City of Carlsbad Scores High Marks Among Residents

The annual "Carlsbad Residents Survey" and the "State Of Effectiveness" reports were presented to city council Wed. night, and the results were overwhelmingly positive.

The resident survey was presented by Josh Williams of BW Research, the company that conducted the survey. The results showed 94 percent were satisfied with , the highest rating ever. Sixty-four percent said quality of life was excellent, 34 percent said it was good, while 11 percent said it was getting worse.

When asked how the city could improve quality of life, the most frequent responses were "stop building and growth," "fix traffic problems," and "increase/improve police standards."

Another record setting number were the 84 percent of respondents who said they had confidence in the city government and the decisions they make. One council member, Keith Blackburn, felt the response options of "very satisfied," "somewhat satisfied," "somewhat dissatisfied," and "very dissatisfied" may have been too general. "I don't think it's meaningful as it could be," he said of the survey. Blackburn asked Williams, "is it better to rate things on a scale from one to ten so there's more flexibility?" Williams responded, "When residents look at an issue they are not educated on, they tend to not be able to deliniate things on a scale of more than five or six degrees." Mayor Matt Hall said "We're not looking for an easy return, we're trying to earn whatever the number is."

The "State Of Effectiveness" report was presented by senior management analyst Greg Hernan and Chief Chris Heiser. There were many strategic goals covered. One was financial health, which Herman defined as "pursuing and implementing proactive strategies that support and sustain economic health and city resources effectively." A ten year balanced budget forecast was achieved, even with budget cuts, without effecting facility hours or programs and services.

Another goal was to "ensure mutually beneficial two way communication about city services, leading to a more responsive city government, and a high level of public confidence." The goal was to achieve this 80 percent of the time, and according to the survey, that was achieved.

For the second year, mystery shoppers were used to evaluate library service delivery, "We thought it was one of the more creative methods to have someone come in and provide outside evaluation," said Heiser. Ninety-four percent of mystery shoppers were satisfied with library services.

The goal of public safety was to have a good response time for a fire or police emergency. Response times are closely monitored. Last year, the fire department responded to 9,106 emergencies with an average response time of five minutes and four seconds.

The 's response times were also monitored. Police response is measured from the time of the call to arrival of the first emergency responder on the scene. There are three priorities of calls. The first is violent crimes in progress, with an average respons time of 5.9 minutes. The second is nonviolent crimes in progress, with an average response time of 11.9 minutes. The third is reports taken after a crime has occured, with a response time of 22.8 minutes. The response times are better neighboring jurisdictions.

The resident survey can be found here, and the effectiveness report can be found here.

What do you think of the survey and results? Tell us in comments.