2017-08-01 Committee on Citizen Engagement Minutes
COMMITTEE ON CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT
MINUTES
August 1, 2017
After determining that a quorum was present, the Committee on Citizen Engagement convened in
a meeting on August 1, 2017 at 11:35 a.m. in the City Hall Conference Room at City Hall, 215 E.
McKinney Street, Denton, Texas.
PRESENT: Council Member Dalton Gregory and Council Member Gerard Hudspeth.
STAFF PRESENT: Bryan Langley, Sarah Kuechler, Sarah Lollar, Robby Stengel, Justin Harmon.
OTHERS PRESENT: Andrea Thomas with National Service Research
A. Elect the Chair of the Committee on Citizen Engagement.
Council Member Gregory nominated Council Member Hudspeth as Chair and Council Member
Briggs as Vice Chair. The motion carried unanimously.
B. Consider approval of the minutes from March 28, 2017.
Council Member Gregory motioned, Council Member Hudspeth seconded to approve the minutes.
The minutes were approved.
C. Receive a report, hold a discussion, and give staff direction regarding the Citizen Survey
Results.
Sarah Kuechler introduced Andrea Thomas with National Service Research (NSR). Kuechler
mentioned that NSR was selected to help with the 2017 Citizen Survey.
tion will cover the major themes and results that were
received; however, the full report is included in the meetings backup and available for discussion
or any questions the committee may have.
Kuechler presented that the survey was mailed to 7,000 randomly selected households on May
16, 2017. Over 1,300 responses were received which is a significant increase from the survey
completed in 2015. Of those responses, 1,000 were online.
Gregory asked if the reason for the increased response was known.
Kuechler responded that the reason is because a different approach was taken with the last survey
and this survey was completed with a different vendor. Also, the 2015 survey was mailed to only
1,400 households in order to control the responding population and
the public to take the survey online. The current results are statistically significant; however, it is
hard to compare with the 2015 results due to a larger margin of error in 2015 due to a smaller
sample size.
Thomas explained that margin of error for the 2017 survey is plus or minus 2.8%
minus 6.2%. Adding those numbers together makes a 9% plus or minus margin of error in order
to become statistically significant.
Gregory mentioned a component that was in the 2015 survey for the business and development
community we were able
to get information on peer cities.
Kuechler responded that the business survey will be sent in April 2018.
Thomas responded that she used the benchmark cities that were provided to her and cities that
had recently completed similar citizen surveys. She used College Station, Bryan, Austin, Plano,
and Garland.
Kuechler believes that survey respondents may be the more engaged population of the citizenry
because 74% voted in the last municipal election. characteristics,
the results show 86% rated Denton as an excellent place to live. These results were very similar
to the 2015 survey results.
Thomas mentioned that the alue of services for taxes paid is always the lowest rating in
every City. She explained
Kuechler explained that staff will use the information from this survey to focus time, resources,
and communication efforts. She asked the committee if they had any questions.
Thomas commented that she was very pleased with the results regarding overall safety and that
based off feedback, Denton has an incredible education system.
Kuechler continued presenting on erall confidence in Denton Government. Staff has begun
discussions to address this low score and bring improvements.
and staff
feedback on the rating.
Kuechler responded that it was a little concerning but we have initiatives in place to address the
issues related to this score. The website is a drastic upgrade from the prior outdated version, it is
anticipated that
Committee Chair Hudspeth requested information on the types of devices used to access the
website.
Robby Stengel responded that mobile and tablet trends are continuing to increase. In the past,
access was 60% desktop and 40% mobile tablet. Within the past year this has changed to a 50/50
percentage. We are also working on improvements to the search function on our website to
operate as closely to Google as possible.
Langley explained that the website upgrade was a very big task to determine with each
department what content is appropriate, relevant, and helpful. A big obstacle staff faced was to
lessen the number of documents stored on the website for internal uses. It might be helpful if we
sent out a website-based survey to help find that balance. This website needs to work for
everyone. Another unique challenge we face is that the City is not a singular focused business
with one mission. We have a multitude of things we do that needs to be shared and that creates a
big challenge.
Kuechler discussed 74% of the survey respondents voted in the last election. The survey also
that they were not registered to vote,
25% said the voting location was inconvenient, and 55% was not aware of the election. Staff will
use this information to promote the election process.
Kuechler continued to present the benchmark data, College Station, Bryan, Austin, Plano and
Garland were used. She pointed out places where the City of Denton ranks higher than our
comparable cities. The overall rating of the community is very high for quality of life.
Council Member Gregory asked if it was known where the survey respondents worked and how
that information compared with what the Economic Development department office census
statistics. Also, what level of pay do these jobs have?
Langley responded that this information would be provided.
Gregory asked what lessons the staff learned in terms of communication from this survey
information.
Kuechler responded that staff has learned to be more proactive with communicating projects and
spending more time sharing our accomplishments. Another reason this survey is performed is to
review with our management teams to determine if current practices are working well or need to
be changed.
D. Receive a report, hold a discussion, and give staff direction regarding the citizen
engagement, communication, and transparency initiatives.
Kuechler presented information on programs we have completed, are working on, and are
coming up in the future. We had 2 new programs this year. The first was the State of the City on
March 30, 2017. We had approximately 150 people attended which is pretty good attendance for
our first event. We plan to repeat this event next year and possibly have it earlier in the year to
prevent conflicts using the video near an election.
Council Member Gregory recommended having the next state of the city in the fall. To also
reconsider the Council booth because it did not get much activity. Add equipment such as a fire
truck to the parking lot or raffle to win a ride in the DME bucket truck to help attract more
people.
Committee Chair Hudspeth suggested changing the layout to address the echo issues, timing of
the event to become more user friendly, and allow members to more freely attend.
Kuechler continued with discussion on the recently completed Citizen Academy that will receive
st
a proclamation at the August 1 City Council meeting. The academy consisted of 12 residents
who attended 5 sessions primarily on Saturdays. These sessions were interactive as they visited a
lot of the departments and were able to have a hands on experience by handling some of the
equipment. The residents were able to engage with high level staff in each of the departments as
well. Our focus for the next session is to better market the academy and shorten the sessions.
Gregory moved the discussion to the annual Citizen Update report. He explained that the Citizen
Update was content heavy and recommended summarizing the content and adding a website link
at the bottom for those that want more information.
Kuechler agreed with this feedback and discussed future plans to send a bi-monthly newsletter
mailed to all households in the city. Staff plans to begin this newsletter October 1, 2017. Staff is
also exploring ideas to add a newsroom page to the website for those interested to learn what is
happening in the city. This will create a central location to access all of this information.
Kuechler continued with discussion on an idea to host Open House events similar to the State of
the City where different departments take turns hosting an event allowing citizens the
opportunity to learn more about that area.
Kuechler discussed the new construction portal and map located on the main page of the website.
She demonstrated the different functions of the map on the website and new information
provided. This will add transparency to citizens to know what is happening in the City.
Kuechler continued discussing improvements made to the Informal Staff Reports. These have
been posted to the website using Laser-fiche instead of putting documents directly on the
website. This should be completed by Friday, August 4, 2017.
Kuechler asked the committee if they had any questions, concerns, or direction for staff to focus
efforts on.
E. Set future meeting dates and topics.
The committee decided to meet near the end of September.
The committee asked staff to share the survey results, both the full and condensed report, with
Council in the Friday staff report.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 12:47 p.m.
________________________________ ________________________________
GERARD HUDSPETH SARAH LOLLAR
COMMITTEE CHAIR RECORDING SECRETARY
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS