CV Strategies
February 27, 2019
Chris Escobedo, Community Resources Director
cescobedo@laquintaca.gov
Jaime Torres, Management Analyst
jtorres@laquintaca.gov
City of La Quinta
78495 Calle Tampico
La Quinta, CA 92253
Dear Chris and Jaime,
Thank you for considering CV Strategies to assist with your survey needs. CV
Strategies is a comprehensive communications and public engagement firm with a
niche understanding of public policy. We have a long history of creating public
education and strategic outreach plans that increase awareness, garner support and
positively influence community relations. Effectively messaging the City of La
Quinta’s transparency in communications is critical to garnering resident and
council support.
We are delighted to have the opportunity to assist La Quinta in developing and
administering a comprehensive independent survey of city-wide camera system.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions.
Sincerely,
Erin Gilhuly
President
SCOPE OF WORK:
• Monitor resident/community engagement in response to 90-day Test Program
• Internal Review and Analysis – Review pervious City of La Quinta internal
survey and findings. Analyze resident’s feedback and perceptions
• Create a customized, precisely targeted, carefully crafted survey
• Collect all data, review and analyze responses
• Compile findings in a final report; present results to the City Staff, City Council
and Residents
• Write press release highlighting the findings of a Comprehensive Independent
Survey of City-Wide Camera System
• Create messaging and outreach plan to address the survey findings
Approach
Understanding public opinion is essential to effective strategic communications,
developing community support and influencing behaviors. Effective public outreach
and education requires an accurate understanding of what the public thinks, what
priorities they hold and how they respond to different messages.
A comprehensive independent survey of a city-wide camera system would address
any concerns regarding a previous survey lead by the City’s Ad Hoc committee as
well as measure the community’s perceptions after the 90-day Test Program and
related outreach. Our team will conduct a comprehensive survey assessment to
gauge public awareness and perception of a City-Wide Camera System. With the
knowledge gained from the assessment, CV Strategies will create a tailored outreach
plan detailing objectives, updated communication strategies.
In this particular case, we, in collaboration with J. Wallin Opinion Research, will
develop and execute precisely targeted Opinion Survey to evaluate and strategize
best ways to garner support for a City-Wide Camera System. The survey findings
will drive the outreach needs.
Specifically, a Comprehensive Independent Survey of City-Wide Camera
System will help you to:
• Assess public awareness of key issues, organizations and
influential persons/organizations
• Identify receptivity to the proposed city-wide camera system
• Identify issues that influence support or opposition
• Test assumptions and identify messages that are most effective
both in broad-based communications as well as targeting efforts
• Profile support and opposition by various demographic
measures critical to targeted communications efforts
• Benchmark our results for use with future research
• Establish a roadmap for how best to design the outreach
communication strategy
Methodology
We apply the right tool for the right situation (polling, focus groups, online/mobile
research etc.), leveraging proven methodologies woven with years of expertise
determining core drivers of human opinions and behavior.
Quantitative Research for Public Policy: Telephone Survey
For most research efforts within the public policy arena (including politics), we
recommend the use of telephone surveys. Only telephone surveys offer genuine
statistical significance, delivering unparalleled detail and accuracy, provided that
several key rules are followed:
1. Use the voter file. When researching in the field of public policy, federal law
allows researchers to use voter records. Voter records deliver a degree of
accuracy and specific information that are simply without comparison.
Before we even dial a number, we know the recipient’s name, gender, age,
geographic location, voter registration and voting history, as well as other
demographics features.
2. We contact respondents on their landlines and mobile phones. The
importance of calling mobile phones is fundamental. Annual studies
performed by the CDC indicate that nearly one half of American households
have cut their landline service entirely – a proportion that skyrockets in
certain demographic groups (among younger people and Latinos, for
example). Moreover, we do not place an artificial limit on the number of
interviews we complete on mobile phones (many of our projects end up with
over 60% of interviews being made on mobile phones). This is more
expensive, but we absorb that cost on behalf of our clients as there simply is
no other way to conduct accurate research.
We never place a limit – or a “cap” on the number of completed interviews
we conduct on mobile phones.
3. Research must be conducted in the preferred language of respondents. We
have extensive experience polling in foreign languages.1 Spanish is already
included in our proposal at no additional charges. If you are interested in
other languages, just let us know.
Sample Stratification
Our stratified random sampling approach delivers far greater accuracy than simple
random sampling by ensuring that our respondents mirror the demographic
composition of the target region itself. This allows us to assess how opinions differ
among sub-groups, providing the outreach effort with guidance for a targeted
messaging strategy that ensures the right messages are delivered to specific groups
with shared opinions.
Reporting
Our reporting sets us further apart from other research organizations as it is
designed to be both concise and easily comprehended by the “layperson”. It will
provide a clear roadmap to inform policy decisions and to craft effective outreach
messaging efforts.
We provide a presentation (inclusive of graphics illustrating results) as well as a
strategic memorandum (covering key takeaways and recommendations) and of
course a topline report and full cross tabulations. If you require any customized
reporting, we are happy to provide it at any time and with no additional charge. Our
pricing also includes all meetings, in-person presentations, telephone calls, etc.
Research results are kept in the strictest of confidence.
COST ESTIMATE:
Included in the scope is daily media and community engagement monitoring on
various platforms in the 60 days leading up to the survey period. We feel this will be
valuable information to consider as we create our survey questions. We anticipate
one hour of monitoring daily March 1, 2019 through the May 2019 launch of the
survey. We anticipate approximately 60 hours of monitoring.
We anticipate the cost of this comprehensive outreach encompassing monitoring
community engagement and an independent survey of 300 respondents with up to
20 questions with a +/- 5.6%, to take approximately 170 hours total. The total fee
for this project is $32,000.
1 We initiate all interviewing calls in English and switch to another language only upon request or when a clear language
communication issue presents itself.
TERMS & COMPENSATION:
Project total $32,000. Fifty percent of fees due upon signing of proposal or start of
work and fifty percent due upon completion of contract.
Either party may end this agreement by providing written notice to the other party.
In the event of termination, CV Strategies shall be paid for all hours and expenses
accrued up to the date of termination.
Hard costs, including mailing/postage and photography, will be billed directly to the
client, or subject to a 10% markup, not to exceed $250 per charge. Mileage will be
billed at the standard IRS rate.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT & ACCEPTANCE:
Please indicate your approval of the terms of this engagement by signing where
indicated below. Should you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to call.
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Name Title
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Signature Date