Residents report high satisfaction in 2019 community survey

The city of Mountain Brook received a pat on the back at its first council meeting of the new year. 

On Monday, Jan. 13, the director of community research for a Kansas-based data collection firm delivered the results of a survey administered to city residents in 2019. The unsurprising upshot: Mountain Brook is a great place to live. 

Ninety-eight percent of the survey’s 517 respondents rated the city as an excellent or good place to live and raise children. The same percentage said they are satisfied with the city’s overall quality of life.

“These are some of the highest rates in the country,” said Jason Morado of the ETC Institute. “Obviously you can’t get much higher than 98%.”

The satisfaction rates are on par with those reported in two previous city surveys conducted in 2014 and 2017. City Manager Sam Gaston said Mountain Brook started surveying residents every few years to generate feedback that it can use to shape the city’s priorities.

Optimally, responses will validate a job well done. 

“We try to go the extra mile here, always try to go an extra step and also be accessible,” Gaston said. 

The 2019 survey found that satisfaction with Mountain Brook’s city services is much higher than other communities, as it rated significantly higher than the national average in 57 of 58 categories compared. Notably, satisfaction with overall quality of city services was 46% above the national average, and satisfaction with customer service from city employees was 50% above the national average. 

Among other surveyed communities with populations under 50,000, Mountain Brook ranked first nationally in 19 categories. 

“Everybody’s goal is to serve the citizen, the resident of Mountain Brook, and the survey shows that we’re doing a pretty darn good job of doing that,” Mayor Stewart Welch said. 

Welch credited Gaston, Finance Director Steve Boone, department heads and the rest of the city’s employees for Mountain Brook’s glowing feedback. Many of those employees have worked for the city for decades, Welch said. 

“We’ve got a city full of employees that love their jobs, love the residents, and they really care about the city,” Welch said, “and that’s what makes the difference.”

Gaston concurred, praising the mayor and council along with his coworkers. 

“We have high expectations, our residents have high expectations, so we’re always glad to see that they try to fulfill them as much as possible,” Gaston said. 

The seven-page survey included many of the same questions asked in previous years. It took between 15 to 20 minutes to complete and was sent by mail and electronically to a random sample of city residents.

ETC has a 95% confidence level in the surveys, with a 4.3% margin of error. 

The survey revealed that Mountain Brook’s top priorities moving forward should be managing traffic flow and congestion, in addition to maintaining city streets and facilities. 

Welch said that managing traffic tops the list of resident concerns in communities across the country. He pointed out that Mountain Brook has and will continue to do its best to mitigate issues. 

“That’s always our number one priority,” Gaston said, “is to do more about traffic congestion in the city.”

The council will hold a public work session Jan. 17 at 8 a.m. to discuss anticipated infrastructure and capital projects for the next five to 10 years, along with means of financing them. The next council meeting will be Jan. 27 at 7 p.m.