Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Manager’s Office

Date:	October 16, 2006
To:	David Corliss, City Manager
CC:	Debbie Van Saun, Assistant City Manager
From:	Casey Liebst, Budget Manager
RE:	Recommendation for a Citizen Survey

Please place the following item on the City Commission agenda for consideration at their October 24, 2006 meeting:

Recommendation to proceed with negotiations for a contract to complete a Citizens Survey.

Background

During our work with Management Partners to develop a set of performance measures, a number of measures were identified that called for obtaining citizen input regarding their level of satisfaction with the services we provide.  In September, a Request for Proposals for the development and conducting of a citizen satisfaction survey was distributed to appropriate vendors. 

Seven responses were received and reviewed by a committee made up of staff from Finance, Public Works, and the City Manager’s Office.  Based on the experience of the firm, the project approach, timeline and cost of the services outlined in the RFP, the committee selected two finalists – ETC Institute and National Research Center. Responses were also received from Evergreen Solutions, Northwest Research Group, Perspectives Consulting Group, Vantage Marketing Research, and Hay Group Insight.

The committee has checked the references ETC provided and the timeliness and quality of their work has been repeatedly confirmed by those references.  The committee is also confident in ETC’s ability to perform based on our recent experience working with them on the employee satisfaction survey.

Project Scope, Timeline, and Budget

ETC Institute proposes administering a survey using a combination of mail and telephone to gather a sample size of 900.  They also provide the option to make the survey available on the internet.  ETC will tabulate the data and present a final report to the City’s management team and the City Commission.  The proposed timeline for the project from the initial meeting to discuss the survey goals and objectives until the formal presentation of the survey results is 12 to 14 weeks.  The proposal also contains a number of optional services such as stakeholder interviews, benchmarking analysis, and geo-coding of data. 

The proposal contains a cost range from $7,620 for a ten minute survey with only 400 responses and no optional services, to $42,750 for a 20 minute survey with 1200 responses and all the optional services.    The final budget for the project will be determined through the course of negotiation. It will vary based on the sample size, the length of the survey instrument, and the optional services we determine to be the most appropriate for our needs.  Based on initial review, it will likely be somewhere between $20,000 and $25,000.  Funding will be provided by a combination of funds, given the variety of departments involved in the survey.

Action Request

The committee recommends the City Commission authorize the City Manager to enter into negotiations with ETC Institute for a contract for services for completion of a customer survey based on the following:

¦ Experience and familiarity with Kansas municipalities;

¦ Extent of their client base which will provide us with the ability to benchmark our performance;

¦ Extremely positive references they received;

¦ Recent work for the City conducting the employee satisfaction survey;

¦ Project approach using both mail and phone to administer the survey;

¦ Ability to tailor the sample size and length of survey instrument to best suit our needs;

¦ Optional services they can provide;

¦ Ability to return a final product in 12 to 14 weeks;

¦ Pricing structure (“ala carte” nature) of their proposal

The committee would further recommend the City Commission give the City Manager authority to negotiate with National Research Center, should negotiations with ETC be unsuccessful.