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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council - 03/21/2017 - Workshop APPROVED MINUTES CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP & OPEN PODIUM TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017 CITY CENTER 5:00—6:25 PM, HERITAGE ROOMS 6:30—7:00 PM, COUNCIL CHAMBER CITY COUNCIL: Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens, Council Members Brad Aho, Sherry Butcher Wickstrom, Ron Case and Kathy Nelson CITY STAFF: City Manager Rick Getschow, Police Chief Rob Reynolds, Fire Chief George Esbensen, Public Works Director Robert Ellis, Community Development Director Janet Jeremiah, Parks and Recreation Director Jay Lotthammer, City Attorney Dan Gregerson, and Recorder Jan Curielli GUESTS: Ashly Perez, National Research Center(NRC) Workshop - Heritage Room H I. QUALITY OF LIFE SURVEY (NRC) Getschow said every two years since 2006 Eden Prairie has done a Quality of Life survey using a valid sampling of City residents. This is the second time that NRC has conducted the survey. This survey was done by mail, not by phone as were the pre-2014 surveys. We are able to compare the results of the survey with survey results from other cities around the country and in our region. Ashly Perez, representing NRC, gave a PowerPoint presentation of the 2016 Quality of Life survey. She said the survey results will be used: to monitor trends in resident opinion; to measure government performance; to inform the budget, land use, and strategic planning decisions; and to benchmark service ratings. Aho asked if the same questions were used in this survey as those for other U.S. cities. Ms Perez said the questions must be similar in order to compare the results. She noted NRC has been in the business of conducting surveys and research for local governments for two decades and essentially"wrote the book" on citizen surveying. Ms Perez said the community survey gives a report card of community quality, City services, and public opinion. The results can be compared by geographic and socio-demographic characteristics, and by groups of communities with populations over 15,000 in the U.S., Minnesota, and the north central region. The survey was mailed to 2,000 households, and we received back 491 completed surveys. In addition, 1398 "opt-in" surveys were completed which were weighted to reflect the community. Case asked if other cities must use NRC for their surveys. Ms Perez replied they would need to use the same or similar survey questions. Case then asked how many Minnesota communities are included. Ms Perez was not sure of the exact number of Minnesota cities included,but there are many. Getschow noted many of our peer cities use NRC. Jackie Schwerm, HR City Council Workshop Minutes March 21, 2017 Page 2 representative, said a list of the Minnesota cities included in the benchmark group is on the back of the survey. Aho asked if there is a certain subset of questions that would be the same across the board. Ms Perez said that was true. Ms Perez said the survey showed a 95% rating of excellent or good for the overall quality of life in Eden Prairie. That percentage was higher than any of the other benchmark groups, and there was a 0% rating of poor for that category. Nine of ten people gave ratings of excellent or good when asked to rate the City as a place to live, a place to raise children, and their neighborhood as a place to live. In addition, the rating for the City as an excellent or good place to work was higher than any of the three benchmark groups. Ms Perez said resident loyalty is very high: 94% of those surveyed would recommend Eden Prairie as a place to live; 89% planned to remain here; and 86% would recommend the City as a place to visit. Seven in ten respondents gave an excellent or good rating to such categories as the quality of the overall natural environment, the overall image or reputation, and the overall economic health. She reported 94% of the respondents rated the quality of City services either excellent or good, while 69% rated the value of City services for taxes paid as excellent or good. Case asked if we dug deeper into the decline in the rating for value of City services between 2012 and 2014. Getschow said two years ago we talked about the subject of possible phone bias because the surveys conducted before 2014 were conducted by phone; however, he was not sure the question was phrased the same way. He noted the City's tax levy for 2011-2016 was the lowest in the region. Ms Perez commented that this year's survey asked specifically about property taxes and that may have been a change. Case then asked if the question differentiates between City, school district and other taxing authorities. Getschow replied we did not differentiate between those; however, only 6% rated the value as poor. Ms Perez noted Eden Prairie is higher than the benchmarks, so the City scored better than the others. Ms Perez said services such as park maintenance, fire services, and recreation facilities or services received the highest ratings for service; while services such as street lighting, street repair, and traffic signal timing received the lowest ratings. When compared to the three benchmarks, Eden Prairie's rating for many of the services was either higher or much higher. She noted none of the ratings for quality of service items went down while several trended up. Ms Perez reported City employees received excellent or good ratings for courtesy (94%), for knowledge (93%), for overall customer service (91%); for responsiveness (90%), and for follow-up (88%). When asked about their contact with the Police Department, 18% said their contact was at the Night to Unite and 15% was through community programs. 