Public Participation

This report of the Town of Mooresville survey provides the opinions of a representative sample of residents about community quality of life, service delivery, civic participation and unique issues of local interest. A periodic sounding of resident opinion offers staff, elected officials and other stakeholders an opportunity to identify challenges and to plan for and evaluate improvements and to sustain services and amenities for long-term success.

Most residents experienced a good quality of life in the Town of Mooresville and believed the Town was a good place to live. The overall quality of life in the Town of Mooresville was rated as “excellent” or “good” by 85% of respondents. A majority reported they plan on staying in the Town of Mooresville for the next five years.

A variety of characteristics of the community was evaluated by those participating in the study. Among the characteristics receiving the most favorable ratings were the cleanliness of Mooresville, the overall image or reputation of Mooresville, and opportunities to participate in religious or spiritual events or activities in Mooresville. Among the characteristics receiving the least positive ratings were traffic flow on major streets, ease of bicycle travel in Mooresville, and the availability of paths and walking trails in Mooresville.

Ratings of community characteristics were compared to the benchmark database. Of the 30 characteristics for which comparisons were available, 16 were above the national benchmark comparison, seven were similar to the national benchmark comparison and seven were below.

Residents in the Town of Mooresville were civically engaged. While only 22% had attended a meeting of local elected public officials or other local public meeting in the previous 12 months, 92% had provided help to a friend or neighbor. About half had volunteered their time to some group or activity in the Town of Mooresville, which was much higher than the benchmark.

In general, survey respondents demonstrated strong trust in local government. A majority rated the overall direction being taken by the Town of Mooresville as “good” or “excellent.” This was much higher than the benchmark. Those residents who had interacted with an employee of the Town of Mooresville in the previous 12 months gave high marks to those employees. Most rated their overall impression of employees as “excellent” or “good.”

On average, residents gave favorable ratings to a majority of local government services. Town services rated were able to be compared to the benchmark database. Of the 35 services for which comparisons were available, 20 were above the benchmark comparison, ten were similar to the benchmark comparison and five were below.

The National Citizen Survey™ (The NCS™) is a collaborative effort between National Research Center, Inc. (NRC) and the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). The survey and its administration are standardized to assure high quality survey methods and comparable results across The National Citizen Survey™ jurisdictions. Participating households are selected at random and the household member who responds is selected without bias. Multiple mailings give each household more than one chance to participate with self-addressed and postage paid envelopes. Results are statistically weighted to reflect the proper demographic composition of the entire community.

The National Citizen Survey™ customized for this jurisdiction was developed in close cooperation with local jurisdiction staff. The Town of Mooresville staff selected items from a menu of questions about services and community problems; they defined the jurisdiction boundaries NRC used for sampling; and they provided the appropriate letterhead and signatures for mailings. Town of Mooresville staff also determined local interest in a variety of add-on options to The National Citizen Survey™ Basic Service.

One of the add-on options that Mooresville chose was to have crosstabulations of evaluative questions 1-18 by demographic questions D3 (length of residency in Mooresville), D5 (rent or own home), D10 and D11 (race and ethnicity), D12 (age of respondent) and D13 (gender of respondent).

Report of 2012 survey of Mooresville residents, comparing results to comparable municipalities in the United States.