The City of Corpus Christi Citizen Survey

Transcription

1 The City of Corpus Christi Citizen Survey Report for the year 2005 Completed by Social Sciences Research Center Daniel J. Jorgensen, Ph.D. Joyce DuVall, Research Assistant College of Arts and Humanities Texas A&M University Corpus Christi Volume 1 of 2 Deliverable 1 of 1 February 14, 2006

2 AUTHORIZATION On September 18, 2005, the Social Science Research Center, College of Arts and Humanities, Texas A&M University (SSRC) was contracted by the City of Corpus Christi to conduct the City of Corpus Christi Citizen Satisfaction Survey for Pursuant to a memorandum between Oscar Martinez, Assistant City Manager, City of Corpus Christi, Dr. Philip Rhoades, Director of the SSRC, Dr. Richard Gigliotti, Dean, College of Arts and Humanities and Dr. Daniel Jorgensen, Principle Investigator, the following deliverable is in fulfillment of said memorandum and contract. This report has been produced for the City of Corpus Christi by the Social Science Research Center at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. Funding was provided through a contract with The City of Corpus Christi. Copyright 2006 All or portions of this report may be duplicated in support of public education, grant writing or planning efforts. Citations made should include the sources: The Social Science Research Center Texas A&M University Corpus Christi and The City of Corpus Christi. 2

3 The City of Corpus Christi Citizen Survey: Report for the year 2005 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report marks the fourth consecutive year that the City of Corpus Christi and the Social Science Research Center at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi have collaborated on the development and administration of a citizen s survey. Over the four years of the collaboration, the survey and its administration has substantially remained the same. The main objective of the research has focused on obtaining citizens perceptions of service quality on roughly City programs and/or departments. Each year, however, there is some customization that is done to ask questions regarding prevalent issues and interest of city staff and management. This year s survey instrument included questions regarding 41 service and quality of life issues ranging from police and fire protection to keeping citizens informed about matters which affect them. Other questions addressed impressions of city employees, modes of city communication with the citizenry and the city s business practices. A telephone survey was conducted using trained survey assistants. Participating households were selected using random selection of pages from the alphabetical listings in Equifax City Directory and applying a plus one dialing method. Interviews with 430 people (34% of the initial sample) were completed. This year s scores were translated to a 100 point scale to make comparison with the National Citizens Survey (ICMA, 2005) and other jurisdictions more meaningful. To arrive at the scale, responses were weighted on a 100 point basis. For example, on a scale of 1 to 4, the 1 response, very poor, received no weight, the 2 response, fair, received.33 weight, the 3 response, good, received.67 weight, and the 4 response, excellent, received 1 weight. The weighted scores were then summed and divided by the total number of affirmative responses, those replying other than not sure arriving at a mean score. Results: This year s results show that 76% of the residents of Corpus Christi rated the overall quality of services as good to excellent. This rating is up nearly 10 percentage points from last year s survey results. 3

4 As with past years, those services that focus on public safety dominate the list of services with high favorable perceptions from citizens. Those services that are in the upper quartile (top 25%) of services with the favorable perception are in the graph below. These services are depicted using the 100 point response scale EMS, 80 Fire, 77 Airport, 72 Garbage, 72 Gas, 69 Police, 67 Water Services, 67 Neighborhood Quality, 66 Recycling, 66 Library, Services that returned to being ranked among the top quartile are EMS, fire, garbage collection, gas services, police, water services, and recycling. This is the first year that the attitudes towards airport services were polled and the service appears in the top ten, with neighborhood quality and library services rounding out the list. Those appearing with the lowest levels of satisfaction are also similar to last year s results as seen below Property Standards, 50 Street Sweeping, 46 Help existing employers, 45 New Streets, 42 Litter Control, 41 Street Repair, 41 Help New Employers, 39 Road Conditions, 38 Weed compliance, 38 Vacant Property, 30 The issues scoring with the lowest levels of favorable perceptions among citizens have to do with: code enforcement, property standards, litter control, weed compliance, vacant property, economic development, helping new and existing 4

5 employers, street issues, new streets, street repair, road conditions and street sweeping. Residents of the City of Corpus Christi generally rate the city as doing a good job. All the dimensions used to assess performance of city services show that citizens are pleased with the performance of city government. A majority of respondents: report an overall satisfaction with the city services; rate more services with favorable responses as opposed to unfavorable responses; and harbor positive attitudes toward city employees. The traditional areas of city service such as EMS, fire, airport services, police protection, libraries and utilities rank the highest levels in satisfaction. On the other hand, code enforcement of weeds, litter and vacant buildings, infrastructure/road conditions, and animal control services received the lowest ratings. 5

