City of Upper Arlington, Ohio / 2010 Citizen Survey Report

City Manager's Office

You are here: Home \ Departments \ Community Affairs \ 2010 Citizen Survey Report

2010 Citizen Survey Report

Report of Results | Benchmark Report | Demographic Subgroup Comparisons | Demographic Trends
Geographic Subgroup Comparisons | Open-Ended Question Report

The City periodically surveys residents to gauge satisfaction with services, and whether appropriate prioritization and resources are being dedicated to special projects and community issues. In 2010, the City utilized the National Citizen Survey, which is tied to the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Performance Measurements. This approach has also resulted in significant savings to the City compared to previous approaches, and its standardized approach provides access to comparisons with other communities.

What is about to be shared is a snapshot of the data available from the report.

Response Rate
The survey went out to 1,200 households in early May 2010. Randomly selected households received a heads-up postcard, followed by two opportunities to complete the survey. A postage paid envelope was also provided. Concurrently, the City undertook a promotions campaign to help raise awareness in the community. 542 surveys were completed and returned - yielding a response rate of 47% (typical response rates are 25-40%).

Key Highlights
97% of respondents rated overall quality of life as "Excellent" or "Good," indicating they believe the City is a good place to live. Many also reported they plan to stay in UA for the next five years or more.

Characteristics that received most favorable ratings:

- Image/reputation of UA;

- Cleanliness.

Characteristics that received least favorable ratings:

- Employment opportunities;

- Availability of paths and walking trails.

Benchmarking Against Other Communities
Utilizing the National Citizen Survey gave us access to extensive national data, to gain perspective on how UA compares to other communities. This is helpful for measuring how the City's provision of services compares to other communities. Different services typically receive very different ratings from residents and are hard to compare. For example, safety services usually receive very high ratings compared to transportation services. Depending on the question, UA was benchmarked against 20-up-to-400 other communities (typically more than 200).

- Of 31 benchmarked community characteristics, 28 were rated above the national benchmark.
- Residents are more civically engaged, with more than half volunteering their time to some group or activity in UA.
- Respondents demonstrated strong trust in local government:

- 7 out of 10 rated overall direction of City as "Good" or "Excellent" - much higher than the benchmark;
- Nearly all respondents rated their overall impression of employees as "Excellent" or "Good."

- Likewise, residents gave favorable ratings to most local government services:

- 38 services could be benchmarked - with 36 rating "Much Above" the benchmark.
- None rated below the benchmark.

- UA ranked very highly in a number of areas, including:

- Top ranking of 1 for: Ease of car travel; snow removal services; available public parking; EMS services; fire prevention/education; courts; impression of recent contact with Fire Division;
- Sample rankings of 2-5: Neighborhood and UA as a place to live; sense of community; overall image or reputation of UA; services provided by the City; Police services and crime prevention; impression of recent contact with Police Division; educational opportunities and UA Schools; UA libraries; services to seniors.

Community Ratings
The following section captures key highlights emerging from the bulk of the Report, which also includes benchmark comparisons with other communities.

Overall Community Quality - As previously mentioned in this report, perceptions of overall community quality of life rated highly: overall quality of life (97% "Excellent" or "Good"); neighborhood as a place to live (96%); UA as a place to live (98%); would recommend living in UA (98% "Very" or "Somewhat Likely"); likely to remain in UA for the next five years (94%).

Transportation - Ease of travel in the community rated well overall and "Much Above" the benchmarks: ease of car travel (91% "Excellent" or "Good"); bus travel (54%); bicycle travel (58%); walking (74%); traffic flow on major streets (81%). Availability of paths and walking trails rated below the benchmark, at 48%. Transportation-related City services all rated above the benchmark: street repair (62% "Excellent" or "Good"); street cleaning (80%); street lighting (64%); snow removal (92%); sidewalk maintenance (61%); traffic signal timing (74%). Respondents reported commuting alone in a motorized vehicle than the benchmark (81%), "Much More" than the benchmark.

Housing - A majority of respondents rated the availability of affordable quality housing (66% "Excellent" or "Good") and the variety of housing options (75%) "Much Above" the benchmark, with " Much Less" experiencing housing stress from more than 30% of their income used to support housing costs (25%).

Land Use and Zoning - Land use and quality of the environment scored well overall with ratings of the following highlights attained: quality of new development (71% "Excellent" or "Good"); overall appearance of UA (94%); land use, planning & zoning (57%); code enforcement (73%); and animal control (81%).

Economic Sustainability - Overall, respondents viewed economic sustainability in a positive light, giving high grades for: shopping opportunities (59% "Excellent" or "Good"); UA as a place to work (75%); overall quality of businesses and services (74%); and a lesser grade for employment opportunities (38%), however this statistic is still considered "Much Above" the benchmark.

