Erie hires Magellan Strategies to design broad community survey; questionnaire due June 3

The Town of Erie on May 6 introduced Magellan Strategies as the consultant that will design and field a comprehensive community survey intended to help council sequence capital projects and test public willingness to pay for priorities such as affordable housing, parks, transportation and municipal facilities.

Gabby Ray, the town’s communications director, said the council authorized supplemental budget work that allowed staff to solicit proposals; Magellan representatives David Flaherty and Courtney Sievers presented the firm’s multimode methodology, which centers on MMS text invitations backed up by unique‑link postcards and targeted phone matching to maximize demographic coverage. Flaherty said the firm has previously reached about 3,000 Erie residents in prior work and that, with household‑level postcards and broad outreach, the town could target roughly 3,500–4,000 completed interviews for this larger, illustrative survey.

Magellan recommended question formats that educate respondents before asking willingness‑to‑pay questions (for example, showing estimated cost and likely funding options); the firm suggested presenting trade‑off budget exercises to understand priorities and warned against presenting “pie‑in‑the‑sky” items without cost context. Council and staff discussed topics the survey should cover: affordable/workforce housing (AMI, ADUs, subsidies vs. incentives), municipal versus community capital projects (police station, recreation center, parks), transportation and TMP projects, small‑town character, sustainability, and economic development. Magellan said staff will circulate a draft questionnaire for council feedback prior to a planned June 3 approval. Fielding would follow in summer with a results presentation planned for August 5.