Burlington Government Review Committee Requests Funds for All-Town Survey

The Burlington Government Review Committee will be asking Town Meeting for $20,000 this January so it can perform a survey of Burlington community members.

Commissioned by the Select Board in 2024, the BGRC's job is to review the town's government and municipal structure, the documents supporting it, and public perception of it. At the end of this work, which is expected to take around 18 months, the committee is expected to present their findings and recommendations to the Select Board, including a unified town charter, which lays out the basic government structure, accompanying bylaws that go into greater detail about certain processes, and other recommendations for further study and action.

This work began in earnest in July, when the committee – made up of 11 community members with varying levels of experience with town government – began meeting, guided by consultants from UMass Boston's Collins Center for Public Management. The group took several meetings to understand the documents underpinning the town's government structure and then embarked on an iterative process to study the different components of municipal function and develop recommendations regarding each aspect.

So far, the group has looked in-depth at Town Meeting, the town's legislative body, and is in the process of studying and making recommendations about the town's executive and administrative bodies.

Stakeholder input is an essential part of this process, said BGRC Chair Betsey Hughes to the Select Board at their December 15, 2025, meeting. The committee has already gathered internal feedback via anonymous interviews from current and former members of town government, and now its attention is shifting to gathering input from residents, which it will do in two ways – via a survey, sent to all households, and though a public forum.

The survey, which will be administered this spring, is the subject of the committee's request. "We want make sure that we get resident input on how decisions are made, who should be making them, and how authority should be distributed in the town," said Hughes, as well as "the perception of effectiveness and accountability of town government."

A third-party survey organization will be utilized to design, develop, and administer the survey; after administration, they'll help analyze and present the results to the committee, the Select Board, and to other stakeholders in town. Two quotes – one from the Center for Public Opinion at UMass Lowell and one from the Collins Center – were obtained, and both came in within $500 of each other after a thorough financial analysis, said Assistant Town Administrator Patrick Lawlor at the Select Board's January 12 meeting.

Once chosen, the survey agency will create a survey with a small number of well-crafted questions, including demographic information, and the survey will be mailed to every home in Burlington. The committee will then take on the work of promoting the survey in various ways, with a target response rate of 3-5% of the town's 18,000 registered voters. Surveys will be available in languages other than English, though the committee hasn't yet confirmed which languages will be offered.

Select Board member Sarah Cawley cautioned Hughes to err on the side of more information when presenting at Town Meeting, including itemized quotes, intended outcomes, and details about what the committee will do with the information once results are received.

Cawley also remarked on the $20,000 price tag, which includes survey development as well as postage for mailing the forms; BGRC Vice-Chair Jessica Sutherland assured the Board that this cost is very reasonable for a scientific survey of this magnitude.

If funds are approved, the committee hopes to choose a survey provider in February, draft the survey in March, and administer it in May through early June, with findings ready to report out in July.

For more information about the Government Review Committee, visit their website at www.burlington.org/govreview.

This article is a part of Burlington Buzz's coverage of January's Town Meeting, which will take place on January 26. For a summary of the entire warrant and live updates throughout Town Meeting, see the Buzz Warrant Summary.

Editor's Note: Burlington Buzz founder & reporter, Nicci Kadilak, is a member of the Burlington Government Review Committee.