A week or so ago, I was one of 600 lucky city registered voters to receive a call from Summit Research out in Phoenix, Arizona. A nice woman asked me some 37 questions about life in Hartford.

Some were straightforward, like "Do you believe homeownership in Hartford has increased in the last year?" Others were a little more in depth, such as "Do you think the Hartford City Council is doing an excellent, very good, average or poor job?"

My favorite, though, had to be "Are there any city services you feel can be reduced or eliminated to avoid raising taxes? If yes - which?"

I suggested halving the mayor's salary. Had I known during the interview that the city had spent $20,000 on this survey, I would have suggested eliminating the survey.

For me, the closed nature of the interview limits the quality of information the city can glean. Like on the education interrogatory: "Do you believe public education in the city of Hartford is getting better, worse or staying about the same?"; I answered getting worse.

To be fair, I wanted to add detail, i.e. I know several middle school teachers who see immense issues with the mainstreaming of special education students, and I believe that impacts the overall quality of education.

But my interveiwer said I couldn't digress, so my answer of getting worse lacks qualification. And as I answered the questions, I had a vague memory of completing this survey before.

I needed answers of my own. Mayoral aide Susan McMullen said indeed, I had been phoned before, about a year ago. According to the RFP for the project, the city wanted the questions asked a year apart, and then they will compare the data.

JE Associates of Silver Springs, MD won the low bid. And the more detailed the questions, the more expensive the survey.

"The cost of the poll increases with the number and type that you ask," McMullen said.

JE sub-contracted the survey stuff to Summit Research, and JE will analyze the data. The info will help the city determine its budgeting priorities.

Urban renewal experts call the trend performance-based budgeting, McMullen said.

"Citizen input is a crucial part," McMullen said. The survey helps "if you want to know that the citizenry is satisfied in particular areas or where you have deficiencies and where you want to target."

The 2001 survey showed large citizen dissatisfaction with the quality of streets and road infrastructure, she said.

"Reflected in the budget were extra funding devoted to that area," McMullen

says. "It is citizen feedback."

The citizens called come from a database of registered voters, and JE only received a list of phone numbers, McMullen said. No names.

"They call a sample until they get the number that is needed," she said. "We give them basic democgrahpics form the census, the breakdowns of percentages we want to see by race, ethnicity, age and gender. They just keep calling until they hit as close to those numbers as they can get."

The survey also asks what neighborhood you live in, your education level, if you have high speed internet, and if you have children in the school system.

I wondered if 555 Main might save some money and possibly do youth development work simultaneously by hiring City Scan to do this work. Like, why couldn't we train a bunch of high school students to door knock city homes and ask the same questions?

This is just McMullen's opinion, but she said: "It is not the kind of things where you could bring in kids and have them make calls. It is something that has be done in a timely fashion and professionally. And you need to analyze the data. You can use those other types of orgs to enhance it, at least you have a road map that you are starting with."

City Scan may be able to help in other ways, perhaps with focus groups, she said. But, the city has to protect the anonymity of the survey responders.

"If you could get a data file back as to the peple who answered one way or another, that would be a way City Scan could help," she said. "City Scan might ask ‰ðûI understand that you felt this way in response to a recent survey, could we ask you a few questions in regard to that.' The issue would be how uncomfortable would people feel."

Call me crazy, but I know dozens of people who would gladly sit down for free in a focus group, reveal their names and all that, and tell the city exactly how it should spend its money. I don't see the need for anonymous surveys done by out of state companies to tell us where we need to shift budget priorities.

I respect the concept of reaching out to citizens, but there have to be better ways. I, for one, can't wait to see the data for the current survey when it is released in mid-December.

11/22/05

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