2014 Municipal Budget survey - please participate! (Colorado Springs: crime, transportation, radio)

[Jcelmer]

If you are in Colorado Springs, PLEASE fill out this survey (from springsgov.com) regarding the 2014 fiscal year budget. As residents, it's important to voice opinions regarding policies - if you don't, you CAN NOT COMPLAIN.

While there are several problems with the implementation of this survey, if it is not utilized, they will not likely bring it back next year (with improvements). We need to show them that we are interested in helping to improve policy BEFORE it is nailed down (citizen input typically takes place in October when policies are all but decided...especially with strong mayoral systems). Awesome opportunity to have your say. I'm upping transportation allocations!


https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2014Budget


(i'm in no way connected to this survey, or the city - I simply believe that civic engagement is important, and I'd like to encourage efficient opinion gathering devices such as online surveys - I plan on suggesting ways of making the survey a more effective tool, but in order to convince the city, they need to see that people WANT to give their opinion this way!!)

[phetaroi]

I think this is a horrible survey. What general citizen has the knowledge to alott dollar amounts to such needs.

So here are a few comments:

Police/court: The general sense among my neighbors is that crime is a growing problem in Colorado Springs and that police are not well enough equipped in terms of personnel to handle the situation. There have actually been a couple of times when it was broadcast on the radio that police were so busy that citizens should not call the police department unless it was an emergency.

Transportation: Some roads and streets are deteriorating badly and way overdue for an upgrade.

Parks: Take a lot at some of the "potholes" up in Palmer Park. Some of them are 8-12 inches deep, and ridges through some of the dirt parking lots making use of the parking lot virtually impossible.

Fire: After last season, isn't it obvious?

[Jcelmer]

Originally Posted by phetaroi

I think this is a horrible survey. What general citizen has the knowledge to alott dollar amounts to such needs.

You are totally right. That is probably the MAJOR problem I have with it. Also there are minimums for each category that must be adhered to (can't completely eliminate budget for police), although those are not mentioned.

Not to mention a completely uninformed/malicious person could hook the survey up to a computer and vote for something ridiculous a million times in a row (like the above, no budget for police), which would skew results and might lead to administrators considering this a useless tool.

So i'm hoping as many reasonable people as possible will take the time to do some minimal research and help make a difference.