City of Lawrence mailing out 4,000 surveys to measure quality of service / LJWorld.com

Several thousand Lawrence residents soon will get to give City Hall a scientific earful.

The city has started its process to conduct a scientific survey to determine what city services are performing well and which ones could use a bit of improvement. This week the city will mail out more than 4,000 survey forms and ask residents to fill them out.

“If you receive the survey in the mail, please respond to the questions honestly,” Mayor Mike Amyx said. “The survey doesn’t take much time, is confidential and can yield good information for us to use in planning current and future services.”

The city last did a citizens survey in 2007. The new survey will be modeled after that one, which will allow the city to see if it has gained or lost ground in particular areas.

In 2007, the quality of street maintenance received low marks, but since then city voters approved a new infrastructure sales tax to bolster streets. The city has done its own review that has suggested street conditions have improved since the sales tax, but this will be the first formal survey asking residents what they think.

Other services that received low marks in 2007 included: management of traffic flow and congestion, planning, and development services. Services that received high marks included: fire, trash, parks and recreation, police, and water and sewer. Back in 2007, 72 percent of citizens said they were satisfied with the overall quality of city services.

The city has budgeted $30,000 to complete the survey this year. The has hired a consulting firm to conduct the survey. The survey participants were selected randomly. Results of the survey will be released later this year.

oneeye_wilbur 2 years, 1 month ago

It would be so kind of the Journal World to inquire as to where the surveys are being mailed to. A map of the city showing the number of surveys in various sections of town.

How hard would that be to do? Not hard.

This survey is going to be biased!

just_another_bozo_on_this_bus 2 years, 1 month ago

I would guess that they are sampling as broadly across the city as possible.

I would also guess that you think that they should only sample members of the Oread Landlords Assn.

fiercesomeus 2 years, 1 month ago

Oneeye your already complaining that the survey is going to be biased because of where they are sending the surveys and you dont even know where they are sending them, if one is sent to you I guess you have nothing good to say about the city, talking about being biased.

One could only hope you do not get one as you did not read and comprehend the questions above. Do you know where , what areas of town, what zipcodes they are being sent to.. As oneyee very clearly remembers the last survey and the results and the company that prepared it from out of town.

The survey questions are biased and kinda like the Journal World questions. Never a yes or no, but something in between.

The survey is yet another attempt to make the folks feel good, with not much to come about in the end.

Perhaps, the Journal World would get a copy of this survey(which they didn't do the last time, on time) and print the previous survey questions, and give the zip codes and boundaries and number sent to each parameter and then list the current questions to be asked.

That would be very informational , much more than you, fiercesomeus, has attempted to provide. Thank you for your interest in my comments.

Vinny1 2 years, 1 month ago

What a huge sample size!!!!! not.

Actually, as surveys go, more than 4% of the entire population is indeed "huge."

And how "huge" is that number going to be when half of those people don't return them?

ivalueamerica 2 years, 1 month ago

You should study statistical sampling and you will then understand what you are talking about. If done correctly, it has proven to be quite effective and accurate.

I can tell you right now where the city is failing most -

Road quality. Road repair/potholes. Snow and ice care/removal.

consumer1 2 years, 1 month ago

Ditto Vinny1

BigPrune 2 years, 1 month ago

If anyone that isn't a City employee gets one of these surveys, make sure you hold it up to a black light or make sure there isn't any discerning serial numbers in one of its corners.

igby 2 years, 1 month ago

Hoy! hoy! hoy! dirty dee and the dun der gee! but it's not so because we did a survey! dirty deeds and there done dirt cheap!

walleye9898 2 years, 1 month ago

Gee - guess the City hasn't heard of surveymonkey.com. Could of done this for free and saved us taxpayer's $30K that could go to pothole repair!!!!

Do an on-line survey and I bet you would get more and better data. I don't like the idea that 10% or less of the population is providing insight as to how we feel about the quality of City services.

You know where this is going -- the people spoke to tell us where to make improvements so now we need to raise your taxes to make the vocalized, requested improvements!!!!

cowboy 2 years, 1 month ago

Good Idea Walleye then they could work on online billing for the water dept. .

I would hope that these surveys are geographically sorted when they come in. I can tell you as a major critic of snow removal in the past , now that I have moved , I am a major cheerleader. We get great snow removal now. Drove thru my old neighborhood , still sucks so not all service is equal.

Commenting has been disabled for this item.

Archive for Monday, March 28, 2011