The City of Kansas City, Missouri resident survey is much loved by city operations managers, policy wonks, and data nerds (like those of us in DataKC), because it helps us understand resident satisfaction with city services, their top priorities, and how these perceptions relate to demographics and other operational data. While resident opinion is not the only factor in changing city policy or programs, it’s always useful for us to be aware of where the public stands. Unfortunately, the survey does not include specific questions regarding responses to city-wide emergencies, such as the novel coronavirus pandemic that all communities are currently navigating.
Our long-time survey contractor, ETC Institute, has swooped in to fill this gap. Not only are they doing a national survey every 4 days to track shifts in public perception (and publishing the results on this nifty dashboard) but they also surveyed a local sample of residents in KCMO on March 20 (n = 311, margin of error = +/- 5.5%). This unique data provides a view into how our residents are reacting to this crisis, whether we are reaching them with our messages, and the best way to communicate with them.
The first question on the survey gets to the heart of our concerns — do our residents believe that the coronavirus/COVID-19 is a real threat to our community? According to the survey, 86% of our residents say yes. This suggests that the message of the seriousness of the current situation is being received and absorbed by our residents, despite the fact that most of them do not think they have interacted with anyone who has the virus. For our departments on the front lines of this epidemic, Health and EMS, who have been working tirelessly to develop and implement the city’s response, this provides hope that residents will do their part to respond to the epidemic as directed. KCMO residents appeared to have a stronger belief in the threat of coronavirus even than their Midwest neighbors; ETC’s national survey shows the average for the Midwest for their 3/23 survey was slightly lower, at 69.6%.
Residents’ understanding of the current crisis is formed by their own experiences. The financial impact is significant, with 57% of KCMO residents saying that their financial situation has gotten worse and 25% saying that they believe that they will have trouble paying for basic necessities in the weeks ahead. The source of this financial instability is varied and certainly evolving, with the stock market as a leading indicator and other financial impacts gradually accruing. A follow-up survey in two weeks will give us a secondary set of information to compare to other economic measures about the extent of financial impacts on our residents.
As in any crisis, the City government is putting out constant communication about all elements of coronavirus/COVID-19 response, mitigation, and preparation. From the survey, we find that 75% of residents think local officials in our community are doing a good job of keeping them informed about the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic (10% no, 15% don’t know). Overall, 58% of our residents rate the response by KCMO’s city leaders as excellent or good, with only 11% rating it as below average or poor (24% average, 6% don’t know), which compares favorably to ratings of leaders at other levels of government, as well as ratings of city leaders from the regional survey.
This data highlights the effectiveness of teams like the Communicable Disease division of the Health Department, which are simultaneously working on disease surveillance and response and ensuring that they respond diligently to individual questions from a concerned public. This feedback gives a boost to staff working on communications as well — KCMO’s Communications Director, Chris Hernandez, had a visceral reaction to seeing these numbers:
“We had just hit two solid weeks of 12 hour days of churning out information on multiple platforms and channels, and yet all the while we were wondering if we were actually keeping up. Seeing these numbers was a ray of sunshine, a boost for our communications team, because it showed that our messaging was helping people.”
The survey also provides useful feedback to communications professionals on the primary communication sources for people about coronavirus/COVID-19, with TV appearing to be a major source.
Uncertainty is a hallmark of these times, for people and institutions. While this survey data helps fill in some gaps, we need to remain cognizant of how quickly things are changing day by day. We also need to be wary of using people’s perceptions to assess the reality of the situation; these perceptions should instead be used to assess residents’ understanding of established facts. Some of the survey responses reflect the impact of national and global uncertainty on individual people’s perceptions, particularly with regard to the likelihood of someone near them getting the virus and how long this situation will last. There is currently no consensus answer to either of these questions.
The coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic is quickly evolving and the path forward at times seems unclear. The City of KCMO, like other governments, is following established best practices for public health that were derived from other pandemics and are useful during this type of uncertainty. While we employ public health experts who are well versed in how to approach a pandemic, we also recognize that our residents are important stakeholders in the response to this virus. This survey data has provided a valuable glimpse into KCMO residents’ understanding and response to the coronavirus pandemic as it unfolds in their lives.
— DataKC
