Lawrence city commissioners, wanting to improve the “user friendliness” of city government, on Wednesday heard their options for surveying city employees and residents on the matter.

Two polling firms, GRI Statistical Services of Lawrence and Infomark Research of Topeka, made presentations Wednesday at a city commission study session.

“We don’t know where we can improve until we know where we are,” Mayor Mike Rundle said.

There could be a cost to attaining the knowledge, however. Rundle said he hopes homegrown GRI could be persuaded to do some of the work for free but said the surveys could cost the city between $5,000 and $20,000 in what is expected to be a tight budget year.

“I think if you look at it as something that would be used over the long term, we would get that investment back,” Rundle said. “In a short budget year, it would be good to know where we can realize greater efficiencies.”

Wednesday’s study session grew out of the commission’s annual evaluation in January of City Manager Mike Wildgen’s job performance. The commission gave Wildgen a raise but also told him to make City Hall more user friendly before his next evaluation, this time in just six months. Commissioners said at the time they wanted the surveys to help them gauge the friendliness issues.

Representatives of the survey firms urged commissioners Wednesday to carefully articulate the objectives of their survey.

Commissioner Sue Hack said she wanted to learn more about a perception on the part of state officials that Lawrence was a tough place to do business.

Rundle will bring a formal proposal for the survey to an upcoming, but unspecified, city commission meeting.