What are locals concerned about? City Council to pick survey topics

Palm Coast Observer
News

What are Palm Coast residents most concerned about? That's what the Palm Coast City Council is trying to determine before the National Citizen Survey is sent out to residents starting in October.

The survey, held every other year by the International City/County Management Association, is a scientific survey in which most of the questions are standardized for communities across the country.

"It helps us benchmark our city across other cities that have similar services," Palm Coast spokeswoman Brittany Kershaw said during a Sept. 14 City Council workshop.

But Palm Coast also has the opportunity to choose three custom questions, and city staff has proposed three topics: streetlights, stormwater/swales and street maintenance. The Palm Coast City Council will vote at an upcoming business meeting on which questions to use.

City staff proposed several potential questions, with response options of "very satisfied," "satisfied," "not satisfied," "unsure," or "other (please specify)" on all but the last question:

Since 2017, Palm Coast City Council has prioritized street lights. Rate your satisfaction with the continuous street lighting program.
If your property is a part of our stormwater swale system, rate your satisfaction with the swale on your property.
How satisfied are you with the quality of the streets in Palm Coast? If you answered "Not Satisfied," which of the following is a top concern? Options: Street resurfacing, road signage, repair of potholes, road striping, other (please specify)

In addition to the 1,200 surveys that will go out by mail and must be completed on paper and mailed back, an additional 1,200 postcards will be mailed out this year with a QR code that would let recipients complete the survey online.

Residents who aren't among those who receive the survey invitation could also complete an open version of the survey online, but those results would be aggregated and evaluated separately from the formal survey results, so that they wouldn't invalidate the scientific nature of the formal National Citizen Survey.