commercialization.

Only proposals submitted online will be considered. There is a limit to the number of words for each proposal’s title and description. Be sure to read the instructions carefully when submitting as requirements differ between session types.

For questions, please email Conference Program Manager Katie Pebler.