Review & Amend Preliminary Resident Survey

Purpose of Case:
Review and amend preliminary resident survey.
 
Background (resident survey):
During the 2013 Strategic Planning process, discussion ensued related to initiating a resident surveying process.  Generally speaking, survey results would benefit the City in a wide range of applications.  However, relating to the Strategic Plan specifically, a resident survey allows the City to clearly analyze organizational performance measurements; including, the City's Strategic Plan balanced scorecard. 

Background (case):
Council reviewed this case a number of times, starting in October of 2013, and most recently in April 2014.  As a result of these discussions, the Council selected a 'Third Party Mail' survey method for a regular resident survey program; and directed Staff to select a broker and develop a draft survey for Council review.

Funding/Budget
$7,500 was budgeted in 2014 for a resident survey.  Furthermore, the City participates in the State of Minnesota's "City/County Performance Measurement" (CPM) program.  Annually, the State allocates about $3,350 to the City of Ramsey for performance measurement related costs.  In summary, the City has about $10,850 in funding budgeted for a resident survey in 2014.  If additional funding is required, survey questions specifically related to individual departments or enterprise funds can be allocated accordingly.

Staff Comments
--Staff has selected the National Research Center (NRC) to perform a "Third Party Mail" survey. This organization is based out of Colorado and is backed by the International City/County Managers Association (ICMA).  Quotes were obtained from five firms.  The NRC was selected based on competitive pricing, quality of product and experience working with municipalities.

--Attached to this case are two surveys: (1) the original/template survey provided by the NRC; and (2) a revised survey--known by the NRC as a "custom" survey.

--The revised or "custom" survey includes preliminary changes/amendments suggested by Staff.  With direction received from this meeting, Staff anticipates conducting a detailed review of the revised survey; with more amendments and format modifications. 

--As the Council may recall, the original/template survey was included in previous cases.  Initial feedback provided by the Council was to reduce the size of the original/template survey.  The attached revised survey includes about 40 less questions than the original/template survey (hence the white space at the bottom of each page).

--The attached survey does contain a number of demographic questions.  In review of the original/template survey, Staff was concerned with the need/rationalization for so many demographic questions.  After discussion with the NRC, it is Staff's understanding demographic questions are needed in order to attain statistically significant results.  The NRC is able to provide statistically significant data by comparing results from Ramsey's survey to U.S. Census data.

--Also included in this case are standard postcard and cover letters utilized by the NRC.  Staff has not reviewed/revised these documents.  If the City Council would like to provide feedback at this meeting, Staff would invite high level/preliminary comments.  These documents will also be brought back at a later date.

See "Purpose/Background" section above.

Administration Department, Patrick Brama

General/preliminary direction regarding survey questions and format.