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Regular City Council Meeting <br /> Monday,January 13, 2014 <br /> Page 21 <br /> data, only 35% of the population were shown to be in that same category. Ms. <br /> Clink questioned if that indicated an oversampling of the demographic or if it was <br /> not proportionally representing the City. However, a survey was designed, Ms. <br /> Clink opined that is was important to determine how to design it to get a repre- <br /> sentative sampling of the City. <br /> Ms. Clink further opined that it was important for either a phone or written survey <br /> to note not only age range, but also ethnicity; and to provide a way to receive re- <br /> sponses from those not having English as their first language. Ms. Clink also ad- <br /> dressed a 42 minute time commitment for a phone survey, opining that even given <br /> her interest in the community she would be hard pressed to commit that amount of <br /> time. <br /> Roger Hess (spoke previously) <br /> Regarding a phone survey, Mr. Hess noted that many people no longer had land <br /> lines, and how to access those people via cell phone would need to be addressed. <br /> Regarding addressing those in the community not speaking English, Mr. Hess <br /> opined that this also needed to be addressed to provide them an opportunity to <br /> speak. Mr. Hess opined that the previous survey didn't mean much, and spoke in <br /> support of a written survey of 20-30 questions, or using the community newslet- <br /> ter's front page to survey residents, along with online or mail in options in order <br /> to receive a larger sample of the entire community. If the City wanted to perform <br /> a smaller phone survey, Mr. Hess opined that the City would still receive more in- <br /> formation from a written survey and broader group, with a narrower number of <br /> generic questions, and several questions specific to current subjects. <br /> Additional City Council Discussion <br /> Mayor Roe thanked the speakers for their thoughtful comments. <br /> Mayor Roe noted that survey companies were getting more sophisticated in link- <br /> ing to other phone; and expressed consideration for addressing other languages <br /> with surveyors. Regarding the representative sampling, Mayor Roe noted that <br /> survey companies had a way to analyze data to weight answers and de- <br /> mographics, providing more weight to different groups if not responsive in <br /> providing more input. <br /> Councilmember Willmus suggested steps could be taken for a firm to broaden <br /> their demographic profile, and seek their input on what steps they would take to <br /> implement that. <br /> Councilmember McGehee suggested the chosen firm provide information to the <br /> City on response data, allowing the City to perform its own weighting as well. <br /> Mayor Roe pointed out, that to be a statistically valid survey, the company had to <br /> take that information into account; noting that they were the mathematicians al- <br /> lowing for a certain margin of error. <br />