In 2006 the City Council and City staff began to talk about new ways that we could bring public input into the front end of our 2008-2009 City Budget preparation process. The Council thought it would useful to gather survey data concerning what our residents think about our type and quality of City services. I thought this was a good idea. There wasn’t any current data around here from a community survey. The last general community survey was done in Eden Prairie in 1995.
City staff engaged a local public opinion polling company called Decision Resources, Ltd. to do the community survey. They started making the survey phone calls two weeks ago. Decision Resources, is an independent surveying agency specializing in city government analysis. They also do quite a lot of work for Minnesota School Districts. Survey questions are designed to evaluate all aspects of the City ranging from services to taxation and to our City Code.
Here are some links to other Decision Resources’ surveys for Twin Cities suburban cities:
We are hoping this community survey can be the first of a regular cycle that we plan to accompany the opening of our budget prep process every two years. We expect the polling and analysis work to be completed in mid-January. We will present the information to the City Council at an upcoming Council planning session in February. We’ll also share the information with the public as well.
