Milpitas survey: 86% satisfied with quality of life; housing costs and street conditions top concerns

Kurt Balo of FM3 Research presented the Milpitas 2025 citywide community engagement survey to the Milpitas City Council on Jan. 21, 2025, telling the council that 86% of respondents said they were satisfied with the city—s overall quality of life while three quarters identified housing costs and inflation as "extremely" or "very" serious problems.

The survey, conducted by FM3 between late 2024 and early 2025, interviewed 647 residents and reported a margin of sampling error of about B1 4 percentage points for the full sample. Balo said the research used a randomly selected household sample matched to phone and email contacts and offered language options; some questions were split across half-samples, raising the margin of error on those items to roughly B1 6 percentage points.

Why it matters: Council members and staff said the survey will be used to help set priorities for the coming budget cycle and for operational decisions. Balo recommended looking for persistent outliers to guide follow-up work; council members focused questions on road repair, affordable housing policy results, and how to interpret the hypothetical budget-allocation exercise included in the survey.

Survey highlights included: - Quality of life: 86% satisfied (majority positive across historical tracking). - City services: Roughly three-quarters said they were satisfied overall; 78% reported satisfaction with city services on a direct question. - Public safety: 92% approve of fire department performance; 82% approve of police. - Cost-of-living concerns: About 75% said housing costs are an extremely or very serious problem; similar proportions flagged inflation and rising costs. - Roads and paving: While many services scored high for satisfaction, paving and road repair showed a notable mismatch: more than 90% of respondents rated road maintenance as extremely/very important but only about 61% said they were satisfied with the city—s performance on that item. - Milpitas Smart (local shuttle): 49% said they were at least somewhat familiar with the service; 21% said they had used it at least once and 4% said they had used it many times.

FM3—s methodology and reaction: Balo emphasized that the sample was weighted to mirror Milpitas— adult population demographics and warned against over-interpreting small year-to-year shifts within the stated margins of error. "Look for the outliers," he said, recommending officials focus on items with both high importance and low satisfaction, notably street conditions and affordable-housing policy satisfaction.

Council response and follow-up: Council members pressed staff on specific slides and interpretations. Council member Evelyn Chua questioned a slide that presented a hypothetical distribution of a $100 budget and asked whether residents might misunderstand it as showing actual city spending; the assistant city manager and FM3 clarified the slide was a hypothetical prioritization exercise, not the city's actual budget allocation. Director of Finance Lou Scafresi and Assistant City Manager Matt Cano said staff would use the results in the February budget process and in upcoming departmental briefings, including an HR presentation on recruitment planned for February.

The city manager and councilors also discussed communications: several council members urged expanded outreach to explain city programs where many respondents answered "don't know," and noted the survey supports existing council priorities such as public safety and capital maintenance.

Next steps: Staff said they will incorporate the survey findings into the budget calendar, bring department-level briefings (including recruitment/hiring and road-maintenance planning), and consider targeted community outreach on items that had large "don't know" responses or marked dissatisfaction levels.