REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
DATE: 10/19/2022
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: City Manager’s Office
SUBJECT:
Title
Results of the City of Corona’s Participation in the National Community Survey.
End
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
This staff report asks the City Council to receive the results of the City of Corona’s participation in the National Community Survey. The National Community Survey Report provides the opinions of a representative sample of 714 Corona residents on the central facets of community livability and compares these against perspectives gathered in surveys from over 600 other communities.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Recommended action
That the City Council receive and file the results of the City of Corona’s participation in the National Community Survey.
Body
BACKGROUND & HISTORY:
The National Community Survey (NCS) is developed and administered by the National Research Center at Polco, in partnership with the International City/County Management Association and provides a comprehensive picture of livability and resident perspectives about local government services, policies, and management. The NCS captures residents’ opinions on the following 10 central facets of a community: Economy; Mobility; Community Design; Utilities; Safety; Natural Environment; Parks and Recreation; Health and Wellness; Education, Arts and Culture; and Inclusivity and Engagement. Over 600 communities throughout the United States participate in the NCS, and the results of each survey are benchmarked against the participating communities.
The City of Corona Strategic Plan includes multiple performance indicators that measure resident satisfaction levels with city services. The questions in the National Community Survey capture data for these performance indicators and will allow the City to measure our progress in achieving the goals and objectives in our Strategic Plan.
ANALYSIS:
The City contracted with Polco to conduct the NCS during the Spring and Summer of 2022. The survey was available in two formats - a random sample survey and an open participation survey. Both surveys were available in both English and Spanish and were promoted by the City through email, social media, and on the City website.
The random sample survey was mailed to 7,000 randomly selected households beginning on May 16, 2022 and remained open for 14 weeks. The initial mailing consisted of a postcard inviting households to participate, and a second mailing containing a cover letter with survey instructions, a questionnaire, and a postage-paid return envelope. All mailings included a web link to give residents the opportunity to respond to the survey online. Of the 7,000 households that were invited to participate, 714 completed the survey, providing an overall response rate of 10%. The response rate generated a traditional “level of confidence” of 95%, which indicates the probability that the survey findings are true for the entire population, within a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points around any given percent reported for all respondents. Survey results were weighted so that the demographic profile of respondents was representative of the demographic characteristics of the 2010 Census and 2020 American Community Survey estimates for adults in the City of Corona.
After the random sample survey was underway, the open participation survey link was promoted by the City beginning June 20, 2022. This survey was open to all Corona residents and remained open for 8 weeks, generating 310 responses. Since the open participation survey data was not collected through a random sample, a level of confidence in the representativeness of the sample cannot be estimated. As a result, this presentation reports out on the scientifically valid survey results; however, the responses to questions by the open participation respondents can be found beginning on page 75 in the attached NCS Report of Results (Exhibit 1).
The chart below shows a summary of the results from the random sample survey and the proportion of Corona residents who rated the community facets positively for quality and the priority placed on each facet. Also displayed is whether local ratings were lower, similar, or higher than the national benchmark. Response details for all questions related to each facet of the community are provided in the attached NCS Report of Results (Exhibit 1).
|
|
Rating on quality of characteristics |
Importance of characteristics |
|
|
% excellent or good |
vs. benchmark |
% essential or very important |
vs. benchmark |
|
Overall economic health |
57% |
Similar |
93% |
Similar |
|
Overall quality of transportation system |
41% |
Similar |
70% |
Similar |
|
Overall design or layout of residential and commercial areas |
57% |
Similar |
84% |
Similar |
|
Overall quality of utility infrastructure |
66% |
Similar |
90% |
Similar |
|
Overall feeling of safety |
54% |
Lower |
97% |
Similar |
|
Overall quality of natural environment |
60% |
Lower |
80% |
Similar |
|
Overall quality of parks and recreation opportunities |
67% |
Similar |
81% |
Similar |
|
Overall health and wellness opportunities |
55% |
Similar |
77% |
Similar |
|
Overall opportunities for education, culture, and the arts |
49% |
Similar |
76% |
Similar |
|
Residents’ connection and engagement with their community |
38% |
Similar |
68% |
Similar |
The City is already addressing several areas where Corona ranked lower than the national benchmark through our City of Corona Strategic Plan for 2021-2026. The Strategic Plan was adopted by the City Council on February 17, 2021 and sets a course of action by establishing priority goals, outlining actions to achieve those goals, and setting up a framework to report our progress to the public. Below is an overview of the areas where the City ranked lower than the national benchmark in the NCS, along with a listing of the Strategic Plan strategies the City has underway, or programmed during the Plan’s five-year implementation schedule.
The City will continue it’s participation in the National Community Survey on a biennial basis, and conduct our own Quality of Life Survey in the interim years to track the community’s sentiment over time. It is our goal is that as we continue to implement the strategies and objectives in the Strategic Plan and tell our story to the community about all the great things the City of Corona is doing, resident perceptions about the quality of City services will improve over time.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
There is no financial impact associated with receiving the results of the City’s participation in the National Community Survey.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS:
This action is exempt pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Statue and Guidelines, which states that a project is exempt from CEQA if the activity is covered by the commonsense exemption that CEQA applies only to projects which have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. Where it can be seen with the certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA. This action is to receive a report on the results of the City’s participation in the National Community Survey, and there is no possibility that this action will have a significant effect on the environment. Any future projects that may be developed as a result of this survey will go through the CEQA process, if required. Therefore, no environmental analysis is needed.
PREPARED BY: DONNA FINCH, ASSISTANT TO THE CITY MANAGER
REVIEWED BY: JACOB ELLIS, CITY MANAGER
Attachment:
1. Exhibit 1 - National Community Survey - Report of Results
2. Exhibit 2 - The City of Corona 2022 Community Survey
3. Exhibit 3 - Presentation