The City of Tacoma wants to hear from its citizens. This week, 9,600 randomly selected households will have the opportunity to report how they feel about the quality of life and services in Tacoma when they receive a comprehensive questionnaire in the mail from the City of Tacoma.

The citizen survey is meant to assess the City’s performance of major services, and will help the City better understand the citizens’ perceptions of these services. The survey findings will aid the City’s ongoing operational planning and improvement processes.

“By evaluating these services, the City hopes to gauge how well we are doing in meeting our operational goals,” said City Manager Eric Anderson. “The objective feedback will be a useful tool to help the City better understand how the public perceives and evaluates the services it receives.”

If your household is selected, you will first receive a postcard notification, then a six-page questionnaire consisting of 39 questions which will be accompanied by a letter of explanation, and directions on how to complete the survey. To get a scientifically reliable sample of Tacoma residents, the adult (anyone 18 years or older) in the household who most recently had a birthday should complete the survey. Responses are confidential.

Households will be selected to participate in the survey using a stratified, systematic sampling of U.S. Postal carrier routes — the City’s goal is to receive survey results citywide with a margin of error of plus or minus two percent. The survey findings will also be broken out and evaluated by neighborhood and councilmanic districts.