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City staff hires OnPoint Insights for 2026 community survey, aims for richer ward-level insights
Summary
City staff told council it will contract with OnPoint Insights for the 2026 community survey, expand outreach to 10,000 emails/texts, use skip-logic to target relevant respondents and aim for 1,500 responses with a dashboard that allows ward-level filtering.
City staff presented plans to change how Davenport conducts its biennial community survey, announcing a contract with OnPoint Insights and a push to increase online participation.
Hannah, the staff presenter, said the new vendor will use skip-logic so respondents only answer questions about departments they have experienced and will distribute the survey via an initial random push of 10,000 email and text contacts. "This year, city staff has decided to contract with a new vendor, OnPoint Insights," Hannah said. The vendor aims for a minimum of 850 responses and a goal of 1,500, and will provide an online dashboard to filter results by demographics such as age and ward.
Council members pressed staff on sampling and outreach. One councilor asked whether the random distribution is ward-specific and how the city can avoid sending the survey repeatedly to the same people every cycle. Hannah said the vendor selects a random sample from the properties and that staff will ask the vendor whether past participants can be excluded from future random draws; she also said the dashboard can show ward-level responses after collection.
Concerns surfaced about response bias and communication. An alderman warned that using an opt-in system such as Alert Iowa could skew the sample toward more engaged residents; staff said the vendor recommended a press release and targeted messaging to reduce phishing concerns and would supply sample messaging. Staff also said the council will have a chance to review the question bank during the survey-testing phase before the public rollout.
The timeline presented calls for 2–3 weeks of survey development, one week of testing, one month of public collection and two weeks for analysis of open-ended responses. Staff said they will distribute the draft survey and testing materials to council during the testing phase and will follow up on whether Alert Iowa channels can be used without compromising statistical validity.
If the council directs further steps, staff will bring back final vendor documentation and a recommended outreach/communication plan.
