Cities smartly embracing input from residents

Not much engagement here! Could it be because of the "No pseudonyms"policy.

"their needs for community services, including police, fire, community development, parks and recreation, transportation and public works"

need - circumstances in which something is necessary, or that require some course of action; necessity.

"of what its residents want"

want - have a desire to possess or do (something); wish for.

Right here is a problem. Jackson is looking for "needs" while Cape is looking for "wants". Cape is wrong in asking for wishes (subjective input) versus necessities (objective input).

The problems most often encountered with surveys are:

1. They almost always tend to reflect a bias toward the desired outcome of the authors.

2. THEY DO NOT PROVIDE INFORMATION (STATISTICS, CURRENT DATA, COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS) ON WHICH THE PUBLIC CAN BASE THEIR RESPONSES. IE. CURRENT TAXES, CURRENT ENTERPRISE BUDGET INCOME AND LOSSES, CRIME AND FIRE STATISTICS, RIDERSHIP, CURRENT PUBLIC WORKS STREET REPAIR PROGRAMS, FUTURE REGULATORY EXPENDITURES, AND OTHER FACTOTUMS.

3. Other problems in design. http://www.satrixsolutions.com/blog/top-ten-common-problems-designing-effective-...

4. Survey's prepared by third party contractors do not have a scope of understanding of the local communities current gripes and complaints and questions may not even address these. the "No pseudonyms" policy comes to mind here. Is the survey going to require "real names" or is anonymous input allowed.

5. Survey's oftentimes do not provide enough categorization of responses by locales. For example District 2 may have a necessity for street improvements while the balance of the other districts do not have that issue. Taken in the aggregate district 2's necessity will have a low score thus not be considered significant in a planning process.

Recommendations:

A. The city of Jackson's expenditure of $40,000 too a commercial third party is stupid!

B. Pay $40,000 to a sister Cities departments to prepare their portion of the survey including back ground budget information of the the cities in question which will result in biased survey questions but a critique by competitors will result in more on-point survey questions. Farmington critique's Cape Girardeau, while Herculaneum critiques Jackson.

C. Working with Southeast Missouri State University is stupid! Most student millennials are seeking utopia which today is an unattainable wish (subjective input) so I predict the survey questions produced will be biased toward that utopia.

D. first, send out an information packet (see 2. above) prepared by the cities departments providing full transparency of the cities operations by district and provide all information requested by the critiquing cities. Then send out the survey questions.

E. Adequately advertise and promote the necessity for participation in the survey including presentation to the local citizen organizations such as the Pachyderm club, Cape Democrats, Cape County Tea Party, Advisory committees, and etc. Provide them with information packets and invite them to submit survey questions. The city should put in a level of effort as they did for the use tax initiative.

Example critiques can be found here. http://zpost.us/wordpress/

I find it interesting that I cannot locate the author's name on this piece, but I am required to put my real name on this comment.

I am one of those of the "certain sectors of society" who initially was opposed to the expenditure of $15,000 on a survey, but even in opposition I was supportive of the effort to reach out to and be led by the community from our elected officials. I applaud the motivation wholeheartedly.

Once I read about the results of the open meetings in Cape and the paltry attendance, I understood why Jackson's officials felt the need for the expense, and came to support that as well.

Perhaps it would have been in the best interest of the author to refrain from divisive, insulting aspersions on those who disagree, and simply lead with the fact that it's necessary because people don't show up when it's done the 'traditional' way. After reading this, my concern becomes whether something unpopular with those who lead but supported by a majority of residents would be given due consideration.

Then again, we don't know from this page who wrote it, so of course they can let their true attitudes be known with impunity. Anonymity means they have nothing to lose.

As a citizen, please accept my gratitude, City of Jackson, for seeking a way to improve citizen engagement that has a chance of being successful.

Suggested Survey questions:

1. Given that the crime rate in your district is ___ felonies per resident and the police patrols per resident is _____ and the expenditures on police services is $____ per resident.

Given that comparable of other cities crime rate, police patrols and expenditures in other cities is ___ felonies per resident,patrols per resident is _____, and police services is $____ per resident, respectively.

Do you find it a necessity to either

A. increase the Police budget for my district?

B. do not change the current budget for my district?

C. Decrease the the current budget for my district?

2. Given that the current expenditures on Parks and Recreation enterprise programs is $_____ annually while the income from these programs is $_____ with a budget deficit/excess of $_____ per year and the operation cost is $____ per city resident. Note: Parks and Recreation enterprise programs income is from fees charged for use of the facilities (softball, Cape Splash, golf course, etc)

Given that comparable budget expenditures, income, of other cities expenditures is $_____ annually and income is $_____ annually, deficit/excess of $_____ per year, and operation cost is $____ per city resident, respectively.

Do you find it a necessity to either

A. Expand the parks and recreation expenditures?

B. do not change the current parks and recreation expenditures?

C. Decrease the current parks and recreation expenditures?

3. Given the public works expenditures on street repair in the city districts are:

District 1: $____ per resident

District 2: $____ per resident

......

Do you find it a necessity to either

A. increase the street repair expenditures for my district?

B. do not change street repair expenditures for my district?

C. Decrease the street repair expenditures for my district?

Similar survey questions can be devised to gather information for the other city departments: fire, community development, transportation, and city building inspections.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO ALLOW THE RESPONDENTS TO INDICATE THE PRIORITY OF EXPENDITURES. The suggested survey question would be:

4. Prioritize expenditures by city departments by entering number 1-6 in blanks provided:

police _____

fire _____

community development _____

parks and recreation _____

transportation _____

public works (street repair, water/sewage/garbage fees) _____

5. Would you prefer that the city

A. raise sales tax rates and implement a use tax.

B. Keep the current sales tax rates and NOT implement a use tax.

C. Decrease the sales tax rates and NOT implement a use tax.

Given the following city revenue resources respond how you think that the tax or fee effects the economic vitality of the city as a whole.

current sales tax rate (detriment/neutral/beneficial)________

use tax implementation (detriment/neutral/beneficial)________

business license fees (detriment/neutral/beneficial)________

parks and rec fees(detriment/neutral/beneficial)________

....

IN THE INTEREST OF TRANSPARENCY CURRENT CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS SHOULD PROVIDE THEIR RESPONSE TO EACH SURVEY QUESTION ON THE SURVEY FORM.

You should get my drift, but it is a place the city doesn't not want to go to. So I predict any survey not developed on the suggestions above will be pointless. See paragraph #4 of http://www.satrixsolutions.com/blog/top-ten-common-problems-designing-effective-...