Community survey sent back for more revisions

By Grace Lovins

Following a second round of draft revisions, a planned community survey was sent back for additional changes by the Birmingham City Commission during the Monday, March 23, meeting, and the survey working group and the city’s survey consultant will come back with a revised draft after implementing the commission’s changes.

Assistant city manager Melissa Fairbairn stated the commission last saw the draft survey at the end of January. Since then, the city’s survey consultant, Cobalt Community Research, and an internal working group of two city commissioners, two residents and a handful of city staff members have met twice to review and incorporate the commission’s feedback.

Fairbairn noted in the agenda memorandum included in the meeting packet that the goal of the survey is to gather data that can be used to “to support long-range capital planning, establish priorities during the budget process, identify areas of strength and areas needing improvement, and evaluate the effectiveness of city communications.”

Fairbairn added that once the commission gives approval, Cobalt will go through the survey with a fine-toothed comb before distribution. The city plans to mail surveys to a sample population size of 2,000 residents, as well as make the survey available online to all residents through Engage Birmingham.

Almost all survey questions fall under two categories: planning and future considerations, and your experiences in Birmingham in the past year. Residents will be asked for their feedback on items such as the city’s transportation infrastructure, parks and recreation facilities, and their biggest priorities for the city outside of core services.

Commissioners ran through the survey, question by question, offering their input. Some commissioners offered language adjustments for certain questions for clarity. Much of the discussion on questions changes were focused on question 25 of the draft asking residents to note their five biggest priorities for the city.

Commissioner Therese Longe started the discourse saying that she feels the question is a bit jumbled and potentially the question needs to be split into two to make more sense. Mayor Clinton Baller echoed what Longe said and told Fairbairn to have the working group review the question and continue to work on it.

No formal vote was taken by the commission, but their feedback will be brought back to the city’s working group and survey consultant.