6 Table of Contents Page Authorization 2 Executive Summary 3 Table of Contents 6 INTRODUCTION 8 Survey Purpose 8 Method 8 Sample Description 9 Table 1. Demographics of Sample 10 RESULTS 10 Overall Quality of Service 10 Figure 1. Attitudes Toward Overall Quality Service 11 Figure 2. Favorable Attitudes Toward Overall Quality Of Services Over Time 12 Rating Favorable and Unfavorable Attitudes Toward Services 12 Favorable Attitudes 13 Table 2. Top Quartile of Favorable Attitudes Reported By Respondents 13 Table 3. Significant Increase of Favorable Attitudes Over Last Year 14 Table 4. Growth (Decline) of Favorable Attitudes Over Three Surveys 15 Unfavorable Attitudes Toward Services 16 Table 5. Top Quartile of Unfavorable Attitudes Reported By Respondents 16 Table 6. Significant Increase in Unfavorable Attitudes Over Last Year 16 Table 7. Growth (Decline) in Unfavorable Attitudes Over Three Surveys 17 Relationships Between Key Variables 17 Figure 3. Covariates with Significant Positive and Negative Effects 19 Perception of Safety in Corpus Christi 19 Figure 4a. Perceived Level of Safety in Daylight 20 Figure 4b. Perceived Level of Safety in Dark 20 City Business Practices 21 Impressions of City Employees 21 Figure 5. Impression of City Employees 21 Relationships with Citizens 22 Figure 6. Relationships with Citizens 22 Relationships with Other Jurisdictions 23 Figure 7. Relationships with Other Jurisdictions 23 Policy Issues 23 Figure 8. Attitudes Towards Key Policy Issues 24 6

7 Internet and Wi-Fi Issues 25 Figure 9. Internet and Wi-Fi Issues 25 Communication Avenues 26 Figure 10. How Respondents Receive Information About the City 26 Figure 11. How Respondents Would Like to Receive City Information 26 REFERENCES 27 APPENDICES Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C Appendix D Appendix E (On CD-ROM) Survey Instrument Frequency Distributions of Questionnaire Responses Histograms of 41 Service Question Responses Crosstabulations Covariates 7

8 INTRODUCTION Survey Purpose The Citizen s Survey for the City of Corpus Christi has been a collaborative effort between the Social Science Research Center at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi and the City of Corpus Christi, Texas, over the past four years. In the search for better ways to assess program results, citizen surveys have proven to be popular in many jurisdictions nationwide. A well conducted citizen survey is often viewed as the fairest way to measure service quality and establish benchmarks for the performance of municipal services. The process allows the council and staff to hear the voice of the public as distinct from the usual suspects who attend council meetings and budget hearings. This survey is designed to provide council members and staff a clear understanding of the attitudes and preferences of Corpus Christi residents to establish good policy and good local management (Miller and Kobayshi, 2000). The purpose of this survey is to allow citizens of Corpus Christi the opportunity to confidentially report their attitudes toward city services in 41 service and quality of life issues ranging from police and fire protection to keeping citizens informed about matters which affect them. Additionally, this survey provides guidance for future policy issues by informing decision makers of budgetary preferences under conditions of munificence and paucity. Together with other data gathered during the survey, feedback on performance can be assessed by several dimensions. In keeping with previous surveys frequency distributions are reported on individual questions. Each response is also cross-tabulated with ethnicity, income and age. As a new dimension, 100 point scaling was added to allow results to be more easily compared to other jurisdictions. Method Data was collected by conducting telephone interviews. A random sample of 5000 phone number was selected from listings in the Equifax Polk City Directory for the City of Corpus Christi. The survey was conducted by trained interviewers in both English and Spanish during the hours of 4:00 8:30 pm Mondays through Thursdays and 9:00am 1:00pm on Saturdays, between November 7, 2005 and December 14, Each interviewer was assigned certain specific pages chosen at random and was instructed to use the plus one dialing technique (Miller & Kobayashi, 2000). This method was selected to assure that the proper proportion of prefixes and unlisted numbers occurred in the sample. Additionally, interviewers were instructed not to solicit responses from numbers that identified themselves as businesses. This resulted in an initial sample of 1253 households that were contacted. A maximum of three attempts were made to reach each number in the sample. 8

