SUBJECT:
Title
Approval of Townwide Special Topic Survey
Department
DEPARTMENT: Communications & Community Engagement
Presenter
PRESENTER(S): Gabi Rae, Communications & Community Engagement Director
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Time
TIME ESTIMATE: 0 minutes
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For time estimate: please put 0 for Consent items.
Fiscal
FISCAL SUMMARY:
N/A
Policy
POLICY ISSUES:
The Council requested a survey on specific topics for the community, managed by a professional research firm. Council will now give final approval on the questions and the survey tool to facilitate policymaking decisions going forward.
Recommendation
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Approve the final draft.
Body
SUMMARY/KEY POINTS
• As agreed by a motion in the June 17 meeting, Mayor Moore and Council Member Hoback completed a final review of the survey.
• Based on the Friendly Amendment to the June 17 motion, this version of the survey must come back to the full Council for approval because of the removal of some questions.
• The attached final draft meets best practices for statistically valid questions and length according to the expert consultant team.
BACKGROUND OF SUBJECT MATTER:
The Council requested a standalone special topic survey to thoroughly explore issues of density, growth, affordable housing, funding facility and amenity construction, traffic, and other related topics.
On May 6, 2025, the Council met with a hired research and data analysis consulting firm to share topic areas for this survey. The consultants have created a draft survey for Council consideration which covers all requested topics as well as necessary demographic questions for community segmentation in the data analysis.
On June 3, the Council met to review the drafted survey, ask questions, and provide edits. The Council completed nearly half of the survey review on June 3 and continued the remainder of the review to June 17.
The Council completed edits to the survey on June 17, and made the following motion, “Motion to move forward with the survey. If there are any questions that come up that would prevent the final copy to be done, that Council Member Hoback and Mayor Moore work with the consultant to try to resolve those. And if those two cannot resolve those, then the survey would come back to the full Council.” A Friendly Amendment was then added that says, “Nothing will be removed without approval of Council.”
While Council Member Hoback and Mayor Moore were able to reach consensus, several questions were removed or shortened in this final version. The consultants agreed that the survey was pushing the limits for best practice on length of a successful survey. Some questions were removed to reach a more reasonable length, and other, more specific reasoning for each question removal is listed below. All references to question numbers (i.e. Question Tx) are based on Draft C which was last reviewed by the Council on June 17.
Removals from this final version:
• Question T8 - Question has been asked in past Community Surveys, and it was very similar to T9.
• Question T12 - This was a very lengthy question that is answered mostly with question T13. Future facility funding needs can be placed on a new survey with specific details.
• Question T16 - Cut due to length and concerns about the expectation setting here as we consider the Municipal Code and the legal boundaries for Council approvals of land use issues.
• Question T19 - Question cut because information from questions on homeownership and rentals should provide this data point.
• Questions T27 & T28 - Cut because the Town is not currently looking at a major change to maintenance best practices and processes. Could be asked again on a later survey if needed.
• Question T36 - Removed due to length.
• Question T45 - Removed because we are already very aware of this data point from the Census and it may not provide actionable information.
As requested by the Council, this survey will be available for every registered voter in Erie. Data analysis and a findings presentation will follow shortly thereafter.
priorities
TOWN COUNCIL PRIORITY(S) ADDRESSED:
☒ Attractive Community Amenities
☒ Engaged and Diverse Community
☒ Prosperous Economy
☒ Well-Maintained Transportation Infrastructure
☒ Small Town Feel
☒ Safe and Healthy Community
☒ Effective Governance
☒ Environmentally Sustainable
☒ Fiscally Responsible
attachments
ATTACHMENT(S):
1. Council Survey Final Draft