Sammamish council votes to end community survey
Sammamish City Council voted 4-3 on March 17 to cancel the City’s planned 2026 community survey, replacing it with a City-managed feedback system — a decision that has raised broader questions about how the City will collect accurate data on what residents want.
At the meeting, Deputy Mayor Debbie Treen introduced a motion to cancel the survey conducted by Polco, the firm used in previous years, and replace it with a City-run alternative.
The motion passed 4-3, with council members Pam Stuart, Amy Lam and Roisin O’Farrell dissenting. According to City staff, Sammamish has conducted similar surveys in 2016, 2018 and 2024 through Polco to gather resident feedback on City services, priorities and long-term planning.
Treen said the current survey format does not provide useful input for decision-making, because it does not allow residents to weigh tradeoffs between priorities and costs.
“I think having surveys that are more directed towards specific Sammamish issues would be of much greater use for the City,” Treen said.
She added that a City-managed system could give residents more direct opportunities to provide input while also reducing the survey’s estimated $30,000 cost.
Mayor Josh Amato also supported reevaluating how the City gathers feedback, emphasizing the need for input that directly informs council decisions.
“I think we need to rethink how we’re gathering input…and make sure it’s actually useful for decision-making,” Amato said.
Council members who opposed the motion, however, raised concerns about eliminating what they described as one of the City’s only statistically valid tools for measuring public opinion.
Lam said she supported continuing the Polco survey, noting that alternative options presented to the council, such as opt-in surveys, were not statistically valid and could produce unreliable results.
“Opt-in surveys contain self-selection bias…They measure intensity of opinion, not prevalence of opinion…They cannot be used to claim public support or opposition,” Lam said during the discussion.
Stuart also questioned whether the City has the capacity to design and analyze a reliable survey, noting that professional surveys require careful methodology, statistical analysis and safeguards against bias.
The debate highlighted a broader divide within the council over how public input should be gathered, whether through statistically representative data or more flexible, but less controlled, forms of engagement.
Public comment reflected similar tensions.
Anagha Lokre, 46, a Sammamish resident, said a survey helps ensure the city hears “from a broad range of residents, not just the people who regularly attend meetings or speak up.”
The decision leaves open questions about whether future city council decisions will be biased towards the preferences of a few residents, or the will of the many.
