City Releases 2020 Resident Survey Results

The results are in from the most recent resident survey, which is done every two years by the City of Georgetown to guide planning, budgeting, projects, and services.

The Texas State University Center for Public Policy, Research, and Training conducted the survey in October 2020. The anonymous survey is intended to measure the perceptions of residents. The survey was mailed to 2,000 households in Georgetown and 425 residents responded. The margin of error was 5 percent.

In addition to the mailed survey, an open survey was shared online with 767 residents responding. Since the demographics of the two surveys were similar, the results from the two surveys were merged. The total number of responses was 1,192 and the margin of error was 3 percent.

“We are grateful for this feedback from our residents who took the survey,” City Manager David Morgan said. “The City does this survey every two years to listen to our residents to find out where we are succeeding and other places where we need to improve. The results are invaluable in helping us determine priorities for budgets and operations.”

The context of the COVID-19 pandemic affected city services in 2020 and was likely a factor in how residents experienced and perceived city programs and services.

Here are some highlights from the merged survey results.

Ninety percent of residents said the overall quality of life in Georgetown was good or excellent and 65 percent said for city taxes paid, the value of city services was good or excellent. These compare to 98 percent and 81 percent, respectively, in the 2018 resident survey.

The survey found when residents were asked about city services, these percentages of residents gave a rating of good or excellent:

• Fire and EMS services: 97 percent
• Police services: 91 percent
• Library: 94 percent
• Garbage collection: 91 percent
• Recycling: 82 percent
• Water service: 75 percent
• Electric service: 66 percent

The survey also asked about perceptions of safety. Respondents reported safety as good or excellent for these areas or services:

• In their neighborhood in daytime: 95 percent
• In their neighborhood after dark: 83 percent
• In city parks: 79 percent
• At shopping centers: 84 percent
• On the downtown square: 91 percent
• In recreational waters: 69 percent
• For drinking water: 74 percent

Traffic continues to be a top concern for residents. In rating traffic flow on major streets, only 20 percent said it was good or excellent with 43 percent who said it was fair and 37 percent who said it was poor.

An open-ended question in the survey asked residents to identify their top priorities. The most frequent top priorities mentioned were crime/safety/police, growth management, water, electric bills/utilities, and parks/trails/bike lanes/sidewalks.

Survey results are used to inform the annual budget process as well as capital improvement plans and changes to city services.

The complete 2020 City of Georgetown Resident Survey Report is available at georgetown.org.

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