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Georgetown plans December mailing for biennial resident survey with ETC Institute
Summary
City staff proposed a biennial resident survey to gather a representative sample of resident satisfaction; the city will mail to ~3,000 households (target 600 responses), partner with ETC Institute for sampling and dashboards, and aim to return results in February to inform the March budget process.
Georgetown staff presented plans for a biennial resident satisfaction survey on Thursday and asked council for input on questions, sampling and timing. Jessica (city staff) said the city is moving to the ETC Institute to administer a randomized mailed survey to just over 3,000 households with a goal of at least 600 completed responses to produce a representative, benchmarkable dataset.
The survey will be bilingual (English/Spanish on a double‑sided mailer), about six pages (target 20 minutes to complete), and will offer both mail and online response options. ETC will monitor response rates and send reminder postcards to boost participation among underrepresented groups; staff said they will oversample groups such as renters to improve representativeness. ETC will also provide GIS mapping by council district and a Power BI dashboard for staff and public transparency.
Councilmembers suggested adding demographic and engagement questions (for example: whether respondents have children in Georgetown ISD, where respondents work, how residents engage with city events and whether respondents know their councilmember). Staff agreed the survey can be customized but cautioned about length — ETC recommends keeping the instrument concise to preserve response rates. Jessica said ETC advised an early‑December mailing but will follow up in January if the holiday season suppresses responses; staff aims to have full reporting back to council in February to inform the FY27 budget process.
What’s next: staff will finalize survey content with ETC and department input, proceed with the mailing (early December with January follow‑ups if needed), and return results and dashboards to council and staff ahead of budget decisions in March.
