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| Acme Consulting Group |
Due to the fact that during the last city election cycle the topic of surveys and consultants were questions that citizens were concerned about, the Gateway News asked the city who conducted the survey and what the cost to taxpayers was.
We were informed by city staff that the survey was conduced by Corona Insights and that the cost was $35,972.
When asked why city staff did not conduct the survey themselves, we were told the following:
“The cost of the 2011 Citizen Survey was $35,972. While staff had considerable input in developing the survey instrument, there were many reasons for not completing this work in-house, including:
- Lack of equipment and technology for completing a random-digit dial telephone survey.
- Desire to have an independent party conducting survey and collecting, reviewing and analyzing results.
- Desire to maintain third-party consistency with previous citizen surveys for independent verification.”
The survey was done by telephone and 400 citizens were questioned, at a cost of about $90 per participant.
We would like to hear your opinion about consultants and city government. Please leave your comments below...
40 comments:
I would be curious if Brighton has done anything like this.
and yes, this subject did come up in the campaign forums two years ago.
was it given in Spanish?
Seems really high cost wise. $90 a person they should have gotten more out of them then these sweeping vague generalizations.
Commerce City says "- Desire to have an independent party conducting survey and collecting, reviewing and analyzing results."
Maybe we should have a review of all city contracts by a independent party.
information city learned was priceless! city should of paid twice that amount.
GN-also would like to know what Brighton spends.
I would like to know if the Commerce City council knew the cost per resident.
Will be another discussion about this in the near future.
City learn a lot!
Would do it all over again!
What the city learned in conjunction with everything else is invaluable.
I saw Commerce City council meeting. Council is VERY good at talk, talk talk! no action.
Love the slide of actual revenue history. Went Down Down Down.
City staff went UP UP UP.
You do the math!
all commerce city council does is toast each other and staff. they need to drive around their wards and take a look at what is really going on.
dkeys you are never disappointing. You are always negative and I can count on that!!
All these surveys. All these dollars spent. All these services to citizens cut. Mindboggeling.
It's almost like Commerce City staff did this Survey to make themselves feel better.
For 35 grand you could have hired someone FULL TIME for a year and they could have gone to every house in Commerce City and done a face to face survey.
FYI - the survey was done in Spanish as an option.
I really don't know if I learned anything new in this survey. Questions were to vague.
Example: DO YOU THINK THAT THE DENVER METRO AREA IS GENERALLY HEADED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION OR THE WRONG DIRECTION? what about Commerce City only? I don't see anyone else paying for this survey.
Example: HOW GOOD OR BAD A JOB DO YOU THINK THE FOLLOWING LEADERS ARE DOING? Clarification! City Leaders? State Leaders? County Leaders?
to Mr. Anonymous,
I am negative?
Lets look at some examples of what others said from the $35K Commerce City Citizen Survey:
Basically because it is managed by the old guard" of city council and it does not fit the "new" Reunion.
EMBARRASSED Because Commerce City is a slum.
EMBARRASSED Because of the way the city has treated me.
Commerce City is a poverty type town.
Commerce City is only one step above Montbello.
Coming from outside Commerce City, from Denver, nobody I know would want to live in Commerce City.
Everything around me looks in bad condition.
I feel that backwardness of the city government is the good old boys club and need to get with the times.
I feel that I am embarrassed because there have been no good changes in Commerce City and nothing to be proud of.
I would say it is a terrible place to live because of the illegal immigrants, and kids are running all over screaming and
yelling, and city management.
I'm embarrassed of the way the mayor is. Commerce City is spending money that should not be spent on the city.
Just the feeling and attitude that Commerce City brings to my friends that do not live here.
The taxes are very high considering the lack of family oriented and general services available to the public.
Your right Mr. Anonymous, I guess I am the only one. Shame on me!
So at the end Commerce City Staff paid over $35,000.00 to have citizens tell them that they are bitter.