Public Safety - Perceptions of community safety are an important component of residents' overall sense of a quality community. In all ratings, the City's safety services ranked "Much Above" the benchmark: feeling of safety in neighborhood during daytime (99% "Excellent" or "Good"); safety in neighborhood after dark (91%); in UA's "downtown" area during day (97%); in "downtown" after dark (91%); safety from violent crime (97%); safety from property crime (86%). Similarly ratings of the City's safety services scored highly and "Much Above" the benchmark: Police services (95% "Excellent" or "Good"); Fire services (99%); EMS services (100%); crime prevention (93%); fire prevention & education (96%); traffic enforcement (84%); municipal court (89%); emergency preparedness (81%).

Environmental Sustainability - Answers in this area indicated a high level of satisfaction with: cleanliness (97% "Excellent" or "Good"); quality of the natural environment (88%); preservation of natural space (68%); and air quality (88%).

Parks & Recreation - Parks & Recreation services received strong ratings from respondents: ratings of City parks (96% "Excellent" or "Good") with 91% of respondents using the parks; ratings of recreation programs/classes (89%) with 52% participating in said programs; ratings of recreation facilities (72%), with 71% reporting using said facilities.

Culture, Arts & Education - Opportunities to attend cultural activities rated "Above" the benchmark (60% "Excellent" or "Good"), and educational opportunities rated "Much Above" (93%), with UA Schools rating highly (98%). Many respondents reported using UA libraries (89%), with a high rating of these services (96%).

Health & Wellness - Respondents highly rated: availability of affordable quality healthcare (79% "Excellent" or "Good"); affordable quality food (82%); and preventive health services (73%) - all "Much Above" the benchmark.

Community Inclusiveness - Overall, respondents rated UA highly as a community that offers much to many: sense of community (91% "Excellent" or "Good"); openness and acceptance to people of diverse backgrounds (61%); availability of affordable child care (65%); UA as a place to raise children (97%); as a place to retire (71%); services to seniors (88%); services to youth (76%); services to low income people (51%).

Civic Engagement & Activity - The survey indicates that opportunities for civic engagement and volunteering are high in UA. While fewer respondents than the benchmark stated they had attended a public meeting (23%), "More" actively participated in volunteer activities (49%) and "Much More" participated in a local club or civic group (38%). The greatest area of civic engagement related to electoral participation - of 92% registered to vote, 85% reported voting in the last general election.

Information and Awareness - This area rated well, with 87% reporting they had read "City Insight," and 64% had visited the City's website within the last 12 months. Public information services rated "Much Above" the benchmark (84% "Excellent" or "Good"). - Social Engagement - This area scored highly and "Much Above" the benchmark, for opportunities to participate in social events (80% "Excellent" or "Good"), and religious activities (87%).

Public Trust - Respondents indicated an overarching level of satisfaction with their local government, with high ratings for: the value of services for the taxes paid to UA (78% "Excellent" or "Good"); the overall direction UA is heading (72%); job UA does at welcoming citizen involvement (66%); overall image/reputation of UA (94%) - all ranked "Much Above" the benchmark. In addition, overall services provided by the City were rated highly (93%), when compared with Federal services (41%), state services (44%) and Franklin County services (51%).

City Employees - while fewer respondents had had direct contact with City employees compared to the benchmark, when they did they highly rated the interaction for: knowledge (89% "Excellent" or "Good"); responsiveness (86%); courtesy (89%); overall impression (87%).

Demographic Subgroup Comparisons
To further enrich the data, results for the evaluative questions were also cross-tabulated with four demographic factors:

- Housing tenure (own/rent);

- Presence of children under 17 in the household;

- Age of respondent; and

- Gender of respondent.

These results do indicate some noteworthy differences. Examples include:
Rent/Own:

- Renters report a higher level of satisfaction with the ease of walking in UA (88% / 72%) and the availability of paths and walking trails (63% / 45%) than those who own;

- Fewer renters read the City Insight newsletter (80% / 89%);

- Fewer renters recycle (82% / 97%);

- Fewer renters volunteer (31% / 52%) or participate in civic groups (26% / 39%).

- Renters are more satisfied with some City services, such as sidewalk maintenance (78% / 58%), land use, planning & zoning (72% / 55%), code enforcement (89% / 70%), and economic development (78% / 55%).

Children/No Children:

- Respondents with children report a higher level of satisfaction with UA as a place to live (100% / 97%) and the sense of community (96% / 88%);

- Those with children are more satisfied with ease of bus travel (65%/49%), and less satisfied with ease of bicycle travel (50% / 63%) and the availability of paths and walking trails (40% / 52%);

- Respondents with children report feeling safer in their neighborhoods after dark (95% / 90%);

- Those with children are more likely to use UA's libraries (97% / 85%), participate in recreation programs or activities (80% / 37%), or visit a park (98% / 87%).