9 Specific interview subjects were selected on the basis of requesting to speak to the head-of-the-household. The identified subject was then asked to participate, and the person s residence in the City of Corpus Christi was confirmed. The telephone survey took approximately minutes to complete. A survey instrument of approximately 80 closed-ended questions was developed for this survey. The survey instrument was designed to conform to similar questionnaires used in six previous citizen surveys (1994, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003 & 2004). The questions asked respondents to rate their overall satisfaction with services received from the City of Corpus Christi along with 41 service and quality of life issues, ranging from police and fire protection to keeping citizens informed about matters which affect them. This year, one new question was added that addressed the area of airport services. The rating scale utilized four choices: very poor, fair, good and excellent. In the case of a non-affirmative response to the first four responses, not sure was recorded. Demographic data was also requested. (See Appendix A for Survey Instrument). Responses were recorded on individual survey response sheets and entered into the SPSS statistical analysis program. The entire data set is reported in the form of frequency distributions in Appendix B. Responses to the 41 service delivery questions are reported using histograms (Appendix C) and cross-tabulated by income, age, ethnicity and zip code (Appendix D). This year scores were translated to a 100 point scale to make comparison with the National Citizens Survey (ICMA, 2005) and other jurisdictions more meaningful. To arrive at the scale, responses were weighted on a 100 point basis. For example, on a scale of 1 to 4, the 1 response, very poor, received no weight, the 2 response, fair, received.33 weight, the 3 response, good, received.67 weight, and the 4 response, excellent received 1 weight. The weighted scores were then summed and divided by the total number of affirmative responses, those replying other than not sure arriving at a mean score. The method resulted in a sample of 429 people. The group was 34.3% of the initial sample and constitutes a reasonably satisfactory response rate in today s atmosphere of negativism toward pollsters and telemarketers both impinging on increasingly scarce time at home (Morin, 2004). The margin of error for this analysis is +/- 5% with a 95% confidence level. Sample Description The demographics of the sample and comparisons of key elements with data from the U.S. Census Bureau are shown in Table 1, on the next page. 9

10 Table 1 Demographics of Sample 429/100% Resident of Corpus Christi 418/94.4% Corpus Christi Utility Customers 3 Median number of individuals in home 306/71% Homeowners 306/71.3% Some Post-High School Education Census Data 164/38.2% Hispanic (50.9%) 230/53.6% Anglo (42.2%) 49/11.4% Other (6.9%) 263/61.3% Female (52.0%) 116/27.0% Age 65 or older (15.4%) $40,000 60,000 Median Household Income ($36,414) A common concern of telephone survey sampling is the potential non-response by ethnic minorities, males, younger individuals and those of lower socioeconomic status (Folz, 1996). In assessing the demographic data from the survey with census data above, it can be seen that there are significant differences (+/- 8%) in the ethnicity of respondents from that of the population. A strategy to remedy this concern is to statistically weight the sample to reflect an accurate profile of the population. While comparative data with previous years will be reported in its raw (non-weighted) form, data reported in the narrative section of this report will utilize statistically weighted data for ethnicity and will be marked as such. RESULTS Tracking levels of citizen attitudes towards services delivered by the City of Corpus Christi over the past 10 years has been a series of questions common to eight citizen surveys administered in that time period. The assumption is made that levels of favorable attitudes towards services is an indicator of performance among citizens and one dimension of determining overall City and departmental performance. Overall Quality of Service The broadest measure of City performance is the citizens attitudes towards the overall quality of service delivered by the City. Figure 1, on the next page, is a pie chart of those who responded to this question. The figure shows that the response pattern is positively skewed with 76% of the residents of Corpus Christi rating the overall quality of services from good to excellent. The modal or most 10

11 common response was good. Fair was the next most common response, then excellent, with the least common response being very poor. Figure 1. Overall Quality of Services 12.51% 7.83% Very poor Fair Good Excellent 15.58% 63.58% Cases weighted by ethnicity Overall would you rank the quality of services provided by the City of Corpus Christi as: Frequency Percent No response Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Very poor Fair Good Excellent Total

