FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 23, 2019

MEDIA CONTACTS

City to Conduct Survey in November Evaluating Community’s Perceptions of Services

-- Survey to be Conducted Primarily by Telephone From (866) 415-0012 With an Option for Online Completion --

The City of Tacoma wants to hear from community members in its upcoming community survey to be conducted from November 4, 2019 – November 22, 2019. A total of 750 randomly sample households – 150 from each Councilmanic District – across Tacoma will have the opportunity to identify which services and community issues they feel are important, which service areas have improved over time, and which service areas could improve in the future. The community survey, administered by MDB Insight, will assess the City’s performance in its major service areas, and help the City better understand community members’ perceptions of these service areas. The survey findings will also help define the community’s current priorities and aid the City’s ongoing planning and improvement processes. 

Delivered in English and in Tacoma’s five primarily-used languages other than English – which are Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese, Korean and Khmer – the community survey will be conducted through calls from the telephone number (866) 415-0012 to randomly sampled Tacoma landlines and cellphone numbers. Those called can choose to take the community survey at that time, or schedule a later time to speak to an interviewer in their preferred language. If a call is missed, no messages will be left, but another call back may be received at a later time. Alternatively, those called can also choose to complete the community survey online in their preferred language. 

The community survey will ask for general demographic information including age (but not date of birth), gender, race, annual family income, monthly housing costs, and whether ones residence is rented or owned. While specific residential addresses will not be provided to the City of Tacoma as part of the dataset and report, general location information at the Councilmanic District level will be used to help in an analysis of differences in service levels. The community survey will not ask for one’s social security number or banking/credit card information. 

More information about the community survey is available on the City’s website or by contacting Jared Eyer from the City’s Office of Management and Budget at jeyer@cityoftacoma.org and (253) 594-7954. 

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