Age (18-34 / 35-54 / 55+):

- The younger demographic is less inclined to think of UA as a good place to raise children (91% / 97% / 98%);

- The younger demographic rates the quality of new development more highly (85% / 66% / 71%);

- Younger respondents rate cultural opportunities (44% / 55% / 70%) and recreational opportunities (52% / 57% / 70%) less favorably;

- The youngest and middle age groups have visited the City's website more frequently (76% / 76% / 46%).

Gender: Fewer statistically significant differences emerged in this subcategory. Examples include:

- Females rate the overall quality of business and services establishments (80% / 68%), shopping opportunities (63% / 54%), and recreational opportunities (66% / 56%) more highly;

- Females report feeling less safe relative to violent crimes (95% / 99%);

- Females are more satisfied with services provided to seniors (93% / 81%), but less satisfied with services provided to low-income people (43% / 64%).

Geographic Subgroup Comparisons
The data was also broken down into four primary geographic areas: South of Lane (121) / Lane to Zollinger (138) / Zollinger to Fishinger (147) / North of Fishinger (136).

Few statistically significant differences were noted. They include:

- Perceptions of problems with run down buildings, lots or junk vehicles (0% / 5% / 3 % / 1%), and the service rating of code enforcement activities (83% / 65% / 65% / 81%);

- Ratings of street repairs (68% / 49% / 60% / 70%) and street lighting (71% / 54% / 64% / 66%).

Policy Questions
The City was able to incorporate a limited number of questions unique to our community, pertinent to current issues and to enrich some of the demographic data about respondents and, ultimately the community. Ratings of the City's performance at the following:

- Addressing aging roads and underground infrastructure issues - 57% ("Excellent" or "Good")

- Managing the City's finances and allocating funds - 68%

- Retaining/attracting new retail/restaurant/service establishments - 44%

- Retaining/attracting professional businesses/offices - 46%

Responses to the question "The City maintains a fund balance of at least 20% of its annual operating budget. Fund overages are primarily used for non-reoccurring expenses such as Reed Road Water Park and road projects. In a time of economic challenge, which one of the following statements best reflects your view":

- The City should only dip into the fund balance if absolutely necessary to support basic services (police, fire, etc.) - 63%

- The City should dip into the fund balance in order to keep services at the level they are now - 28%

- The City should make cuts in services in order to preserve the fund balance - 9%

Responses to the question: "Please indicate the level to which you agree or disagree with the following statement: The Upper Arlington City Council effectively represents the attitudes and opinions of UA residents":

- Strongly/Somewhat agree - 69%

Open-Ended Question
The City was able to include one open-ended question: "What do you think will be the single biggest issue facing Upper Arlington over the next three years?" The verbatim responses were categorized by topic area, with the following results (first topic counted in the case of multiple topic responses):

- Budget, taxation, maintaining services - 30%

- Economic development, jobs - 29%
- Infrastructure - 11%

- Growth, changing population, planning & housing issues - 10%

- Recreation opportunities, youth opportunities, schools - 9%

- Don't know, no comment - 2%

- Other - 8%

From Data to Action
The National Citizen Survey provides a section of recommended areas for the City to consider placing additional focus, as well as identifying areas that could be explored relative to possible cost savings measures.

Key Driver Analysis
The Key Driver Analysis looks for individual services that most closely correspond to resident perceptions of overall quality of service. It is believed that if you are able to make improvements in these key service areas, the perception of overall quality of service will also increase. These areas were:

- Police services;

- Preservation of natural areas;

- City parks.

In UA's case, all three areas were above the benchmark compared to other communities and rated highly, indicating the City should continue its already high quality performance in these areas.

An Action Chart (Figure 91 in the main report) provides a quick overview of how 29 services (including the three Key Drivers) compare to the national benchmark, as a means of identifying any areas that may need improvement, typically areas that are "Similar" or "Below" the benchmark. Of these, 26 were rated above the benchmark, two similar to the benchmark (garbage collection, recreation facilities), and one (leaf collection) could not be compared to the benchmark.

A comparison chart of the Key Drivers (Figure 92 in the main report) is included to give a broader comparison with typical National Key Drivers, and Core Services. This comparison puts forth service areas that are not considered local, national or Core Service Key Drivers. Since these service areas are currently rated "Much Above" or "Above" the benchmark, it is suggested they could be explored for cost savings opportunities without negatively impacting residents' perceptions of overall services.