12 Figure 2 shows that these data are creating a more positive trend, drawing the 10 year trend towards a more positive direction after three years of fairly stable ratings. Figure 2. Favorable Attitudes Toward Overall Quality of Services Over Time % Favorable 80% 71% 67% 66% 66% 76% 60% 60% 40% 48% 20% 0% Year Rating Favorable and Unfavorable Attitudes Toward Services In examining the 41 service areas ranked by the respondents, each city service received rankings over the entire range of responses from poor to excellent. A total of 35 service areas received a modal response of good. Of the remaining 6 service areas, 5 service areas received a modal response of fair and 1 of poor (enforcement of vacant buildings). Services with a modal response of fair included enforcement of litter ordinances (38%), enforcement of high weeds ordinance (37%), help for existing employers (44%), road conditions (34%) and the city s efforts to attract new employers (35%). Compared to 2004, wherein four service areas received a modal response of poor, this year s survey revealed only one, enforcement of vacant building ordinances (25%). A common way to understand performance of city service is to rate services according to citizens reporting of favorable and unfavorable attitudes toward the service over time. To do this in this report, rankings are collapsed by good/excellent categories to represent a favorable response and poor/fair to represent an unfavorable response for the 2005, 2004, 2003, & The not sure response was eliminated from the level of attitudinal calculation. This measure was taken to eliminate the bias against those services that may not directly serve a broad range of citizens, but may have high approval rating from citizens whom they serve. In other words, it is using the responses of citizens who use or have definite attitudes and opinions about the services. 12

13 Favorable Attitudes Table 2 shows the upper quartile (top 25%) of services with the highest levels of favorable attitudes and their 4 year rate of change. As with past years those services that focus on public safety dominate the list of services with high favorable attitudes toward Emergency Medical Services and Fire Protection in this upper quartile grouping. Airport Services are listed for the first time this year and also are reported as favorable among residents. Additionally, as is usually the case, common city services are well represented in the group with Gas Service, Water Services, and Wastewater all demonstrating high levels of favorable attitudes within the community. Overall Neighborhood Quality, Recycling, and Library Services round out the upper quartile of those services receiving favorable attitudes. Only one of the upper quartile of services saw a reduction in the level of favorable attitudes during the past year. Garbage Collection and its reduction is within the +/- 5% margin of error. Table 2. Top Quartile of Favorable Attitudes Reported By Respondents Growth Rate Annualized Growth Question (number of respondents) Last Year Rate Last 4 Years Emergency medical services (392) % 3.84% Fire protection in your area (414) % 1.98% Airport Services (363) 91 Providing gas service (267) % 6.84% Garbage collection (425) % 0.91% Providing water services (421) % -0.60% Providing wastewater (sewer) services (412) % 0.63% Overall quality of residential neighborhoods (425) % 4.15% Recycling (382) % 5.48% Library services in your area (397) % 3.11% When considering the growth of favorable attitudes for all services over the past year, the top ten services demonstrating positive rates of increase are shown in Table 3, on the next page. These services include Juvenile Crime Prevention, Helping Existing Employers to Grow, Storm Drainage, Requiring Property Owners to Maintain their Property, Keeping Citizens Informed, Overall Quality of Residential Neighborhood, Library Services, Protection of Water Supply from Pollution, Providing Recreational Programs, and Controlling of Illegal Dumping. 13

14 Table 3. Top 10 Increases in Favorable Attitudes Over Last Year Growth Rate Question (number of respondents) Last Year Juvenile crime prevention (340) % Helping existing employers to grow (358) % Storm drainage (425) % Requiring property owners to maintain property (411) % How well the City keeps citizens informed (412) % Overall quality of residential neighborhoods (425) % Library services in your area (397) % Protection of water supply from pollution (347) % Providing adequate recreation programs (368) % Controlling illegal dumping (359) % In looking at performance, assessing the growth rate of favorable attitudes over the past four years is perhaps a more reliable measure. In all, 25 services have shown a positive growth rate in favorable attitudes over the past four surveys. The service Helping Existing Employers to Grow shows the greatest rate of increase in favorable attitudes over the past 4 years at an annualized rate of 15.18%. Other services demonstrating sustained significant increases (+5%) in favorable attitudes over the past four surveys are Programs and Services for the Elderly (13.47%), Juvenile Crime Prevention (13.06%), Controlling Illegal Dumping (12.29%), Providing Adequate Recreation (11.63%), Attracting New Employers (11.07%), Programs and Services for Youth (7.93%), Gas Services (6.84%), Keeping Citizens Informed (6.48%), Protection of Water Supply (5.54%), Recycling (5.48%), and Requiring Property Owners to Maintain Property (5.14%). Positive growth shown is also shown in 13 other service areas polled, however, they did not exceed the 5% margin of error which means although positive, the change may not be significant. Similarly, four services polled this year demonstrated declines in growth of favorable attitudes over the past four years; Traffic Signals and Flows at -3.54%, Vector Control at 3.33%, Helping Citizens Conserve Water at -2.06%, and Street Repair and Maintenance at %, however, each of these is within the +/- 5% margin of error. Table 4, on the next page, shows the growth or decline in favorable attitudes in all service areas polled over the past 4 years for last year and over the past 4 years. 14

