City leaders were able to find out how the citizens of Auburn feel about the way the city is run after getting the results of the Annual Citizen Survey.
Chris Tatham, Vice President with the ETC Institute, a market research firm for local governments, presented the survey results at the Auburn City Council meeting on April 7.
Auburn ranks among the highest in citizen satisfaction from the more than 800 cities where ETC conducts surveys, according to Tatham.
“The nice thing when I get to come present here is Auburn is one of the standard setters for community performance,” Tatham said.
Ninety-two percent of survey respondents said they were satisfied with the quality of life in Auburn.
The survey was sent to 1,500 households with a 46 percent response rate and a margin of error of 3.5 percent, according to City Manager Charles Duggan.
The survey revealed a 43 to 1 ratio of positive to negative opinions of city services, with 87 percent of Auburn residents having a positive view of the quality of city services.
Seventy-six percent of citizens had a positive view of their value received for tax dollars paid.
“[These] are the two questions I consider the most important on the entire survey,” Tatham said. “In other words, if you don’t ask anything else, this is usually where I can take away is this city doing well or not so well.”
Auburn’s worst area was traffic flow, with 19 percent of citizens dissatisfied with the way the city handled traffic and 57 percent satisfied. Twenty-five percent were neutral.
The survey was conducted in February and March when several railroad crossings were closed because of construction.
“Traffic congestion is a problem in every city, but we’re not satisfied until we’re above every city,” Duggan said.
Duggan said he hopes city projects, including the Toomers Corner renovation, will improve traffic flow.
“We had a 44 percent decline in accidents on the South College-Shug Jordan-East University intersection after we redid that,” Duggan said.
Duggan said he’s willing to take a hit on the perception of traffic flow for a few years during projects, which will eventually improve traffic.
Mayor Bill Ham said he was happy Auburn continues to have some of the highest citizen satisfaction rates in the nation.
“We may be very good, but we can always do better,” Ham said. “There’s always room for improvement. As my dad used to say, ‘We’re human, so we’re not going to be perfect, but we can always strive to do better.’”
Councilwoman Lynda Tremaine said she was also pleased with the survey results.
“My feeling is, keep it quiet because it shows what a wonderful community (Auburn) is,” Tremaine said. “I think, when you talk to anybody, they love living in Auburn, and that’s what that survey shows.”
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