At the Monday, May 4 Special Meeting, City Council and Staff were presented the results of the 2020 Citizens Survey, which was conducted by ETC Institute. The survey was mailed to a random sample of 3,000 of Missouri City’s 75,000 households earlier this year and the goal was to achieve participation citywide.

Approximately 420 responses were received and the City improved in several key areas compared to the 2018 survey. Gains include:

Ø 91 percent of respondents listed Missouri City as a good or excellent place to live, up five percentage points from 2018

Ø 85 percent of respondents listed Missouri City as a good or excellent place to raise children, up five percentage points from 2018

Ø 61 percent of respondents listed Missouri City as a good or excellent place to work, up seven percentage points from 2018

“Our goal as a City is to continue moving forward, to ensure that all of our residents are satisfied with the community,” said Mayor Yolanda Ford. “Knowing what our residents want plays a significant role in how we decide Council strategic priorities and these findings will help guide the future of our City.”

The major categories of City services that had the highest levels of satisfaction, based upon the combined percentage of “very satisfied” and “satisfied” responses among residents who had an opinion, rated:

Ø 90 percent for the overall quality of police and fire services

Ø 82 percent for the overall quality of trash and yard waste services

Ø 77 percent for the overall quality of parks and recreation programs and facilities

Ø 69 percent for the overall efforts by city government in your area to ensure community is prepared for emergencies

“Participating in these surveys every two years is a proactive way for the City to stay informed about what matters to residents,” said Interim City Manager Bill Atkinson. “The results provide us with valuable guidance as we work to better serve the community.”

The survey also included a component called “Importance-Satisfaction (I-S) analysis” which examined the importance residents placed on each City service and the level of satisfaction with each service, to help the City identify investment priorities for the next two years. Based on the results of this analysis, the major services that are recommended as the top priorities for investment over the next two years in order to raise the City’s overall satisfaction rating are:

Ø Overall maintenance of city streets, sidewalks, and infrastructure

Ø Overall effectiveness of communication by City government

Ø Overall flow of traffic & congestion management on streets in the City

Ø Overall efforts by city government in your area to ensure community is prepared for emergencies

“We will continue to rely on strategic planning and maintenance for roadways through the City’s Pavement Maintenance and Management Program to improve mobility along major corridors and to increase safety along trails and sidewalks for pedestrians and bicyclists,” said Shashi Kumar, Director of Public Works and City Engineer. “This will be achieved through the repair and expansion of local streets and bridges and continued technology upgrades in our traffic management center, which helps staff to manage traffic flow citywide.”

To upgrade mobility flow for residents, first responders, stakeholders and visitors, City Council Members voted at their Jan. 21, 2020 Regular Meeting to approve the purchase of two new leading-edge software programs: The Centracs Advanced Transportation Management System and The Glance Preemption & Priority System from Applied Information.

The Centracs system and associated services were purchased through the BuyBoard municipal cooperative for $189,650. The software will be purchased with the City’s METRO funds and will allow staff to meet the specific needs unique to daily traffic patterns. The City also purchased a signal preemption system for emergency vehicles through the BuyBoard municipal cooperative for $409,650 and it will also be paid for with METRO funds. The Glance Preemption & Priority System from Applied Information utilizes web and cloud based computing to seamlessly combine cellular, radio transmission and GPS technology into one solution, allowing for faster emergency response times with the ability of clearing traffic in advance of police and fire vehicles approaching transit signals.

Another priority area for citizens is communications/public information services. The survey responses among residents who had an opinion, were: the quality of the City’s website (56%), the availability of information about city governmental services and activities (47%), and the quality of social media outlets (46%).

In the category of “Sources From Which Respondents Currently Get Information About the City”, citizens provided the following survey responses: Local newspapers (49%), the City website (49%), Your HOA (45%), TV news channels (36%), print brochures and flyers (23%), City Facebook page (21%), Radio (8%), SeeClickFix (8%), MCTV—public access (8%), Twitter (5%), YouTube (3%), R.A.I.D.s police alerts (2%), and Leadership Luncheon (2%).

“Communications is essential to educating and engaging the citizens and our team values public input and feedback,” said the department’s director, Stacie Walker. “It is customary for the team to closely review all survey results and, as has been historically done, we will use them to customize business plan initiatives and improve outreach.”

Walker also said the City will work with ETC in the next bi-annual citywide survey to remove three categories from “Sources From Which Respondents Currently Get Information About the City”: R.A.I.D.S police alerts (this program has been defunct for years), SeeClickFix (this is a resource used by Code Enforcement that permits residents to report violations) and the Leadership Luncheon (an event series focused on business/stakeholder networking).

Other relevant public relations information sources that will be considered for inclusion will be: the “Show Me” Missouri City citizen newsletter, the City’s emergency management outlets—www.MissouriCityReady.com and Twitter.com/MissouriCityEM, HOA Liaison, Citizens University, City digital and chloroplast signage and Nextdoor.

Walker also said ETC will review opportunities in future surveys to reflect the Communications Department’s involvement with City marketing efforts, emergency preparedness/responses, and branding initiatives that promote the City’s reputation, leadership and strategic initiatives.

According to ETC Institute, the survey was administered citywide and included a variety of demographic factors including the age of the participant, years they lived in the City, and more. The details on percentage of respondents on some of these categories are shown below:

To see additional details and to review the full report, click here: https://bit.ly/2Wq6RHt.

For updates, please watch the City website: www.missouricitytx.gov, like us on Facebook—fb/MissouriCityTX, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat—@MissouriCityTX and Nextdoor, watch Missouri City Television (Ch. 16 on Comcast and Ch. 99 on AT&T U-verse) or download the MCTX Mobile app (available for free in Google Play and the Apple app store).