93% of the respondents rated the overall quality of contact with the Police Department as excellent or good. Case noted the rating for contact at the City-wide open house almost doubled and asked if the numbers attending the event doubled as well. Getschow replied the turnout was higher; however, the event is different every other year. Ms Perez reported 89% of the respondents had visited one of the large community parks in the last year, 85% visited one of the neighborhood parks and 62% visited the Community Center. In City Council Workshop Minutes March 21, 2017 Page 3 addition, the number of respondents who had accessed the City website during the past year increased substantially, and 7 out of 10 rated the appearance, information and services offered and the search function as excellent or good. When asked about their sources of information about the City, 86% of the respondents chose word of mouth, 78% chose the Parks and Recreation program guide and 77% chose the City website. In answer to an open-ended question regarding what the respondents liked about living in Eden Prairie, 33% listed parks, trails and/or recreation centers, and 18% listed the convenient location. In the problems and issues portion of the survey, Ms Perez said 20% of the respondents chose traffic congestion as what they liked least about living in Eden Prairie. Traffic speeding was listed a major or moderate problem. 95% of the respondents indicated that airport noise was not a major or extreme problem. Getschow noted a breakdown of the airport noise responses showed only 5 or 6% of respondents in the southeast and southwest areas indicated it was a major problem, so there is the perception that airport noise is declining. Aho asked if we know what roads have traffic speeding issues. Getschow replied it is primarily an issue about neighborhood roads. Butcher Wickstrom noted the Council used to get more requests for stop signs or speed bumps to help control traffic speed. Ms Perez reviewed the responses to the questions that mapped to City goals: 95% felt safe overall in the City and in their particular neighborhood, and 94% rated the overall quality of services as high, and 70% rated the sense of community as high. She noted the 70% rating a high sense of community was a significant increase between 2014 and 2016. Nine in ten of the respondents said the overall economic health of the City was excellent or good. Tyra-Lukens asked if there is benchmark data for similar communities that are suburbs of large metropolitan areas. Ms Perez replied there are similar communities in all three of the benchmark groups. Getschow said we could look at the Minnesota benchmark group for comparison. Staff spent a lot of time reviewing the survey results earlier today, and we are seeing a correlation of growth with participation in community events. Tyra-Lukens noted it is nice to see the sense of community is addressed in the survey. Getschow replied the goal of building a sense of community came after the last survey was completed. Aho asked if there is any sense of what builds a sense of community. Ms Perez replied it is difficult to know what people were basing the rating on. She felt more participation is demonstrative of a positive trend that will likely continue. In her review of policy questions covered in the survey, Ms Perez said 82% of the respondents said they supported or strongly supported the City continuing to run the municipal liquor stores. In response to the question of residential chicken regulations, 42% of the respondents either strongly or somewhat opposed the question, while 59% either strongly or somewhat supported the question. Ms Perez asked each of the Council Members to respond to two questions: what surprised each of them in the presentation; and what the main focus areas for the City should be. She reviewed some of the key findings from the survey including that residents continue to enjoy a high quality of life in Eden Prairie, and a strong economy is a feature that makes it a desirable City Council Workshop Minutes March 21, 2017 Page 4 community. She said the four areas of focus were identified at the staff workshop today: a sense of community, traffic, street lighting, and the value of services for taxes paid. Case said a sense of community has been our top priority, and this survey reinforces that. Aho commented that the issue of traffic received high ranking. He thought we have made progress,but a lot of the traffic issues are out of our control. Tyra-Lukens commented the issue of traffic congestion is especially one we cannot control. Aho said speeding is a difficult issue, and he thought it an issue that occurs primarily in neighborhoods. Ellis noted tonight's Council agenda includes an agreement with SRF to do a focus group regarding traffic. Case commented we may need to dig deeper into three or four of the points brought out in the survey. Getschow said he thought we will dive into traffic and street lighting. He believed the tax situation is primarily education,but we can dig deeper into developing a sense of community. Butcher Wickstrom asked if the pie chart about property taxes is on the City website. Getschow said it is on the website and is published in Life in the Prairie. Case said we took the time to investigate the question of chickens in residential areas and he would like to recommend we move forward to talk out the question and see where we are. Getschow said staff emailed the survey results to the group that sent the petition regarding chickens. Case said he would be comfortable with bringing up the question in the Council meeting tonight. Open Podium - Council Chamber III. OPEN PODIUM IV. ADJOURNMENT