LTC 287-2004 Citizen/Public Opinion Survey
CITY OF MIAMI BEACH
Office of the City Manager
Letter to Commission NO.287-2004
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Date: NovembEf~J 5, ~04 0
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Subject:
Mayor David Dermer and
Members of the City Commission
Jorge M. Gonzalez \ - /'
City Manager 0 ~
CITIZEN / PUBLIC OPINION SURVEY
To:
From:
The purpose of this LTC is to advise the Mayor and City Commission on the next steps
involved with the citizen / public opinion survey that will be conducted for the City of Miami
Beach. By way of background, at the October 13, 2004 City Commission meeting, the City
Commission authorized the Administration to enter into negotiations with the Hay Group to
conduct a citizen / public opinion survey.
The Hay Group, an internationally recognized survey research firm with 29 years of proven
experience, will conduct focus groups and phone surveys (in both English and Spanish) to
develop, improve and implement strategic goals and objectives for the future of the City.
The goal of the survey is to determine the City's current level of service; identify key
strengths; provide opportunities for improving the public's satisfaction and quality of life;
benchmark the City to similar jurisdictions; and to create a baseline to track the City's
progress over time. When completed, this process will help determine whether we are
meeting our community's needs and wants and whether our current five-year vision and
strategy plan are indeed the right ones based on the feedback we get. The ultimate goal of
the citizen/public opinion survey process is to positively impact community satisfaction and
willingness to recommend the City as a place to live, work, visit, and play. All information
obtained by the Hay Group will be kept confidential and private.
The Hay Group shall achieve the following goals and provide the following services for the
City through its citizen/public opinion survey:
. Design a survey process that determines the current level of satisfaction with the
City, the services it provides to its constituents, and identifies key strengths and
opportunities for improvement
. Determine whether the priorities identified in the 5-year vision/strategy plan are
indeed the 'right' ones based on feedback from constituents (including
implications/recommendations to the vision/strategic plan)
. Ensure that the survey reaches the City's ethnically diverse citizenry and obtains a
representative survey sample
. Design a sampling plan that will produce survey results with a 95% level of
confidence (with a +/-5% margin of error), using the most efficient survey
administration methodology (-ies) to generate the highest response rate in the most
cost-effective manner
· Use normative data to compare the City's survey results with data from comparable
jurisdictionslorganizations for benchmarking purposes, in order to, identify, quantify,
and prioritize gaps, if any, between the City's survey responses and responses from
benchmark jurisdictions
· Provide recommendations for improving satisfaction and quality of life
· Create a baseline that can be used to track the City's progress over time in
improving satisfaction and quality of life
Representatives from the Hay group are scheduled to meet with each of you individually
later this week to discuss the survey and the next steps involved in the process as well as
solicit your feedback. When you meet with these representatives, please feel free to ask
any questions you may have regarding the process.
The focus groups will take place on the evenings ofTuesday, November 16, Wednesday,
November 17 and Thursday, November 18. We have been working with the Hay Group to
get the word out to encourage residents to participate in these focus groups. All residents
that ultimately take part in this process have been randomly selected by the Hay Group.
Information gathered at these focus groups will be used to help design the survey
questions, types of questions, response options, and administration methodology
preferences for the survey and process. The focus groups will help identify the City's
unique service issues and the dimensions by which the public view services, the City's
vision and their overall satisfaction. Each session generally includes 10 to 12 participants
from diverse backgrounds. Sessions last approximately two hours and shall be facilitated
by one group facilitator and one note taker from the Hay Group.
In addition, the Hay Group will conduct focus groups with a representative sample of
businesses and civic organizations, as their needs and view of the City's vision and
services will undoubtedly be diverse from the views of citizens.
Finally, the Hay Group will conduct focus groups with City employees who have high
contact with City citizens, businesses and civic organizations to provide deeper insight into
the perceived strengths and obstacles they face in dealing with the City's various
constituency groups and further guide the development of the survey instruments.
Once the survey questions are developed, but before the surveys are conducted, the
questions will be shared with each of you. The phone surveys are scheduled to begin on
Monday, November 29 and will target randomly selected residents I households. Surveys
for the business community and civic organizations will be conducted by mail to randomly
selected businesses and organizations.
When the Hay Group representatives meet with you they will share additional information
about the survey questions and how the questions will be administered.
If you have any questions or need additional information, please feel free to contact me.
JMG\ri
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