Laserfiche WebLink
Ms. Arocha said she is not sure and explained that they would have to reanalyze all past data sets, <br />which would have a cost associated with it. <br /> <br />Councilmember Howell asked what baseline is used for weighting the data and how they would <br />rate someone who checks ‘race not listed’ versus any of the other races that are listed. <br /> <br />Ms. Arocha said they use the most recent census and community survey data available to perform <br />the weighting. She explained that for any of the weighting questions when the answer is not <br />specific, it is given a weight of 1 and they do not do any adjustments for this person's response. <br /> <br />Councilmember Howell asked about the weight of all other races versus ‘race not listed.’ <br /> <br />Ms. Arocha explained that for rating purposes in most of their communities, they divide the data <br />into categories of white and not Hispanic, and not white and/or Hispanic. She noted that they rarely <br />see enough responses outside of these two categories to create a whole new category. She added <br />that they do not want to give the respondents outside of these two categories too much weight. She <br />added that historically, all of the other non-white responses are less than 10% of the total responses. <br /> <br />Councilmember Musgrove asked how Ramsey’s data is used to provide the City information as <br />well as compiling a database for Polco. <br /> <br />Ms. Arocha explained that this data is reflected in the City’s reporting. She added that they have a <br />benchmark database that consists of around 500 communities, and they are able to compare <br />particular communities' data against the national database. <br /> <br />Councilmember Musgrove asked if this data is ever sold. <br /> <br />Mr. Arocha said no and that they have a privacy policy. She noted the only time they ever share <br />data sets is with the communities they work with. <br /> <br />Councilmember Musgrove asked about the purpose of collecting this data for the database of <br />communities. <br /> <br />Ms. Arocha said it is to provide benchmark comparisons to communities and aid in digesting the <br />data. She added that these benchmarks are very valuable to clients so they can see how they <br />compare to other communities. She noted that they can also use this data to compare communities <br />on a regional level rather than national. She said they have a number of clients in the Twin Cities <br />that want to see how they compare to other Minnesota cities. <br /> <br />Councilmember Musgrove asked if the unweighted data is the same as raw data. <br /> <br />Ms. Arocha said yes. <br /> <br />Councilmember Musgrove asked if it was possible to start a new trend line with just the raw data. <br /> <br />City Council Work Session / April 23, 2024 <br />Page 2 of 7 <br /> <br />