June 15, 2019

Mallory Herrmann
citydesk@lstribune.net

The city council heard a report from ETC Institute on the 2019 citizen survey on Tuesday, June 11, which indicated high levels of satisfaction among residents with city services and the quality of life in Lee’s Summit. Ryan Murray, project manager for ETC Institute, told the mayor and councilmembers that 90% of residents said they are satisfied with the quality of life in the city.

The city rated 28% above the U.S. average in the overall quality of city services, and 78% of respondents said they are satisfied with the quality of services provided by the city.

The primary areas of improvement identified through the survey included overall maintenance of streets, municipal buildings and facilities and the overall flow of traffic and congestion management – which Murray says are common frustrations for cities the size of Lee’s Summit.

Ranking third-highest for priority improvements is police services, though it also ranked with the third-highest level of satisfaction.

“Residents in Lee’s Summit are very satisfied with police services and they are very important to them,” Murray said. “Continuing to invest in those services is going to be paramount as the city moves forward.”

The survey was administered in January and garnered 894 mail-in and online responses, well above the response goal of 700 surveys. The margin of error is 3.3%.

The last survey by the city was completed in 2013. ETC Institute recommends biannual surveys.