15 Table 4. Growth /Decline in Favorable Attitudes Over Four Surveys Growth Question (number of respondents) Rate Last Year Annualized Growth Rate Last 4 Years Helping existing employers to grow (358) % 15.18% Programs and services for the elderly (305) % 13.47% Juvenile crime prevention (340) % 13.06% Controlling illegal dumping (359) % 12.29% Providing adequate recreation programs (368) % 11.63% Attracting new employers to the community (370) % 11.07% Programs and services for the youth (348) % 7.93% Providing gas service (267) % 6.84% How well the City keeps citizens informed (412) % 6.48% Protection of water supply from pollution (347) % 5.54% Recycling (382) % 5.48% Requiring property owners to maintain property (411) % 5.14% Providing art and cultural opportunities (379) % 4.31% Overall quality of residential neighborhoods (425) % 4.15% Emergency medical services (392) % 3.84% The condition of City parks (421) % 3.45% Library services in your area (397) % 3.11% Providing adequate parks in your area (424) % 2.34% Billing for utilities (414) % 2.11% Fire protection in your area (414) % 1.98% Enforcement of traffic laws (424) % 1.63% Brush collection (398) % 1.29% Animal control ( 408) % 0.95% Garbage collection (425) % 0.91% Providing wastewater (sewer) services (412) % 0.63% Police protection in your area (422) % -0.32% New street construction (409) % -0.57% Providing water services (421) % -0.60% Quality of local tap water (408) % -0.86% Storm drainage (425) % -0.87% Street repair and maintenance (427) % -1.21% Helping citizens with how to conserve water (389) % -2.06% Vector control ( 418) % -3.33% Traffic signals and flow (429) % -3.54% Unfavorable Attitudes Toward Services The upper quartile (top 25%) of services receiving unfavorable responses from respondents for this year includes five services new to rankings over the past two years show in Table 5, on the next page. 15

16 Table 5. Top Quartile of Unfavorable Attitudes Reported By Respondents Growth Rate Annualized Growth Question (number of respondents) Last Year Rate Last 4 Years Enforcement of vacant build ordnances (405) % Road conditions (429) % Attracting new employers to the community (370) % -0.98% Enforcement of weed ordnances (418) % Enforcement of litter ordnances (425) % Street repair and maintenance (427) % 1.29% New street construction (409) % 7.30% Helping existing employers to grow (358) % -2.90% Street sweeping (336) % Animal control (408) % 1.70% The above table shows that three of every four individuals polled had an unfavorable response toward the City s enforcement of vacant building ordnances. Additionally, the table shows that five of the services receiving the most unfavorable responses have been included in the survey only for the past two years. Those services listed in the top quartile that have been on previous surveys include Attracting New Employers to the Community, Helping Existing Employers to Grow, and Street Repair and Maintenance and they have also ranked high in unfavorable attitudes on pervious surveys. New to the upper quartile of unfavorable ratings are Animal Control and New Street Construction. Table 6, addresses increases in unfavorable attitudes toward city services over the past year for the 34 services polled in the past 4 years. This table shows that only 5 services have increased in unfavorable attitudes. These growth rates include four categories that are above the 5% margin of error: New Street Construction (20.51%), Garbage Collection (14.29%), Brush Collection (5.26%), and Traffic Signals and Flow (5.00%). Animal Control (2.22%) demonstrated an increase in unfavorable attitudes, however, it was below the 5% margin of error. Table 6. Significant Increase in Unfavorable Attitudes Over Last Year. Growth Rate Question (number of respondents) Last Year New street construction (409) % Garbage collection (425) % Brush collection (398) % Traffic signals and flow (429) % Animal control (408) % As with favorable ratings, one year of increased unfavorable attitudes does not provide a complete picture of service performance. A more robust understanding 16

