Council authorizes $9,500 contract addendum for third‑party community survey

The Middleton City Council on Sept. 16 authorized the mayor to sign an addendum with Clearwater Financial for an initial community survey, not to exceed $9,500. City staff described the project as an opportunity to gather statistically valid resident feedback to guide council decisions and to educate residents on local responsibilities and services.

Monica and Miss Hobbs introduced Clearwater representatives Sheridan and Cameron, who described a scope that includes question drafting with city input, outreach at community events, anonymized data collection and a summary report with cross-tabulations and recommendations. "You will receive information that you will be able to use that will be incredibly valuable to you," Cameron said, emphasizing research and analytics support.

Council members asked whether they would review questions before release, how raw responses would be handled and where the fee would come from. Staff said the council would review draft questions, the report would include aggregated results and that the cost would come from the public engagement budget for FY26. Several council members expressed a desire to run the survey again to measure change over time; presenters said future rounds should cost less because the core questionnaire would already be established.

Members of the public spoke in favor of a third party administering the survey to promote candor. "I think by having a third-party organization be able to do your survey, I think you're going to be able to get honest answers," Jennica Reynolds said during public comment, and Tyson Sparrow asked that the city make survey results available publicly without personal information. Staff replied the city will post anonymized results on the new city website and may provide raw comments in an anonymized form on request.

Council approved the addendum after discussion. The motion passed with recorded votes in favor from Council President (recorded as yes), Council member Christianson and Council member Anderson; Council member Grant voted no. Staff will coordinate question drafting and the outreach timeline, aiming to begin drafting in October and to include survey promotion at holiday community events.