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The city of Pleasanton announced that it has partnered with FlashVote, an online service that helps governments survey its residents, in order to gather quick and confidential feedback from the community on local topics.
Residents can sign up and anonymously share their insights on these topics — which have not been disclosed by the city — within minutes. That feedback will then be made available to the city within days, according to a statement announcing the new tool.
“References to what type of survey we will conduct is purposefully kept out of our initial communication as we want to make sure we develop a broad, unbiased panel of community members who will be taking surveys,” city communication manager Heather Tiernan told the Weekly. “Generally, FlashVote is best used to provide specific feedback/input on problems or decisions that need to be made.”
According to its website, FlashVote is a software-as-a-service company that “gets statistically valid community input in 48 hours, on any topic. So governments never have to be misled or bullied by the noisy few.”
“FlashVote makes scientific survey data over 90% easier, faster and cheaper,” according to the FlashVote website. “This means any local government can afford to know what their community thinks, wants, and needs.”
The website provides various case studies showing other governments that used the service to learn about their community’s priorities regarding things like roadmaps for funding and police presence, among other issues.
“They could be for anything,” Tiernan said in regards to the FlashVote surveys, adding that the city wants people to sign up who want to give feedback on any topic within the city’s purview.
Tiernan said the city has a contract for multiple surveys to be conducted, which costs about $12,000 per year — that money, Tiernan said, comes from the city’s “communications/CMO budget”.
“Insights collected through FlashVote will help City leaders make more informed decisions that reflect the community’s priorities,” Tiernan wrote in the April 28 announcement.
According to the press release, signing up for the survey takes less than a minute and all responses will be anonymous. People can choose how they want to receive the survey — either by email, text or phone — and each survey takes about a minute to complete.
“FlashVote surveys are short — usually only a couple of questions, taking 1-2 minutes, about a specific topic to gather scientifically valid information from our community,” Tiernan told the Weekly. “This way, we will be able to get feedback in real time to ensure that community perspectives are part of decision-making processes, building trust and increasing transparency.
The survey will remain open for each user for 48 hours and after the survey is completed, residents will also receive a “summary of the results and can see how their responses compare to others in the community.”
“We’re excited to use the feedback collected through FlashVote to inform our work and ensure we’re understanding the needs of Pleasanton residents,” Tiernan said in the press release.
Residents can register for the survey at www.flashvote.com/pleasantonca or they can call 775-235-2240 to participate by phone or text.
Another spend. $12,000 doesn’t include staff time to analyze and report back to management results. $12,000 is just the tip of the iceberg.