The Stockton City Council on Tuesday approved a three-year, $189,000 contract extension with Zencity Technologies, an Israeli social media monitoring company that analyzes public sentiment about services and officials for local governments.
The agreement continues the city’s contract with Zencity Technologies at $63,000 per year through the annual budget process. City staff said in a report that the software “continues to provide significant value in supporting the city’s strategic planning and implementation of council priority goals,” though some councilmembers expressed skepticism about whether the city has enough data to measure the tool’s effectiveness.
Staff said the city has used the platform since 2022 as part of a broader effort to improve performance management and data-driven decision-making. Officials said it has been used to gather and analyze resident feedback.
“By leveraging data from social media, local news and digital surveys, the city identifies top community concerns to ensure decision-making aligns with resident needs,” the staff report said. “It collects thousands of voices quarterly from diverse digital platforms and measures public perception, safety and trust to help public agencies move beyond traditional metrics. The technology uses census-matched data to ensure feedback reflects the entire community, not just the most vocal individuals.”
While no data was provided demonstrating Zencity’s benefits to the city, staff said the platform has been used for community engagement, including tracking resident feedback to validate city initiatives, supporting engagement on the “Thrive Downtown” initiative, and identifying concerns such as the need for increased youth programming and safety measures based on community input. Staff said the platform also analyzes feedback from various sources to produce reports for the city.
District 4 Councilmember Mario Enríquez questioned what data the platform collects and whether the city can demonstrate measurable outcomes before extending the contract.
“They have a lot of data from the last four years that tracks what residents are thinking or talking about the city,” Deputy City Manager Christine Tien said. “That’s why they’re the only entity that can actually continue the research with the historical data.”
Enríquez said Zencity’s website resembled a chatbot and collected surveys, but it was unclear where the information was gathered.
“It’s a comprehensive survey company that helps us gather information,” Ford said. “This contract has been in place for three years, and we have a lot of information and data that we’ve collected throughout the years.”
Enríquez pushed back, saying it was unclear whether the platform was meeting benchmarks and questioned whether the council had received an update on its effectiveness.
“There has to be a point where staff has to be committed to telling us, ‘In a year, we’re going to give an update about this,'” Enríquez said. “If three or four years go by and you’re asking for an extension or for more money, you have to be able to come ready with data to show its effectiveness.”
Ford said he plans to provide the council with a report on past data on the platform in July or August. He said councilmembers could also consider canceling the contract with Zencity if they determine the platform is not effective.
Mayor Christina Fugazi said she had a report regarding Zencity in her email and offered to share it with the other councilmembers.
“They’re very open to the pulse of the city, making sure that we understand that because that allows us then to change the perception of our city, because a lot of people might feel one way, and we see it another way,” Fugazi said. “It helps us then to lead in the direction we want to go.”
Vice Mayor Jason Lee asked whether, if the council determines the platform is not beneficial to the city, it could cancel the contract or would be “on the hook for the whole $189,000.”
Ford said he did not know but would address the question in a future report.
Enríquez reiterated that all city departments requesting funding must come with data to support their requests.
“If one of us has it, all of us should have it,” Enríquez said. “If one of us has it, the public should have it. The public should already have all this data and information prior to us having this discussion.”
The council voted 6-1 to approve the extension. Fugazi, Lee, District 1 Councilmember Michele Padilla, District 2 Councilmember Mariela Ponce, District 3 Councilmember Michael Blower and District 5 Councilmember Brando Villapudua voted in favor. Enríquez voted no, citing a lack of available data.
Record reporter Hannah Workman covers news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at hworkman@recordnet.com or on Twitter @byhannahworkman. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on The Record: Stockton extends $189K contract for social media monitoring tool
Reporting by Hannah Workman, The Stockton Record / The Record
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