The City Manager’s office has made it a strategic goal to work in many aspects throughout the City to improve communication, increase effective data-driven decision making, and increase sustainability. As a part of the strategic plan, a direct goal is to conduct a survey every other year to receive feedback from the Citizens of Topeka in regards to their satisfaction levels of City services.
“The citizen satisfaction survey is important to get feedback on what Topekan’s feel about our community, both good and bad,” said City Manager Brent Trout. “The feedback allows the city to identify our strengths and find out what aspects of our city that citizens want us to improve on.”
In November of 2018, the City of Topeka contracted with the ETC Institute to administer a citizen’s satisfaction survey to assess the opinions and priorities of Topeka residents. To ensure the community was represented as a whole, a total of 3,000 surveys were mailed out to a random sample of households covering all parts of the city. To get statistically accurate data, ETC set a goal to receive 400 completed surveys. The goal was exceeded with 438 household responses, giving a 4.7% margin of error or a 95% level of confidence rate.
The data collected should be considered along with other factors such as input from City officials and City staff when making budget and policy decisions. The city has also concluded from this survey that there are areas in which the City of Topeka needs to do a better job telling their story and educating the general public.
According to the survey report, the Citizens top three priorities, in order, are:
1. Maintenance of City Streets
2. Flow of Traffic & Congestion Management
3. Enforcement of City codes & ordinances
The survey will be a great resource not only for staff but for other individuals in the community as well. The feedback we received will be a consistent tool we utilize to identify opportunities to improve on, measure trends over time and compare Topeka’s performance with other communities.
As listed on the City of Topeka webpage our mission is to provide exceptional, cost-effective services in partnership with the community, which add value and enhance the quality of life for all. We believe that conducting the survey and utilizing the feedback keeps our promise of this mission as well as the goal to build citizen satisfaction, confidence and trust in service delivery and operations management. The full survey findings can be found on the city website at: https://www.topeka.org/citymanager/citizen-satisfaction/
In an effort to reach out to citizens, City Manager Brent Trout is starting a mobile office. The mobile office will give citizens a chance to interact with the City Manager and share their concerns outside of city hall. The mobile office will take place once a quarter. Citizens can set up a fifteen minutes meeting by calling the City Manager’s office. Open hour timeslots will also be available for anyone wanting to drop in. The first mobile office will take place on April 15th from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Juli’s Coffee and Bistro on 110 SE 8th Ave.
