HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-12-13JUNE 12, 2013
At a Called Meeting of the Board of Commissioners, held on Wednesday, June 12, 2013, at 9:00
a.m., held in the Training Room in the basement of City Hall, Mayor Kaler presided, and•upon
call of the roll by the Public Information Officer, the following answered to their names:
Commissioners Abraham, Gault, Rhodes, Wilson and Mayor Kaler (5).
The City Clerk was not present at the meeting. Minutes were taken by Public Information
Officer, Pam Spencer. The meeting was held for a "Next Steps Workshop for Citizen Survey".
MOTION
R & F CALLED MEETING NOTICE
. Commissioner Gault offered motion, seconded by Mayor Kaler, that the Notice of Called
Meeting for Wednesday, June 12, 2013, be received and filed.
Adopted on call of the roll, yeas, Commissioners Abraham, Gault, Rhodes, Wilson and Mayor
Kaler (5).
The following Commission Highlights prepared by Pam Spencer, Public Information Officer,
summarize the discussion held during the commission meeting.
Called City Commission Meeting Highlights
for Next Steps Workshop
Wednesday, June 12, 2013 at City Hall
Today, the Mayor and Commissioners along with City directors participated in a six hour
workshop led by the National Research Center (NRC). The workshop called the Next
Steps Workshop: Using Resident Perspectives to Guide Government Action was
facilitated by NRC Vice President Michelle Miller Kobayashi. The workshop reviewed
and analyzed the results of Paducah's National Citizen Survey.
Kobayashi says, "I want to applaud you for contracting to use the National Citizen
Survey. There are a lot of governments that are afraid to step out and measure." City
Manager Jeff Pederson says, "I applaud the City Commission for asking Paducah's
residents what they think about city services and about the city as a whole. Many cities
don't take the time to solicit feedback from their citizens."
The City of Paducah contracted to utilize the National Citizen Survey to gather feedback
from citizens about city services, civic participation, and various community topics. In
February and March of this year, the NRC mailed the National Citizen Survey to 1200
randomly selected households in Paducah. The City of Paducah had a statistically valid
sample size with the return of 344 surveys.
The multiple-choice survey included 124 standard questions and general demographics
questions. Most of the questions had five choices such as Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, or
Don't Know. As a benchmark, results also are compared to Southern cities that recently
completed surveys.
According to the NRC regarding Paducah's survey, "Most residents experienced a good
quality of life in the City of Paducah and believed the City was a good place to live. The
overall quality of life in the City of Paducah was rated as `excellent' or `good' by 63% of
respondents. A majority reported they plan on staying in the City of Paducah for the next
five years."
City residents gave highly positive responses regarding several city services with 87% of
the respondents giving the Paducah Fire Department a good or excellent rating; 85% of
the respondents rating garbage collection as excellent or good, and 76% of the
respondents rating Paducah's parks system as excellent or good.
The NRC also states that Paducah's residents are very civically engaged by attending
public meetings, helping neighbors, and/or volunteering their time.
The survey also showed that citizens considered the following factors, ranked in order, as
the most essential to their quality of life: sense of safety, fire services, healthcare, strong
neighborhoods, a friendly community, and jobs.
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The factors that received less favorable ratings are street repair, economic development,
and code enforcement. Miller says, "Paducah is not unique with those topics receiving
lower ratings. Those patterns are what we see across the country."
After reviewing Paducah's results, Miller asked the group to list the top items that the
City should address this year. After making a list and through a quick round of voting,
the group selected two items: the City's role in economic development and growth
coupled with improving the community through neighborhood revitalization; and
community engagement.
Regarding community engagement, Miller says, "Communities where residents are more
involved typically rate their communities higher." Pederson says, "What I'm hearing is
that we have to advocate for ourselves, the city government. It's ok to take the time to do
it. That's how we engage the public."
Pederson adds, "This survey will give Paducah a starting point, a benchmark. Over the
next few months, each department will dig into the results and take a look at what can be
done to improve our interactions with and services to the public."
The National Citizen Survey is a standardized survey tool used by hundreds of cities.
The International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and the NRC developed
the survey. For more information about the citizen survey including survey methodology
and the survey instrument, please visit www.paducahky.gov.
ADOPTED: July 9, 2013