ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) - The Elk Grove City Council received results of a new business survey that the city recently conducted. The council questioned the survey’s accuracy at its Oct. 9 meeting.

The biggest concern for the council and for the city’s Economic Development Department staff was the number of survey responses.

Out of 5,000 surveys sent out, only 146 were returned, equating to a 3% overall response rate. Survey developers Polco and the National Research Center said that response rate was a typical response rate for a city of Elk Grove’s size.

But Elk Grove Economic Development analyst Tish Mann said about the response rate, “That makes it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions about the broader business community.”  

This was the first year that the city conducted the National Business Survey, although it has used a National Community Survey for residents biennially since 2009. The city promoted completing the survey through a variety of communications to businesses, including mailing postcard and letter reminders.

Since the business survey is relatively new nationally, Mann said, the comparison data with other cities is uncertain since only a small number of cities has taken the survey. Because of this and the small response rate in Elk Grove, National Research Center was recommending a “range of uncertainty” in each category of “plus or minus” 10 percentage points.

“One way to think about this is the results are indicative of the 146 survey respondents, not indicative of the entire business community,” Mann said. “So I will be saying ‘respondents’ rather than business owners as I go through this (results).”

The survey is designed to measure business owner opinions in a variety of community categories such as quality of life, livability, community amenities, business climate, workforce, city governance and opportunities for growth. Elk Grove conducted the survey between Feb. 12 and March 19.

In the “quality of life” category, 85% of respondents rated Elk Grove as excellent to good while 88% said they were somewhat likely to recommend the city to someone who asked about it, percentages similar to other similarly-sized cities.

Just 49% considered the city an excellent or good place for young adults, a rating lower than the national benchmark.

In “livability,” 77% of respondents rated the overall economic health as excellent or good, similar to other cities, while 49% rated overall opportunities, education and arts in the Elk Grove the same, a rating below the national benchmark.

Under community amenities, 76% of respondents rated the overall image of Elk Grove as excellent or good, with 50% rating downtown/commercial area vibrancy and 46% rating frequented public places the same, marks below the national benchmark.

Regarding the business climate, 70% of respondents rated Elk Grove excellent to good, with 91% reporting they are “very or somewhat likely” to stay in Elk Grove over the next five years and 77% reporting “very or somewhat likely” to recommend the city to other businesses, all similar to the national benchmark.

Just 45% of respondents rated the Elk Grove government’s efforts to inform businesses of community issues and values as excellent to good, which is below the national benchmark.

Respondents also reported Elk Grove as a good or excellent place to work (84%), with 24% rating the cost of living as excellent or good, all similar to the national benchmark. One area that the city exceeded the national rating was in the variety of transportation options, with 46% rating this as excellent or good.

Other areas where respondents rated the city below national benchmarks was in public education’s ability to get high school students ready for a career or college and employees fully or mostly having the needed skills along with educational qualifications to their job.

The city was similar to the national benchmarks in business growth in the past five years and expected growth over the next five years, with 35% of respondents indicating a very or somewhat positive impact on business revenues in the next six months from the national economy, a benchmark higher than the national average.

Despite questioning the survey’s accuracy because of lack of response, council members were overall appreciative of the data received, indicating it could be useful if a larger sample size of businesses were available.

“How do you trust something that’s plus or minus 10 percentage points?” Councilman Darren Suen asked, eventually acknowledging that “there’s things for us to work on.”

Councilman Kevin Spease noted that even with a business item on the agenda, there was a lack of business owners attending the Oct. 9 meeting to provide input. Spease suggested that the business owners might want to be more proactive.

“If people want to be a part of the conversation, you should’ve been in the room tonight,” Spease said.

Even with the small sample size, Spease added, the survey provided insights into areas where the city could learn “lessons” and develop some action plans.

While expecting a low response for the survey, Economic Development Director Darrell Doan said it wasn’t anticipated to be “this low (3%).” Doan said he and staff will look at better ways to provide specifics on the city’s business climate, adding they wanted to get survey results to the council in the interests of transparency.

“We’re going to firm it up moving forward,” Doan said.