The City partners with True North Research to survey the community to better understand resident perspectives on the City’s most critical needs. The survey is conducted four times a year via phone and website, and is offered in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese.

Dynata, a comprehensive database of San José households, is utilized for this study, ensuring that all households in San José have the opportunity to be selected for the survey. A random selection of individuals is subsequently recruited to participate in the survey through multiple recruiting methods (a combination of email and text invitations). Participants are given a passcode-protected online survey to complete, and True North follows-up with phone call reminders to complete the survey (or if phone was the only contact method).

The Focus Area Dashboards report on data from the Focus Area Community Survey for perception data based upon residents’ feedback. These dashboards also include operational data from relevant City of San José Departments. The Dashboards show data collected over time, allowing for trends, patterns, and insights to be drawn. In some cases, the Dashboards contain measures that can be disaggregated by relevant categories like race/ethnicity, geographic location, age, household income, home type, etc., where possible and appropriate.

The final data collected are weighted to balance the sample by age, homeownership, and geographic subareas and the final sample distribution closely matches the City of San José’s demographic profile on age, ethnicity, gender identity, housing type status, presence of a child in the home, and geographic area based on the latest U.S. Census American Community Survey estimates.

The Community Opinion Survey (COS) is a separate survey conducted by the City and True North Research annually to inform the City Auditor’s Annual Report on City Services and performance measures contained within the City’s Annual Operating Budget. The COS provides the City with a statistically reliable understanding of its residents’ satisfaction, priorities, and concerns as they relate to services, facilities, and policies provided by the City. Ultimately, the COS provides the City with information that can be used to make sound, strategic decisions in all of its service delivery areas, whereas the Focus Area Community Survey specifically focuses on questions around the City Council’s top priorities areas (Increasing Community Safety; Reducing Unsheltered Homelessness; Cleaning Up Our Neighborhoods; and Attracting Investment in Jobs and Housing).

Yes. The consultant and the City do not associate names, specific addresses, and contact info with responses in compliance with City Council Digital Privacy Policy (Policy Number 0-46) and the E-Government Policy (City Policy Manual 1.7.5). This Policy requires that the City does not receive any Personally Identifiable Information (PII) associated with survey responses. Examples of PII include full name, street address, email address, etc.