04-14-12 Special Meeting of La Porte City Council (council retreat)

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City of La Porte ( 2012 This report of the City of La Porte survey provides the opinions of a representative sample of residents about community quality of life, service delivery, civic participation and unique issues of local interest. A periodic sounding of resident opinion offers staff, elected officials and other stakeholders an opportunity to identify challenges and to plan for and evaluate improvements and to sustain services and amenities for long-term success. Most residents experienced a good quality of life in the City of La Porte and believed the City was a good place to live. The overall quality of life in the City of La Porte was rated as "excellent" or "good" by 73% of respondents. A majority reported they plan on staying in the City of La Porte for the next five years. A variety of characteristics of the community was evaluated by those participating in the study. The three characteristics receiving the most favorable ratings were ease of car travel in La Porte, the openness and acceptance of the community toward people of diverse backgrounds, and the cleanliness of La Porte. The two characteristics receiving the least positive ratings were employment and shopping opportunities. Ratings of community characteristics were compared to the benchmark database. Of the 22 characteristics for which comparisons were available, five were above the national benchmark comparison, five were similar to the national benchmark comparison and 12 were below. Residents in the City of La Porte were minimally civically engaged. Only 20% had attended a meeting of local elected public officials or other local public meeting in the previous 12 months, and less than half had volunteered their time to some group or activity in the City of La Porte, which was lower than the benchmark. In general, survey respondents demonstrated moderate trust in local government. A majority rated the overall direction being taken by the City of La Porte as "good" or "excellent." This was higher than the benchmark. Those residents who had interacted with an employee of the City of La Porte in the previous 12 months gave high marks to those employees. Most rated their overall impression of employees as "excellent" or "good." On average, residents gave generally favorable ratings to most local government services. City services rated were able to be compared to the benchmark database. Of the 33 services for which comparisons were available, 17 were above the benchmark comparison, 13 were similar to the benchmark comparison and three were below. Respondents were asked to rate how frequently they participated in various activities in La Porte. The most popular activities included visiting a City park and reading the La Porte newsletter; while the least popular activity was riding a local bus. Generally, participation rates in the various activities in the community were lower than other communities. The National Citizen SurveyTM 5