Cleveland Heights committee reviews proposal to repeat resident satisfaction survey

The Cleveland Heights Public Safety and Health Committee on April 22 heard a proposal from Ryan Murray of the ETC Institute to administer a new iteration of the city—s resident satisfaction survey, aiming to replicate and extend surveys the firm conducted for the city in prior years.

The proposal is intended to produce comparable trend data — including comparisons to 2014, 2016, 2018 and the city—s last full survey in 2020 — and to help council and staff track public-safety and other service priorities over time.

Murray told the committee ETC would treat the project as an iteration of prior work, using multimodal administration (mailed paper surveys with reply envelopes, an online questionnaire, phone follow-up and targeted social media advertising) and demographic benchmarking against U.S. Census data. He said the firm will not conclude survey administration until the completed responses reasonably match the city—s demographic composition and geographic distribution.

Murray also described geographic reporting based on census block groups rather than political districts, saying census units reduce perceptions of political bias in maps and allow consistent demographic benchmarking. He recommended offering at least Spanish online and on the cover letter; paper mailings in additional languages would add printing cost. He described an optional dashboard and GIS maps, cross-tabulations and trend charts comparing Cleveland Heights results to national and bespoke peer averages drawn from other ETC clients.

Committee members pressed on sample size, response rates and cost. Murray outlined standard sample-size tiers: 300, 400 and 500 completed surveys, noting margins of error decrease with larger samples (about 5% at 400). He said the base price for a 300-completed-survey package that includes a webinar presentation, GIS maps and key demographic cross-tabulations would be roughly $16,000—$17,000; the firm will deliver larger completed-sample counts if the city helps promote the survey through its own channels but the base contract price does not change.

Several members raised concerns about the survey being used for political purposes during an election year. Murray said data can be used by political actors and recommended, if the city wishes to minimize that risk, administering the survey after the November election; he outlined a post-election timeline that would seek survey approval by Oct. 15, mailings the week after the election, administration through November (possibly into December) and a report in mid-January. He also said the firm can proceed on an earlier calendar if the committee prefers.

Committee members expressed preference for census-block reporting and agreed to include the webinar, GIS maps and cross-tabulations in the proposal; staff follow-up was requested to confirm dates and internal capacity to assist promotion.

Murray said ETC aims to maximize demographic representativeness and reduce response bias while offering flexibility in benchmarking and reporting. No formal vote was taken; the committee left next steps to follow-up with staff and the consultant.

The committee discussion covered methodology, language access, sample-size tradeoffs, estimated costs and the political risks of publishing comparative satisfaction measures during an election cycle.