Birmingham officials okay contract for survey

The Birmingham City Commission, in a unanimous vote on Monday, September 15, approved a contract with the Cobalt Community Research firm from Charlotte, Michigan to conduct a community survey to determine the priorities of city residents on local issues.

The idea of a community survey was first proposed in June by city commissioner Andrew Haig and in August the commission determined that they preferred using a professional survey firm for the task.

Assistant city manger Melissa Fairbairn in August told the commission that the cost of city staff conducting the survey would be about $10,000 but commissioners determined then that a professional firm was the preferred approach.

At the September 15 meeting Fairbairn shared with commissioners that city staff had interviewed three firms and were proposing the commission approve a contract with the Cobalt Community Research firm which has worked with a number of Michigan communities, including Troy and Royal Oak, along with the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments. The cost of the contract is $21,435. Fairbairn also said that city staff had reached out to Troy officials for a recommendation.

Haig and other commissioners raised a number of questions relative how questions for the survey would be determined and expressed a desire to have survey results from a broad sampling of those in the community who often times only respond on issues that directly affect them personally.

Commissioners also expressed a desire to see the proposed survey questions before the community was approached for feedback.

Two local residents whose professional backgrounds included working with survey firms spoke during the public comment section on the survey agenda item and said that there were a number of questions that still needed to be answered or explained by the survey company before they would recommend that the city approve the proposed contract.

Commissioners did suggest that one or two members of the city commission should be part of the city staff working group that will be developing the questions, and a suggestion was made that one of the members of the public that addressed the survey issue during public comments be asked to also work with the staff group to assure a more successful survey.