- City Council Chronicles Podcast-

City council meetings are filled with important decision-making, but that doesn't stop Comedian Michael Karlik from finding the comedy in them. City Council Chronicles is a satirical podcast where Karlik observes and comments on city council meetings around the country. In this episode, Karlik interviews NRC Survey Consultant Ashly Perez de Tejada on what it’s like to present citizen survey results to city councils across the nation.

Listen to the Podcast Interview

Top Takeaways

Q: What is your relationship to city council meetings?
A: I go to city council meetings to present findings from our citizen surveys.

Q: How to do you capture the attention of city council at meetings?
A: We work really hard to make the presentations digestible; we use infographics over text-heavy slides to highlight the important findings from their survey. I think the length of the presentation is part of it; we try to keep it distinct so nobody gets too bored.

Q: Because you’ve sat through other parts of city council meetings, has there been anything you’ve seen that’s been enjoyable to you?
A: I think it’s just interesting when they have a lot of public comment. Initially, before working [with NRC], I had very little understanding of what city councils actually did. I have to say that surveying is the best way to get at the entire community’s opinion and not just those that go to every single council meeting and have an opinion about every single thing on the agenda.

Q: Who do you think had the nicest city council chamber?
Listen to find out!

Related Articles

• Your Citizen Survey is NOT a Political Poll
• Building Connections in the City of Bridges
• How to Convince Council It's Time for a Citizen Survey

National Research Center, Inc. (NRC) is a leading full-service survey research and evaluation firm focusing on the information requirements of the public sector, including local governments, health care providers, foundations and non-profit organizations.  Visit our home on the Web at www.n-r-c.com.  Check out our media page for more news, tips and human-interest stories from NRC.