Public safety No. 1 concern of residents, drainage 2nd

More than 600 Hobbsans participated in a City of Hobbs survey, which analyzed the city’s performance and city services.

Hobbs City Manager J.J. Murphy shared the results from the City of Hobbs’ Citizen Survey during Monday’s city commission meeting.

Murphy said the survey will serve as a baseline survey, which will help compare survey results in the future. “Initially, we wanted 300 respondents and we got double of that,” Murphy said. “I think there is a lot of good that comes from this. Here’s a baseline for us. I’d like to make this an annual thing where we can just get the pulse of the community.”

The City of Hobbs sent out the 40-question survey to residents in March and had through April 24 to fill out the survey. They could also take the survey online or on the City of Hobbs Facebook and Twitter pages. Spanish-speaking residents could call in to take the survey over the phone.

“We wanted to reach as many citizens as possible so we mailed out 12,500 surveys through the water bill,” said Britt Lusk, City of Hobbs administrative services director, who created the survey. “One person took the Spanish-survey over the phone and 630 answered the survey in English.” Residents were asked questions related to the city’s quality of service, responsiveness of elected officials and city employees, services delivery and activities provided by the City of Hobbs.

One question asked, “How often do you attend City of Hobbs commission meetings and how often do you watch commission meetings?”

About 55.4 percent of the survey respondents said they never attend a commission meeting, 26.3 percent said they rarely attend, 14.6 percent said sometimes and 1.3 percent said they always attend. About 68.5 percent said they never watch city commission meetings online and 1.5 percent said they always do.

“Most of the public doesn’t come, whether it’s online or here (at City Hall),” Murphy said. “We are going to be responsive and keep trying to improve that. We are trying to make government more accessible to the public.”

The survey also showed that 49.2 percent of the respondents don’t know who represents them on the city commission. More than 500 people said their No. 1 investment in city funds would be for public safety, then drainage improvements and infrastructure upgrades.

“We’re going to have to make some changes and it’s probably going to require an investment,” Mayor Sam Cobb said.

Murphy encouraged the Cobb and city commissioners to review the survey results and consider how the city can improve its services and performance, and also share what kind of input they’d like from the community next year through another survey.

“Take these results, take the next nine months and think about what you want evaluated next year,” Murphy said. “As we continue to improve, hopefully these numbers will continue to go up.”

Denise Marquez can be reached at 391-5434 or reporter1@hobbsnews.com.