17 of attitudes towards service performance can be developed by looking at the ten year record of data for these services. Table 7, on the next page, shows four year data for unfavorable attitudes toward services. The table demonstrates that 17 of the 34 services polled over the past four years have seen an increase in unfavorable attitudes, a decrease of 12 services over last year. Table 7. Growth/Decline in Unfavorable Attitudes Over Four Surveys Growth Rate Annualized Growth Rate Question (number of respondents) Last Year Last 4 Years Providing gas service (267) % 11.68% Vector control (418) % 8.92% Providing water services (421) % 8.48% Helping citizens with how to conserve water (389) % 7.75% New street construction (409) % 7.30% Traffic signals and flow (429) % 6.21% Protection of water supply from pollution (347) % 6.14% Programs and services for the youth (348) % 3.14% Storm drainage (425) % 3.06% Providing art and cultural opportunities (379) % 2.53% Quality of local tap water (408) % 2.47% Police protection in your area (422) % 2.41% Animal control (408) % 1.70% Programs and services for the elderly (305) % 1.44% Providing wastewater services (412) % 1.36% Street repair and maintenance (427) % 1.29% Brush collection (398) % 1.29% Attracting new employers to the community (370) % -0.98% Enforcement of traffic laws (424) % -1.34% Garbage collection (425) % -1.50% Controlling illegal dumping (359) % -1.93% Providing adequate parks in your area (424) % -2.22% Providing adequate recreation programs (368) % -2.30% The condition of City parks (421) % -2.53% Billing for utilities (414) % -2.79% Helping existing employers to grow (358) % -2.90% Library services in your area (397) % -3.15% Recycling (382) % -3.15% Fire protection in your area (414) % -3.28% Juvenile crime prevention (340) % -3.47% Requiring property owners to maintain property (411) % -3.55% Emergency medical services (392) % -6.09% How well the City keeps citizens informed (412) % -8.53% Overall quality of residential neighborhoods (425) % -9.64% Relationships Between Key Variables Explanations of citizen s attitudes toward city services are often tied to demographic factors (DeHoog, Lowery & Lyons, 1990). Following their individual level explanation model, a multiple regression equation is utilized to determine if 17

18 there are key relationships among variables. Utilizing stepwise regression, the full model is formalized as: Attitude i = a+ b 1 Gender i + b 2 Hispanic i + b 3 Anglo i + b 4 Other i + b 5 Education i + b 6 Income i + b 7 Age i + b 8 Own Home i + b 9 ZipCode i + b 10 City Contact i. To utilize the regression model the attitudinal scale will be treated as though it was an interval/ratio response as opposed to ordinal. While this type of treatment violates assumptions of OLS regression, the key issue in this report is significance and direction of the variable, not the beta weight of the effect. Therefore, only direction and significance of the covariate are reported in this report. (See Appendix E for table.) While there is little consensus in the empirical findings as to the direct relationship between these demographic factors and attitudes towards services (Hwang, McGarrell, & Benson, 2005) some believe that these variables act as proxies for more immediately developed attitudes and beliefs about city services. In keeping with the literature, the models calculated with the city data did not prove to be overly robust with regard to the R 2 statistic. Figure 3 displays those covariates that appear to have reoccurring significant effects. Figure 3. Covariates with Significant Positive and Negative Effects Negative Positive City Contact Home Owner Age Income Education Other Ethnicity Anglo Hispanic Men Women

