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Council backs citywide survey plan; asks staff to add translations in consent resolution
Summary
City staff presented a proposal from ETC Institute to conduct a statistically valid resident survey (goal: 400 completed responses; ±4.87% margin of error). Council asked staff to return a consent-resolution with English, Spanish and French/Creole translation options within the budgeted amount.
Goldsboro's council heard a detailed plan on Aug. 18 for a citywide citizen survey to inform strategic planning and performance measurement. ETC Institute proposed a mailed/online/phone survey targeting 400 completed responses (about a 10% response from 4,000 mailings) to achieve an estimated margin of error of ±4.87% at the 95% confidence level, with at least 65 completed responses per council district to allow district-level comparisons.
Derek Harvey of ETC explained the firm's sampling, address validation, bilingual capability and dashboard deliverable that will allow council and staff to cross-tab results by district, age and other demographics. Harvey said the firm typically administers surveys for 4—6 weeks and provides GIS maps, cross-tabs and benchmarking analysis.
Council asked whether questions can be tailored (yes), how many languages would be included (English and Spanish by default; additional languages at optional per-word cost), and whether costs fit the budget (staff said $30,000 had been allocated). Several council members urged translations beyond Spanish to reach Haitian Creole and French speakers. The council instructed staff to draft a resolution for the next meeting that includes English, Spanish and French/Creole translation options and final cost details within the budget.
Why it matters: A representative resident survey will create baseline data to guide the city's strategic priorities and help staff track service delivery across districts.
What's next: Staff will return a consent-item resolution with the final contract amount, proposed translations and a draft survey instrument for council review and approval.
