Using survey results to evaluate City Manager
On December 19, there was a special meeting for the sole purpose of discussing a resolution to amend the City Manager’s Employment Agreement.
At issue is re-incentivizing the contract, which was first discussed in executive session in May 2022.
Kathy Hodgson has been the city manager for 13 years. City survey data from before her start and now is an easy way to see how we the people view the city and thus our city manager.
From the executive summary, the city survey reports that “Lakewood residents enjoy a good quality of life” and “concerns about safety have increased over time.”
Looking closer, we see those statements are true; 84% of survey respondents rated Lakewood good to very good in “overall quality of life”. In that respect, the City Manager could be said to be doing a good to very good job.
Unremarked upon was the fact that the statistic down from 90% in 2008. In fact, most categories dealing with quality of life in Lakewood are down. In fact, only one goes up, and that’s not for the city, it’s quality of neighborhoods. So from most standpoints, quality of life in Lakewood is going down.
There is data on the quality of city services going back to 2013. At that time, 65% of respondents rated the services as good or pretty good. In 2022, that was down to 50%. That is a 15% drop in overall satisfaction.
From this brief data capture, we can see that the city survey shows declining satisfaction with Lakewood, and thus with the city manager. We also see that the survey emphasizes the “good” rating more than the declining amount of those ratings.
Pointing out favorable statistics is part of the nature of statistics. In this case, it may be part of a policy trend to focus on what the manager wants, rather than what residents are asking for. For example, crime and safety were the #1 issue of concern for survey respondents but city council spends much more time on the #3 issue – affordable housing.
Lakewood residents cannot see the material reasons City Council is considering a new incentive plan for the City Manager. A bonus was already awarded this year in August.
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