Peoria County: News

Residents Rate Peoria County

February 25, 2010 at 11:03AM (updated on February 25, 2010 at 1:56PM)

The County of Peoria recently received final survey results from its second annual National Citizen Survey conducted at the end of 2009. Peoria County surveys its residents to gauge citizen opinion of public services and to promote citizen engagement in local government. Results of the survey are taken into consideration when the County Board, Elected Officials, and management staff develop the county's annual strategic action agenda as part of its Strategic Plan; citizen ratings of local government services help us identify areas in need of improvement and focus more energy and resources on those areas.

In addition to strategic planning, Peoria County uses results of annual surveys to measure our progress. For example, "road repair" was identified as an area in need of more attention after our first survey, conducted in February 2008. Over the last two years we have made a concerted effort to improve road conditions wherever possible. As a result, 6% more respondents rated road repair as excellent or good in 2009 over the previous survey

The National Citizen Survey (NCS) is a comprehensive survey that rates resident opinions about the community, quality of life, and services provided by local government. The survey is administered by the National Research Center (NRC) and 2,782 households received the survey last fall, with 30% responding. By participating in the NCS, Peoria County is able to compare our results to over 500 jurisdictions that have asked the same questions of their citizens. These comparisons are detailed in the Benchmark Report provided by the NRC. Peoria County also requested a custom benchmark report that compares our survey results to jurisdictions of similar size, with populations of 125,000 - 300,000. This report will be forthcoming.

Click here for 2009, and 2008 results. All reports associated with the National Citizen Survey are also available on the website. Questions regarding the survey may be directed to Jenny Zinkel, Director of Communications, at 672-6918.