NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 30, 1999

CARY TO START BIANNUAL CITIZEN SATISFACTION SURVEY
THIS WEEKEND

CARY, NC – Starting this Sunday, consultants working for the Town of Cary will begin contacting more than 400 Cary residents, asking them to voice their opinions on how well their government works as Cary conducts Biannual 2000--the second Town-sponsored citizen satisfaction survey aimed at the broad range of tasks handled each day by the Town. Topics include taxes, safety, quality of life, customer service, communications, growth management, senior issues, street repair, and parks maintenance. The scientific poll will be conducted via telephone throughout the first weeks of January, with citizens being asked to spend around 20 minutes answering about 42 questions.

"We learned a lot about what is important to our citizens with our 1998 survey, and we’re looking forward to hearing from citizens again this year," said Cary Town Manager Bill Coleman. "We hope that those who are contacted will take the time to give us feedback by participating fully in the survey." Coleman added that most governments—local, state or federal--do not have a regular program of gathering citizen opinion in a reliable manner.

As with the 1998 Biannual Survey, Cary’s Biannual 2000 has three major parts: (1) questions that are asked from survey to survey to give the Town an opportunity to benchmark its performance; (2) questions that change from survey to survey to give the Town information on current or emerging issues; and (3) demographic questions which tell the Town basic information about the people who are responding to the survey such as age, sex, race, and education.

Town officials point out that all responses to the survey are anonymous, and demographic information will only be used in the aggregate. However, respondents will be given the opportunity to give their identifying information if they are interested in participating in one of several focus groups that the Town will conduct in March based on the survey findings.

Cary has contracted with BKL Research of Salem, VA to conduct the study at a cost of $14,150. A final report is expected in February.

Results from Cary’s 1998 Biannual Survey are available online at www.townofcary.org.

###