PRECA 04-02-1986 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I. INTRODUCTION In the fall of 1985 the New Brighton City Council directed the Citizen Study Committee and the City.. Manager to conduct a Citizen Survey in order to obtain input regarding the quality and .level of New Brighton city services. The results of the survey, report- ed in this document, will be used in the annual Team Building/Goal Setting worksession with the City Council and Staff January 31-and February 1, 1986. A. P9ETHODS Administrative Assistant, Gary R. Berger, researched the use of citizen surveys by other local governments in the metro- politan region. He found that cities use either a random sampling technique involving."one-to-one" interviews, or -the surveys are mailed to all city residences which results in a sufficient response rate such that significant information is gained. Given the labor intensive requirements of adminster- ing a random sample survey (which was done in New Bxighton in 1982), the Citizen Study Committee decided to go ahead with a survey that would be mailed to all city residences. The Com- mittee felt-the .previous survey could be adapted for that purpose. B. THE SURVEY The Citizen Study Committee redesigned and restructured the ~ 1982 survey so that it could be_easily administered through the mail. It incorporated the feature of being folded with a stamped self-address for convenience in returning it to the .City. The Committee also strived to retain as much as possi- ble of the original content areas, since they illici.ted impor- tant information from the respondents. Also, the 1982 ;survey was sent to the City Council, City Boards and Commissions, and City Department Heads for updating and editing. Their input was included in the 1986 Citizen Survey. C. ADMINISTRATION OF THE SURVEY It was determined that the most feasible way of reaching all representative households would be through the City Newslet- ter. The newsletter goes to approximately. 8,000 residences. The survey was inserted in the Winter edition of .the News- letter and respondents were asked to return it no later than December 15, 1985. An article asking residents to complete the survey and return it was placed in the New Brighton Bulletin and the New Brighton Focus newspapers. Later, city residents were advised in a second article that the survey could be returned beyond the December 15th deadline, since the city was still in the process of totalling the results.