ETC DirectionFinder Survey

In spring 2008, the City conducted its second survey of residents and businesses to assess satisfaction with the quality of City services and to gather input about priorities for the community.  The survey is part of an ongoing effort to continuously improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the services the City provides.  The ETC Institute, a firm with more than 25 years of experience, surveyed 400 residents and 50 businesses, although every household and business had the opportunity to complete one.

Complete copies of both the 2008 ETC DirectionFinder Survey and the 2006 ETC Direction Finder Survey are available in the Document Center on the right side of the screen.

Confidence and Precision. The results of a random sample of 401 households and 50 businesses have a 95% level of confidence with a precision of at least +/-5%.  In other words, if the survey was conducted 100 times, 95 times the results would be the same or within 5%.

Resident Survey Results

Overall Satisfaction.  When rating City services overall, residents rated several areas very high.

• 90% satisfied with police services
• 85% satisfied with parks and recreation services
• 83% satisfied with ambulance services
• 83% satisfied with customer service

Quality of Life.  Eighty-five percent (85%) of Riverside residents were satisfied with their overall quality of life.  This significantly exceeds the national average of 77% of residents.

Areas of Increased Emphasis.  Residents were asked to rank the areas that should receive increased emphasis from City leaders over the next two years.  They were:

• Maintenance of City streets, buildings and facilities (27%)
• Effectiveness of community planning and development (27%)
• Enforcement of codes and ordinances (27%)

Public Safety

• 87% satisfied with the way police personnel responded to emergencies
• 83% satisfied with the City’s overall efforts to prevent crime
• 83% satisfied with the enforcement of local traffic laws
• 80% satisfied with the visibility of police in neighborhoods
• 72% satisfied with the quality of animal control

City Maintenance
Riverside set new highs for benchmarks in the Kansas City metro area for the areas for snow removal and maintenance on major city streets and maintenance of city sidewalks.

• 92% satisfied with snow removal on major City streets
• 85% satisfied with maintenance of major City streets
• 77% satisfied with overall cleanliness of streets and public areas
• 71% satisfied with maintenance of City sidewalks

Parks and Recreation

• 78% satisfied with the maintenance of City parks and parks equipment
• 63% satisfied with the number of walking and biking trails
• 61% satisfied with the ease of registering for programs
• 54% satisfied with senior programs
• 50% satisfied with adult programs
• 45% satisfied with youth programs

Trash and Recycling Service

• 86% satisfied with overall value of trash service
• 76% satisfied overall with the recycling service

Code Enforcement

• 91% felt code enforcement officers were polite and courteous
• 91% felt code enforcement officers were easy to contact
• 72% felt code enforcement officers helped resolve an issue to satisfaction
• 52% satisfied with residential property maintenance in neighborhoods
• 48% satisfied with the enforcement of business property maintenance

Importance/Satisfaction Rating.  Two of the most important criteria for making decisions are (1) to target resources towards services of the highest importance to citizens; and (2) to target resources towards those services where citizens are the least satisfied.  The Importance/Satisfaction Rating is an analysis of the data collected through the survey and combines these two criteria to develop a list of the top priorities for the City in the coming years.  The following are the top ranked items using the process for Riverside:

• Enforcement of codes and ordinances
• Effectiveness of community planning and development
• Maintenance of City streets/buildings/facilities
• Overall quality of water/sewer utilities
• Quality of storm water runoff/storm water management
• Effectiveness of communication with the public
• Overall flow of traffic and congestion management
• Overall quality of City parks and recreation
• Overall quality of fire services
• Overall quality of customer service
• Overall quality of police services
• Overall quality of ambulance services