DEPARTMENT: Government and Public Affairs
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Jeff Coyle
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City Wide
SUBJECT:
2018 Community Survey Results
SUMMARY:
City staff and a consultant will provide the results of the 2018 Community Survey. The purpose of the survey was to gather community input on satisfaction with City services and benchmark with other municipalities.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The City contracted with ETC Institute, Inc. to conduct a community survey regarding City services. Using information on services currently provided by the City, the consultant designed and conducted a survey in both English and Spanish so that residents could indicate their level of satisfaction with City Services. The survey was offered to a random, stratified sampling of residents within each of the City’s ten City Council Districts by mail, phone (cell phones and landlines) and online to a randomly selected sample of households. The results for the random sample of residents have a 95% level of confidence with a precision of at least +/-3%. ETC Institute, Inc. performed detailed demographic and geographic analyses of the collected data. It has prepared a final report to the City.
The 2018 Community Survey results were compared to results from the 2016 Community Survey. ETC Institute, Inc. also provided comparisons to the National Average (San Antonio was compared to results of a survey conducted by ETC in 2017 of U.S. cities with populations of 250,000 or more) and comparisons to Large Texas Cities (Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston). When comparing trend data in the report, a significant increase or decrease is defined as a change of more than 3%.
ETC Institute, Inc. conducted the City’s 2018 Community Survey and since its founding in 1982, the firm has completed research projects for clients in more than 850 cities in 49 states. In Texas, ETC Institute has conducted Community Surveys for the cities of Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and more than 20 other communities. ETC Institute, Inc. also conducted a national survey in 2017 and administered it to residents living in U.S. cities with populations of more than 250,000.
ISSUE:
Conducting this survey and reviewing the resulting statistical analysis will help staff ascertain community views on the quality of City services. The survey results will assist staff in benchmarking service levels and provide a tool for continued improvement of City services for San Antonio residents.
ALTERNATIVES:
The survey will provide City staff with significant data regarding residents’ satisfaction with City services, city-wide. Additionally, the survey allowed input from residents across San Antonio to provide feedback on the services provided in all ten Council Districts.
Without the ability to conduct the community survey, the City would not acquire city-wide data to measure the level of satisfaction by residents with City services.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact that will result from the briefing.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends utilizing the community survey data collected by ETC Institute, Inc. to address community views on the quality of City services.