ROLE 3: Define or Measure Performance:
Practice 3b. Collect data: Collect performance measurement data.
Portland, Oregon, City Auditor [Profile]
The City Auditor’s Office conducts its citizen survey annually, the results of which are reported in the City’s annual Service Efforts and Accomplishments Report This is a mail survey with well-established procedures to determine targeted sample sizes of responses by geographic district, and to conduct later analyses to see if adjustments are in order based on differential responses by district or major demographic groups. In 2006, the Auditor’s Office mailed 8,000 questionnaires asking over 70 questions, and received 2,741 responses from city residents, for a response rate of 34 percent. This sample size produced results considered precise within ±2 percent for the city as a whole, and within ±5 percent for the eight geographic districts for which there were smaller samples, both at a 95 percent confidence level. The survey questionnaire, a description of survey methodology, and tables of survey results, citywide and by district, were included in an appendix to the 2006 SEA Report. In 2005, the Auditor’s Office started a more detailed “neighborhood” level survey to be performed on alternating years. In 2005, this practice consisted of mailing 60,265 surveys to 75 neighborhoods or groups of neighborhoods with a response rate of 37%, the results of which were included as an appendix to the 2004-05 SEA Report (Appendix A). The auditor’s office reports the neighborhood data through an interactive feature on its website (see Practice 5b. Report performance).
Since its initial run in 2003, the Auditor’s Office also annually conducts a survey of businesses in order to obtain business owners’ and managers’ perceptions of Portland conditions and City services that may affect their business. In 2006, questionnaires were mailed to 5,581 businesses drawn randomly from the City’s Bureau of Licenses business license database. 1,704 businesses responded, for a response rate of 31 percent and a margin of error of ±2 percent (citywide, at 95 percent confidence level). This information is reported as an appendix to the annual SEA Report (Appendix B). In addition to the annual citizen and business surveys, the Auditor’s Office annually collects performance data from six comparator cities for selected performance measures, and reports these comparisons with Portland results in the SEA Report.
More detailed information, including how inter-city data are obtained [Example in 2004 Guide-PDF]
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