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Newport News to run National Community Survey in April-May to inform strategic plan
Summary
City staff and Polco presented a probability-based National Community Survey the council approved for April–May, using a 4,000-household sample with an open participation option and bilingual materials to inform the city's next strategic plan.
City officials told the Newport News City Council that the city will conduct the National Community Survey (NCS) in April and May to gather resident input for its next strategic plan.
Marlon McDaniel of the Office of Innovation said the survey will provide a "scientifically valid, data driven" snapshot to help set priorities and benchmark Newport News against peer communities. Brandon Barnett of Polco described the survey instrument, sampling method and planned outreach.
Polco said the NCS is a standardized instrument covering more than 140 community-related questions organized into 10 facets of livability. The firm plans a probability-based sample of 4,000 randomly selected household addresses derived from USPS listings and the city's GIS boundary files. Polco will use the birthday method to select a respondent within sampled households. Mailings will include an invitation postcard, a cover letter with a six-page questionnaire and a postage-paid return envelope; all mailings will also offer an online response option. In the final weeks of collection, Polco will run an open participation (self-selection) survey so any resident can respond.
Barnett said the city will weight survey responses to match city demographics using age, race, Hispanic origin, housing type and housing tenure and that results will be processed using SPSS, R and Python and delivered in Tableau and PDF formats. Polco is proposing standard add-ons: a Spanish translation of the survey, one-and-a-half pages of custom questions, and custom benchmark comparisons in addition to national benchmarks.
Council members asked about review of the final survey instrument and geographic balance. Councilman Long asked whether council would see the survey before distribution and whether the 4,000-sample would be geographically balanced. McDaniel and Barnett said council would have a review opportunity and explained that Polco will geocode the city address list, check district and subarea population percentages, randomize the household list, then re-geocode the final sample to confirm geographic distribution. Barnett also described oversampling of multifamily/renter households to improve representation of typically underrepresented groups.
City staff said the outreach plan will combine digital, traditional and in-person engagement and that a media kit and materials will be provided to council and the public before mailings begin. Staff emphasized the survey will be one element in a broader community engagement program that city leaders expect to inform both the strategic plan and future budget cycles.
Provenance: Excerpts from the council meeting transcript show the city manager introducing the survey presentation and Polco's Brandon Barnett describing the NCS methodology and follow-up Q&A.
