Staff Report.Community Survey
PREPARED BY: Arn Andrews
Assistant Town Manager
Reviewed by: Town Manager and Town Attorney
110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● (408) 354-6832
www.losgatosca.gov
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
MEETING DATE: 05/03/2022 ITEM NO: 16
DATE: April 26, 2022
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: Laurel Prevetti, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Receive the Results of the Community Survey and Provide any Direction to
Staff
RECOMMENDATION:
Receive the results of the Community Survey (Attachments 1 and 2) and provide any direction
to staff.
BACKGROUND:
On July 28, 2021, the Town issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for Community Survey
Consultant Services. As stated in the Purpose Section of the RFP, “The Town of Los Gatos
(Town) is seeking proposals from qualified professional consultants (Proposers) to conduct a
scientific community survey to gather resident feedback and measure satisfaction with Town
services, quality of life, and other information to help the Town better understand the
community’s priorities, concerns, and needs.”
Proposals were due by the August 25, 2021, submittal deadline. The Town received eight
proposals from the following firms by the submittal deadline:
• CoSpero Consulting
• Downs & St. Germain Research
• EMC Research
• ETC Institute
• FM3
• Godbe Research
• Probolsky Research
• True North Research
PAGE 2 OF 4 SUBJECT: Community Survey Results DATE: April 26, 2022
BACKGROUND:
After staff review and scoring of the proposals, the firms of Probolsky, FM3, and ETC Institute
were invited to the interview phase of the selection process. Based on the initial scoring,
interviews, and subsequent reference checks, staff engaged the services of ETC Institute to
perform the Community Survey.
DISCUSSION:
In consultation with the Town, ETC Institute developed the Community Survey instrument
which was mailed to a random sample of households starting February 2, 2022. At the
conclusion of the survey response period, ETC Institute received 650 completed surveys,
surpassing the goal of 400 households, and equating to a precision of at least +/-3.8% at the
95% level of confidence. The survey sample was both representative of demographic and
geographic respondents. The GIS map below shows the Town boundaries and the red dots
represent completed surveys.
Attachment 2 provides visual color-coded survey results by geographic areas of Town.
PAGE 3 OF 4 SUBJECT: Community Survey Results DATE: April 26, 2022
DISCUSSION (continued):
The survey contains significant information the Council could consider when targeting
resources toward services of the highest importance to residents and the targeting of resources
toward those services where residents are the least satisfied. In addition, the survey is
constructed so future surveys can be benchmarked against prior surveys to create a time series
of community satisfaction. Provided below are some of the high-level importance and
satisfaction findings from the survey. Staff will provide additional report highlights during the
Council meeting.
• Almost all residents rated the Town as either an excellent or good place to live (97.2%)
and as a place to raise children (93.4%). Compared to the national average in both of
these categories, the Town’s rating as a place to live was almost double the national
average of 49.7% and 31% points above the national average as a place to raise children.
• The top two Town services that are most important to residents are the overall
quality of Town police services (55.4%) and the overall maintenance of Town streets,
sidewalks, and infrastructure (52.0%).
• Based on the sum of resident’s top three choices, the top three community investment
areas most important for the Town to pursue are: improving traffic flow to reduce traffic
congestion (61.9%), maintaining streets, sidewalks, and storm sewer systems (39.7%),
and increasing neighborhood police patrols (37.7%).
In addition to the individual importance and satisfaction findings in the survey ETC Institute
develops an Importance-Satisfaction (I-S) rating. The Importance-Satisfaction (I-S) rating is
based on the concept that public agencies will maximize overall resident satisfaction by
emphasizing improvements in those areas where the level of satisfaction is relatively low, and
the perceived importance of the service is relatively high. Based on the results of this analysis,
the major services that are recommended as the top opportunity for improvement over the
next two years, in order to raise the Town's overall satisfaction rating are:
• The overall maintenance of Town streets, sidewalks, and infrastructure
(I-S Rating=0.1940)
• Town Planning, Buildings, and Development services (I-S Rating=0.1625)
• Overall quality of Town police services (I-S Rating=0.1424)
The second level of analysis reviewed the importance of and satisfaction with specific areas of
services. This analysis was conducted to help Department managers set priorities for their
Department. Based on the results of this analysis, the services that are recommended as the
top priorities within each Department over the next two years are listed below:
PAGE 4 OF 4 SUBJECT: Community Survey Results DATE: April 26, 2022
DISCUSSION (continued):
• Public Safety: the Town’s overall efforts to prevent crime, visibility of police personnel
in neighborhoods, efforts to collaborate with the public to address concerns, and
effectiveness of local police protection.
• Streets, Sidewalks, and Infrastructure: flow of traffic on Town streets.
• Park Facilities: walking and biking trails in Town.
• Economic Opportunity: how well the Town is managing growth, available support for
entrepreneurs and small business owners, efforts to attract new
business and tourism, availability of adequate and affordable housing units,
and access to quality and affordable housing.
• Communication and Community Engagement: efforts by the Town to keep
residents informed about local issues, opportunities for residents to engage
in improvements in their neighborhood, opportunities for residents to
engage in development projects in their neighborhood, opportunities for
residents to engage/provide input into decisions made by elected officials,
and the availability of information about Town programs and services.
CONCLUSION:
Receive the results of the Community Survey (Attachments 1 and 2) and provide any comments
or direction to staff.
COORDINATION:
This staff report was coordinated with the Town Manager and Town Attorney.
FISCAL IMPACT:
None.
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT:
This is not a project defined under CEQA, and no further action is required.
Attachments:
1. Community Survey Results
2. Community Survey GIS Mapping