City of Pensacola Announces Fifth Annual Community Survey Results
Two-thirds of City residents say that Pensacola is on the right track according to the Haas Center's fifth annual community survey. Residents are satisfied with the appearance of the City, the ease of obtaining information and the value of the services they receive.
"Pensacola continues to be on the right track and these survey results validate that what we have been focusing on during my administration matches what is important to the community,” said Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward in announcing the results. "There is always room for improvement and we take these results very seriously. Public safety and stormwater infrastructure have been a major focus the last few years and it shows in the survey results."
Other key findings in the report included:
- Overall, residents are highly satisfied with core City services
- Recreational facilities and opportunities also consistently earn high marks
- Some residents have concerns with streets, sidewalks, and lighting
- Residents continue to rank as their top priorities Police and Fire services
In 2017, 11% of respondents expressed the City was moving in the wrong direction. This year, the percentage of respondents who expressed the City was going in the wrong direction dropped to 9.1%. The Haas Center report flagged five "areas of concern": sidewalk, street lights, streets, community centers, and City appearance. The City has been working to address each of those areas. This year's survey shows that the $13.8 million the City is spending to resurface 1825 blocks of city streets may have affected resident satisfaction with the condition of streets. Over the last year, construction crews have been milling and resurfacing streets throughout Pensacola as well as replacing antiquated cast-iron gas mains with modern, medium-density polyethylene piping. Money to fund those improvements was budgeted from Local Option Sales Tax revenues, and work has been ongoing during 2018.
Responses to questions in this year's survey show that City staff should continue to focus on stormwater infrastructure. Stormwater infrastructure has been a longstanding topic of discussion in the last two years. Overall, residents seem to be satisfied with recent upgrades the City has completed over the last two years in response to citizen concerns.
The International City/County Managers Association recommends citizen surveying as a way to get feedback from citizens who may not be able to attend council meetings or participate in public workshops. This fifth survey helps put in place a neutral benchmark that the City can use to rate its services in the future and determine how best to utilize its limited resources to prioritize and improve city services to keep Pensacola headed in the right direction.
The Haas Center administered the survey across each of Pensacola’s seven city council districts over a four-week period that began in October 2018. In total, 522 people completed the survey. Those responses coincide with an approximate 4.27% margin of error (+/-) at a 95% confidence level. In other words, a sample of City of Pensacola residents will differ no more than +/-4.27% from a survey that included all City of Pensacola residents.
The complete report along with the survey instrument is available on the City's website: https://www.cityofpensacola.com/DocumentCenter/View/16502/Resident-Satisfaction-Survey---City-2018-Final
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About the Haas Center
The Haas Center is a research and consulting unit of the University of West Florida that specializes in applied business research, survey research and economic development. For over twenty years, the Center has led a wide range of research projects, including studies on economic and fiscal impacts, workforce development, industry clusters, feasibility analyses, demographic profiles and custom analytics.
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