19 While no one variable seems to be driving perceptions of City services, it is important to point out that those with higher levels of education are shown to have significant positive effects on more than 10 of the services polled. This is a change from last year when higher levels of education appeared to result in greater levels of dissatisfaction. Those areas with significant positive effects attributed to education for this year are: overall satisfaction; police services; garbage services; vector control; street repair; traffic signals; conserving water; gas services and overall quality of neighborhoods. Those services in which education is a significant negative predictor are; airport services; art & cultural opportunities; helping existing employers grow and attracting new employers. Age is shown to have a significant positive effect on the perception of 10 of the services polled this year. As age increases so do positive perceptions of: fighting juvenile crime; controlling illegal dumping; traffic signals; conserving water; fighting water pollution; recreational facilities; youth services; art and culture opportunities; helping existing employers grow and attracting new employers. Similar to past years, city contact leads as one of the significant predictors of negative perceptions of services. City contact predicts negative perceptions of: city traffic laws; street repair; street sweeping; water services; sewer services; utilities billing; vacant buildings and requiring property owners to maintain property. There is some data further in this report which will demonstrate, however, that although there is a negative perception of some services, there are generally high positive perceptions of City employees, who handle what are more than likely citizen complaints. Perception of Safety in Corpus Christi Along with attitudes and perceptions toward services, citizen s perception of safety in the city can be a key indicator of administrative performance of city staff and council. This year s survey includes a series of questions regarding respondents perception of safety in the city, which have been utilized for the last two years. Safety is measured in several dimensions. One area measured is if the respondent has been a victim of crime in the past year and if they reported that crime. Respondents were also asked if they felt safe walking alone in their neighborhoods, business districts and city park and recreation areas. Of those respondents who answered this question, 18% claimed to be a victim of a crime in the past year. Of those 79 individuals who reported being a victim of criminal activity, 92% (73) said they reported all crimes against them. Figure 4a and 4b show the percent of respondents who agree, disagree or are neutral about their feeling of walking alone safe in their neighborhood, business areas, or in a park and recreation areas during daylight and nighttime hours. As the bar graphs demonstrate, 96% of the respondents feel safe walking alone in their neighborhoods during the daylight hours and 89% during the nighttime hours. Respondents feel somewhat less safe in business areas, with only 94% 19

20 agreeing that they felt safe walking alone in business areas during the daylight hours and 53% feel safe during the nighttime hours. When asked about their attitudes toward the level of safety in park and recreation areas, 93% agree that they are safe walking alone during the daylight hours, while only 48% feel they are safe during the nighttime hours. Figure 4a. Perceived Level of Safety Walking Alone in City Areas Daylight Hours (How safe do you feel walking alone in?) 5% B. District Day Park/Rec Day Neighborhood Day 24% 31% 39% 1% 4% 28% 26% 39% 3% 2% 12% 21% 63% 2% Very Unsafe Unsafe Moderately Safe Safe Very Safe 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Figure 4b. Perceived Level of Safety Walking Alone in City Areas Dark Hours (How safe do you feel walking alone in?) 3% B. District Dark Park/Rec Dark 27% 20% 31% 19% 31% 21% 30% 16% 2% Very Unsafe Unsafe Moderately Safe Safe Nieghborhood Dark 12% 12% 31% 27% 18% Very Safe 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% City Business Practices Each year for the past several years, questions have been asked regarding citizens impressions of city employees and questions regarding particular proposal or policy issues on which administrators are seeking feedback. This 20

21 year similar questions were asked, in addition to others that can be generally characterized as seeking information on City business practices. Impressions of City Employees Respondents were asked to rate their contact with city employees. Using weighted survey data, 162 valid responses indicated they had contact with an employee over the past twelve months. This represents 38% of the entire sample. Figure 5 shows that of those who have contact with city employees, there are strong favorable impressions of city employees among the residents of Corpus Christi with the most common response being excellent (39%) and the next most common being good (36%). Looking at the more specific impressions of city employees the graphs in Figure 5 demonstrates favorable impressions (good to excellent) of knowledge (72%), responsiveness (74%) and courtesy (77%). Figure 5. Impressions of City Employees My overall impression of City employees is The City employee was knowledgeable 39.93% Very poor Fair Good 14.62% Excellent 10.07% 10.1% 1.75% Strongly disagree Disagree Moderate Agree Strongly agree 15.36% 47.31% 35.38% 25.48% The City employee was responsive. The City employee was courteous 8.78% 3.51% Strongly disagree Disagree Moderate Agree Strongly agree 5.27% 6.71% Strongly disagree Disagree Moderate Agree Strongly agree 13.35% 11.32% 43.19% 52.73% 23.96% 31.18% 21

22 This year an additional question was asked in this section of the survey to see if citizens generally felt they got what they needed when contacting the city. Nearly 75% of those polled felt they got what they needed. In using this as a predictor of positive attitudes towards employees, as expected it was a significant predictor of positive attitudes. One interesting result is among those who said they did not get what they needed, employee courtesy was still rated very high, beyond what would be the expected distribution. Relationships With Citizens This year is also the first year a series of question was asked regarding the City s relationships with citizens. Looking at the charts in Figure 6, it can be see that in every area polled the respondents overwhelmingly responded favorably to the relationship the city has with its citizens. Figure 6. Relationships With Citizens I am satisfied with the amount of time it takes to get City services % Disagree Neutral Agree The City of Corpus Christi welcomes citizen involvement Disagree Neutral Agree 21.01% 55.15% 30.53% 43.76% 35.23% The City treats people fairly The City of Corpus Christi listens to citizens. Disagree Neutral Agree Disagree Neutral Agree 20.77% 48.21% 36.7% 32.38% 31.02% 30.93% 22

