2018/10/29 - Mayor's Column: National Citizen's Survey Says...
“An Open Door to O’Fallon”
A Weekly Note from Mayor Herb Roach
This week’s column is the first in a series that I am planning over the next few weeks. In this series, I will share with you the results of the recently completed 2018 National Citizen’s Survey. This survey has now been completed six times dating back to 2005. We typically like to have it performed every two years in order to gauge the opinions of O’Fallon’s residents.
The survey, performed by the National Research Center, randomly selects 1,500 O’Fallon residents and asks them questions about their community. The survey has a 95% confidence interval, so we can be pretty confident that the results of the survey represent the population of O’Fallon.
The entire survey results are available on the City’s website at https://www.ofallon.org/administration/pages/2018-national-citizens-survey. Here are a few of the highlights.
Out of the 130 categories that were surveyed, O’Fallon was ranked similar or higher than comparison communities 98% of the time.
There were nearly two-dozen categories where the City received its highest ratings ever. Not only did we see the highest scores ever in these categories, but those on the list below were 6-11% higher than they have ever been before! Those categories were:
- Economic Development
- Shopping Opportunities
- City Acting in the Best Interest of Its Citizens
- Attending a City-Sponsored Event
- Storm Drainage
- Health Services
- Mental Health Care
- Preventative Health Services
- Confidence in City Government
- Perceived Honesty by the City Government
The Citizen’s Survey is reaffirmation that the residents of O’Fallon enjoy living in this community. Over 90% of participants in the survey said that O’Fallon is a good or excellent place to live.
In addition to the standard questions that we use to compare O’Fallon with other peer communities, and from results of previous surveys, we also add custom questions. One of this year’s custom questions was about what city services you thought were most important. The following were the top four city services that you thought were most important:
- Public Safety
- Drinking Water
- Streets and Roads
- Economic Development
It is interesting to look at these top four most important services, because they were also among the top priorities selected by the O’Fallon City Council at the last priority setting session. This shows that your City Council Members are listening to you, representing you, and have the same priorities as you.
Over the next few weeks, we will go over more results of the National Citizen’s Survey. Stay tuned!
As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open!