POLL: Urbandale Goes from A to A-Plus Rating in Citizen Survey

Urbandale residents are extremely happy with city services and city employees, according to results of the most recent biennial citizen survey.

Of 399 households that filled out the four-page survey last fall, 95 percent rated Urbandale as "good" or "excellent."

"Clearly Urbandale's ratings for individual city services are much above the average out there," said Thomas Miller, and a founder of the National Research Center, the Boulder, CO, social science research firm that administers the National Citizen Survey.

"That is remarkable in the public sector," said Miller, who spoke to Urbandale's City Council and city department heads in a conference call Tuesday. He noted that Urbandale's ratings in most areas were much higher than the average results in other cities where the survey has been used.

"I think we could say you're among the best cities." -- Damema Mann, director of the National Citizens Survey.

Councilman Mike Carver pushed Miller to quantify Urbandale's results against other nearby or comparable cities. "Just saying we're much above, it's great, but great compared to what?" he asked.

"i think what Councilman Carver would like is for you to give us a quote that says we are the best city in the nation," joked Councilman Creighton Cox.

"I think we could say you're among the best cities," replied Damema Mann, director of the National Citizens Survey.

According to the survey, 95 percent of respondents gave Urbandale an excellent or good rating for overall quality of life; 93 percentage gave that rating to their neighborhood as a place to live; 96 percent said Urbandale is a good or excellent place to live; and 95 percent said they would recommend living in Urbandale to someone who asked them about it.

The survey asked about specific city services, as well as about housing, recreation, health care and wellness opportunities, education, cultural, volunteer and civic opportunities, traffic, means of transportation, economic climate, public safety, recycling, recreation, and community inclusiveness.

You can read all the results of the survey on the city's website, as well as the results of previous year's surveys. The city has been using this survey since 2004.

What do you think? Give the city a grade in the poll at the end of this story. 

A Tool for Improvement

City officials use the results of the survey to target areas that need to be improved. as the city department heads look at possible changes to address lower ratings or priorities.

For example, in 2004, just 67 percent of respondents gave a favorable rating to Urbandale's animal control program. Police Chief Ross McCarty has said that rating prompted him to change the way the city picks up stray animals and to pursue a regional animal control shelter with other western suburbs.

Consequently this year, the city's rating on animal control jumped 10 percentage points.

Councilman Tom Gayman, who is Urbandale's representative on the DART board for bus transportation, noted that the survey showed lower approval ratings for Urbandale bus service in 2011 than in 2009 when the city had circulator buses running through Urbandale neighborhoods.

He also noted that just 4 percent of the respondents said they rode a public bus in 2011, so he wondered if Urbandale should spend a lot of money with DART to improve bus service here.

Public Safety Scores High

Urbandale residents are very happy with public safety services: 92 percent gave high marks to police; 96 percent to the fire department; and 96 percent to ambulance and emergency medical services.

"I am very pleased to see that the citizens of our community place such high ratings on their police department," said Police Chief McCarty. "We have a dedicated core of personnel delivering 'Service built on Integrity'.”

He credited the department's community outreach programs such as self-defense programs, a junior detectives program, the neighborhood watch program Crime Eye, the high school resources officer as improving Urbandale residents' positive feelings about his department.

Public trust increased in Urbandale city government over the past two years by these measures: 

• In 2009 67 percent said they were getting excellent city services for their taxes. That approval jumped to 75 percent in 2011.
• Approval in the overall direction the city is heading jumped from 77 percent to 84 percent.
• And 91 percent said Urbandale's overall reputation is good or excellent.

All of these ranking are much above typical city rankings, according to the report.

City Employees Praised

Furthermore, Urbandale residents' confidence in their city goventment rose, even while their lack of confidence in the federal government fell. Ninety percent of residents gave city government a good or excellent rating, up from 88 percent in 2009.

Just 42 percent gave that same rating to federal government, down 2 percentage points for last year. Those changes may not be statistically significant. The researchers said changes from year to year of 6 percent or more are considered significant.

Respondents who had an interaction with a city employee in the past year also gave them higher marks in 2011 than they did in 2009 for their knowledge, responsiveness, courtesy and their overall impression of the employee. 

City Manager A.J. Johnson said the city didn't do anything dramatic to improve employees' customer service skills.

To that end he shared an email from an Urbandale resident who complimented a city garbage collector. During the mechanical collection process, a wheel on her garbage can came off.

"Instead of ignoring it and driving off, the driver of truck #650 stopped and informed us of the problem, stated he had called it in, and instructed us to leave the can at the curb for repair," wrote Mary Jo Miller. "I walked past the front window an hour later and the can had been fixed already. Thanks for the prompt repairs and helpful personnel."

"Overall, our staff is very aware of the need to be courteous and helpful when dealing with public," Johnston said. "We did bring on board our Human Resources Director Jennifer Hubbard and she has done a terrific job on this issue and other HR-related issues."