Municipal Opinion Surveys – Assessing and Enhancing City and Community Government Performance

Assessing Satisfaction With Municipal Services and Municipal Government – and Being Responsive to Voters

Many cities and towns are run well, some aren’t. All cities and towns can be governed more effectively, regardless of how well they may already be governed. A large part of governing cities and towns effectively is to listen to residents and to be responsive to them, taking action where appropriate.

Municipal opinion surveys (community opinion surveys) enable residents and business owners/leaders to share their perceptions and suggestions about municipal government, specific public issues, and the various services provided to them with their mayor/city manager and city/town council. The results of municipal surveys can also be shared with residents and business owners/leaders.

Mayors, city managers and city/town council members often have to make important decisions with limited information and input from residents and businesses. Residents often do not have the time or inclination to attend town council meetings to express their opinions. Unfortunately, as countless mayors and city/town council members have experienced too late, the first opportunity constituents often have to voice their opinion is in the voting booth, unless municipal surveys are conducted first and the results are acted upon.

Municipal surveys are designed to gather perceptions about many important issues and to aggregate the results to get the pulse of the city/town. Surveys are usually customized to meet the information needs of municipal leaders.

Mayors and town councils are able to learn from municipal survey results and establish priorities and budgets based on feedback from residents, taxpayers and businesses. Municipal surveys provide an easy, proactive and very cost-effective way for municipal government leaders to gather feedback and suggestions from and be more responsive to all of their constituents.

Municipal Opinion Survey Metrics

Survey ratings provide a clear indication of current and ongoing levels of city and town resident satisfaction. Verbatim comments and suggestions provide critical actionable information and insight for achieving results and being responsive to constituents and voters.

Following are some of the municipal services and issues that can be included in municipal opinion surveys.

• Overall satisfaction with services provided by cities/towns
• Adequacy of public recreational facilities
• Maintenance of public recreational facilities
• Availability and effectiveness of youth programs
• Parking availability in the business district
• Road maintenance
• Trash removal
• Frequency of street cleaning
• Snow removal
• Leaf removal
• Police department performance
• Fire department performance
• EMS performance
• Effectiveness of traffic control
• Effectiveness of the elementary school
• Effectiveness of the middle school
• Effectiveness of high school
• Responsiveness of the mayor and town council
• Control of municipal finances and spending
• Adequate public notice of important issues/decisions
• Responsiveness of zoning board
• Effectiveness of municipal clerk's office
• Effectiveness of attracting and facilitating/supporting businesses
• Results broken down by resident/business demographics
• Enforcement of zoning regulations

Examining Municipal Opinion Survey Results by Resident Demographics

We recommend including demographic questions in municipal opinion surveys, enabling residents to identify the section of the city or town where they live, their age range and other pertinent demographic information. This makes it possible to get survey results reports not only for the city or town overall, but also by demographic criteria.

Reasons for Conducting Municipal Opinion Surveys / Community Opinion Surveys

• Municipal opinion surveys provide significant benefits for mayors, city managers, city and town councils and their constituents, the residents and business owners/leaders:
• Enable all municipal constituents to easily and cost-effectively voice their opinions and suggestions
• Mayors/city managers and city/town managers are able to be more responsive to their constituents and be more confident that they know the opinions of their constituents
• Municipal budgets and priorities can better reflect the opinions of voters
• Surveys let constituents know their opinions are valued
• Acting on municipal survey feedback increases popularity of mayors/city managers and city/town councils
• Increase value of municipal budget dollars spent

The best way to understand the value of municipal opinion surveys is to look at the results from an actual survey (see link below).

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