Agenda - Council Work Session - 11/20/2007

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3- CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION' Topic Report: Discussion of Community Survey By: Heidi A. Nelson, Asst. City Administrator Background: , During recent Council work sessions, the idea of completing a community survey has been discussed, generally with regard to an open space referendum and a community center. As Council will recall, a community survey was last conducted in 1997. Information gleaned from that survey is attached for Council review. Staffhas solicited proposals from two firms to conduct a new community survey, Decision Resources Ltd. and Eric Marquardt (referral from CM Look). The proposal from Decision Resources is attached for review. As of the writing of this report, staffhas not received a response from Eric Marquardt. In summary, Decision Resources proposes to do a survey of a statistically significant group size (generally about 400 for our population size). In order to assess the support and willingness to pay for an open space referendum, a community center, and also gauge resident satisfaction with city services, Decision Resources recommends a survey length of90-110 questions (about 30 minutes per contact). Decision Resources would not be ,willing complete a survey that required contact with every household in the city. The second firm mentioned, Eric Marquardt, would conduct a survey contacting every household. Staffhas also researched other firms that will call every household. Generally, these are more commonly used for "get-out-the-vote" surveys and three to five questions are asked of each household and can be completed at a cost of about $1.00 per household. Action Statement: Staff is seeking direction regarding proceeding with a community survey, and if directed to proceed, what topics the survey should include. Also, staff would prepare a recommendation regarding a funding source for the project if di.,.ected to proceed. q