23 Relationships with Other Jurisdictions Along with working with citizens, the City s performance can be affected by its relationships with other jurisdictions. Figure 7 demonstrates that the respondents perceptions of the City s relations with others jurisdiction is favorable with the exception of Nueces County, where more than one third of the respondents stated that the relationship is problematic. Figure 7. Relationships with Other Jurisdictions The relationship with Nueces County The relationship with the school district Not a problem Neutral Problematic Not a problem Neutral Problematic 23.56% 23.56% 35.67% 34.2% 40.77% 42.24% The relationship with the State The relationship with other cities in the area % 27.6% Not a problem Neutral Problematic 18.0% 32.29% Not a problem Neutral Problematic 52.79% 49.72% Policy Issues Each year the Citizen Survey attempts to gauge perceptions towards extant policy issues. This year, perceptions towards affordable housing, growth and vacant buildings were polled. The vacant buildings issue was seen as 23

24 problematic by nearly 75% of those surveyed, followed by nearly 35% of those polled seeing too little growth as problematic. Figure 8 displays the response pattern for each question. Figure 8. Attitudes Toward Key Policy Issues Quality affordable housing Too little growth Not a problem Neutral Problematic Not a problem Neutral Problematic 23.42% 34.39% 31.08% 48.9% 27.68% 34.53% 16.97% Too much growth Not a problem Neutral Problematic Vacant buildings in the downtown area. 9.77% Not a problem Neutral Problematic 14.52% 16.06% 66.97% 75.71% 24

25 Internet and City Wi-Fi System Wi-Fi technology has been put into place as a means of not only improving city operations, but also as a means for citizens and organizations to conduct business with the city and connect to the internet more easily (Harris, 2005). Enhancing city operations and improving customer service appear to be the aim with the city Wi-Fi system. This year s survey includes questions relating both to citizen internet use and their use of this innovative system of service delivery. Figure 9 Internet and City Wi-Fi System In the past 12 months have you used the internet for anything? No Yes Do you have internet access from your home? No Yes 24.41% 25.57% 75.59% 74.43% Have you purchased an item over the internet? Used the internet to conduct busuness with the City of Corpus Christi? No Yes No Yes 21.04% 47.52% 52.48% 78.96% Connect to the internet through the City of Corpus Christi Wi-Fi system? 5.61% No Yes 94.39% 25

26 Communication Avenues As in past years, survey respondents were asked to identify how they receive information about city news, services and programs. Figure 10 ranks the responses based on the percentage of respondents that identified receiving information from such sources Figure 10. How Respondents Receive Information About the City Percent % 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% Townhall 12.12% Newletter 57.34% 68.99% Family Television 90.90% 68.99% CCTV Newpaper 82.98% Information Avenue Talk Radio 28.43% Radio News 51.52% City Web 21.91% 5.59% Other Television news and the newspaper are the two primary means of receiving information. Their friends or family and CCTV were 3 rd and 4 th respectively. Less common ways to receive information, according to the respondents are radio news, talk radio, the City WEB page, and town hall meetings. When respondents were asked how they would like to receive their news about the City, Figure 11 shows that respondents rate the top three means as most important, which are similar to current usage patterns. Figure 11. How Respondents Would Like to Receive Information About the City % 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% Town Hall 20.29% Newsletters 46.85% Family/Friends 58.97% Television News 84.15% 74.13% 45.92% 30.77% 28.44% 24.71% CCTV Newspaper Talk Radio Radio News City Web 26

27 REFERENCES Folz, David H. (1996). Survey Research for Public Administration. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Harris, Blake (2005). Corpus Christi Seeks Wi-Fi Partners. Digital Communities E-Newsletter, erepublic, Inc. Hwang, Eui-Gab, McGarrell, Edmund F., Benson, Bruce L. (2005). Public satisfaction of the South Korean Police: The effect of residential location in a rapidly industrializing nation. Journal of Criminal Justice; Vol. 33 Issue 6, p , 15p. Miller, T. I. and M. M. Kobayashi (2000). Citizen Surveys: How to Do Them, How to Use Them, What They Mean. Washington D.C.: International City/County Management Association. Morin, R. (2004, October 28). Don t Ask Me. Washington D.C.: Washington Post. p. C1. 27