One of the major roles of local government is to, as the O’Jays vocal group said in the 1970s (or Jalen Rose of Grantland.com and Michigan/NBA basketball fame), “Give the people what they want.” This task, however, is nearly impossible without first surveying the community to see how it is doing and what it needs. It is possible to make guesses as to what a community needs based on past experiences or known economic trends, but to truly understand what is happening in a community and what people are thinking, managers need to reach out to the people and perform some type of citizen survey.

            Citizen surveys can be used in a variety of different ways. They can be used annually to take the pulse of the community and then used as part of a local government performance measure. They can also help a local government make difficult budgeting decisions as the Center for Priority Based Budgeting has shown. Surprise, Arizona, has used citizen surveys to help shape its business attraction strategy. Surveys can serve a variety of purposes and can easily be tailored to a community to ensure the manager and elected officials are getting data on topics that matter most to a local government.

            In addition to surveying citizens, which although extremely helpful can end up being time consuming and expensive depending on how the survey is conducted, a local government can use the National Citizen Survey (NSC) to complete an assessment. NCS is part of a partnership between ICMA and the National Research Center, Inc., where the National Research Center administers a partially customizable survey for a local government and then compiles and reports the data back to administrators, all for a low cost.

            Local governments are also choosing to simply survey their residents online either through e-mails or their website as another free or low-cost option.

            The surveys can help in almost every aspect of local government from evaluating performance measurement, making policy decisions, setting an annual budget, and looking to the future. As every community is different, it can be hard to give the people what they need and want without asking first. With tools like the National Citizen Survey, e-mail surveys, and other online surveys finding out what your community thinks is easier and cheaper than ever.

            Take a few minutes and check out the resources below to learn more about citizen surveys and consider conducting a citizen survey in 2014! If you have specific questions about citizen surveys or would like more information, either post a comment below or ask a question and the Knowledge Network community will help you get the resources you need.

•  To start off research on citizen surveys, check out the Citizen Survey topic page on the Knowledge Network. Here you will find all the latest articles, blogs, documents, and questions that people have posted on this topic.
• To see an example of the National Citizen Survey, you can read this one completed by the city of Dover, Delaware.
• To learn more about the NCS, go to its homepage, discover its FAQ section,, timeline, pricing, and how to enroll in the program.
• Discover how citizen surveys can help a local government gauge performance measures in “The Role of Citizen Surveys in Performance Measurement.”
• Learn more about how Surprise, Arizona, used online citizen surveys to help guide its business attraction strategy and target the retail stores that are important to the community.
• The answers to this quality-of-life survey question provide an easy explanation of the differences between using an online opt-in survey and using a more scientific survey method for local government surveys.
• “Citizen Engagement: An Evolving Process” highlights the findings on citizen surveys and citizen engagement from ICMA’s state of the profession survey. This report discusses how local governments actually survey their residents (Only 51% as of 2009) and other ways in which cities elicit feedback from the community.
• “Priority Driven Budgeting and the Policy Budget Direction-Cincinnati, OH” is an overview of Cincinnati’s adoption of priority-driven budgeting and how the community was involved in decision making.

Best,

Robin Saywitz

ICMA Knowledge Network Intern