And The Survey Says…
Prince George, BC – City staff and the majority of City Councillors are thrilled with the initial response to an online survey seeking input on this year’s proposed budget…even though the results offer a bit of a mixed bag.
The survey became available on the City’s website on Friday – the same day budget documents detailing a proposed 3.5-percent hike for 2013 were made public.
In presenting the preliminary data at today’s first budget meeting, City Manager of Communications and Citizen Engagement, Chris Bone, says as of noon today, 75 people had responded in the first five days to the survey’s three questions: 1. how satisfied residents are with the service levels of a number of city services. The chart below shows the first eight of 27 services, respondents were queried on:
Question 2 focused on how respondents would like to see their tax dollars distributed…
The third question is open-ended, seeking additional comments on the proposed budget. Bone says a few general themes emerged:
- suggestions for cost-cutting, which included: reduce staff levels, limit council pay hikes, reduce funding to police, stop buying land, reduce the tax exemption to non-profits
- suggestions for generating revenue, which included: increase taxes on heavy industry and business, and enforce bylaws
- reduce debt
- calls to maintain the balance between good infrastructure for safety and transportation and support towards quality recreation and culture activities
Bone says the survey will remain accessible until next Wednesday’s budget meeting. "We were very pleased to have 75 responses in such a short period of time and we suggest that some of that has to do with our use of social media."
Councillor Cameron Stolz says it’s great to see that this new approach to involve the public seems to be working, pointing out that just 20 people took part in public consultations for the 2012 budget. Councillor Garth Frizzell says, "I think it backs up the trend that we’ve been seeing that the public wants to get more and more engaged in the ‘doings’ of government and, so, it’s interesting in that short period, we got that much feedback, that much uptake from the public."
Councillor Brian Skakun says a few city residents have raised concerns with him that the survey came out on the same day the proposed tax increase was announced, saying ‘Why even fill out the survey, if you guys have already made up your minds?’. "And it’s not that we’ve made up our minds," says Skakun, "It’s that ‘thought’ that we have." He says he’d like to see future surveys go online earlier in the budget process in future years.
Councillor Albert Koehler is cautioning that it’s hard to draw any conclusions from a small sampling of city residents. Councillor Dave Wilbur agrees, saying 75 responses in a city of 75-thousand is a ‘piddly’ amount. "And I challenge the people out there to step up to the plate and have their say in a more meaningful way in the new age, which involves the websites and involves survey(s) on the web."
Comments
I heard Dave Wilbur tell an audience that we need more people to move to Prince George then taxes will be lower. C’mon Dave. Tell me I took you “out of context”.
75 people in 5 days? And that is considered a good response? No wonder the mayor thinks she actually has the support of the majority of voters, if she thinks that turnout is indicative of the populaces opinion.
Thank you councilors koehler and wilbur for telling it like it is. At least they didn’t fall into the spin cycle that stolz and others seem to bath in.
Really, 75 respondents is good? ah that would be .01% of the population. Come on.
Didn’t the city fund and undertake a scientific survey on city services in the past? Did the funding for that effort also get the axe from our rookie mayor?
I believe it was Alex Michalos of UNBC that conducted the work in the past. (That would be Dr. Alex Michalos, Professor Emeritus and Order of Canada recipient.) I wonder what he would think of this “better” input.
I remember getting one of the surveys at home. Took me a bit to complete but at least it was well thought out and thorough. I also recall him saying that it would take at least 400-500 survey’s received independently to be statistically relevant.
Contrary to the spin boys, the facts speak for themselves. This isn’t progress, it’s a step backwards in giving taxpayers greater say in the expenditure of our hard earned tax dollars.
Forgive me if I’m wrong, but this survey is pretty meaningless. As an example:
Lets take ‘Economic Development (Initiatives Prince George)’
Person 1 thinks the level of service is not high enough and they are therefore ‘dissatisfied’
Person 2 thinks the level of service is too high and they are also ‘dissatisfied’
Council see all these ‘dissatisfied’ entries and they decide to increase funding to IPG because they are thinking like person 1……
They should run a survey on the performance of each of the coucillors and mayor. I wonder if they would step down if they really new what the public thought of them.
The truth is………. not many people are
happy with how city hall carries on.
IPG should be shut down. They are really city hall #2. When u call there, noone is ever in. Like city hall , there always
away doing city business. usually in Vancouver. I really dont understand this.
This is all a joke….right?
Mitch: “I remember getting one of the surveys at home. Took me a bit to complete but at least it was well thought out and thorough. I also recall him saying that it would take at least 400-500 survey’s received independently to be statistically relevant. “
I got the same survey and took the time to fill it in. Like most of these kinds of things, it probably got put on a shelf and is currently gathering dust.
Did they do a survey of the Winter Games, and if so what was the response.
“Really, 75 respondents is good? ah that would be .01% of the population. Come on.”
Actually that would be .1% but your point is valid ;)
nice catch “intercetor” sorry my math needs a little work.
Did see City of Kelowna contracts with Ipsos Reid on an annual basis. They use a 300 sample size and actually make some effort to ensure the validity of the survey. i.e. they only interview taxpaying residents of the city.
You can find their info at http://www.kelowna.ca/CM/Page618.aspx
If you don’t want to read the report, a couple of paragraphs in the methodology tell the difference between kelowna’s scientific approach and pg’s token effort.
(The right way and the wrong way)
It reads:
“The sample was drawn by postal code, and respondents were asked upfront whether or not they lived in the City of Kelowna to further validate residency.
Quotas were set by gender, age, and FSA (first three digits of the postal code) to ensure the final sample was inclusive and representative of the City of Kelowna.
The results have also been weighted to ensure the age/gender and regional distribution reflects that of the actual population in Kelowna according to the 2006 Census data.
Overall results are accurate to within ±5.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The margin of error will be larger for sample subgroups.
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