City staff reported to the Sunnyvale Human Relations Commission on Oct. 9 that the planned community needs and equity assessment will be extended from an original eight-month schedule to a 12-month timeframe to improve outreach and participation.

"We thought that it was prudent to actually extend it, and, it doesn't really increase our budget," Fernanda, a city staff member, said during the staff report. The extension aims to avoid assembling critical outreach during late-year holidays and to give the consultant and staff more time to recruit participants for focus groups, community conversations and a representative community survey.

Fernanda said the city has held a kickoff with the consultant firm MIG and will continue bimonthly meetings. The consultant will develop a community profile using approximately 12 indicators — examples cited included education, poverty, transportation and proximity to parks and groceries — to map neighborhoods and help target focus-group topics. The staff report said community conversations will target nonprofits, schools, businesses and other stakeholders; the consultant team will conduct those conversations.

A representative survey date had not been set at the meeting; Fernanda said community conversations are expected to start in November with an outreach window running through April to allow multiple opportunities for participation. The consultant team will present to the commission during the assessment process, with a scheduled presentation to commissioners in February to solicit feedback while data collection is underway.

Fernanda said the city will use social media, the library and other channels to publicize meetings and that the city has budgeted gift cards to compensate participants for some focus groups. She asked commissioners to assist by sharing outreach with community organizations and by suggesting potential participants or focus-group hosts.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions about methodology and whether the assessment could produce immediately actionable items for the commission or council. Fernanda said the assessment is designed to inform a longer-term picture of Sunnyvale's needs and equity gaps; it is not a mechanism to require immediate policy changes but results may identify priorities that the city or the commission might address later. She said separate short-term actions remain possible outside the assessment process if commissioners identify urgent issues.

No formal action or vote was taken on the assessment update at the meeting.