Encinitas approves $10K for survey
North County Times – Escondido,CA,USA
ENCINITAS —- The Encinitas City Council on Wednesday authorized spending
$10200 to survey residents on their satisfaction with City Hall. …

ENCINITAS —- The Encinitas City Council on Wednesday authorized spending $10,200 to survey residents on their satisfaction with City Hall.

The vote was 4-0. Councilwoman Teresa Barth was absent on a long-planned trip.

“This will give us an annual report card,” said Councilman Jerome Stocks. “How are we doing? How are we serving you? I think that’s really valuable information.”

Before any of the 300 telephone surveys are conducted, however, a subcommittee of Barth and Stocks will collaborate with staffers and an Oregon-based consultant to develop 30 questions.

The consultant, Moore Information Inc., did a telephone poll of 300 Encinitas residents in December 2005. The results revealed overall satisfaction with services, although a number of residents complained about road conditions and responded that City Hall could do a better job delivering information to the public.

That survey provided a baseline, Stocks said, and future surveys would offer comparative data.

Moore proposed to the council that the survey could be tailored to gather public opinion on overall sentiment about Encinitas and satisfaction with services, the city government and its elected officials. The survey also could query residents about local issues.

The survey would build off a 34-question poll done in 2005, but could be expanded to cover new subjects, according to the Moore proposal.

Once started, the survey and drafting of a report would take about three weeks to complete. The survey design and all data collected would become property of the city.

“Your agreement should have conditions with how they set up the study and the deliverables you should get from them,” activist Kevin Cummins told the council.

That kind of oversight would be the role of the subcommittee, Mayor James Bond responded.

In 2005, the survey’s sampling error was plus or minus 6 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. That means that if the survey were repeated 100 times, in 95 of those cases, responses would not vary more than the sampling error.

Surveyors questioned people from each of Encinitas’ five communities who said they were residents and older than 18.

The 2005 survey showed that beaches and the weather were what most respondents liked best about living in the city.

Most of the positive responses came from residents who had lived in Encinitas for 10 years or less.

The city paid $10,000 for a survey of 300 residents in 2005.

The price has increased by $200 for this year’s survey, and for an additional $1,200, the city can add 10 more questions to the poll.

Council members seemed disinterested.

“They can come back and ask us for the money,” Councilman Dan Dalager said. “I’m not willing to give them any extra now.”