Redmond residents give feedback in city survey

At the Redmond City Council meeting Tuesday night, staff presented the results of the 2016 Annual Redmond Community Survey, conducted this spring.

The purpose of the survey was to learn what the community thinks about the city that works for them. The comprehensive survey included more than 40 questions ranging from how safe people feel, to their views on the downtown, to overall livability in Redmond, to their satisfaction with various city services and other city-centric topics.

“Our residents are making an investment through taxes, fees, and by their decision to live in Redmond. We owe it to them to be committed to continual improvement. Organizations who care about their customers and achieve brand loyalty make efforts to ask ‘how are we doing?'” stated City Manager Keith Witcosky.

The Redmond Community Survey was distributed to 10,301 city water utilityclients in May. A total of 8,583 hard copies of the survey were mailed via the city’s newsletter, the Redmond Connection, and 1,718 residents were emailed electronic links to complete the survey online.

A total of 1,442 resident survey responses were recorded. 681 survey responses (47%) came directly from electronic Redmond Water Utility clients; 527 survey responses (36%) were hard copy paper responses returned with monthly payments; 108 surveys responses (8%) were completed via direct links on the City website; and 126 survey responses (9%) were directly completed via Facebook.

“A 14% response rate is good, but we’d like to increase that year over year” said Communication Manager Heather Cassaro. “Like many data sets, it becomes more valuable as time goes by.

“We have lot of good information which we can rapidly respond to, but with the passage of each year we will be able to assess trends and learn whether emphasis in a certain city function yields positive experiences from our community” Cassaro continued.

The key findings of the survey indicate:

Respondents rated overall livability very high.
Residents seem content about City government’s overall delivery of services, but there is room for improvement. Community members rate police services high and generally feel safe in Redmond.
Redmond parks are valued assets and viewed positively despite a wide range of usage trends.

Specific survey questions found that:

85 percent rated parks as ‘good or ‘very good’
More than 85% rated overall livability in Redmond ‘good’ or ‘very good’
80 percent rated the cleanliness of streets very high
78 percent rated police services ‘good’ or ‘very good’
85% commuted to work alone in their vehicle
70% of respondents were over 45 years old
45 percent said they graduated from college or had an advanced degree
93 percent were white

The Redmond Community Survey will continue to be conducted each spring, giving residents yet another outlet to voice their opinions and provide the city with input about policy decisions and service delivery.