Just another one of the government surveys that tells us the tress will grow if watered and take Tylenol for headaches.
people upset because nothing going on with economic development despite other cities on the move.
people upset that 20 plus year newspaper the beacon went out of business.
people upset that all council do is talk and make posted notes art of ideas that never come to fruition.
people upset because city has a image problem that dates back to the 1970s.
people upset because junky and un-kept yards.
people in Commerce City are basically bitter and love to be the victim.
There Common Knowledge. I think we learned nothing new for the 35 thousand dollar survey.
Then again, why would any of the residents care, its only money, right?
Your right dkeys (Derrick)
CC citizen or resident (don't assume we are all citizens) survey.
$35,000 was too expensive.
But, here are some more great highlights!
Survey asked WHY DO YOU LIVE IN COMMERCE CITY?
Some great answers are:
At first I really liked living here and now it's hard to get out.
Convenience of my wife's job and I own my own business, so we could go anywhere. We do not plan on retiring here.
Too bad it is not Brighton.
I have my house paid off and cannot move.
My property value has dropped and I am stuck here.
Some positive highlights:
I like it because it has nice golf courses.
I like it here because it is good for raising my family.
I like the area. It's nice coming home from the city to have peace and quiet.
I like the closeness to the wild life. They have done a real nice job.
I like the golf course here.
I like the location it seems to be in the middle of everywhere I need to go.
“Many look, but few see.”
people have attitudes because there is nothing going on in commerce city.
they get frustrated. we are supposed to be 80,000 population by now.
nobody's is really to fault. it was a doing by many factors
So I can not understand the tornado sirens that go off in during the warnings. I think it is Spanish or Portuguese?
Portuguese?
I swore it was Spanish, maybe English with a really bad Scottish accent, but definitely NOT Portuguese.
no worries,
cc will hire consultant and sort out the warning message.
I love the survey.
I dont think it was worth 35,000, but I love to hear what people have to say.
How come city don't put names with the comments they got?
$90 a per! Consultant is laughing all the way to the bank
Surveys cost.
People complain the city doesn't pay attention. They do a survey, people complain that the survey cost.
The cost has little to do with the number questioned. Setting up a survey does cost.
The number questioned is figured mathmatically to get a reasonal response with a small percentage of error.
I for one am SICK of the complaints.
I bet you are wonderful people to live with.....never satisfied!!
Oh, I think surveys are good, matter of fact I think they are necessary!
I think it could be done much cheaper and even by the city, like the business survey was.
wait a minute. great point,
CC did business survey in house?
Right?
Why source out the citizen survey?
Think Commerce City assumes businesses have internet and residents (not citizens) have only access to phone technology.
It is Commerce City after all.
Do you think the citizens would be honest with a city employee doing the survey?
Amen. I agree that the citizens wouldn't like or trust an employee done survey.
Everyone, especially those on this blog would say the results were set up, that is unless they were all negative, then they would be true of course.
comment directly to ProCity 2.0 - Please explain the difference between positive and negative. You seem to have your own twist on the meanings and it would help a lot of us who are here to voice our honest opinions, most of which are fact based, to know what you mean. Sometimes facts are facts and it does not mean they are negative just because you don't like them. It is called reality. Please answer or quit calling people who state facts negative. What you are doing is not productive and many of us actually love our city and want what is best for all of the citizens, not just a few employees most of who don't even live here.
Brighton does a citizen survey every day, they call it listening and responding to citizens and their concerns and complaints. It is called open honest transparent government.
Anonymous,
Are you saying there is a trust issue with the Commerce City Staff and Commerce City residents?
hmmmm.
you catch that GN? Sounds like a little digging needs to be done.
Bottomline,
Surveys are needed to move forward. Otherwise, we are doing nothing more then just guessing!
We need to have a pulse on the city. Their needs, wants, and views are very important.
dkeys, what I said was people like to believe bad stuff, especially those on a blog.
If the city staff did a survey and good came out, people like you would say it was fixed and negate all good comments.
Then when an outside group is hired, of course people say it is too expensive.
I figure we have a great pool of peole that have business experience that should be helping to run the city, which they can't from a blog.
(I am a citizen and do not work for or am elected to an office)
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